Raise a Pint

In  the past decade, Australia’s craft beer scene has shifted from niche to mainstream.  

More and more beer drinkers were chasing local, independent, flavour-driven brews, and the industry responded... with brewers in the Margaret River Region right at the forefront of this golden new era.. 

Margaret River’s craft beer story began in the mid 90s with Bootleg Brewery – then something of a lone wolf in wine country. 

But a small, distinctive group of breweries followed, choosing quality, place and hospitality over scale.  

Today, craft beer is firmly part of the Margaret River experience, shaped by landscape, local produce and community. It’s not about rapid growth here – it’s about character, connection and great beer made close to where it’s enjoyed. 

Raise a pint to our local brewers, as Kellie Tannock chats with the South West Brewers Alliance, a brewery with sustainability front and centre and a local hops farmer.

 Photo credit: Josh Ball 

Thanks for listening and if you've enjoyed this podcast, please share with your family and friends.

For more inspiration on visiting the Margaret River Region follow @margaretriver on Instagram or explore www.margaretriver.com.

This show was recorded at RMR 101.9FM, Margaret River Region.

Transcript

Theme 0:01

Welcome to Capes Conversations, sharing the stories that make the Margaret River Region a truly special place to live and visit.

Kellie Tannock 0:09

Hello, I'm Kellie Tannock. In the past decade, Australia's craft beer scene has shifted from niche to mainstream. More and more beer drinkers were chasing local, independent, flavour-driven brews, and the industry responded, with brewers in the Margaret River region right at the forefront of this golden new era. Margaret River's craft beer story began in the mid-90s with bootleg brewery, then something of a lone wolf in wine country. But a small distinctive group of breweries followed, and they were choosing quality, place and hospitality over scale. Today, craft beer is firmly part of the Margaret River experience. It's shaped by landscape, local produce, and community. It's not about rapid growth here, it's about character, connection, and great beer made close to where it's enjoyed. To talk more about our local brewing industry, Iliya Hastings joins me. Iliya is the chair of the Southwest Beer Alliance and co-founder of Margaret River Beer Company and Margaret River Brew House. Welcome, Iliya.

Iliya Hastings 1:05

Thanks, Kellie.

Kellie Tannock 1:06

Iliya, could you perhaps explain what the South West Beer Alliance is and the work that it does?

Iliya Hastings 1:11

So, probably eight or nine years ago, a bunch of us had just started our businesses. Um, we're all sitting around at Brew House uh one Friday afternoon, kind of just chewing the fat over what our industry was and what we were doing. I mean, a lot of us were very new to it. Uh, whilst we might have had some brewing experience and a bit of hospitality experience, we were wondering, you know, what the future looked like as a group of passionate creative businesses that were trying to make a mark in what was largely a wine-based uh tourism region. And and at that meeting we had a you know, had a good chat. We, you know, it was kind of a bit like a support group as we tried to work out uh how our businesses were gonna do. And we continued that discussion a few times a year for a couple of years. And then we had a fellow called John Berry, who I knew professionally through my previous life as a town planner and in local government. And John suggested that we formalise the group into something that gave us a little bit more say with government, that gave us a little bit more leverage in a whole bunch of spaces, including with suppliers, but also in the exposure of what we were rapidly seeing as a great and unique industry that we'd we're developing down here. Uh we felt that, and he felt that by formalising, I suppose, our you know, loose bunch of of brewers and breweries into a formalised group, we'd have more of a say, and we'd probably all be better if we uh did something together. So that's that was the kind of formation, and I think 2021, we formalized our bunch of breweries into the Southwest Brewers Alliance.

Kellie Tannock 2:50

I find it fascinating that you are all sort of small businesses, all in the same niche industry, all presumably competing with each other, and yet you had this um ability from the start, by the sounds, to sit around and and collaborate. Is that unusual, do you think?

Iliya Hastings 3:06

It probably is in a lot of industries. In our industries, you know, I think the general culture is we all get on, we're people with similar values, we're all largely family-run businesses, and I suppose our ethos is that if we all rise, if we all are good at what we do and put our best foot forward in terms of the beer, the hospitality experience, the branding, how we represent ourselves, that we'll all be better off for it. So, yeah, we are competitors, and you know, when you walk into a bottle shop, you've still got to choose between Margaret River Beer Co and Beer Farm and Rocky Ridge. But you know what, it makes all of us really proud that you can walk into a bottle shop either here or or most places in Perth or throughout Western Australia, and there'll be that Margaret River brand, whether it's ours or one of the other breweries, and that probably tells me that we're punching uh above our weight pretty pretty strong. And I think that has a lot to do with the collective push that we have and the togetherness that is kind of uh what the alliance has has kind of given us, I suppose.

