Good Beer Week Pairing Dinner @ Collins Quarter
Tuesday, 21 May 6-8 pm
events
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HOP STAR Exclusive pre-release @ GABS
HOP STAR Exclusive pre-release @ GABS
Friday 24th-Sunday 26th May 2013
Collingwood Draught Launch
7th April Sunday Beer Deluxe Fed Square “Collingwood Draught Launch”
Summer Releases (events)
Jan. 9 – Feb. 16: Devils Backbone Collaboration
News
Brewing minnow thunders against giant in bid to review historic brands
Foster’s will face off against inner suburban craft brewer Thunder Road Brewing on Tuesday at a two day trademark hearing that will test ownership of a portfolio of heritage beer brands, many of which haven’t been in full commercial production since before World War II.
Clink on the images below to see the full article published in The Age on 16th April 2013
Brewers Hop Through History
By Eli Greenblat, Senior Business Reporter, Fairfax. YOU could call it ”Raiders of the Lost Beer”. An adventure through time, space and breweries, from the flowering beer industry of colonial Melbourne in the 1860s to an antique bookshop in the US state of Maine. It will climax on Monday, when a beer recipe not seen or tasted in 130 years will come to life.
While the taste and colour of the beer remains a mystery, what is known is that a team of brewers will create Melbourne history in a glass. They will give today’s drinkers a sense of what Melburnians were swigging from beer glasses when the city was a mere 20 years old and the capital of the Victorian colony.
Rather than a timeworn treasure map leading to hidden relics, brewers at Brunswick’s Thunder Road Brewing will rely on a recipe jotted down by Alfred Terry, a brewer who came to Melbourne in 1851 and who was a pioneer of Australia’s beer industry.
Alfred Terry
It is his recipe that Thunder Road senior brewer Marcus Cox and Jason Oliver, the brewmaster of Devils Backbone Brewing Co, Virginia, US, will faithfully re-create. In doing so they will resurrect a beer first made for the Carlton Brewery, which traces its history to Melbourne’s Bouverie Street in 1864 and is a forerunner of today’s Carlton & United Breweries.
”Nobody is around today that drank that beer; it’s back from the dead,” Mr Cox said on Friday as he checked over his calibrations and ingredients at Thunder Road’s inner-city craft brewery. ”I think it’s a unique experience, a moment in time for Melbourne that we are trying to re-create.”
Mr Oliver said: ”To re-create a beer like this is a snapshot of time, and that’s one thing I really like about beer, that it can take you on a journey, and this beer will maybe take you on a journey back in time.”
Alfred Terry’s notebook with the recipe from the late 1800s. Photo: Justin McManus
Historian and author Andrew Bailey, whose chance discovery of Terry’s nearly 150-year-old brewing manual will guide the rebirth of the beer, said Australians would have the opportunity to taste something that was believed lost forever.
”It’s fantastic and amazing to think we can get reasonably close to tasting what an old beer tasted like in Victoria back in the 1870s,” Mr Bailey said.
The story of how Terry’s notebook found its way back to Melbourne is deserving of its own drama. Researching a book on Australia’s struggle to brew its first beers in the rugged colonial days of the late 1800s, Mr Bailey discovered via Google that a bookshop in York Beach, Maine, had a manual dating from Melbourne’s burgeoning brewing community in the 1860s.
When it arrived in the post Mr Bailey realised it was owned by Alfred Terry, whose innovations in styles and production helped make Carlton Brewery the most successful brewer of its age.
Even more exciting was a notebook attached to the back of the book that contained Terry’s instructions for one of his first brews, including boiling temperatures, timing and ingredients for a traditional English ale-style beer. It is believed his beer was created some time between 1870 and 1880.
When Thunder Road owner Philip Withers was offered the book he jumped at the chance to re-create the 130-year-old beer.
”This is very precious find because it was at a time when Carlton Brewery was totally independent,” he said. ”They were pioneers and brewed beers that always remained a mystery to us, so this is a lost beer.
”We don’t even know what style it is, what it will taste like, but we will be tasting the history of Melbourne.”
Mr Cox added: ”I’ve got an idea it will be an older style beer, with sweeter flavours; it has got a heavy use of hops. But it’s really a case of make it and see.”
After brewing, about 4000 litres of the beer will be conditioned over 30 days and offered free to the public, with some sold and the profits given to charity. It will be called Terry’s Ale, in honour of Alfred Terry.
Those lucky enough to taste it may also get a sense of what a 19th-century hangover felt like.
