Big Awards for a Little Brewery

The Cidery Brewing Company has recently won a swag of awards at the Melbourne International.

Winning four brewing awards for its beer and seven awards for its cider, which for a small Bridgetown enterprises is quite an achievement.

The Melbourne International is run through the Victorian Agricultural Society and is now in its thirtieth year of hosting the award, and is the only international brewing judging competition within Australia.

Mark Hollett is the brewer and cider maker at The Cidery and is very pleased with the result and shares some of his thoughts, “At The Cidery we brew ten ciders, nine beers, we also make wine, a sparkling wine, a punch and a vinegar, and I dare say we would be the only drinks producer in Australia which makes that much variety under the one roof.

“Because The Cidery has relatively small brewing vats we are very versatile in trialling different beers and ciders we brew, of which our Truffle Ale, Chestnut Ale and Honey Cider are good examples.

“In recent times and through the Covid-19 lock down The Cidery has been improving and refurnishing. The beer garden is now around twice its original size, the front bar has been redeveloped, new brewing vats have been installed and there is now a new canning line installed which can do around 24 cans a minute.

“Almost all of our beers and ciders now are available in cans, which has made a huge difference, now that we have become quite proficient with its use, after we had a few years of fine tuning on the canning line.

“With the cans being dark inside it gives our products a longer shelf life, cans are easy to pack and stack and we now have no breakages.

“The beers we have on tap are still brewed in the traditional way, no preservatives, no pasteurising and they are cask conditioned, which is a process by which just before the fermenting process has finished the brew vats are locked up, allowing the brew to be carbonated with its own CO2.

“The kegs then sit in the cool room for around a week before being put on the tap.

“My main priority, and one I take full responsibility for, is maintaining a quality product across the many and varied ciders and beers The Cidery produces.

“We still wholesale our cellar, mostly in surrounding towns. Visitors as well as locals like to taste local produce.

“Those who come to The Cidery and may not like drinking cider find we have a good range of beers or wines that suit any taste. We really do a good range of assorted beverages to choose from.

The Cidery has a good record of giving our youth in the district their first job, there have been numerous job seekers entering the work force in the kitchen preparing meals at The Cidery.

“During my time as brewer and cider maker, over the last twenty years, I have seen a lot of small breweries and microbreweries start up and then disappear around the south west and in the metro area. I feel the most successful aspect that The Cidery has, is that it has a bar attached to the brewery. By keeping our main focus in house and having a small and varied business model it shields us from the corporate whims of large brewing companies allowing The Cidery to be unique.”

The beers which won awards are as follows: Irish Red beer and the Chestnut Ale won a silver and Kentish Ale and Truffle Ale won a bronze.

The ciders winning awards were; Apple Pickers won silver and best in class, Love Child Ginger and Blues Cider each won Silver, Spider Cider, Sweet Rosie, Fruit Punch and Bitter Sweet all won a bronze.