Since launching their first beers way back in 1989, Grand Ridge have seen off many challenges to have hit the local beer industry. Indeed, the regional Victorian brewery helmed by Eric Walters – one of the original co-founders who took sole ownership of the business in 1997 – is the state's oldest independent operation by some distance.
However, as with many of their peers, the current economic malaise has claimed Grand Ridge too, with Eric (pictured above) now hoping to sell the business.
The brewing company appointed Richard Lawrence and Mitchell Ball of Mackay Goodwin as administrators on March 25, becoming the eighth independent brewery in Australia we know of to enter voluntary administration in the first quarter of the year.
The Crafty Pint has been told: "The decision to appoint administrators was taken as a result of financial pressures dating from the pandemic, along with rapidly rising costs and increasing taxes. It has become imperative to restructure the business via voluntary administration.
"For the foreseeable future, it will be business as usual, brewing and selling beer and cider. The taphouse and restaurant will remain open. The company also hopes to retain as many staff as possible."
Grand Ridge is based in Mirboo North, in South Gippsland. Over the years, the brewery has given other brewers a leg up, most notably brewing beer for Mountain Goat in their early days. There was a period earlier in the century during which they picked up a number of major trophies, including at the prestigious Australian International Beer Awards, with their high ABV Moonshine and Supershine beers garnering a cult following.
While they've not been as prominent in craft beer's more recent explosion to mainstream consciousness, they've continued to supply beer to major events and, back in 2018, acquired the West City Brewing brand.
In a statement to The Crafty Pint following the appointment of administrators, Eric said: “This decision was the most difficult in 35 years of operation. We believe there is no alternative than to file for voluntary administration. Ultimately, we hope to be able sell the business and remain operational.
“It has been an amazing journey, helping build the craft beer revolution in Australia and seeing it flourish into what it is today, and adding to the quality choices for Aussie beer consumers. I am very proud to have been part of this."
As well as thanking Grand Ridge's "loyal customers, suppliers and supporters", Eric added: “I want to thank my incredible team who have worked tirelessly to make all the beers great and who have helped promote the brand throughout Australia, driving regional tourism and jobs for locals, and across the world more recently as we embarked on a major branding exercise."
While the picture looks bleak for many, it's not the case across the board, and not unique to the beer industry, or indeed Australia. We've spoken to many independent operators who continue to grow, or who have been able to adapt their business models to return to profitability. You only need to look at how widespread craft beer, small breweries and indie-supporting venues and retailers have become and compare that to ten or 15 years ago to realise the significant and lasting change that has taken place.
At the same time, a cursory glance at the pages of Good Food is enough to realise there are big names tumbling in the wider food, drinks and hospitality sector too. And, writing this while in London with my family, I can confirm that closures and administrations in the UK's brewing and hospitality scene feel like a daily occurrence.
Putting the ongoing situation in Australia in such a context doesn't offer any solutions, and the issues we've examined many times since the start of last year – Under Pressure: A Perfect Storm Brewing For Beer; The Exploding Cost Of Brewing Beer; The Year Of Living Precariously; and Where To From Here For Local Beer? for example – show little sign of easing.
However, it's notable how much more coverage such issues are receiving, with brewers and industry figures appearing regular on the pages, airwaves and screens of the country's mainstream media – and voices from parallel industries echoing and amplifying their messages. Whether, or how soon, it makes a significant difference is the great unknowable, and how much more is done to the industry remains to be seen. And it's damage that reaches beyond the businesses that close or enter VA, impacting their staff, suppliers, taxpayers, communities and the reputation craft beer has built over the past couple of decades.
As for Victoria's elder statesman of craft beer, in acknowledging the "very challenging" conditions for doing business in beer in 2024, Eric says: “We foresee a positive future in a restructured business and are eager to reset and move forward.”
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
