Three Shoalhaven-based brewers will be brewing a special recipe that arose in the wake of the bushfire crisis to raise funds for a Bega Valley hop growers impacted by drought and fire.
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Almost 200 brewers from around the world have signed up to the Resilience Beer project, which takes its name from a 2018 fundraiser by US brewer Sierra Nevada after the Californian bushfires.
Like the US project, the 190-odd brewers who have signed up for the Australian version will all make the same beer - the Resilience Pale Ale.
Jervis Bay Brewing Co, Milton's Dangerous Ales and Ulladulla's Cupitt's Brewery are all donating $1 from every Resilience beer sold to Ryefield Hops in Bemboka.
Following the drought and bushfire crisis, Ryefield won't have a harvest this year. Its propagation program has been severely impacted due to the fragility of the crop and it has lost more than 50 per cent of its 3000 new rhizomes with the remainder struggling to survive.
In the Illawarra, Five Barrel Brewing and Tarrawanna's Reub Goldberg will be brewing up a batch of Resilience.
Five Barrel's Philip O'Shea has been involved in the project since the early days and was part of the team that came up with the recipe for the pale ale.
"A lot of people see on the news about people directly impacted by the fires," Mr O'Shea said, "but the reality is these things have a massive flow-on effect.
"For the beer industry alone we do rely in the tourist trade up and down the coast. There have been people who have been directly impacted, those who have not been hit by the fires, they've definitely been hit by the flow-on effects of a lack of trade."
For Billy Barnetson at Reub Goldberg, taking part in the project was a no-brainer. The brewery bar had an unusually busy January, which he put down to the fact that people stayed home rather than go on holidays because of the fires.
He saw it as a way of giving something back to the community.
With participants able to decide where to direct their funds, Reub Goldberg will be also giving the proceeds to Ryefield Hops.
"Their farm was left intact from the fires," Mr Barnetson said.
"They were already looking at getting a reduced yield for the year because of the drought," Mr Barnetson said.
"But continual hot and windy days, heat from nearby fires and intense smoke haze means they won't have a harvest at all."
Glen Humphries
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
I'm an award-winning senior journalist with the Illawarra Mercury and have well over two decades' worth of experience in newspapers. I cover the three local councils in the Illawarra for the Mercury, state and federal politics, as well as writing for the TV guide. If I'm not writing, I'm reading.
