Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
My heart Dazzy Good.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
This is iHeart Tazzy, And today we're hearing from someone
who's taken a backyard interests of brewing beer into a
proper fully formed business. Luke Rigden is co founder of
Stooky's Brewing Company in Kingston, south of Hobart. Hello Luke,
yeah good, thanks for joining us. Let's go back to
(00:24):
the beginning. You and your father in law start home brewing.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
That's where it all began. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Yes, So we had those COVID years that nobody really
wants to think about these days. They did find something
to do during those COVID times, and we decided to
start getting the ruined equipment back out. I'd never done
it in my time, but he had had some experience
using the traditional panning concentrated type beers. We went from
there and began all grain brewing and had nothing else
to do but brew and drink beers for the COVID years.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
When did you both think, hang on, let's go next
level and form a commercial brewing enterprise with this.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
We had my wedding coming up in the February and
we decided we were going to produce some cans and
almost use the guests as a bit of a guinea pigs.
So we bought a canning machine and made some different
types of brews and hand them up and trolled them
on the guests and got some good feedback and plenty
of questions around, well where can we buy this product?
So from their classic tazzi fashion. We had a friend
(01:20):
of a friend who knew the owners of Shambles in
town there and went to them and they helped us
tremendously to start this commercial venture.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
You more or less sublet the making of it. Is
that how it works?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Or did you actually invest in the brewing equipment on
a commercial scale.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
No, So Shambles have all the setup and then the
great experience that they have, so we contract brew through
them is the way to put us. They're fantastic. They
help us with everything we need and they helped us
get up and running. So they have all the equipment
and when we have space within their calendar, we fly
on in there.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
And produce our So you go in there yourself to
make it or do they actually make.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
It for you?
Speaker 4 (01:58):
They do on their equipment. We're alongside them and then
provide our recipe that we've developed. So we developed those
original recipes and they helped scale them for us. Yeah,
they produce them and keep an ear them, and we're
sort of in regular contact and then join them on
canning days and go from.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
That arriving at recipes.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Luke for the Modern Lager and pale ale, was that
a case of refining until you arrive at a product
you're fully finished with and fully satisfied with. I would
have thought that would be a constant case of oh,
is this exactly what we want?
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And being pflectionists, you always think
I could do a little bit better in these areas. Yeah,
it can become your toughest critic in that sense. But
we took about five years to do the Modern Lago.
It was our original one, so it's a five point
two has probably a bit more untraditional hots in there,
so an ella in a galaxy that you probably might
not expect. But when we were home brewing, we were
after talking with lots of flavor, a bit punchy, but
(02:49):
a nice easy lager style, and the powerleyel was a
bit short. It was a couple of years and we
sort of already refined our skills by then. But yeah, yes,
it takes time, and we're now working on an ik
that would just take us a bit longer than we thought.
We're getting there. We have a stout that's pretty much
ready for next year, so it's a little bit of
practice and working out what works and what doesn't.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
How hard is it to create brand awareness?
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I would have thought that's the biggest challenge in all
of this, isn't it.
Speaker 4 (03:12):
Absolutely Yes, it's a large market and there's plenty of
players within this and we're pretty small. We just get
out there and try to do as many tastings as
we are currently as celebrations and most porters around the
lower half of the state, and we get out as
much as we can. And I think that's why I
makeself John and try to talk to people and give
them an opportunity to try the beer, because that's always
the way people can try and they like it. We
(03:32):
can get in there that way part of the twilight
market and farm gating market, so that gives a great
opportunity to speak to people and tell them about who
we are and Tazzy people we found a very supportive
of local.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Brand and what sort of scale are you at now?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Is this something that you can make a living from
fully as a professional brewk We.
Speaker 4 (03:52):
Hope to get to that point at the moment where
myself I'm still working and so is my business partner
who's my father in law. We're still both working full time,
which obviously provides its challenges, but yeah, we're sort of now.
Just last week did another batch of Paleol at eighteen
hundred liters, so that's pretty good for us. This that's
our second batch of the year at that sort of volume,
and then we'll do it at the modern Laga at
the same volume, So we're sort of now upp in.
(04:14):
Last year we're only did one batch of the lager,
so now we'll do about four batches of total beers.
We're getting there the next year to increase and then
also bring those other two beers online and then we
start to try and expand the business from there and
hopefully one day becomes something that is sustainable for us
to do full time. But at the moment, we're just
really getting a lot of joy out of making something
(04:34):
that was a hobby actually actually work a little bit
and have fun doing it.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
When you say a batch, how many cans is that
equivalment too?
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Our last one was around two hundred cardoons of three
seventy five mil cans, and that was twice, so we
did two of those. They're around four hundred cardoons this time.
We're probably reducing that carton volume slightly. Now we're actually
producing kegs. We're about to produce eighteen kegs of each,
so you will start to see it, hopefully as some
local pubs and we'll running our own taps down at
(05:02):
Twilight Market there. So that's the aim. So we're sort
of going from that volume and then looking to maybe
increase in the next year where we might do two
hundred cardoms plus aiding kegs and then work it away
from there.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
I would have thought that's a fairly large investment. Every
time you do this you have to hold your breath
and think, Okay, here we go.
Speaker 3 (05:20):
This is going to cost us.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
It'll come back to us in the end. Is that
the way it is absolutely I was to have.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
A young family, and you know, Stewart's probably getting to
the time with career where he's looking to slow down.
That's probably one of our major challenges is looking at
how we maximize the volumes that we do and minimize
the investment. Clearly at this stage, so we try to
invest when we need to and then aim to sell
large amounts of volumes as quick as we can to
try sort of keep the cash flow going. It's always
(05:46):
a problem, right, It's always going to be a problem,
but we're looking forward to the future and hopefully that
becoming more of a sustainable model.