Kellie Tannock 4:08

And has the local industry got a reputation? Where do we rank in the in the nation as a region of beer producers?

Iliya Hastings 4:15

Uh it's hard to say, you know, it's hard to quantify that, but what I would say is for a region our size, we we would probably win more brewing and hospitality-based awards than any other region or area in Australia, and probably a lot of a lot of cities in Australia, such as I suppose the quality of the offering and and the great people that are involved in making beer and providing that hospitality experience. That's not obviously all down to the alliance, but I think it has a lot to do with why we're all us relatively successful, is in that you've got a bunch of ambitious, passionate, creative, driven, but very community-focused people in all those businesses, and um I think that helps us it's a very humble response.

Kellie Tannock 4:59

It sounds like you're all doing really well. And I guess when you're all talking to each other, you can come up with things like the beer trail. Is that something that you've been able to do because you have this connection?

Iliya Hastings 5:09

Yeah, so in the Alliance there's three groups that I suppose what we call focus groups. One is more just brewing and technically related, and that's that's a bunch of brewers getting together, having beers and and talking about uh new techniques, uh new suppliers, you know, going through sensory programs together to work out to make sure that our our our products are great. Uh, then there's the marketing and tourism uh group, and they are probably our star performers, and in that they really have taken what is the strength of our area and our breweries, which is our connection with local community but also visitors to the region, and doing so much great stuff in that space, and they have developed in in conjunction with um MRBTA and uh City of Busselton, our Margaret River Region uh Beer Trails App, and that was that's pretty much gone online in the last few days, and it's a really awesome way for people to understand what each of the breweries has to offer. Gives them a self-guided map online if they want to do it, and it also gives them a range of vouchers and offers for when they go into the breweries if they want to redeem redeem vouchers. So it's super exciting. Um, and I've travelled a lot of the world looking at different beer offerings and that sort of stuff, and there's not many of them that do something this elaborate. There's a few, and that we've kind of used them as a little bit of a uh guide as to how to best connect with with um people that want to go on a beer journey. But I think this app's gonna be massive for us.

Kellie Tannock 6:40

Uh does it ever surprise you that craft breweries have been embraced within such a uh reputable wine region?

Iliya Hastings 6:49

Not really. Maybe 20 years ago I might have thought that, but if you look at what the demographics of this region, you've got a lot of young families or or families coming down. I think craft beer and the way that our our breweries venues are so um unique in in every single one of them, but they're all very casual setting, and I think that connects really well with that kind of West Aussie vibe, and they're not pretentious, they're not trying to be anything that they're not. Yeah, no, I think there's a reason they're pretty popular.

Kellie Tannock 7:23

I think a lot of our listeners would be uh quite charmed by the idea of being part of your industry and sitting around talking and drinking beers and working out all those things. Hard work, sounds terrible. I'd imagine there have been a lot of changes, a lot of um structural things that have changed and and people's tastes changing over the years. What are some of the biggest changes you've noticed over the time?

Iliya Hastings 7:44

Um I I think beer-wise, since I've been in the industry, I think what I've noticed is that more and more people want a flavour in their beer, and people are really chasing authenticity and understanding what what is behind the brand, um, and that's more so than ever. And I think it relates to probably our biggest challenge, particularly in the in the beer manufacturing space, and that's big beer. So obviously 80% of wet of Australia's beer is produced ultimately by two beer giants. You know, a lot of the beer brands that you think might be craft beer in the market now aren't, they're owned internationally, but they have a huge geographic and economic advantage over a bunch of vagabond breweries from the southwest. So that is a huge challenge when we're trying to sell our beer outside of Margaret River, but making really good beer super important, being able to adjust to what the market wants in terms of beer styles and just having an authentic connection with the people that might see Margaret River beer in the fridge.

Kellie Tannock 8:47

Last question for you, Ilya Hastings. Are you still having fun?

Iliya Hastings 8:50

I love it, yeah. It's a great industry to be part of. I mean, beer and food aside, which I'll probably consume way too much of that aside. It's really the people, you know, the connection that you have with other people in the industry and the punters that either cracked a can or uh sitting opposite you um at one of the venues. They're happy people, and that's a good thing to be part of, so yeah, I love it.

