As December continues to move swiftly onward, the fragrance of pine increasingly wafts across the land as Christmas trees are erected in anticipation of the bounty of gifts to be lavished at their collective feet. But, for the brewery with a year-round pine fixation, Christmas came a little early this year and they’ve already opened their present; the brand new 4 Pines brewery.
While the shiny new kit has been operational for a month or so, allowing the brewers to familiarise themselves with the system, last weekend was the first time its doors had been properly opened to the public. To mark the occasion, a few faces from the local beer community and plenty of loyal regulars from the 4 Pines bar at Manly were invited along for an official welcome.
To make it even more official, Mike Baird – the billion-dollar budget wielding Treasurer for NSW, MP for Manly, and all-round fan of his local brew – came along for a few beers and to add his expertise in the cutting of the ceremonial ribbon. But other than those brief formalities it was beer, BBQ and folk punk all afternoon amidst the sparkling new tanks. And there are certainly plenty of those.
A 50hl (hectolitre) brewhouse with three 100hl and six 50hl tanks has sent 4 Pines soaring towards the top of the pile in terms of capacity for an Aussie-owned craft brewery. As anyone who’s observed the inner workings of the rather cramped brewery in the 4 Pines Manly venue, this is a substantial step up – ten times, if you’re into specifics. Which begs the question: how do they plan to sell so much more beer?
Jaron Mitchell, 4 Pines General Manager, seems fairly comfortable with the prospect: "We went national sometime around May so we’ve got distributors in every state. But we definitely have a long way to go, because it’s one thing to get beer out to places – getting it into people’s mouths is another thing. Having good venue partners around Australia really helps, as does the fact that people are beginning to understand that craft beer isn’t something that’s just for craft beer nerds – more and more people are seeing the value in it."
Perhaps one of the biggest additions the expansion has provided is freedom. As Jaron says: "Now, we can make ten kegs, 200 kegs or anything in between. For example, the Wee Heavy for St Andrews Day was a very small run. The Christmas Ale was a small run, but we can do it bigger next year if we need to. We’ve got all the different sizes, which is really cool – no limits basically.
"Another really important thing for us is retaining the Manly venue for people to come and drink that beer because the brewpub is pretty synonymous with the area now."
Brewer Andrew Tweddell shows off some of the new gear
Locals will be happy to know that their little brewpub will continue to be used for brewing, predominantly to carry on their popular line of limited-release brews. With a quick head count, Jaron reckons they released somewhere in the area of 35 limited edition beers this year, many within the Keller Door series which started way back in January with the Single Hop series. The added bonus of the new setup, as head brewer Andrew Tweddell mentioned, is the possibility of some of those limited releases being bottled. Though, even if that were to happen, it would still be quite some time away yet.
Having decisions like whether to bottle or not is an absolute luxury compared to the time spent waiting around for the brewery to be finished. Many brewers across the country could regale willing listeners with stories of the litany of bureaucracy that must be overcome to get a brewery open but Jaron admits that, in the grand scheme of things, this one actually wasn’t too bad, even though The Crafty Pint ran a story in which they claimed its arrival in Australia was imminent way back in November last year.
"From the time we actually ordered the brewery, we would’ve loved for it to be all wrapped up in a year, but, overall, I’d say it was about an eight to nine month delay from where we wanted to be. So it took about a year and nine months.
"The Warringah council were good though – they had pretty good idea of what was involved and were quite pragmatic about the whole thing. It was more a case of really making sure all the right boxes were ticked – organising terms with the landlord, time of lease, liquor licensing, etc."
With the planning and paperwork safely behind them, the business can firmly focus on the future and keeping its legion of drinkers well hydrated. Having such a good crowd of them in and around the brewery on opening day raised the question of whether there’s perhaps room for a permanent bar or cellar door at the new premises.
"We’d love to," says Jaron. "But it’s just one thing at a time at the moment.
“It’s going to be something we’d like to work towards but for now we’re just enjoying the moment."
And fair enough.
The new brewery is the biggest thing to have happened to the 4 Pines business but things only seem set to get bigger.
