Kitted out in a white coat, matching hair net and gum boots the size of submarines I entered into the cold chamber where the magic behind the award winning Salumi Australia products are made.  The stuff of dreams or nightmares (depending on your perspective of seeing pork as part of a pig rather than just portioned in Styrofoam), the craft of creating these products has a lot more to do with following old traditions, sourcing the best locally, and having a great team.

Putting down the cutting knife, Founder Massimiliano Scalas (or better known as Massimo) and co-owner Michael Dlask took five minutes to talk about the local area, Massimo’s grandmother and developing Salumi’s premium Australian produced small goods…

What made you start Salumi Australia?

MS – I couldn’t find anything in the market that was very good or that I liked, there was a lot of product but the quality wasn’t there, so I thought why not give it a go. We used some recipes from my Grandmother and went from there.

Where do you source your pork?

MD – Our pork is 100% local Australian Pork originating from growers such as Bangalow Sweet Pork Co and Byron Bay Pork Co

Why do you use locally sourced pork?

MD – To support the local economy and the local farmers, and to reduce the food miles. The pigs we use are some of the best in the world and they are hormone and antibiotic free with no artificial flavourings added.

What makes you come into work each day?

MS – Many people enjoy what we make and it’s a challenge. We get really good feedback from Italians and also Australians.

We also have a great team that make it nice to come to work each morning.

How do you develop new products?

MD – We have a tasting room where we have a meeting every week, go through the products we already have and make sure they’re at a consistent level, if not better. And then we brainstorm new products that either come down through Massimiliano’s family through generations or look at new ones like crocodile and camel.

We listen to people we meet like our friends Shaun and Tessa from Mt Warning Spring Water, they have an interest within the area and the local indigenous people and they recognized a market for crocodile.

Why do you continue to use traditional techniques?

MS – This is what we used to do back in Sardinia. We want the consumer to taste the true flavors of the meat. It’s the best way to develop the flavours, like a good wine…

MD – The more salt, preservatives and additives you put in the product, it takes away from the meat.

It’s about creating the old school flavor with quite a new school facility – creating the hills of Italy in these little rooms. The climate in Australia isn’t good for aging meat so everything needs to be temperature and humidity controlled to achieve that traditional flavor.

We love your products and you guys are quite partial to our beers, if someone was looking to have both together what would you suggest Michael?

The Bottarga Di Muggine which is dried, pressed and salted mullet roe balanced with the fruity flavor of Pacific Ale.

Stone & Wood’s Lager (my favourite) with its subtle hops and full malt would go nicely with our Salsiccia Sarda Piccante – a Sardinian style dry sausage with a course grind and mild chilli.

Our Bresaola  – air dried and aged beef cured with juniper berries and bay leaves would wash down well with 500ml of the spicy and bitter Jasper Ale.

To check out where you can buy Salumi products from, as well as more information on their products, head to www.salumi.com.au 

What’s a beer lover to do when faced with the unusual urge to try something other than a beer?

Brissy’s beer bistro Bitter Suite have solved the dilemma by creating a cocktail that’ll quench your thirst, refresh the palate with a tropical hit and put you in the spirit for the balmy summer nights ahead. The Pacific.

The mixing genius, Pacific Ale fan and Bar Supervisor behind this little gem, Zach Wong generously gave us the secret recipe to spread and so here it is:

The Pacific

3 wedges of muddled lime

1 shot of white rum

5 dashes of orange bitters

20ml of passion fruit pulp

A little sugar

… and of course some Pacific Ale

Serve on ice

With Bitter Suite owners Braden and Katherine Saunders’ philosophy being Beer is Life (and life is Bitter Suite), if you like your beer make sure you drop in and say hi and get Zach to wip something great up if you are in the area!

Images provided by Bitter Suite: Feature – Zach Wong and The Pacific, from top – craft beers; Braden

and Katherine Saunders, Bitter Suite  – Beer Bistro

When it comes to the local watering hole, we’re at a time where we’re spoilt for choice. Just like the storms that have been battering the east coast (some may have thought Byron had received a dusting of snow from the deluge of hail we received over the weekend), NSW is spattered with a great array of pubs. From those with million dollar views, to the quirky, modern and textbook traditional, you don’t have to go far to find a locale that has a good vibe and a selection of cold beers.