Kellie Tannock 9:12

This is Cape's Conversations. I'm Kelly Tannock. Stay with me. After this song, we'll have Mel Holland in the studio to talk about sustainability in brewing from Dunsborough. This is saltry with out of the water. That was sultry and out of the water. Welcome back to Capes Conversations, where the conversation today is about brewing, and it's not enough to produce a great tasting beer. Breweries, like any business, have their eye on sustainability too. Rocky Ridge has been leading the way in this space since their inception in 2017. Joining me to talk about what sustainability looks like for the beer industry is Mel Holland, co-founder of Rocky Ridge. Hi, Mel. Hi, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. Mel Rocky Ridge was widely cited as Australia's first certified sustainable brewery and the first to achieve full scope carbon neutrality. Was that challenging to set up? Yes. Tell us what it tell us about it.

Mel Holland 12:29

No, it uh it it was a big challenge and it's an ongoing challenge. It's something that we're always trying to be better and improve. So it's it's a it's a journey that we're on. It's not something that's done and dusted once you once you reach that. So they're sort of two inherently different things with the same goal. Uh certified sustainable is more around like a good supply chain and making sure you're doing the right thing the whole way through, um, from all your producers, your logistics, the the entirety of your supply chain. Whereas carbon neutrality is more about offsetting the impacts of your operations. So they're both destined to achieve uh better environmental impacts, but they're sort of targeting two different things with the same goal.

Kellie Tannock 13:04

That's a really ambitious thing for a small business to pay all that attention to, isn't it? Yes, it is. Yeah.

Mel Holland 13:11

Why did you do that? I think small businesses are the way of the future with this sort of thing. It's something that we've always wanted to involve working for a better environment from day dot. So I don't think it would have mattered if we were in in beer or any other industry, it would have been the same approach for us. It's it's just part of the decision making. Is it the right thing for our team, for our brewery? Is it the right thing for the environment?

Kellie Tannock 13:32

Sure, terrific. Beer uses a lot of water, so I'm assuming that looking into wastewater reuse was built into the brewery build?

Mel Holland 13:39

Not initially. Uh it's something that in hindsight we probably should have done. We grew pretty rapidly. So we never envisaged brewing as much beer as we do, which comes with a lot more water, as you said, and a lot more wastewater. It's a bit hard to know where breweries of our scale sit because there's not a lot of benchmarking in Australia, but traditionally it's around six to twelve litres uh of water to make one litre of beer. So it's quite water intensive, and obviously one litre comes out as beer, the rest of that you have to deal with. Whether you use that um back in the system, whether you use it to irrigate crops, how you manage that wastewater is it's quite a big task in in WA. So had we had we've had a build again, yes, I would have um paid more attention to that to start with.

Kellie Tannock 14:19

And and you also operate a CO2 capture and reuse system, and that that's reclaiming carbon dioxide from fermentation. I believe you're one of only a very few Australian craft breweries who are doing that. What does this mean in layman's terms?

Mel Holland 14:33

Basically, when you when you carbonate beer and when uh beer is fermenting, you're using the same same ingredient. So when it's bubbling away, turning the sugars into alcohol, it's creating carbon dioxide in the tanks. Traditionally, that just blows off into the atmosphere, and then when the product is finished, you take it to a different tank and you put new carbon dioxide in to carbonate the beer, which gives it the bubbles. So rather than venting off that carbon dioxide that we're producing, we're capturing that and reusing it rather than purchase CO2 to put the bubbles back in the beer. So it's kind of a closed loop system of gases that uh reduce our footprint by saving those emissions.

Kellie Tannock 15:08

And presumably solar plays a big part in your operation as well. Yes.

Mel Holland 15:12

We're 100% off-grid.

Kellie Tannock 15:13

Wow, that's pretty impressive. All these initiatives are great for the environment, but do they actually make a difference to your target market?

Mel Holland 15:20

I think they build brand loyalty, and consumers are being more and more aware of where their products are coming from and what impacts they have with the products they buy. Can we charge more for being a sustainable beer? Probably not. I would love to be able to say we could. But I think it's more about building that that brand loyalty, that story, and really engage with what your customers want and your community around you. And people are being more aware, like I said, so they're more likely to want to resonate with a brand that reflects their values. And you're getting that feedback from your consumers? Yes. Yeah. That's terrific. I think they're more willing to buy small and independent, more so than the big boys. But the problem's been in the past that it's it's quite challenging to know what real craft and what real small business is, um, because it's it's a minefield when you go to the bottle shop as to who you're actually buying and and what you're getting. So it's it is quite hard for the consumer to be able to read through that. So the we're getting a lot more support for supporting local small guys and people doing the right things, whether that's supporting a community or local initiatives or environmental causes, whatever it happens to be, customers are drawn to that more.

