21st Feb 2019 by brandsa2018

Hop on – the ultimate Fleurieu craft beer trail

I Choose SA, Lifestyle, Lists
Beer, Brewery, Craft beer, Fleurieu, I Choose SA, Lists, McLaren Vale, things to do, trails

Hop to it, beer lovers. South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsula is the place to be, with a number of well-established brewers and newer, boutique operators calling the region home.

With its outstanding wines, white sandy beaches and alfresco cafés, the Fleurieu has long been appreciated for its delectable food and wine offerings, but it’s time to give the stouts, ales, and pilsners a pour.

So, grab a designated driver and buckle up. Head for McLaren Vale, the heart of brewery territory and further south into Willunga, before visiting a few watering holes on the outskirts and along the coast. Let the ultimate beer trail begin!

1. Victor’s Place
62 Victor Harbor Road, Old Noarlunga

This restaurant, cellar door and brewery is a three-in-one delight set in an old 1870s stone barn, rebuilt with rustic charm. If the sun is shining, head for the outdoor area with a pint in hand and enjoy the views overlooking the Onkaparinga Valley. As far as beer goes, the Sour Cherry Berliner Weisse is a relatively new release and worth a try, as are the rest of its range including the Pale Ale, India Pale Ale, Extra Special Bitter, Saison and Summer Session Ale.

Inside Victor’s Place.

2. Swell Brewing Co.
168 Olivers Road, McLaren Vale

This new brewery and taphouse is the newest kid on the block to join the gang of McLaren Vale’s fellow craft brewery hotspots. Swell Brewing Co.’s new McLaren Vale space is the project of winemaker Corrina Wright of Oliver’s Taranga and her brewer husband Dan Wright. Coastal inspirations and a love for surfing are evident in the brand’s name and overall style, with the brewery offering a selection of its own beers, as well as others, and complemented by classic beer-matching eats such as burgers, chicken wings and sweet potato chips.

Inside Swell’s new taphouse. Photo by Kate Elmes Photography.

3. Vale Brewing
Within the Beresford Tasting Pavilion at 252 Blewitt Springs Road, McLaren Flat.

You can find these guys within Beresford Estate (so it’ll please wine lovers) in McLaren Flat. Have a go at the $15 tasting of the refreshing and sessionable lagers including the Vale Mid Coast, Vale Ale, Vale Lager, Vale Knee Slapper and Vale IPA. Vale has a decade-long history of brewing in the region, starting with small run releases of its original Vale Ale before expanding the core range and growing into a craft beer label well-recognised on SA shelves.

Cheese and beer among the vines at Beresford Estate.

4. Goodieson Brewery
194 Sand Road, McLaren Vale

Family owned and operated Goodieson Brewery is run by Jeff and Mary Goodieson whose property overlooks a tree-lined creek, vineyards and the valley. They’re serious about beer, with the pale ale, pilsner, wheat beer, brown ale, red ale, Maiblock, Christmas ale, autumn ale and stout on offer (although some of these are seasonal styles and have limited availability). Feel free to bring your own picnic snacks and nibbles to enjoy in the outdoor space overlooking the big beautiful gum trees and vineyards.

A beautiful setting on a sunny day.

5. Ekhidna
67 Branson Road, McLaren Vale

This cellar door features beers, ciders and wine from winemaker Matt Rechner. Ekhidna’s traditional Aussie ginger beer is highly sought after, with its strong ginger flavour, hit of spice and hint of sweetness. A restaurant is also on site, offering share plates, heartier mains, and desserts for those who need it. A great all-round experience that will tick boxes not only for beer lovers, but wine lovers, foodies and those partial to a crisp cider too.

Try the beer paddle at Ekhidna.

6. South Coast Brewing Co.
1/11 Jay Drive, Willunga

Beers and beaches – the perfect combination. South Coast Brewing Co. recognises this ideal match and brews its beers with the coast in mind. Three blokes Scott, Brett and Mark are behind this independent operation, with a line of Southern Session Ale a crisp, summery beer that’s almost too easy to drink, the Porties Pale Ale, named after Port Noarlunga, and the Maslin’s Red Ale, named after Australia’s first nudie beach. There’s also the Butter Sou’Westerly, a dry hopped brew that pays homage to winter time’s bitter, cold winds, and the Earl of Seaford Bitter, a delight for true beer appreciators.

The South Coast Brewing Co. trio. Photo sourced from Facebook.

7. Shifty Lizard
33 High Street, Willunga

A relatively new kid on the block, Shifty Lizard owners Lee and Danny opened this new venture in an old butcher’s shop in Willunga about a year ago. The beer bottle and can labels alone are impressive, featuring quirky characters and label names by the likes of the Bruce Lee-zard IPA, Stouty McStout Face and the Lizard’s Dinner. This microbrewery features outdoor dining nestled in the heart of Willunga. Definitely a spot for those who appreciate simple yet stylish interiors and something a little quirky.

8. Smiling Samoyed
Hansen Street, Myponga

Recognised not only for its beer, but the brewery’s two white and fluffy Samoyed dogs, Mia and Hoppy, who will greet you upon arrival. Smiling Samoyed, south west of Willunga, like many breweries is laid back in its style and offers much to look at with small, rustic trinkets and memorabilia scattered throughout facility. Beer wise, the brewery offers both award-winning and limited release brews including the Poppet, Kolsch, Dark Ale, IPA and 12 Paws. Rumour has it that they’ve just re-released the popular Hop Bandit, but be quick because it won’t last long! Grazing plates feature local cheeses, smallgoods and other nibbles while wood oven pizzas, some smaller snacks, and desserts are also on offer.