Speaker 3 (05:52):
And how long does the beer last?
Speaker 2 (05:54):
I guess it has a shelf life where you have
to move it before it expires.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Absolutely, so twelve months on them are cans do from
the day that we can them, so that ty ticking
clock and how quick we have to move them. But
we're finding volumes are moving at such a nice rate
of the moment that doesn't become a factor. But it's
always something kids into back of your mind.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
And just finally, Luke, where to from here?
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Do you have big visions, dreams of going big scale
where you're suddenly a brand that is competing on the
mainly Yes, there's.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
Always a challenge for Tasso rights who get into the
mainland vision, but we really want to hone it, expand
into that keg market and get those four core four
range beers, and then we look to hopefully have some
sort of a tap room, whether it be locally in
the city or back in Kingston where our roots are,
and then hope to up volume and span to the
north of the state and then go from there. But
there's always those challenges logistically, so we're just trying to
(06:44):
take it every couple of years as it comes, trying
to hit those goals on the head moving forward and
take them in chunks. I guess as we move forward.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Luke Grigdon from Stookie's Brewing Company based in Kingston south
of Hobart, a growing boutique deer making brand that started
out as a backyard interest during COVID lockdown. Up next
here on Iheartassy, we talk home brewing with an outlet
selling kits and the like here in Tasmania as we
try and cut costs. Is that something you could find
(07:13):
a passion for. Let's dig into that. Next on iHeart Tazzy.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
My Heart Dazzy, My Heart Duzzy. This is iHeart Tazzy.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
We just heard there from Luke Rigden from Stooki's Beer Company,
which flowered out of a home brewing interest. Let's get
the low down on home brewing right now. Jesse and
Naid joins us from Beer Steel for Men which is
located at Muoner in Hobart, Jesse. Home Brewing, Where do
we begin?
Speaker 5 (07:44):
Most home brewers will start with a pretty stock standard
brewing kit, and they will start with extract brew that's
basically a condensed form of grain and hops that's in
a can, and you pretty much open the can, add
water and you are away a pitcher yeast over top,
and you've got twenty three leaders a beer.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
How long does that take to ferment there?
Speaker 5 (08:06):
Typically two weeks is a good time, but there is
a few years that you can use that will fasten
that process.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And then it's into the bottle.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
That's a process in itself that's got to be highly sterilized, etc.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
Yeah, So the number one key to good homebrew or
any brewing in general is cleanliness and sanitization and cleaning.
Once you've got your beer in your bottles, they normally
take about four weeks to carbonate and then you're away drinking.
If you want it sooner, you can always move into kegging.
We're finding that a lot of people are kegging these
(08:40):
days just because they don't like waiting the four weeks.
Waiting for a couple of days is much more less
painful we're.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
An impatient society.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
We can't wait even two weeks plus the four How
much once we've had our initial establishment costs for the
various items, how much is it going to cost us
to get that twenty three leaders of time.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
For an extract kit? Around about thirty dollars.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
It's a lot of beer for thirty bucks, isn't it.
That's not even the price of a cart. Now, in fact,
that's half the price of a cart.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
Yeah, pretty much. You've got a few consumables that you
replaced along the way, like cleaning supplies and that carbonation drops,
but otherwise it's a very affordable way to make beer.
In saying that, if you want to up your game
and move into all grain brewing, then the kind of
the sky's the limit with how much you spend.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
When you say all grain, is that more specialized, fancy
boutique beer.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
No, not always. A lot of all grain brewers are
just making a pretty standard lager or some form of
a commercial clone all grain. Basically, it's a step up
on the quality of your beer. Extracts perfectly fine. Long
ago you used to get the homebrew twang. It's not
as common these days. There's a lot of innovation that's
(09:51):
gone into those cans. But brewing from grain, you basically
take the reins and all the control. You can develop
your own recipes and build them the way you want them,
or you can just follow other people's recipes, so you
have a lot more control than what your outcome is.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Let's look at the other aspects of Bruce Steel Ferment
in Moona in Hobart. Jesse is with us on iHeart
Tazzy so distill. That tells me that we're making various
other products as well.
Speaker 5 (10:18):
Yeah, so we sell a range of products that you
can use in distilled alcohol. We sell a lot of essences.
We also sell X barrel chips and various other items
that you can add to distilled alcohol.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
What typically are people most gravitating towards in that space?
What's the most popular sort of thing for them to
be producing.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
Look, essences are very simple. If you can think of
a clone of a main brand, there's probably a clone
on the shelf, you know, think Jim Bean, Jack Daniels,
Johnny Walker. Even there's a few more boutique ones. There
used to be Swan Distillery that used to make Swan rum,
and there's actually a clone of that, which is kind
of an old Tazzy classic. But shcotchs probably one of
(11:01):
the newest flavors out is like a peanut butter whisky,
which is the sheep dog that everyone talks about. So yeah,
there's plenty of different flavors and stuff out there.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Typically, what are you looking at if you're making an
equivalent seven hundred and fifty mili bottle of spirit? How
much is that going to cost to do at home
compared to they range anywhere in the bottle shop shelves.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
For the essence, you're looking at about ten dollars, which
is going to make you about two and a half liters.
And then you've got your basic ingredients. If you distill
in your own that can range from anywhere from about
fifty dollars down to make a.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Wash Jesse and I do from brew Steel Ferment on
Main Road Moona in Hobart. Well, all these talks making
me thirsty. Time to wrap up this week's episode of
My Heart Tassy. Here the show in full at iHeart
Tassy Till next time, Cheers, My Heart Dazzy