Kellie Tannock 16:21

How do you tell that story?

Mel Holland 16:23

It's very hard, and we're very we're very poor at it.

Kellie Tannock 16:26

Although I'd imagine it's it's quite a difficult uh challenge. What do you see as the future for brewing and and where does technology or innovation or philosophy take you next?

Mel Holland 16:36

Oh, that's a loaded question. Technology and brewing's come a long way recently, and I think what's missing, particularly for us, is that there's a lot of initiatives out there to help with environmental footprint and reducing your footprint and helping you out in that sense, but there's not a lot of real-time monitoring and there's not a lot of automation in the space, not for the small guys. Um, there is when you hit a big industrial scale, but when you're still a small business, it's it's quite hard and cost prohibitive to implement a lot of that technology. So I think with a bit of time, that tech is what's really going to help small businesses take that next jump so that it's more cost-effective to do environmental initiatives, allowing them to then support their communities around them a bit more.

Kellie Tannock 17:13

It sounds as though the the local industry is quite collaborative. From an industry perspective, what does a strong sustainable Southwest industry look like? And are we on track to get there?

Mel Holland 17:23

I think we are very much so. Uh, I mean we've got the Southwest Bureau's Alliance down here, which is a really good initiative to be part of, and I think that's the backbone of a strong industry. Uh, sustainability seems to get a little bit pushed into the environment, but I think the community spirit around it and the sharing of knowledge is really what's important for that.

Kellie Tannock 17:42

Thanks so much, Mel Holland, and congratulations on Rocky Ridge and the thought and the care that you've shown in setting it all up. Thanks for joining me today, and I wish you the best with your venues around the Margaret River region and in Perth. After this music break, I take a look at the farming side of brewing with a business established locally in 2023 to grow hops. But first, this is local group Beaver Loop with Fluff T. R 101.9. So, one measure of a successful industry is some of the businesses that are created to support it, and one success story is that of Margaret River Hops. Uh, established in 2023 with its first hops harvest in 2024, co-owner Dirk Funakotta joins me to talk farming for beer. Dirk, firstly, can you explain what hops are and what influence they have in the brewing process?

Dirk Funnekotter 20:04

Yeah, thank you. So, hops are one of four key ingredients in your brewing process. Um, so what they do is they uh impart a a bitterness into the beer, um which is uh an inherent part of that preservation. And then in the newer styles of beer now we start seeing a lot of your aroma and flavour comes out of the hops as well. So they're your key drivers in that space. So in a way, one of your your critical ingredients to a flavour of a beer.

Kellie Tannock 20:34

Obviously, the region's pretty familiar with growing grapes. How different is the process for growing hops?

Dirk Funnekotter 20:40

The the similarities are probably the the season that you grow them in. Um and that's probably about it. Outside of that, hops are grown on a on a five-meter trellis, um, so we grow tall and high. Your your infrastructure to to support that is obviously reasonably significant. Your processing equipment, your your drying, your pelletizing all drives a hop-based industry, but um doesn't really correlate too well to the grapes, other than your your comparative with bootleg brewery that was in an oasis of beer and in a desert of wine. It's you you you feel like you're the same, yeah. So you you're doing something different, you're doing something quite unique. It feels like a good opportunity for us.

Kellie Tannock 21:26

So, how did you see that niche in the market? And uh do you have a background in farming or brewing, or is this a complete life change?

Dirk Funnekotter 21:32

Probably a mixture of all three, I think. Both myself and Tara's families are are agricultural based um and always have been. So we we all both grew up on farms. And timing wise, Tyra Tyra was pregnant with with what is now little Sam. So we thought it would be nice to come back to that kind of lifestyle for for a young kid to grow up in. We saw the opportunity in an industry where breweries were were being developed. And so I think when we first thought about it, there was about three breweries down here, and I think there's about ten or eleven at the moment. So that drove uh an opportunity to to see that space, and and then the other side was was for me was my parents were retiring and there was an option to to lease the family farm. So we we jumped in with with with all of it together and this is where we are now.

Kellie Tannock 22:24

Must have been a bit scary because there aren't there's not a lot of precedent for hop growing in the region.

Dirk Funnekotter 22:28

Uh no, not at all. There was a few small guys and and some people have tried and and had a go at it. Um but realistically the the hop industry in WA closed down in the in the late 70s um when Swan Brewery moved out of their supply from Pemberton. Um and this is almost a a revival of that.