Thunder Road and Devils Backbone Collaboration!
Thunder Road Brewing Company of Melbourne, Australia and Devils Backbone Brewing Company of Virginia, USA, Jointly Announce International Brewing Collaboration
Award Winning Brewmaster Jason Oliver from Devils Backbone Brewing Company and Marcus Cox, Senior Brewer and Manager of Thunder Road Brewing Company will Lead Innovative Collaborative Brewing Program in Melbourne, Australia
January 23, 2013 – Philip Withers, CEO, Thunder Road Brewing Company and Steve Crandall, President, Devils Backbone Brewing Company announced today that Jason Oliver, Brewmaster of Devils Backbone Brewing Company, has been selected to join the company from a highly competitive field of brewers in Thunder Road’s Inaugural Summer Brewer’s Invitational. Oliver and Cox will jointly lead the collaboration program in January and February 2013 in Australia.
Devils Backbone Brewing Company, based in Nelson County, Virginia has become one of the most award winning breweries in the United States. The phenomenal rise of the brewery, in just a few short years, is unique in the craft brewing industry. The success of Devils Backbone Brewing Company is directly related to its industry leading accomplishments in creating internationally acclaimed beers. Since opening its Basecamp Brewpub in 2008 at the foot of Wintergreen Mountain in Nelson County and then their production facility the Outpost in 2012 in Lexington, Virginia, the consistent quality of their beers has propelled the company into a leadership position in Virginia and the wider craft brewing industry.
In the last four years, their prestigious collection of awards includes seventeen Great American Beer Festival medals and five World Beer Cup awards. Devils Backbone Brewing Company has also been recognized internationally at the 2010 World Beer Cup as Champion Brewery and Small Brewpub and most recently for Small Brewpub and Small Brew Pub Brewer of the year at the 2012 Great American Beer Festival. Devils Backbone brewmaster, Jason Oliver, has 16 years of brewing experience and holds an international accreditation in brewing science.
In selecting Oliver, Thunder Road Brewing Company was impressed with how similar the two company’s brewing philosophies were. According to Oliver, “My brewing philosophy is one of traditional expansiveness. I take inspiration from traditional and contemporary methods and techniques then expand upon them.
I like to say I’m ‘inspired by tradition… not handcuffed to it.’”
During Oliver’s assignment he will lead a number of projects including at least 10 collaboration beer developments between Thunder Road and Devils Backbone that will be marketed in both countries under the name “Devils Thunder.” To celebrate the collaboration, a special beer will be brewed to raise funds to aid research for the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University in Australia and The Chesapeake Bay Foundation in the U.S.A.
Thunder Road Brewing Company is a leading independent brewery in the working class suburb of Brunswick in Victoria, Australia. Since opening its doors for business in 2011, the brewery’s beers have taken Melbourne by storm and are now expanding nationally throughout Australia. Thunder Road Brewing Company brews year-round flagship beers including Full Steam Pale Lager and Brunswick Bitter, as well as limited release seasonal beers, for on-tap sales. The company is well known for its fanatical focus on freshness and quality and produces beers that appeal to a broad audience.
For additional information on Thunder Road Brewing Company, please visit: www.thunderroadbrewing.com
For additional information on Devils Backbone Brewing Company, please visit: http://dbbrewingcompany.com/ or contact: Heidi Crandall/Marketing at hatcreekfarm@gmail.com
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For additional information on the Institute for Glycomics, please visit http://www.griffith.edu.au/science-aviation/institute-glycomics
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Announcing Return of Grafton Bitter – “The Pride of the North”
Thunder Road Brewing Company Announces Return of Grafton Bitter – “The Pride of the North” – After Decades of Absence, Grafton Bitter Flows Again in Northern New South Wales
Thunder Road Brewing Company today announced the reintroduction of the heritage beer Grafton Bitter in the town of its birth, Grafton N.S.W.
Known as “The Pride of the North” Grafton Bitter – and the Grafton Brewery that produced it – were enormously successful in the years after the brewery commenced operation in 1952.
Founded at a time of widespread beer shortages after WWII, the brewery and beers flourished, but like many regional beers became a victim of its own success and was targeted by much larger brewers in Sydney, including Tooheys.
