We aren’t going anywhere…
While there’s been a fair bit of industry change and news over the last month or so, not a lot has changed for us since we put up a blog post called “In Beer We Trust” almost exactly two years ago. (Post copied below)
With a number of small breweries being bought out by large global brewers, and the same global brewers launching brands that on the surface look like small breweries, it can be tricky to know who is behind the brand on the label of the beer you are buying.
When you buy a beer with a Stone & Wood label on it, you can have faith in it because you know what you’re getting, you know who the people are behind it, and you know what they stand for.
We remain firmly focussed on being a local independent brewery that supports the community, one that takes care of the earth we walk on, and one that believes in our employees being co-owners in the business.
Check out the link here to see who’s behind a long list of “small” beers that are actually owned by a short list of big corporates.
http://craftbeerreviewer.com/corporate-craft-beer/
In Beer We Trust
After a lot of announcements about small breweries all around the world being bought by, or “selling out” to, large global breweries recently, there is a lot of rumour, speculation and finger pointing going on in the local beer industry.
The exits from the industry that we are seeing overseas and here in Australia appears to be mostly driven by long time brewery founders deciding that they have done their time, or they have seen their businesses outgrow their ability to manage them. For others their business has not been able to reach the scale where it can provide an annual return to its owners, so the best way to get a return on their sweat and investment is to sell. Of course there are some operators who have obviously got into it to make a quick buck, and jumped ship at the first sign of a pay cheque.
We are both amused, annoyed and angered that we continually hear our name being thrown around as “the next one to go”, or that “those guys are just in it for the money”.
But we can understand why some people want to speculate or start rumours about the future of Stone & Wood or other breweries.
It’s a matter of trust (or a lack of it) that is driving that. People are supporting small businesses like Stone & Wood because they can’t trust big business and politicians anymore. Sadly, when small breweries who for years have played the anti-corporate card, sell out, it starts to tear away at that trust again.
If people are looking for who might be next, or who’s in it just for the money, then maybe they should be looking at those breweries who step back away from the hard calls, and don’t fully commit to the industry that they are part of, or the communities they operate in.
We work hard everyday to build people’s trust and faith in our business. We know it can’t just be expected, and that it has to be earned.
Over the years we have made tough decision after tough decision that should prove that we are truly, fiercely and proudly independent spirits, and aren’t “just in it for the money”.
In 2012 we bought our shares back from our friends at Little Creatures when a big corporate got too close.
When other brewers of a similar size to us choose to buy their beer from another brewer instead of brewing it all themselves, we have steadfastly refused to budge from our position that we will brew all of our own beer, despite the fact that we have had to let a massive demand for our beer go unmet.
We made the tough choice to invest heavily in our local community and build a new brewery in the region instead of outsourcing our growth, and having beer contract brewed. We value our local community and those that support us, so we are creating jobs and adding value to our good partners (our local suppliers). It astonishes us that some brewers will quite happily buy their beer from other breweries on the other side of the country or the world, and in doing so turn their back on the people that support them.
We are committed to having our highly talented team be co-owners in the business. Each year we welcome more of our team as partners and shareholders in Stone & Wood, and after our annual offer next month more than 50% of our team will be shareholders.
We are ensuring that we tread lightly on the earth we walk on, and through our Green Feet program we recently invested more than $200,000 on solar energy at our Murwillumbah brewery, and are committed to sustainable practices in our breweries to improve energy and water efficiencies.
Giving back to our community is a fundamental promise we have made to ourselves, and our inGrained program has been established to facilitate that. In the last twelve months we have donated over $100,000 from our own funds, and worked hard to raise a further $50,000 which has been directly provided to community programs and grass roots causes.
Importantly, we the founders of Stone & Wood are still highly engaged in and excited by the work we and the highly capable team are putting in to build a sustainable independent brewing business that the good people of the Northern Rivers can be proud of.
We are more than happy with the personal return we get from the business, and are comfortable that it’s feeding our families and our souls.
We’re having more fun now than we ever have, there’s lots to do, and we’re more about buying, building and bolting things on than selling them. Our recent announcements about the launch of our business incubator, the new sales and distribution business, and the new cider business, are testament to that.
To put it simply, we aren’t going anywhere.
Cheers
Jamie, Brad and Ross
Watch our ‘The Way It Should be’ video.
In Beer We Trust
After a lot of announcements about small breweries all around the world being bought by, or “selling out” to, large global breweries recently, there is a lot of rumour, speculation and finger pointing going on in the local beer industry.
After a lot of announcements about small breweries all around the world being bought by, or “selling out” to, large global breweries recently, there is a lot of rumour, speculation and finger pointing going on in the local beer industry.
The exits from the industry that we are seeing overseas and here in Australia appears to be mostly driven by long time brewery founders deciding that they have done their time, or they have seen their businesses outgrow their ability to manage them. For others their business has not been able to reach the scale where it can provide an annual return to its owners, so the best way to get a return on their sweat and investment is to sell. Of course there are some operators who have obviously got into it to make a quick buck, and jumped ship at the first sign of a pay cheque.