Kellie Tannock 22:49

So how successful has it been?

Dirk Funnekotter 22:52

Successful in that we have quite a few breweries that we work with. I think in the state we're working with 29 odd breweries at the moment. In terms of a business, yeah, we're still we're still developing that and finding finding the market and and what we want. But what is nice to see for us is the uptake here and year. So that probably goes twofold. It's hand in hand with the ability to supply some of those volumes. In a commercial space, brewers want to know that they've got consistency and capacity to pull on those hops and and utilize those hops year-round. And that's a big driver for us in terms of how much space and uh allocation we've we've planted out to get to because that gives us some of those yields where we can supply multiple breweries all yeah.

Kellie Tannock 23:36

And in Australia, where is the mass market for hops?

Dirk Funnekotter 23:40

I think there's there's two sides to that stick, I suppose. One is that where hops actually want to grow, and that's predominantly your your longer day-length hours. So Taz in Victoria your your dominant growing regions, and breweries are well established with utilising hops from those areas. WA is for us is a is a bit is a bit of a marginal growing region, but it doesn't mean that they don't grow, you've just gotta maybe work a bit harder at them. But I think WA is quite uniquely placed in that they are a lot of craft brewers, and that's our target market. And those guys have the ability to to probably pivot and change a little bit more than some of the the bigger corporate brews, so they have a space where the opportunity's there and they they seem to take it. So it's nice to see from from that space. I mean, statewide from Exmouth Broom down through the wheat belt, all the way down to Southwestern.

Kellie Tannock 24:34

So local craft brewers want local products, is that what it boils down to?

Dirk Funnekotter 24:38

Yeah, and that's I suppose our pitch is is I think as a general rule, people are becoming a bit more aware of where their food and beverage comes from. And I think we're seeing that same driver into the the craft brewing sector where people are saying, Hey look, you you can come into the bar and you can see where your beer was brewed in the in the back shed. Um you're telling that story, you've got the ability to tell that story. So I think us being able to add to that story is only helping that awareness.

Kellie Tannock 25:10

We we're talking generally about hops here, but are there a lot of varieties and what what's working here?

Dirk Funnekotter 25:15

Uh yeah, well look, worldwide there's there's thousands of varieties. So I think you're gonna have some some big varieties that everyone uses in their in their core beers that are our are go-to beers. But what generally happens with those is they are bred by by big hop farms, so they're proprietary. So we don't have the option to to grow with those. But there's a lot of other hops that are available. And yeah, we have kind of backed the varieties that are firstly in a way unique to WA. So there were some that were bred down in Albany. There's there's some stuff that doesn't grow in in certain regions but grows well for us uh here. So yes, you've got an opportunity to work out what what grows well for you, what uh brewer's demands are as well. And I think that uh influences what you try and do.

Kellie Tannock 26:03

Do you see any future opportunity for a Margaret River specific variety to be developed?

Dirk Funnekotter 26:09

Oh, we would love to, and that's where you'd want to play is is having having essentially those proprietary versions or or a version of of of what represents the the region. Like I said before, we we grow a couple of varieties like beetle up and and flinders and and even the WA cluster that we do that was from the Pemberton Forest, so that's been in the state for a hundred odd years, still growing wild when we pick that up. The uniqueness drives a point of sale for us as well. So I think if we can get to the point of our varieties all unique to WA and that does a flavor profile that that suits the demographic, that's brilliant. That's that's exactly what you want.

Kellie Tannock 26:49

But I really applaud your uh your passion and your commitment to something which is uh sounds like is is is not as straightforward as uh just jumping in and buying a farm and starting to grow hops. Thanks, Dirk. You've been listening to a beer-inspired Cape's conversation today, sponsored by Margaret River Bastleton Tourism Association. And thanks to Ilya Hastings, Mel Holland, and Dirk Fanacotta for giving us the lowdown on our local craft beer industry. Craft breweries continue to be a strong part of the Margaret River region experience, and with the collaboration between them all, there's no doubt they will remain so for a very long time. But the quality of drinks and food and experiences make them popular destinations for both the community and visitors, and supporting the breweries and hospitality venues is really important to sustain year-round business viability. And I guess that is true of all hospitality venues and attractions in the region. I hope that when you enjoy your next MIDI or pint, you'll give a greater appreciation of the thought, the care, the investment, and the hard work that goes behind it. Thanks so much for listening to Cape's Conversations. I'm finishing this week's episode with Blue Child Collective. This is Wake Up to the Sound.