4 Pines new Brewery

You know you’re on to a good thing when demand for your product, both bottled and draught, forces you down the path of expansion. This is just what has happened to 4 Pines Brewing in Manly.

With their highly successful brew pub a by- word of the local craft scene 4 Pines took the next logical choice to retail their bottled beers through such outlets as Dan Murphy’s etc. Up till now to help keep up with this demand, contract breweries have been employed – but with distribution now going national the choice was made to construct a purpose built large scale brewery of their own.

In an unassuming industrial unit in Brookvale, we met up with Jaron Mitchell, the general manager of 4 Pines, and his dedicated team of brewers. While Jaron was a home brewer in the past, in which he learn about styles, malts and hops he actually came to the brewery through the hospitality and business side of things - which has given him a love of good craft beer and an excellent knowledge of how to run a great venue.

From left, Chris - Garrett - Jaron and Andrew

The Brewers

Chris - Chief Brewer

With a background in science, Chris started as a keen home brewer and before joining 4 Pines brewed with Bluetongue Brewing.

Andrew – Head Brewer

Andrew's background is in hospitality. He spent 2 years in Europe serving behind a bar before coming home and working with AIB for 3 years as a brewer.

Garrett – Brewer

A Canadian race mechanic before coming to Australia and starting to home brew, he has since completed both the short and long courses at Ballarat University in Brewing.

The Brewery

The brewery works in 50hL (5000L) batches and has 6 -50hL and 2 - 100hL fermentation tanks, as well as a 100hL bright beer tank which feeds both the kegging line and the bottling line. On the day of our visit the bottling line and labelling machine were being set up prior to their first run the next day. As with most breweries we visit, the spent grain is collected by a farmer to be feed to his livestock.

Up Coming Brews

-         A Scottish Wee Heavy 9.5% will be available for St Andrews Day 30^th November

-         A Christmas Saison

-         Single Hop Series with – Aramis – Galaxy – Amarillo

These will all be available from the Keller Door to have there or take home in growlers.

We finished up the day with lunch at the brew pub with a recommendation to try the Choc – Seaweed – Mandarin Porter, still on tap after the beer mimics food series. In a word it’s FANTASTIC – VELVETY – SMOOTH. Yes I know that’s 3 words I can count. It held it’s own against the open faced steak sandwich I had, while the wife enjoyed the Hefe (which is one of our favourites) with the Mega Manly Burger.

Our thanks to Jaron and the team for taking the time to chat with us and show us around. We look forward to enjoying more 4 Pines brews in the future.