If you’ve only got one business rival in town, you should see them as competitors – not team-mates, right?
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Well Five Barrel Brewing and the Illawarra Brewing Company are the only two people in town making beer – but they’ve chosen to work together.
The breweries have collaborated on the 3.9 per cent Locals Lager, which they’re aiming to get on tap around the city and the region.
Five Barrel’s Phil O’Shea and Dave McGrath from the Illawarra Brewing Company said people shouldn’t be surprised they’re joining forces instead of trying to knock each other into the dirt.
“Dave and I have never had an ‘us verses them’ mentality when working with each other,” Mr O’Shea said.
“The way we’ve both approached the local market is to grow it, rather than just take taps away from each other.”
Collaboration isn’t an unusual thing in craft brewing circles – Illawarra Brewing Company has paired up with southern Sydney brewery Shark Island before, as well as a bottle shop and a bar.
We wanted to make sure we created something that had mass-market appeal.
- Brewer Phil O'Shea on Locals Lager
It’s often done for a bit of fun and to flex some creativity in terms of beer ingredients.
It's a different story as far as Locals Lager is concerned – the pair said it was driven by the fact that Illawarra bars and beer drinkers tend to look outside the region when choosing a beer instead of drinking what was made on their doorstep.
“The frustration is that there seems to be a stigma within Wollogong that, if you’ve got our beers on, then you can’t put Phil’s beers on,” Mr McGrath said.
He added that craft beer bars in other cities will put on a number of beers from local breweries.
“It’s about showcasing what the local guys are doing,” Mr McGrath said.
“We’re struggling to combat that here in Wollongong.
“We’re all making great beers and they’re made locally. You don’t get the chance to drink them everywhere else.”
The decision to brew a lager, rather than a beer with strong flavours, was quite deliberate as well.
The idea behind that was to create an approachable beer, something a drinker of Carlton Draught or Victoria Bitter wouldn’t have a problem with.
“We wanted to make sure we created something that had mass-market appeal,” Mr O’Shea said.