We are both amused, annoyed and angered that we continually hear our name being thrown around as “the next one to go”, or that “those guys are just in it for the money”.
But we can understand why some people want to speculate or start rumours about the future of Stone & Wood or other breweries.
It’s a matter of trust (or a lack of it) that is driving that. People are supporting small businesses like Stone & Wood because they can’t trust big business and politicians anymore. Sadly, when small breweries who for years have played the anti-corporate card, sell out, it starts to tear away at that trust again.
If people are looking for who might be next, or who’s in it just for the money, then maybe they should be looking at those breweries who step back away from the hard calls, and don’t fully commit to the industry that they are part of, or the communities they operate in.
We work hard everyday to build people’s trust and faith in our business. We know it can’t just be expected, and that it has to be earned.
Over the years we have made tough decision after tough decision that should prove that we are truly, fiercely and proudly independent spirits, and aren’t “just in it for the money”.
In 2012 we bought our shares back from our friends at Little Creatures when a big corporate got too close.
When other brewers of a similar size to us choose to buy their beer from another brewer instead of brewing it all themselves, we have steadfastly refused to budge from our position that we will brew all of our own beer, despite the fact that we have had to let a massive demand for our beer go unmet.
We made the tough choice to invest heavily in our local community and build a new brewery in the region instead of outsourcing our growth, and having beer contract brewed. We value our local community and those that support us, so we are creating jobs and adding value to our good partners (our local suppliers). It astonishes us that some brewers will quite happily buy their beer from other breweries on the other side of the country or the world, and in doing so turn their back on the people that support them.
We are committed to having our highly talented team be co-owners in the business. Each year we welcome more of our team as partners and shareholders in Stone & Wood, and after our annual offer next month more than 50% of our team will be shareholders.
We are ensuring that we tread lightly on the earth we walk on, and through our Green Feet program we recently invested more than $200,000 on solar energy at our Murwillumbah brewery, and are committed to sustainable practices in our breweries to improve energy and water efficiencies.
Giving back to our community is a fundamental promise we have made to ourselves, and our inGrained program has been established to facilitate that. In the last twelve months we have donated over $100,000 from our own funds, and worked hard to raise a further $50,000 which has been directly provided to community programs and grass roots causes.
Importantly, we the founders of Stone & Wood are still highly engaged in and excited by the work we and the highly capable team are putting in to build a sustainable independent brewing business that the good people of the Northern Rivers can be proud of.
We are more than happy with the personal return we get from the business, and are comfortable that it’s feeding our families and our souls.
We’re having more fun now than we ever have, there’s lots to do, and we’re more about buying, building and bolting things on than selling them. Our recent announcements about the launch of our business incubator, the new sales and distribution business, and the new cider business, are testament to that.
To put it simply, we aren’t going anywhere.
Cheers
Jamie, Brad and Ross
Garrett Kato
Our latest featured artist for Stone & Wood Sessions, Garret Kato was born in Canada but has called the warmer waters of Byron Bay home for the past few years. After releasing an EP in 2012 and playing up and down the east coast, the folk singer is set to release a new LP. Stone […]
Our latest featured artist for Stone & Wood Sessions, Garret Kato was born in Canada but has called the warmer waters of Byron Bay home for the past few years.
After releasing an EP in 2012 and playing up and down the east coast, the folk singer is set to release a new LP.
Stone & Wood Sessions is our way of supporting local music through our Ingrained Community Program and we’ve been working closely with Byron’s community radio station BayFM to provide musicians with a platform to showcase their music. Promoting musos from the Northern Rivers, every couple of weeks an artist or band is invited to feature their latest music. That song is then played over the airways for the following 2 weeks.
We’ve just joined Sound Cloud and so this is where we will feature our Stone & Wood Sessions artists as well as other music projects in the future…
Tour De Keg
Gifted with a kilo of Galaxy, a Brissy home brewer concocts eight beers inspired by the recent Tour De France and throws a party to raise money for charity… As the last hops were being plucked from the bines down at Bushy Park in Tassie, as a part of our Ingrained Community Program,we were bidding in HPA’s ‘Premiere Crop […]
Gifted with a kilo of Galaxy, a Brissy home brewer concocts eight beers inspired by the recent Tour De France and throws a party to raise money for charity…
As the last hops were being plucked from the bines down at Bushy Park in Tassie, as a part of our Ingrained Community Program,we were bidding in HPA’s ‘Premiere Crop of the Hops’ Charity Auction. With 100% of the proceeds going towards fighting depression and men’s health with beyondblue, the auction raised $10,000. We came away with 10 kilos of the freshest Galaxy hops and decided to give it away to home brewers to pack some punch into their next brew.
For the chance to win a kilo of it, we asked home brewers to describe how they would continue the fundraising love for a charity of their choice and do their own ‘Karma Keg‘. One of the winners, Daniel Angus and his brewing partner Michael, well and truly took this to the next level, holding their own version of our Karma Keg last weekend called ‘Tour De Keg’.
The idea was an adaptation from an event him and his mates threw last October, called Octokeg, where they filled eight kegs and threw a massive party with proceeds going to Plan International. Armed with a kilo of Galaxy and coinciding with the Tour de France, they brewed eight tour inspired beers and planned the unveiling last Saturday with all money raised going to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.