Utilizing cheap subsidized rail freight, the Sydney-based brewers flooded the market with cheep beer and in 1961 Tooheys took over the distressed Grafton brewery, and promptly killed off the “Grafton” brand. The Grafton brewery continued to produce Tooheys’ beers until the company shut the brewery down in 1997.[1]
Like many regional towns, the economy in Grafton is tough, but the reintroduction of Grafton Bitter has received broad support from pubs, clubs and local beer lovers. Unlike many of Australia’s heritage brands that have failed and never returned – Grafton Bitter is back – and along with it, a tangible sense of fighting spirit and pride in the town that gave this beer its name.
In researching the original Grafton Bitter, Thunder Road’s management team and brewers held extensive discussion with one of the last remaining employees of Grafton Brewery, who worked for the company prior to and after its take over by Tooheys Brewery. These discussions led to a very solid understanding of the ingredient profile and brewing processes used at the time – and have been instrumental to the reintroduction of Grafton Bitter.
Grafton Bitter is brewed with 100% all malted barley and real Australian hops. The beer is unpasteurized, and delivered chilled on-tap for peak freshness and a robust flavor that cannot be matched by mass-produced national beer brands. Grafton Gold, a mid-strength beer, is currently being developed and will be introduced in the first quarter of 2013.
Grafton Bitter can be found fresh on tap at the following venues: The Great Northern Hotel, Jacaranda Hotel, Good Intent Hotel, Royal Hotel, The Grafton Golf Club and will be available throughout New South Wales in 2013.
For additional information on Thunder Road Brewing Company, please visit: www.thunderroadbrewing.com
For product images and additional information on Grafton Bitter, please visit:
www.thunderroadbrewing.com/beer/grafton-bitter-nsw-only
Media:
team@thunderroadbrewing.com
Grafton Bitter – on TAP NEXT WEEK!
Well we’ve managed to pull out all the stops and Grafton Bitter will indeed be flowing in time for Christmas! Deliveries will be rolling into pubs in Grafton next Wednesday so you can raise a glass of “The Pride of the North” just in time for Christmas!
We’d also like to thank the many people in Grafton who have supported us in this effort! We’ll be publishing a list of pubs that will have the beer on tap next week so stay tuned!
Building Bridges to Great Beer!
Check out Lachlan Thompson’s article from the Grafton Daily Examiner on Nov. 23rd about a creative signage idea for Grafton Bitter – unfortunately, its only possible with the wonders of Photoshop! (Click on thumbnail image to enlarge.)
Grafton Bitter for Christmas!
We’re in the final stages of preparing for the reintroduction of Grafton Bitter in Northern NSW! We’ve had such a great reception so far we wanted to update everyone on our progress.
Because our beers are unpasteurized to maximize taste and freshness, refrigerated storage and delivery are essential. We are finalizing arrangements now to be able to do this from a local base – and deliver Grafton Bitter on tap to local pubs and clubs.
We’ve been delighted by the interest and support so far in Grafton for the reintroduction of this legendary beer, and our plan is to be up in the next month or so with kegs and sampling.
So stay tuned, with any luck Grafton Bitter will be flowing again by Christmas!
Grafton Bitter Returns!
Read Lachlan Thompson’s article in the Grafton Daily Examiner about Thunder Road Brewing Company’s soon-to-be-released Grafton Bitter. Cheers all around!
Bitter Brew Returns by Lachlan Thompson
SIXTY years after the first kilderkin, or 17 gallon keg, of Grafton Bitter went on sale and 15 years after the brewery closed its doors the old Clarence brew is on its way back.
Sadly it won’t bring back the 42 jobs the Valley lost in 1997 but it may be just the tonic to wash away our current woes.
The beer is being re-made by Melbourne brewers in Brunswick and the boutique Thunder Rd company believe they will be able to deliver kegs anywhere in NSW.
According to the new makers’ website it will be “brewed better, brewed longer and have a flavour, body and texture never found in big mass-produced beers.”
Although the new beer will not be entering a marketplace where beer shortages were common, like the original beer did, the makers tell us it will be “delivered chilled for peak freshness and a consistently robust Australian character”.
The Daily Examiner would like to extend a huge thank-you to Frank Mack from the Clarence Historical Society for opening the museum on his day off to help bring to life this great story from Clarence’s past.
TRB Announces Inaugural Summer Brewers Invitational
From 1st December 2012 – 29th February 2013 Thunder Road Brewing Company invites leading Brewers and Brewmasters from around the world to come and join us in Australia to create the world’s best beers in our up-to-the-minute craft brewery
We will cover all costs including airfares and accommodation expenses!!You will team up with our Australian and Czech brew teams to create great beers during our Australian summer here in Melbourne, Australia.
