Tasmanian Microbrew Festival 2018

Tasmanian breweries have excelled at the recent Independent Beer Awards 2018. The Awards, organised by the Independent Brewers Association, are judged by a panel of national and international beer judges and provide a platform for brewers to benchmark their beers and to showcase and celebrate excellence in independent craft beer.

Tasmania was well-represented at the Awards with Hobart Brewing Co, Moo Brew and Van Dieman Brewing each receiving a coveted “Gold Award”. Other Tasmanian winners included Shambles Brewery, Little Rivers Brewing Co and Ocho Beer. A full list of award winners is available at http://brewcon.org.au/awards/.

With an award-winning, growing craft beer industry and iconic brewers in Boags and Cascade, it’s little wonder that an increasing number of visitors are continuing to flock to Tasmanian breweries.

If you want to know more about the 2017 hop harvest,  have a look at this video! You might even spot some of your favourite brewers.

Thu Dec 29 2016, by Ruth Dawkins from the Crafty Pint

A graphic designer and an IT worker form the unlikely pairing behind one of Tasmania’s newest breweries. Carla and Tom Bignell recently opened the doors to T-Bone Brewing Company on the North Hobart restaurant strip. Situated just a couple of blocks up from Shambles and a couple of blocks down from The Winston, they’re well placed to take advantage of the growing enthusiasm for craft beer in NoHo.

Described by Carla as the brains of the brewery, Tom got into homebrewing in his university days. “It’s ironic,” he laughs. “It was supposed to save me a few dollars and has ended up costing me a lot more.”

Tom’s father Peter Bignell runs the Belgrove distillery at Kempton and, for the last two and a half years, T-Bone has been brewing from there.

“It cut a lot of the red tape in terms of working at a commercial scale,” says Tom. “But we were still only producing batches of 50 to 100 litres. In the new premises we’ve got the capacity to produce 1,000.”

Their brewery arrived in Hobart from China in February 2016 and took three months to build. After working their way through a few language barriers – one of the two engineers who came to work on the installation didn’t speak any English – they got the equipment up and running and the focus turned to scaling up production on a system with some uniquely environmentally friendly features, of which more later..

While the cellar door has only been open for a few weeks, T-Bone has been brewing for six months at their new home, producing four core beers. The Choc-Milk Stout has been a hit from day one, perhaps down to its appealing name, maybe due to its smooth nature and delicious aftertaste. It’s a sweet stout brewed with lactose (milk sugar), and finished with cacao nibs and vanilla.

The T-Bone Pale Ale is based loosely on classic American-style pales and is what the couple tags a “clean, crisp, crowd favourite”. Then there’s the Golden Ale, Carla’s favourite, which has a lovely, spicy and floral aroma, and Tom’s favoured choice, an IPA that, as you’d expect, delivers big hop flavours and a citrusy nose while remaining accessible.

In addition to the core four, Tom has worked on a number of seasonals, including a Festival Lager for the Oktoberfest event at Hobart’s Jack Greene earlier in the year and an autumnal pumpkin ale. When The Crafty Pint paid the brewery a visit, they’d just had 400kg of watermelons delivered in preparation for a soon-to-be-launched watermelon wheat beer – a prospect that has Tom and Carla looking slightly daunted.

“When we were working on smaller scale we only needed ten litres of watermelon juice to do this,” says Tom. “This year we need 120 litres.”

Tom admits there have been challenges involved in the upscale and he has had a number of batches that have needed some tweaking. But he also confesses that it’s an enjoyable part of the process.

“It’s the great thing about brewing,” he says. “it’s a constant process of learning.”

Both Carla and Tom say it was the experiences they’ve had in Tasmania over the last few years – at events like the Hobart Twilight Market – that gave them the confidence to take the next step and open their own cellar door.

“It’s really valuable doing things like the markets,” says Carla. “We’ve been given so much useful feedback which we’ve taken onboard, and we’ve been able to gauge the reaction to different products.”

Now that T-Bone has opened its doors in Elizabeth Street, Carla and Tom are continuing to discover what attracts different drinkers to the venue and also believe the range of places opening up around the Tasmanian capital is helping to bring craft beer to new audiences.

“We’re keen to attract all kinds of drinkers,” says Carla, “and that’s the nice thing about the number of places opening up – people can pick and choose what they like and not feel intimidated by the concept of craft beer.”

At this early stage, The Bignells aren’t offering a full food service at T-Bone. There are antipasto plates and a nearby Italian restaurant offers pizza delivery, but for now the focus is very much on the beer and the rather unique brewing processes.

In an Australian first, the brewery runs on converted waste oil. It’s an idea Tom claims to have “stolen’ from his father’s work at Belgrove Distillery. They collect used cooking oil from local sources, including one of the fish punts on the Hobart Waterfront, and run it through a converted diesel oil generator. The resulting steam powers the brewery equipment.

In another nod to sustainable business practices, and maintaining the connection with T-Bone’s Kempton roots, the spent grains from the brewing go back to feeding stock on the farm at Belgrove.

