Shedshaker Brewing can now be found by the Botanical Gardens of Castlemaine, in the towns’ historic Woolen Mill. The Mills have been around since 1875, the year after the towns most famous former brewer left (more on that later), & were converted into a hub for local producers in 2016 with Shedshaker joining as a founding tenant.
The story seemed simple enough; three influential members of the local community; Doug Falconer, of Hunters & Collectors fame, along with Jacqueline Brodie-Hanns & Michael Wolfe, started a brewing company & named it after their home town; Castlemaine. Castlemaine Brewing was a contract operation out of Brookes Brewery in the nearby city of Bendigo in 2014 producing traditional styles of beer that didn’t spread far from home.
Brewery Type
Physical
Region
Goldfields
Tasting Room
9 Walker Street, Castlemaine
The business was successful & the trio became founding tenants of the aforementioned Woolen Mills when the development opened in April 2016, bringing brewing back to Castlemaine for the first time since 1925! Unfortunately for Castlemaine Brewing, their sucess would come to spell the end of their original name.
Remember the famous fomer brewer of Castlemaine I mentioned off the top of the piece? That brewer is Castlemaine-Perkins, the producer of QLD’s iconic XXXX beer, & a subsiduary of Kirin owned Lion. The founders, the Fitzgerald brothers, migrated to Brisbane in 1874 taking the name of their town with them & founded the brewery a few years later in 1878.
Unfortunately for Castlemaine Brewing, opening their taproom brought them to the attention of the multinational’s legal team resulting in a cease & desist being issued. After almost 12 months of negotiation Castlemaine Brewing decided against taking the legal route & instead renaming themselves after one of their most popular beer; Shedshaker.
The name sort of fits, as the building they know find themselves in somewhat resembles a large shed. It’s a large sawtooth brick warehouse which has been lined with corrugated iron. It’s got this very Fitzroy music venue vibe, which probably makes sense to very few of you! The bar is rustic, with a wooden top set on cinder blocks with “brewery stools” scattered around along with one of my favourite features – a window through to the stainless steel.
Part of the music venue vibe is the amount of red velour curtains & art on every conceivable surface. There’s a number of different sized tables in a relatively narrow tap room as well as two outdoor areas where you can park yourself, & your dog, when the weather is amenable. They do pizzas that look amazing, although I didn’t have a chance to sample them as we were only able to stop in for one beer (thankfully I got some takeaways!)./
When a brewery has a Rye IPA as part of their core range, there is only ever one way I’m going to go for the review. Knucklehead is the type of Rye IPA I like; one that is liberal with the Rye! It’s quite prominent with that unique spicy character on proud display. Classic US hops provide good bitterness along with pine & citrus characters. This is a beer I will be looking out for in the near future.
Remember it’s always Beer O’Clock somewhere in the world!
