It feels like it was only yesterday when I was at the launch of Capital Brewing Co on Dairy Road in Fyshwick. However a year has passed since the Canberra-based brewery and tap room first opened their doors.
The team at Capital Brewing Co are celebrating their first birthday this Sunday 16th September with birthday cake beer hitting the taps for the first time, live music, free brewery tours, face-painting for the kids and more.
So what’s this about birthday cake beer? Well, the team at Capital Brewing Co decided to have their cake and drink it too.
After a huge year of success, the team has collaborated with Canberra bakery, Three Mills Bakery, to create a beer made with real strawberry sponge cake.
I was invited to join the team today for cake and a tapping of their special birthday brew! Watch this video to see my reaction. The beer went well with a side of cake and has a subtle hint of the strawberry sponge cake.
This is the second time they’ve joined forces with Three Mills Bakery, creating a cherry pie porter with real cherry pie for Christmas last year.
Capital Brewing Co has had a spectacular first year of operation, taking out numerous medals at the Australian International Beer Awards and the Indie Beer Awards, AHA ACT’s Best New Venue, and one of the best debut appearances in the GABS Hottest 100 beer poll.
In their first year, Capital Brewing Co has also experienced a 364% growth in production, created 15 new jobs and started the Good Natured Community Initiative, investing $75,000 annually to support the local community.
They’ve also provided 156 tons of spent grain (from making beer) to local farmers affected by the drought. The grain is fed to the farmer’s cattle and the beef is brought back to the tap room food truck, Brodburger. The team at Broadburger then then create their famous and delicious burgers from Capital Brewing Co’s brewery-grain fed cattle.
Laurence Kain, Managing Director of Capital Brewing Co, said it’s been an incredible year and the support they’ve received from the local community has helped drive their success.
“The support shown to us by our local community has been nothing short of amazing. Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would be in this position after just twelve months.
“We’d like to thank the enormous support shown to us by the good people, bars, pubs, clubs and bottle shops of Canberra.
“As well as hundreds more from Sydney, the snow, to sunny Queensland and Perth,” he said.
The company is set to continue to grow over the next twelve months. Two new fermenters with a combined capacity of 20,000L were delivered this week, set to take annual production well in-excess of 1 million litres.
A grain-silo is also being installed to reduce the brewery’s environmental impact through reduced freight logistics and packaging.
Capital Brewing Co will be taking over half of an adjoining warehouse at the Wetlands Foreshore complex to house a canning line, depalletiser, more cold storage and additional office space.
You can try the birthday cake beer and join the team at Capital Brewing Co to celebrate their first birthday this Sunday 16th September.
DETAILS
Address: Building 3/1 Dairy Rd, Fyshwick
All photos taken by Eat Canberra except for the photo of Laurence Kain that was supplied by Capital Brewing Co.
Amelia Bidgood
Amelia is the Founder and Editor of Eat Canberra and the Founder and Managing Director of Eat Canberra Food Tours. She's a qualified journalist, presenter, freelance writer and also runs a boutique communications agency working with small business owners on all things social media, content creation and marketing. She's taught cheesemaking classes, judged hospitality and tourism awards, completed the WSET Level 1 Award In Wines, loves to cook and has travelled to 23 countries. She's also passionate about mental health and has recently started studying to become a Counsellor.