Samuel George Mason was one of many English brewers who came to the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century to practise their craft and contribute to the development of our own nascent brewing industry. His father being the co-owner of a ... Read more →
Twenty new breweries so far in 2017
Small Brewery Update - Half-yearly Progress Report: New breweries continue to open around Australia at a startling rate, so I have attempted (with editorial encouragement) a half-yearly assessment of the progress of the nation’s microbrewery sector ... Read more →
A Brewing Life: Howard Norman Sleigh (1870–1957)
Sleigh is a name remembered in Australian history more in the contexts of shipping and petroleum than brewing, following from the greater business successes of Harold Crofton Sleigh than of his younger brewing brother, Howard. Harold came to ... Read more →
Updated: 51* new breweries in 2016
Small Brewery Update - 2016 in Review: As a studious observer of and regular writer about the Australian brewing industry for some decades now, I have had the good fortune, and the pleasure, to have experienced the emergence of the microbrewery ... Read more →
A Brewing Life: James Liddington (1856–1907)
Frequently during the course of my ongoing research into the Australian brewing industry I come across a brewer whose life and career seem to be sufficiently interesting to demand closer investigation than is immediately necessary. Occasionally I ... Read more →
Australian Small Brewery Update January 2015
Queensland White Lies Brewing Company in the Brisbane suburb of Pullenvale recently joined the small but growing number of home-based commercial breweries in Australia, the first of which seem to have been the Bellingen Brewing Company in New South ... Read more →
Australian Small Brewery Update – November 2014
An important Australian brewing milestone was passed earlier this year, although it is impossible to say exactly when. Some time in 2014, the number of commercial breweries in operation throughout the country passed two hundred for the first time ... Read more →
Australian Small Brewery Update – September 2014
Queensland The Charming Squire at South Brisbane is the newest addition to Lion’s growing chain of Squire-themed beer palaces. It joins the Generous Squire in Perth, the Curious Squire in North Adelaide, the Squire’s Maiden in Newcastle, the ... Read more →
Australian Small Brewery Update – July 2014
New South Wales Hope Estate at Pokolbin, formerly known as Rothbury Estate, is the site of the latest brewery to open in the Hunter Valley wine district (see picture). Michael Hope, the estate’s owner since 2006, purchased the brewing ... Read more →
Gavin Ralston and the Breweries of Sale, Victoria
Gavin Ralston (c.1806–1874) and the Breweries of Sale, Victoria This brief history of the breweries in Sale was not written intentionally. I mean, it arose from some research that was begun for a very different purpose. It could easily have ... Read more →