Jervis Bay Brewing Co turn four, reflecting on industry shifts and moving forward

Managing directors Oisin Sweeney and Paul Walker along with two other business partners began as strangers, started with three employees, and now have a team of about 30.

Never having met each other before the brewery concept, the four men opened the Jervis Bay Brewing Co in December 2019, two weeks before Black Summer Bushfires and months before COVID-19 hit Australian shores.

There was a moment they didn't think the business would make, however, COVID-19 ended up providing an opportunity to tune into the community, as many locals were saving money, craved connection, and many left the city for the Shoalhaven before lock down.

In the years following, the growing cost-of-living crisis is their next battle, they noticed people tightening the hip pocket, making them more determined to turn to sustainable practices and give back to the community.

"The last twelve months have been the toughest for the brewing industry as a whole," Mr Walker said.

"Whilst we have seen craft beer have a massive increase in its market share, with the cost-of-living crisis people are still buying beer but they're turning back to cheaper more mainstream brews."

Managing director and head brewer, Oisin Sweeney said given the current state of the industry, they shifted priorities to consolidate and turn to focus on their local community, keep operating costs down and utilise more sustainable practices.

"We target sustainability in our grain practices, energy

"We put a sustainability lens over pretty much everything we do," Mr Sweeney said.

"Yes it is in terms of brewing practices, but also one of the first things we did in lockdown was put in solar in here, it's obviously an easy and well known thing to do, but for us it made a huge amount of sense.

He explained in the brewing process, most of their energy is used throughout the day, from brewing, heating, serving and refrigeration.

"Since then, we've got solar hot water units, but again any excess energy we get from our solar panels we can put back into hot water."

They're also moving to use biodegradable plastic waste and send anything that's not biodegradable to a Melbourne company which converts waste into useable products like furniture.

Back when they opened they were one of the first breweries in the region, but in recent years craft brewing was a growing industry.

Mr Walker said since they opened it seemed like there was a craft brewery in every suburb, which made it all the more important to rely back on their four pillars and values.

"Starting with 'exhale enjoy', which is we are the essence of Jervis Bay, being laid back and attuned to a coastal type feel," Mr Walker said.

"Another is, 'lasting legacy', we want to leave Jervis Bay a better place than we found it, which ties into our sustainability and it also includes our philanthropy and giving away 1 per cent of revenue every year.

The other is 'people power', so that's making sure we look after our staff, customers, suppliers and all of our relationships are really important to us, without people we wouldn't exist.

"And the last one is 'quality seekers', which is about making the best possible beer we can make, with multiple award wins across our range but also quality experiences across everything we do."

With Jervis Bay Brewering's fourth birthday this weekend, on Saturday February 24, they're offering free face painting, raffles, prizes and live music throughout the day, as well as encouraging 'loud shirts' with a door prize for the loudest party shirt.