Dan has been a home brewer for 10 years, starting off kit brewing but then moving to all-grain brewing about 5 years ago.
“I have a passion for hoppy American style Ales, but try to mix it up as often as I can,” he said.
“[Having the Galaxy] encouraged me to try to reinvent some classic styles. The saison with Galaxy worked particularly well, with the tartness from the French saison yeast mixing well with the passionfruit of the Galaxy. I’ll be brewing that one again!”
Just some of the beers brewed included the The Gutiérrez Gluten-free Pale Ale, the KOM Red Ale, Stage 5 Saison and a Richie Porte Port Porter.
“The American Red Ale proved to be the most popular early in the night, and was replaced by the Robust Porter which given the cold night went even faster, particularly given that my wife Kath had made a chocolate cake to pair with it.”
With 80-100 friends and family packing into Dan’s backyard, by 1:30am (nice effort) the donations jar was brimming and we are told the crew raised $1105.70!
Good on you guys, we’re stoked to see that the fundraising love was passed forward and even more so that some great beers were able to be born and shared with the addition of that special little hop Galaxy!
Galaxy Giveaway
Congratulations to the ten lucky winners who we’ll be sending a kilo of the freshest new season Galaxy hops to. As a part of our community program Ingrained, we bidded in HPA’s ‘Premiere Crop of the Hops’ Charity Auction. With 100% of the proceeds going to fighting depression and men’s health with beyondblue, the auction raised $10,000. We came away […]
Congratulations to the ten lucky winners who we’ll be sending a kilo of the freshest new season Galaxy hops to.
As a part of our community program Ingrained, we bidded in HPA’s ‘Premiere Crop of the Hops’ Charity Auction. With 100% of the proceeds going to fighting depression and men’s health with beyondblue, the auction raised $10,000. We came away with 10 kilos and decided to give it away to home brewers to pack some punch into their next brew.
We were flooded with Facebook messages proposing everything from Saisons to American Stouts and many with wacky spacey names like ‘Rye-te Out Of This Galaxy’ and ‘The Empire Strike Back’. The mere thought of beer must make the creativity just flow!
A part of the entry was to describe how you would continue the fundraising love for a charity of your choice, and all we can say is brewers know how to have a good time while raising money and we only wish we could give you all some of the Galaxy.
The winners are:
Peter Wheldon – QLD |
Nick Barnes – QLD |
luke gardiner – QLD |
Dan Angus – QLD |
Shakira Westdorp and Scott Morgan – NSW |
Daniel Taverner – NSW |
Ben Eatough – NSW |
Joe Horvath – NSW |
Andrejs Lazdins – VIC |
Travis Walton – VIC |
Thank you to all who took the time to enter, we’re looking forward to hearing how our winners’ brews turn out and seeing them raise a glass with friends, brewing clubs and family in the name of charity – cheers!
Home Brewer?
We’re giving away 10kgs of the freshest Galaxy hops straight from the season’s first bail! As a part of our community program Ingrained, we got ourselves bidding in HPA’s ‘Premiere Crop of the Hops’ Charity Auction. With 100% of the proceeds going to fighting depression and men’s health with beyondblue, the auction raised $10,000. This […]
We’re giving away 10kgs of the freshest Galaxy hops straight from the season’s first bail!
As a part of our community program Ingrained, we got ourselves bidding in HPA’s ‘Premiere Crop of the Hops’ Charity Auction. With 100% of the proceeds going to fighting depression and men’s health with beyondblue, the auction raised $10,000. This charity was chosen as recognition and to provide awareness of the significant mental health challenges men face, particularly in rural Australia.
Despite being outbid, we still managed to snag one 10kg lot from the first 100kg bail harvested for the season.
With our hop runner making the dash earlier in March to Tassie to get some fresh hops for our wet hopped New Season Pacific Ale that was poured and tasted on taps around Brissy for Brewsvegas, our brewers thought why not spread the love and give 10 home brewers the opportunity to give a tropical punch of Galaxy goodness to their next brew.
THE DETAILS
If you’re a home brewer and would like to get yourself 1kg of 2014 pelletised Galaxy hops – straight from the first bail harvested, follow these steps for your chance to win:
1. ‘Like’ Stone & Wood Brewing on Facebook
2. Write to us on private message with your contact number and full postal address and tell us:
– What type of beer you intend on brewing
– The beer name
– How you will continue the fundraising love for a charity of your choice. Eg. Getting all your mates around for your own Karma Keg (see here if you have no idea what that is!)
Terms and Conditions
Entrants must be over the age of 18 years of age and provide proof of age if chosen as the winning entrant.
To be eligible, entrants must private message Stone & Wood on Facebook and provide an Australian contact number and answer the three points outlined.
The 10 winners will each receive 1kg of pelletised Galaxy hops.
The first 10 entrants to private message Stone & Wood Brewing on Facebook will be chosen as the winners.
Entry opens Friday 04 April at 14:00 EST and closes Friday 11 April at 17:00 EST
The 10 winners will be called on Monday 14 April.