Great great grandad Jacob Cohn came to Australia from Denmark in 1853 and started brewing in Bendigo in 1858. The brewing gene seemed to skip a few generations but I got the bug as a teenager in the early 1970s and started brewing on mum's stove. (Sorry about the boilovers mum...) According to dad the results were "drinkable" so I've been at it, on and off, ever since! Since moving to the farm the
re's been a bit more time to refine the craft and finally, at the urging of sundry reprobates, Sarah said "Have a crack and go commercial". So we're starting as a nano brewery with very limited production; we'll brew once a week and supply the Welder's Dog at 120 Marsh St, Armidale. Check them out because Tom and Dan and their staff will make you feel very welcome and they always have great beers on tap, not to mention cider, a large whisky selection and some local wines. Those boys know their stuff! Also a big thanks to Marshall and Antonella Wiles at Deepwater Brewery (formerly Hillbilly). They've been fantastic in their efforts to help us get going and Marshall brews some of the best beer on the planet, so seek out his beer - you will be amazed. We like to brew with the seasons and use the freshest ingredients we can get so every beer we brew is a bit different. Our beers are handmade using only malted barley, hops, yeast and rainwater. Nothing else added. After it's fermented it goes straight into the keg, then into town and into your glass. Because our beers are unfiltered and no finings are added you get all the flavours. You might also get some cloudiness from the yeast and if you are very lucky you might get a hop leaf or two - we use a lot of whole flower hops. Our ingredients are mostly grown in Australia and New Zealand. We use Australian malt, usually from barley grown nearby on the Liverpool Plains and malted in Tamworth. Most of the hops we use are grown either in the Derwent Valley in Tasmania, or in the Ovens Valley near Myrtleford in Victoria. Some are from the Nelson region of New Zealand and a very few are from the northern hemisphere. We also grow a few hops in the garden, and if we get enough rain there should be just enough for a few special beers each year! Our little brewery is all stainless steel with a conventional 3 vessel brewhouse (Hot Liquor Tank, Mash Tun and Kettle) plus two conical fermenters. The brewery is housed in a section of a shed just up the hill from the Gara River. Grandad built the malt mill - after building a few wooden boats malt mills are a snack! Follow us on Instagram
