Shout for community
BREWERS ARE GIVING BACK AND NURTURING CLOSE TIES WITH THE LOCALS WHO HAVE SUPPORTED THEM
Craft beer and community go hand-inhand, with many brewers going out of their way to forge deeper ties to their local areas.
And given the popularity of the post-match beer – where heroics can be replayed, umpiring decisions decried and future strategies formed – it’s little wonder that many craft breweries have formed close ties to nearby sporting clubs.
Certainly that was the case for the Akasha Brewing Company, which is based in Five Dock, in Sydney’s inner-west. Not long after launching seven years ago, they hooked up with the Drummoyne Rugby Club and soon after that, the Drummoyne
These guys have supported us from day one when we opened the doors, so it’s a little bit about us giving back and nurturing that community
Water Polo Club, both of which had enthusiastically embraced the fledgling brewery.
Then two years ago, they forged ties with the West Harbour Pirates, who compete in the Shute Shield – the premier rugby union competition in NSW.
The association was a two-way street from the beginning – some of the brewery staff already played rugby, and some of the Pirates were already familiar faces at the Akasha taproom.
“Community is really, really important to us,” says Akasha founder and chief executive Dave Padden.
“These guys have supported us from day one when we opened the doors, so it’s a little bit about us giving back and nurturing that community.
“It’s pretty important that we get involved with stuff that we like and watch and believe in, and we’re also sports fans here as well, of both rugby union and rugby league.”
Padden says the sponsorship works in several ways – through actual cash to the clubs, donating beer to be sold at games, and encouraging the players to consider the taproom as an extension of the clubhouse.
And of course, there are ulterior motives, too, not least the opportunity to provide a wider range of craft beers for punters to experience while watching sport.
Once its refurbishment is complete in coming months, Concord Oval – a former Rugby World Cup venue and home to many a famous rugby moment – will be the Pirates’ home base alongside the Wests
Tigers and Inter Lions Football Club, and Akasha will have the pouring rights.
“The new stadium is looking absolutely amazing,” Padden says. “So that’s a really exciting part of the sponsorship. We will be setting up the Akasha caravan up on the hill when it opens and slinging beers all afternoon.”
Padden says getting a wider range of craft beers at major sporting arenas is a work in progress in Australia, led by the likes of Western Australia’s Gage Roads beers, on tap in Perth’s Optus Stadium (home of the West Coast Eagles and Fremantle Dockers), and Canberra’s BentSpoke and Capital Brewing Co., both on offer at GIO Stadium, where the Canberra Raiders and the ACT Brumbies ply their trade.
But, he says, Australia is well behind the US, although he hopes that a grassroots-sports driven change is coming.
“We’re starting to see better beer options, which we’ve seen in the States now for years.
“Whether it’s baseball, whether it’s basketball, they have had great local beer available there for years that we’re starting to see that happen here.”
Padden acknowledges that introducing new audiences to craft beer is best done gradually – it’s a big leap from a simple lager to triplehopped IPA or wacky tasting sour – so it’s about finding the right styles to suit the sporting crowd.
“One of the local rugby league teams, the Western Suburbs Magpies, got together with us to brew a beer to serve on the ground, so we came up with a relatively easy-to-approach XPA, and that’s been hugely successful,” says Padden.
“We just did a beer for the Sydney Kings, who just won the NBL title, called the Championship Lager.
“It’s not the usual stuff that’s available but it’s a really good introduction and we are making great craft beer accessible to more people.”