By CASEY NEILL
Dandenong South is brewing success for the Reeves brothers – half a million litres of it.
Callum and Nat set up a craft brewery late last year to grow their award-winning beer and cider brands, Kaiju! and Golden Axe.
The five 5000 litre tanks can produce half a million litres a year.
“We can probably expand to at least four times that amount, up to a couple of million litres a year,” Callum said.
“Demand for beers and contract brewing will drive that growth.
“Wherever we can find the business, we’ll take it.
“We want to get as much beer through this place as possible.”
Juice for the Golden Axe cider comes from Summer Snow at Bellevue Orchard in Officer.
Callum and Bellevue’s Nick Russo decided to make a cider for their mate’s wedding.
“All of a sudden we had a business and we were making cider,” he said.
Callum brought champion home-brewer Nat on board and within a year they’d made a beer.
It’s been three and a half years since that first batch of cider.
“It’s nice to be in an industry that’s growing so fast,” Callum said.
He described Golden Axe as refreshing and “sweet, but not overly sweet”.
“We’ve made a really dry cider as well, with some oak influence,” he said.
“It’s almost like drinking water. It’s so crisp but it’s not as sweet so it’s not to everyone’s taste.
“The main cider, I make it to be like you’re eating an apple.
“It’s got that balance of sweetness and acidity and the finish is refreshing.”
He wants to play with barrel-ageing and using traditional cider apples.
“We use eating apples in our cider because of the availability,” he said.
“The English West Country-style ciders have more funkiness and that sort of thing, which is interesting and could be fun to work with.”
The Kaiju! beer range includes about seven varieties which they made in a Derrimut brewery before moving to Dandenong South.
“We were there for two years and were constantly running out of all of our beers so it was time to expand,” he said.
“We couldn’t contract-brew our beers. There’s too much hops, basically, and the higher alcohol content means that we’re putting the yeast beyond its capacity and we’re pushing a lot of the equipment to beyond its rated capacity.”
Callum said the Kaiju! Double India Black Ale was 11 per cent alcohol and “the hoppiest beer in Australia”.