Last night’s SMH Pub Food Guide Awards recognized those in NSW that they feel have it all goin’ on:  food, service, ambience and vibe. Among them, were some of our supporters who proudly pour our humble little beer from their shiny tap, flying the Stone & Wood flag high.

To all the pubs who received a gong last night and especially these great ones who support us below – congratulations and keep up the great work!

Three Schooners

The Burwood Inn, Merewether

East Village Hotel, East Balmain

Two Schooners

Bangalow Hotel, Bangalow

One Schooner

The Longueville Hotel, Lane Cove

The Oaks Hotel, Neutral Bay

Royal Albert Hotel, Surry Hills

Lennox Hotel, Lennox Heads

Eltham Hotel, Eltham

Best Newcomer

The Henson, Marrickville

Best Steak

The Oaks, Neutral Bay

Feature: The Henson

Top to bottom: SMH Good Pub Food Guide 2014, East Village Balmain, The Royal Albert Hotel

Next month the beer week wagon pulls into Sydney, as Sydney Craft Beer Week rolls out a range of beery events across the city from October the 19th – 26th.

We are having a Gathering at Create or Die in Erskinville on Saturday the 19th of October, and it’s looking like it will be a great night with some live art by the guys from Nowhere Famous, food by the Eat Art Truck, a bit of deck spinning action and our line up of beers to bring it all together.

If the Gatherings in Melbourne and Brisbane are anything to go by, it will be a pretty nice thing to do with some good friends, and you get to enjoy some good food, art, music and beer … the best things in life!

See you there.

Cheers

You can tell a lot about a beer from the label.

At their worst, a label does little more than shout tired old buzzwords, like “Crisp! Dry!” and “Light!” At their best, when they’re used like tiny canvases, they’re able to tell the story of a brewery, the people who work there as well as providing some insight into their little part of the world.

With the help of a great designer, a label does so much more than simply describe the liquid inside, they’re one of those rare objects with the ability to combine words and images and put people in touch with history, without having to smack them over the head with a text book.

Take this one for example.

Jedrzej Reinstein has been a home brewer for 50 years. To help celebrate his 88th birthday recently, some of the grand kids and their partners – one them being our logistics guru Andrew – decided to get a label designed for his latest batch as a surprise.

Working with our mates at Millke Creative, they started with a painting of the main square in Krakow, Poland, which Reinstein’s brother completed in the 1940s. Having fled Europe after the Second World War, the young Reinstein family landed in Melbourne soon after. Growing up here, back when there wasn’t much of a beer selection, Reinstein decided early on that he’d rather brew his own and claims to have never set foot inside a bottle shop. The name translates to “grandfather’s beer” and his whole life story is evident here in the finer details.

Going by the photo, it looks like ol’ Jedrzej was pretty chuffed with the end result and Andrew reckons the beer was great too.

As we stood on top of a hill overlooking the Bushy Park hop farm just outside Hobart early this morning, the cold rain sprinkled down our backs. With the cold weather moving in the team at Bushy Park has been busy trying to harvest this year’s hops before they start to wither on the vine.

Because a huge amount of the flavour in our Pacific Ale is developed by the Galaxy hops we use, we’ve taken some time out of our busy brewing schedule to come down to Tasmania and see this year’s crop of Galaxy being harvested.

Wandering around the hop vines we were reminded again just how closely linked the art of brewing is to agriculture. Tim Lord from Hop Products Australia took the time to show us around and take us through what his team has had to deal with this season.

We were able to take a close look at the 2011 crop of Galaxy and we can safely say they have loads of that distinctive flavour, including those awesome tropical aromas, that we let shine through in our Pacific Ale.

We’ll be seeing lots more of these hops over the next year as we add them to each brew of Pacific Ale back in Byron Bay.

Until next time … cheers