Overview
Bottoms up, public servants. Capital Brewing Co. is the newest addition to the ACT craft beer scene, with Canberra becoming more of a craft beer capital by the day. Pun intended.
Officially launching in Canberra on Thursday, April 21, Capital will see the hospitality, brewing and festival industries join forces — starting with mates Tom Hertel and Laurence Kain (owners of Hippo Co and ex-owners of Honky Tonks) and Rich and Sam Coombes (founders of Batlow Cider Co).
"We knew Tom and Laurence from supplying cider to their venues and ended up drinking a lot of beer together," says Coombes. "We would talk about how cool it would be to open our own brewery in Canberra and produce great beer for the region and inspired by the region."
The Capital team is seven-strong, comprising of Hertel, Kain, and the Coombes brothers, alongside operational partners Ian Stott and Nick Hislop (who've worked with both Aussie and US breweries and cider companies), head brewer Wade Hurley and Secret Garden Festival director Clare Downes. What. A. Team.
The brewery's range of so-called "good natured brews" starts with their Coast Ale, a California style beer created by head brewer Hurley, who hails from San Diego mega-breweries Coronado Brewing Co and Green Flash and recently moved to Australia to take on the local craft market.
With the intention to get Canberrans celebrating their natural, outdoorsy surrounds, the entire range of Capital brews will pay homage to the region's trails, lakes and mountains. Apart from the Coast Ale, the 'natural' core beers will include a sessionable Trail pale ale and the four-hopped 'Evil Eye' IRA, which uses seasonal cascade hops grown in Batlow. "Our red IPA is inspired by the autumn season, both in colour and in the seasonal nature of the hops used for the beer" says Coombes.
Homegrown hops will be supplied, when possible, by the Batlow Fruit Co-op, which also supplies the apples for Batlow Cider. Hop growing is a relatively new venture for Batlow's orchard manager Andrew Despre, who has recently traveled to major hop growing regions across the US and New Zealand.
The Capital brews will be officially released on Thursday, April 21 and hopefully reach bars and restaurants Australia-wide shortly after. With plans to open a brewery in the Fyshwick district sometime in 2016, Capital will be contract brewing out of Sydney breweries Wayward and newcomer Hairy Man Brewery until then. We can't wait to see (and taste) what these nature-loving brewers have in store.