The results of this unique brewery-distillery relationship will be available for tasting at a joint Belgrove and T-Bone Boilermaker event in January, where Peter and Tom Bignell will pair their beers and whiskies. It’s hard to see where the watermelon wheat beer might fit into that equation, but we hope to be pleasantly surprised.

You’ll find T-Bone at 308 Elizabeth Street, North Hobart, with the doors open on Wednesday and Thursday from: 4pm until close and Friday to Sunday from 2pm until close

T-Bone beers are also available on tap at several venues around Tasmania and through the cellar door, where they offer growlers and refills.

About the author: Ruth Dawkins is a writer who comes from a tiny island in the north of Scotland. She moved to Tasmania, where the cold winters, beautiful light and generous measures of whisky make her feel very much at home. She tweets as DorkyMum.

Van Dieman Brewing is brewing sustainable beer made with green energy. The brewery last week installed & turned on a 48-kilowatt solar array – one of only a handful of Australian craft breweries to invest in the technology – at their White Hills farm in northern Tasmania. The 300 solar panels should generate more than 33 MWh of clean electricity every year. Founder and Head Brewer Will Tatchell says “on-site generation should see us satisfy up to 80% of the brewery’s total electric demand annually”, the system will successfully produce a surplus of energy during the summer months allowing them to also to feed back into the grid.

Founder and Head Brewer Will Tatchell says “on-site generation should see us satisfy up to 80% of the brewery’s total electric demand annually”, the system will successfully produce a surplus of energy during the summer months allowing them to also to feed back into the grid. The addition of solar power to the brewery continues Van Dieman’s commitment to an environmentally sustainable production model incorporating best-practice technologies and efforts to look after the amazing environment they feel so lucky to work within.

Read more about Van Dieman’s sustainable mission here.

Just in time for the start of summer sunshine, Iron House Brewery on Tasmania’s East Coast has released a brew specially crafted for Tasmania’s summer… SBF 50+ or Summer Beer Factor 50+. The Ironhouse team describe their latest limited release as a quaffable Ale, lightly hopped with summer and topaz, lightly malted with Pilsener and Wheat. Fruity apricots and watermelons, with a dry sweet finish. ABV – 4% IBU – 28.

Colorado IPA – First IPA release for Hobart Brewing Co.

Hobart Brewing Co. is celebrating its 2nd anniversary since releasing their first beer, the Harbour Master Tasmanian Ale.  With Scott Overdorf, a former Colorado brewer at the helm, it was only a matter of time before they turned our energy to brewing a big American IPA.

Drinkers will be familiar with the relatively new East Coast style IPA with its big juicy hop flavours, haziness and overall restrained bitterness and of course the West Coast style IPA’s with their predominantly piney and citrus hop character with a firm bitterness.  Well, Hobart Brewing Co’s head brewer was missing a taste of home and for its anniversary beer wanted to brew a Colorado style IPA combining the best of both styles.  

In other words, a big American style IPA with mouth coating hop character backed up with a firm bitterness. 

And so on Scott’s wise words and talents it came to pass.  A 7.3% 90 plus IBU beast packed full of American hop goodness.  The brewery is tapping this highly limited release for their anniversary this Friday November 11 at Hobart Brewing Co. and is appropriately named the Colorado IPA!

Check out their great little video of the brew and the brewer’s notes on the beer through the Hobart Brewing Co. facebook page.

Not only does the Esk Beerfest and Hobart Beerfest have a brilliant lineup of Tasmanian beers on show, the live music and comedy entertainment is seriously impressive! With Josh Pyke and Potbelleez heading up the entertainment at the Esk Beerfest and The Beautiful Girls and Kid Kenobi taking the stage in Hobart, you will not want to miss out on these fantastic events on the Tassie beer calendar.

The Esk Beerfest is the launchpad for a big Tassie beer event, kicking off Beer Lovers Week and culminating in the Hobart Beerfest on January 27. Get all of the details on our events page.

After spending months renovating a 1950’s steam train carriage, Devil’s Brewery is excited to open its unique cellar door in Margate. Grab a seat in the repurposed steam train carriage and soak up the ambience of a by-gone era, or enjoy the sunshine and views from the beer garden.

They have a range of Devil’s beers and ciders available – both on tap and in the bottle, with its 330ml bottle range available for takeaway along with Devil’s Wild Cider bottled straight from the tap to takeaway.

The cellar door is open 5 days a week –

Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday & Sunday 10am – 5pm

Friday  10am – 8pm

The Huon Valley might be famous for apples, but beer-lovers are about to have a hoppier reason to toast the region.

Church Hill Brewery – Tasmania’s latest craft brewery – is set to open there in 2016.

Bradley Churchill, the brewery’s founder, has been a passionate homebrewer for the last 20 years. Now he’s taking his love to the next level and opening a brewery at his Ranelagh property.

With cracking views of the Huon Valley and Huonville, along with some top-notch beer, there’s no doubt that Church Hill will be a valuable addition to the Tasmanian brewing industry.

Church Hill Brewery is aiming to be trading in the early part of 2016, with its beers debuting at the Taste of the Huon in March.

Follow Bradley as he turns his dream brewery into reality (it looks like hard work!) at on our Facebook page.