When president of Merimbula RSL sub-branch and veteran Allan Browning arrived at Club Sapphire on Friday May 26, he was pleasantly surprised to find out that he was going to be handed a cheque of $1000 to help retired ex-servicemen and their families.
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Unbeknownst to Mr Browning, Longstocking Brewery had donated a keg of a special release beer to Club Sapphire, with all profits being donated to Merimbula RSL.
"It's a wonderful initiative by the brewery and Club Sapphire, and we're quite proud to accept it," Mr Browning said.
Club Sapphire CEO Damien Foley said the initiative was a good sign of the camaraderie between the various organisations, and it was a testament of the creativity and innovation from Longstocking Brewery that brought it to fruition.
Longstocking Brewery head brewer Matt Burnett thought it would be great to feature locally-sourced ingredients in a beer, and said donating a keg of the Australia New Zealand pale ale was a good opportunity to support the RSL.
"We are always looking to produce new beers, we kind of want to keep releasing special release beers and different stuff every few months, and it was coming up to Anzac Day, so we just thought it would be cool to feature Australian and New Zealand ingredients," Mr Burnett said.
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"The grains that went into it are from Australia, so malted barley from Joe White which is an Australian malt producer. The hops are from New Zealand. We used Motueka and Nectaron, and they are nice and fruity.
"And the yeast we used was from Wollongong from a guy called Mogwai yeast, so he produces live yeast cultures and he gets some of his yeast cultures off native plants in Australia.
"It is always nice to use local ingredients."
Situated in Pambula, Longstocking Brewery is owned by Peter Caldwell and Joey Cunningham, and is the biggest micro-brewery and oyster bar on the Sapphire Coast, providing patrons with a selection of beers, wines, cocktails, gin, and wood fired pizza.
"Our brewer came up with the idea. He's very passionate, and anything that he can do to help, he will," Ms Cunningham said.
"There could very well be different things to promote, and different training to give our staff about other important days and remembrance things in the year, but certainly Anzac day will always be the pinnacle of what we do.
"It doesn't just benefit us, I think it benefits a wider [community] - the flow on effect is quite large. And we will do it again next year."
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Jimmy Parker
I am a regional daily news journalist on the Far South Coast of NSW aiming to immortalise the stories of everyday people through narratives. Have you got a story? Contact me on 0437 166 441 or at james.parker@austcommunitymedia.com.au
I am a regional daily news journalist on the Far South Coast of NSW aiming to immortalise the stories of everyday people through narratives. Have you got a story? Contact me on 0437 166 441 or at james.parker@austcommunitymedia.com.au