Be assured, December – February is it the best time to visit Melbourne Australia , and the best time to brew beer!
This year, we are inviting Great brewers and breweries with an absolute passion for Pale Ales and IPA’s. We are especially keen to have brewers that know the importance of brewing beers that convert mass market beer consumers. So if you love creating hop aroma driven beers with drinkability , we would love to invite you over. Equally, over the top bitter and twisted brewers are warmly welcome!
We also welcome breweries who wish join us in collaboration efforts to create something special. But you must be a truly independent brewery with no connection to the big side of town. And keen on serious charities that need our help.
All beers will end up on tap in Australia and some might also be enjoyed for bottle release.
Feel free to send us your expression of interest, brew history and beer skill preferences for our review. Places this summer are limited.
You can nominate how much time you wish to spend with us.
Thunder Road Brewing Company is part of an independently owned established family business Group with no connection to large multinational breweries or large business groups, wholesalers or retail groups. We are not a public company. We own and operate state-of-the-art craft as well as independent traditional breweries in Australia and parts of Europe. www.thunderroadbrewing.com. We are HACCP certified with a modern laboratory and QA/QC system. We have a strong focus on brewing science.
We deliver from brewery to tap with our own chilled distribution trucks. We share our profits with worthy charities. Our Australian brewery’s electricity supply is 100% powered by solar. We do not compromise on beer freshness, quality or drinkability.
Send expressions of interest to philip@thunderroadbrewing.com
Uncapping the Beers of Old
From Melbourne’s Age newspaper, 6 June 2012, by Eli Greenblat. A DAVID-AND-GOLIATH battle between a micro-brewery in Brunswick and global brewing giant SABMiller, which owns Foster’s, could see the resurrection of brands not seen at pubs since before World War II.
These would include Victoria Lager, McCracken’s Invalid Stout, Abbots Lager, Tiger Head and Richmond Lager.
Thunder Road Brewing, a craft brewer based in Brunswick, has launched legal action against Carlton United Brewers, an arm of the now foreign-owned Foster’s, to unlock trademarks over 50 heritage beer brands to launch a revival of long-lost Australian beers.
The dispute, now before an examiner at the trademark tribunal, will centre around Foster’s genuine use of the portfolio of heritage beer brands in the past three years and the ”non-use” section of trademark law covering a ”use it or lose it” guideline.
Thunder Road Brewing chief executive Philip Withers said he was challenging up to 70 per cent of Foster’s trademarks, and was doing so to revive the Australian brewing industry after the takeover of Foster’s and Lion Nathan by foreigners.
”We are not doing this for any other reason,” he said. ”There is no equity value in these brands because there has been no cash flow in them, they haven’t been in business for decades and they have no value other than being important to the revival of our industry and keeping them in Australia.
”These brands represent the history, when beer was brewed locally, and local is important because it’s all about better quality and greater freshness.”
He said a number of trademarks, such as Abbots or Richmond Lager, had not been used by Foster’s or were occasionally produced in very small runs just to start the clock again on the trademark and protect it from being used by someone else.
Mr Withers has invested more than $6 million in his Thunder Road brewery, which produces unpasteurised beer for more than 120 pubs around Victoria. Other brands in his sights include Cairns Draught, Brisbane Bitter, Kent Old Brown, NQ Lager and Carlton Malt Ale. Some beer brands have not been in commercial production since World War II or as far back as the 1920s.
Kliger Partners special counsel Daniel Kovacs said ”use it or lose it” was a feature of long-standing registered trademarks in Australia.
”The Trademarks Office and courts will not allow a business to monopolise an old trademark that it is not using,” he said. ”If an old trademark has not been used in trade by its registered owner in the last three years, any interested third party can apply to have it deregistered.”
Mr Kovacs said the trademark owner then had the task of proving it had used the trademark in the relevant period.
”As long as the use is genuine, commercial use in Australia, it need not be extensive for the trademark owner to defeat the attack on its registration. There have been cases where even a small amount of use has been sufficient to preserve the registration.”
A Foster’s spokesman said it would defend its trademarks and heritage. ”Some of these brands form the core history of CUB. Many of these beers were brewed by the six breweries – McCracken’s, Victoria, Carlton, Castlemaine, Shamrock, and Foster’s – that came together in 1907 to form Carlton & United.
”These beers continue to be an important and intrinsic part of our business … the concept that an individual, who has contributed nothing to their establishment or upkeep, can now lay claim to them is a nonsense.”
The case is continuing.
