A $20 tasting paddle gives you a choice of four Wayback beers at the Goulburn Brewery. From mid-range to full-strength, the brewery has a sparkling ale, local lager, happy lager, hazy pale, extra hazy, classic IPA and a dry stout. Photo: Ali Nasseri.
New and reclaimed, more than 3000 sandstock bricks climb over a reinstated levee and cover sprawling courtyards in the middle of the freshly-limewashed old Goulburn Brewery.
As true as the levee stands, word still leaked out about this extraordinary and longed-for restoration that has now turned discerning cynics into effusive enthusiasts thanks to the quality of the work over more than two years.
A veteran of the brewing industry, Neal Cameron has seen projects stumble early in the planning, or financing or inability to get the right team together. But not this one.
“This had its challenges, but has always been just racing forward with everyone really clear about what we are trying to do here,” says the head brewer, who wrote the TAFE NSW Certificate III in Microbrewing course and was the chief judge at the Royal Sydney Beer & Cider Show.
Restoration work is still underway. Nevertheless, enough of the site has been completed to open for business as the Goulburn Brewery with an immaculate new Italian brewery, a gleaming new commercial kitchen, a new ornate surface on the original bar and seven distinct craft beers flowing from the taps.
For how long the renovation dominates talking points in this working-class city is hard to say. Having presided over about 80 Australian brewery projects, Neal knows should the novelty wane of the three-storey buildings that go back to 1836, the delicious smelling beer with an assortment of tastes and twists has what it takes to keep the positive momentum bubbling to the surface.
Neal says mid-strength and light beer are an Australian trend. “People have a lot more choices now,” he says. “There are a lot of really good low alcohol beers and I drink it as well because it is just practical to do so.”
He’s from the United Kingdom where the English prefer their pints. “Not these little eye-wash things (schooners)”, he says, assessing two half-filled glasses of 3.5 per cent sparkling ale in front of him.
“A pint is an appropriate measure; getting a schooner is like getting three-quarters of a pizza, isn’t it?” he says with a chuckle.
In any case, it doesn’t matter. There are pints aplenty for serious drinkers at Goulburn Brewery, multiple middies for timid sippers and aspirations of producing 150,000 litres a year for the new ‘Wayback’ label.
Head brewer Neal Cameron previously spearheaded breweries including William Bull Brewery and The Australian Brewery and was also technical director for Brewtique. He is co-founder and director of The Institute of Beer.
From the traditional call to sheepdogs to “go back” or “wayback”, the Goulburn brand has already found its way into Sydney and the Southern Highlands venues and more than likely will be in Simon Patterson’s Goulburn Pub Group: the Southern Railway, Empire and Gordon hotels.
Varieties range from 3.5 per cent mid-strength sparkling ale made from regional barley to 4.2 per cent dry stout that gets a lot of people excited. It’s inspired by historic brewing records and has a thwack of molasses to craft an outstandingly smooth feel worth remembering. And the 5.3 per cent IPA (Indian pale ale) packs a punch and is bigger, darker and hoppier with a lovely citrus fragrance.
Brewing in the 1830s would have produced a sour questionable drop compared to today’s beer from sanitised production.
“They made a stout and sparkling ale, and I think they would have made a traditional English IPA but put them side by side with today’s beer and they’d be unrecognisable,” the head brewer says. “But the process of producing fermentable sugars from barley, putting yeast in and fermenting it into alcohol and carbon dioxide and adding hops, that’s been the same for hundreds of years.”
Sanitation these days is paramount. As is the case with the major producers, this Goulburn craft brewer is micro-testing the beer before it’s released for sale. “Making beer is like 100 things you have to do well,” he says.
The tradies on site are not the only ones who have dived into Wayback. Head chef Marian Christine Abeleda, coming from roles at Gema Group in Wollongong and Peppers hotels in Sutton Forest, makes good use of the beer throughout the menu in marinades, sauces and batters.
Now employing about 16 full-time staff, the Goulburn Brewery is catering for 100 people a night, until the warmer weather arrives and it will be able to seat 450 people and staff numbers will swell for events such as Oktoberfest. Children and dogs are welcome at the brewery. Photo: Ali Nasseri.
Marian’s pork knuckle dish features the protein from Andrews Meats brined in Wayback beer before being cooked sous vide for a day and air fried to achieve the perfect crispy crackling.
Five other dishes on the menu are offered as Wayback classics.
The Goulburn Brewery is located at 23 Bungonia Road, Goulburn and is open Wednesday and Thursday, 10 am to 10 pm; Friday, noon to 12 am; and Saturday, 11 am to 12 am.
