MOST people might sit out in the orchard having a refreshing drink of an evening, but few would think of creating their beer by leaving it among the trees to develop flavour.
In reality, it is an ancient method, called wild fermentation; and it has been adopted by craft brewers Chris and Gabrielle Moore, of Sailors Grave Brewery at Orbost.
Landscape architects by trade, the couple bring a strong sense of place to the beers they craft, using local herbage, fruit and vegetables to create flavour.
After project managing a pop-up bar in Sydney, Chris and Gabrielle moved further into hospitality, running their own restaurant – The Commons – in partnership with Rob Barton, also a landscape architect.
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“You just have to have the belief you can do something,” Gabrielle said.
“When you step off the pier, you have to swim.”
After four years, noting the rising interest in craft beer in Australia at their own venue, they sold the restaurant and Chris and Gabrielle moved back to Victoria, to Orbost.
Their original plan was to open a craft brewery on her parents’ farm, until the large and characterful old butter factory at Orbost became available for rent.
They then spent three months in America, studying the art of craft brewing.
“We went specifically to check out the craft beer scene,” Gabrielle said.
“We were surprised to learn there were lots of people going overseas to pick up the trends in Europe and America.
“But it’s a small world and Australia is very quickly catching up with the craft beer scene. It’s spreading like wildfire.”
It was here that Chris developed his knowledge of wild fermentation.
“Belgian Lambic brewers have a kind of domesticated process of brewing, where they leave the beer in an open container in the brewhouse to connect with wild yeast in the air,” he said.
“We wanted to do similar because it creates character and flavour that relates to the natural or local area.
“That’s why we use local fruits, vegetables and herbs along with the naturally occurring yeast – it’s what is unique about where the beer comes from.”
That connection to place is underwritten by the reasons why they chose to open a craft brewery in Orbost, a tiny town in the far southeast of Victoria.
Gabrielle has generations of connection to the district, through family farms and beachside holidays at nearby Cape Conran, where the offshore Sailors Grave contains a number of shipwrecks that have occurred over centuries.
“My memories include Pa setting up a bar in the sand dunes,” Gabrielle said.
“Those memories are about freedom and abandoning the everyday. And Sailors Grave is a name rooted in place and community.
“We built the brand and link to Sailors Grave by oceanic references and we draw inspiration from where we are.”
So, when they wanted to make a beer that smelt like a hay shed, they brewed the wort (created from the mashing process) with hay.
It is this type of cavalier but adventurous spirit that resonates their daily production.
When 100kg of sweet corn became available from a local grower, the couple with friends and family harvested the tonnage, stripped it down and boiled it with the grain.
“Boiling it with the grain meant we extracted the flavour of the corn at that stage,” Gabrielle said.
We leave it overnight in the orchard; and return it to the brewery in the morning. Traditionally it’s done on cold nights – our winter and spring are ideal to get the indigenous flavours we want.
- Chris Moore
But the flavour extraction differs throughout the process – oranges, seaweed, corn, elderberry and other local fruits and vegetables will be added either at the mash, boil, fermenter or bright tank stages.
“We add herbaceous flavours at the beginning of the process when we make the mash,” Chris said.
“Other times, after I boil up a kettle to create a 20,000 litre wort – that’s when I add the citrus or seaweed flavours, just as I turn the flame out when it’s still 100 degrees.
“Other flavours might be added when the fermentation process is underway.”
The wild yeast fermentation occurs within the family orchard on the farm, among a range of citrus, fig, cherry, feijoa and other trees.
“In a normal brew day at Orbost, the wort is run into a portable tank and we drive it to the farm, where we decant it into a stainless steel open tank,” Chris said.
“We leave it overnight in the orchard; and return it to the brewery in the morning.
“Traditionally it’s done on cold nights – our winter and spring are ideal to get the indigenous flavours we want.
“I did trials of small jars or wort under different trees and there was a lot of micro-variation in flavours and smells.”
Chris and Gabrielle also source freshly-emptied whisky barrels from Tasmania and locally used wine barrels, to use the residue flavours locked into the wood.
“We put beer into the whisky barrels to get the flavour from the wood,” Chris said.
“The used red and white wine barrels are perfect hosts for yeast and souring bacteria that bring out fruity flavours and sour the beer.
“We put them in the barrels for three years so those yeasts and bacteria can really work with the beer. Then we carbonate the beer.”
This dedication to craft brewing in a small town using unique flavour footprints is growing in justification. The first year of production was 100,000L and the second year is on par to be 200,000L.
“We’re building up to 5-600,000L. We don’t want to get bigger because we want to be able to vary and control things easily and according to seasonal influences,” Chris said.
