No one should need an extra reason to visit Bright, a true four season destination in the Victorian High Country: winters perfect for snowsports; springs and autumns that explode with colour; year round adventure sports and gourmet food and wine trails. But if you did need another reason, the Bright Brewery fits the bill...
Set in the heart of the Alpine town on the edge of the crystal clear Ovens River, it's the perfect spot to unwind. On offer is everything from their award-winning Alpine Lager, ideal after a day's adventuring in the mountains, to a full-bodied Staircase Porter – as comforting as a warm blanket on cooler winter days.
Set up in 2006 by Scott Brandon and Fiona Reddaway who had left Melbourne behind for a change of pace, Bright has gone on to pick up a swag of tourism awards; pint in hand, gazing on the tree-covered surrounding mountains as the river burbles nearby, you'll soon understand why.
The brewery plays host to regular live music on Sunday afternoons, while anyone keen to find out more about their Mountaincrafted beers can sign up for one of Bright's monthly Guided Brewery Tours: spend a hour behind the scenes with Bright's brewers, seeing where all the magic happens and how Bright's MountainCrafted beers come to life. Then head to the brewery for a complimentary tasting paddle.
In late 2012, the brewery completed a million dollar expansion program. This tripled the venue's size, introducing much-needed additional indoor seating, resulting in one of the most impressive microbrewery bar / restaurants in the country. There's a long bar pouring their full range of beers, massive dining area lined with wooden tables, outdoor seating front and back and cool use of old kegs for everything from lights to sinks in the toilets. The expansion has continued, with a terrace now stretching out towards the river.
The expansion means more place for the brewers to play in. From 2011 until late 2014, this fell to Jon Seltin, the young brewer who set about filling it with his range of specialty releases and barrel-aged experiments that turned heads among craft beer aficionados wherever they landed. After Jon moved to take on another head brewer role in Melbourne, the brewery was taken over by former Southern Bay and BrewDog brewer, the massively bearded Ryan Tyack, before the baton passed to English brewer Rich Chamberlain and later American Reid Stratton. In 2022, a new lead brewer, Lewis Kerr, joined the Bright team, excited to take Bright into the future.
The brewery opened a second production facility in early 2018 in order to grow their wholesale beer market outside of Bright, as well as producing more limited release and innovative beers. It also followed up a series of successes at the state level by claiming Silver in the Australian Tourism Awards in February 2018, and breaking into the GABS Festival Hottest 100 Top 50 with its Alpine Lager.
