THE year isn’t even halfway through but for Uralla’s New England Brewing Company, it’s already been jam-packed.
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Over the past few months the local enterprise has gained a small bar and a new brewer, fresh from the United States, while new beers and a sustainable initiative are around the corner.
Brewer Reid Stratton was coaxed over by director Ben Rylands from a job at Jolly Pumpkin Brewery in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Mr Stratton said he had wanted to work in an overseas brewery and the New England company was a good fit.
“It’s been really pleasant to find how well the brewery is set up and how well designed the system is,” he said.
Mr Stratton said it was also great to be able to access local ingredients, with the brewery sourcing malt from Tamworth. He’s been able to jump straight into brewing, with two new beers, the New Englander Golden Ale and the New Englander Dark Farmhouse.
No one in Tamworth does it, no one in Armidale does it
- Ben Rylands, Uralla’s New England Brewing Company director
Since its inception little more than a year ago, the little brewery has been busy and now does regular deliveries to Sydney, Newcastle and Brisbane.
Mr Rylands said the company also received good local support, with their beers on tap across the region. “We’re pretty lucky that the pubs have supported us,” he said.
Gaining a small bar licence has meant the brewery now sees a steady influx of people wanting to come and sit down for a beer.
The duo also has an environmentally friendly initiative, with them set to offer refillable glass containers to allow patrons to take draught beer home from next month.
Containers will come in two sizes; one-litre squealers and two-litre growlers, tapping into a growing trend.
Mr Rylands said it would cut down on packaging and allow people to take home fresh beer.
“No one in Tamworth does it, no one in Armidale does it,” he said.
Mr Stratton said the use of such containers in the US had diverted billions of cans and bottle from waste since its invention in1989.
“To me the two main advantages are having that really fresh beer and it allows me as a brewer to make a special edition that isn’t packaged,” he said.
“It’s just going to get more and more popular over time.”
