Tony’s brewing inspiration
THEY say a great business starts with a spark of inspiration, and that’s definitely the case for Tony Brand and his new brewery, Four Fires.
The Berat man originally started brewing Western European beers about 10 years ago after he became intrigued by his family’s Dutch heritage.
“I have been over a few times to visit and really liked the Western European beers, but they were hard to find and expensive, so I started brewing my own,” Mr Brand said.
After years of taste testing from friends such as operations manager Andrew Granger, Mr Brand said he believed he had found a “country flavour” that would be perfect for a Southern Downs audience.
“‘Our catchphrase is it’s a couple of guys having a couple of beers,” Mr Granger said.
“In the city, you can see craft breweries popping up everywhere, but there was a need for a different approach and different clientele.
“The market is heading down the direction of the stranger the better, but the feedback we’ve got is that’s not always the case.
“You don’t have to have the fruitiest beers to be good.”
It was a mantra that was validated when Four Fires won the 4 Brothers Brewing Homebrew Heroes competition in November last year.
The brewery, which started construction out of Mr Brand’s backyard in late 2019, is aiming to ramp up production and start supplying to local bars by the end of 2020.
Mr Granger says he is hopeful they can establish a brewery pub at the site by 2021–2022.