The Place Beyond The Pines. Of all the concepts we’ve executed over the years, this one has to be my favourite. A confluence of meticulousness and environmental variability. Flying in the face of the old saying: wine is made in the vineyard, while beer is made in the brewery.
Australia has developed incredible uniqueness in its millennia of isolation. Flora and fauna, the characters of this place are unlike anything else in the world. While drawing inspiration from the spruce beers of the Northern Hemisphere, like Mikellers Hoppy Loving Christmas, we wanted to highlight those unique Australian flavours.
Taking sustainably harvested spring growth tips from pines harvested on my family farm, as well as wood from branches, we’ve made various pine beers over the last few years. In 2025 we’ve combined fresh needles on the hot side, with new, 1 and 2 year old timbre on the cold side. We chose not to do a wort transfer through a log this year, to reduce hot side aeration. Just needles in whirlpool and sanded and toasted staves after fermentation.
The result is crazy. I find it challenging to be objective about this, but the uniqueness of these flavours is intense. Herbal and sappy upfront, with a certain marshmallow, vanilla and even cinnamon spice at the back end. Toasting the wood has definitely bought out the vanilla and cinnamon. Vanillin formation from lignin breakdown can take years in oak, and I wonder if the aged timbre has really promoted that cinnamon and marshmallow character.
A liquid expression of place.
Brewery