The fluffy Samoyed dogs are a real crowd-puller.

9. Forktree Brewing
935 Forktree Road, Carrickalinga

With stunning views over the ocean, Forktree Brewing is housed in an old shearing shed – the perfect location for downing a beer, right?! The beers are currently contract brewed, but hopes are to one day have a brewery on site. The froths include the Sunrise Pale Ale, with its citrus and tropical fruit hop aroma, and the Sunset Ale, a fuller bodied, malt driven red ale. The food menu is simple yet satisfying, with burgers enjoying names such as The Ringer beef burger, the Roustabout lamb burger, the Flamin’ Galah chicken burger, the Squeezer pork burger, and the Guesser sweet potato and chickpea burger.

How’s that for a sunset?

10. Meechi Brewery Company
The Wine House, 1509 Langhorne Creek Road, Langhorne Creek

A little out of the way from the other Fleurieu breweries (but still within an hour or so’s drive) is Meechi Brewery Company in wine region Langhorne Creek. Meechi’s winemaker owners proudly launched this small-batch brewery from their backyard shed because “we think every wine region needs a beer label”, and we agree! They were the Creek’s first craft beer label and have been a perfect addition within The Wine House, a wine tasting and dining venue where you’ll also be able to crack open one of Meechi’s handcrafted beers. Meechi is an Aboriginal name for the Bremer River, which runs through the town and then into Lake Alexandrina.

Share your Fleurieu beer trail experience with us on Facebook or instagram by using the #ichoosesa hashtag!

Visit I Choose SA to meet the people building business and industry in SA, and to find out how your choices make a difference to our state.

[logooos_saved id=”13411″]

4th Apr 2018 by brandsa2018

Fleurieu food business Home Grain Bakery is on a roll

Business, I Choose SA, Lifestyle, Regional
Bakery, Business, Fleurieu, Home Grain Bakery, I Choose SA, I Choose SA for SMEs, Regional, Small business, SME, SMEs

Home Grain Bakery couple Toff and Cara West have mastered the recipe for success in South Australia’s small to medium enterprise sector.

Almost a decade ago, the Wests had no experience in business or bakeries when they decided to open a bakehouse in the former general store at Aldinga.

Now the pair are behind four successful Home Grain Bakery stores across the Fleurieu Peninsula and McLaren Vale, feeding scores of visitors with hot pies, pasties, cakes and other baked goods.

Toff and Cara West with two of their three children Trip and Meg outside one of the Home Grain Bakeries. PHOTO: Courtney McFarlane.

They admit launching a small business in the beach town south of Adelaide was a hard slog at first, with Cara at the time five months pregnant with the first of their three children.

“It’s been a challenge and we worked bloody hard, but I don’t think I’d do anything differently,” says Toff, who grew up on the Fleurieu.

“We wanted to have a place that we liked working in and people we liked working with.”

Home Grain Bakery has an overall workforce of about 70 people across its four stores, in Aldinga, Middleton, McLaren Flat, and a smaller ‘pop-up’ at Mt Compass.

Although the bakery is already on the way to becoming a Fleurieu food icon, the Wests want its reputation to stretch statewide.

“The short-term goal is to refine what we have been doing, pay down some debt and make sure we have the best business model as possible to grow,” Toff says.

“That will be a good place to be in by 2020.”

The Home Grain Bakery story begins when Toff and Cara met at Flinders University in 2007.

Cara, originally from the US state of Virginia, was on a semester-long student exchange when she sat next to Toff in a geography lecture.

Toff and Cara met in 2007 before marrying and launching their own business Home Grain Bakery four years later. PHOTO: Josie Withers.

“My parents told me not to fall in love and stay in Australia, but I did just that,” Cara laughs.

“I had never heard of SA until the exchange program and I’d never even had a sausage roll before.

“Now I don’t know how my kids would survive without them.”

Together they travelled the world, keeping a journal of “all the things we liked in coffee shops, bakeries and cafés”, with a dream of one day pursuing their own business venture.

It was after they married in 2010 and returned to SA when that dream fast became reality.

“We came back from a four-month honeymoon around the world and saw that the old general store in Aldinga was for sale,” Toff says.

“We thought it was a great spot for something and we knew that the town needed a welcoming place to get a good pie and coffee.

“We had no experience but were interested in business, so we hired a baker and opened a bakery. We just weren’t willing to sit back and watch someone else do it.”

The West family enjoying hot meat pies at Home Grain Bakery. PHOTO: Josie Withers.

While Cara handled the marketing side of Home Grain Bakery, Toff took over the general running of the business.

The pair was also mentored by fellow bakehouse Brighton Jetty Bakery and say the kind-hearted nature of others in the food industry attributed to their success.

“I think in business, there are two types of people,” Toff says.

“There are the ones who are willing to share with you their take on the industry, and then there are the ones who are quite secretive.

“Now we are very open and share what we do with anybody who asks, we’ve helped half-a-dozen other small businesses get up and running. It’s exciting for us to see others give it a go.”

Home Grain Bakery products are made from scratch, using the “best possible local ingredients”.

The bakery has long teamed up with the Fleurieu Milk Company, Laucke Flour Mills and Villeré Coffee, which have all supported them “from day one”.

“We use all our own recipes which means you can’t get our products anywhere else,” Toff says.

“During peak season we bake over 1000 pies and pasties a day at Aldinga to sell across all four bakeries.”

The Wests say a strong backing by the local community has helped their small business stay afloat, as has the reputation of SA’s premium food offerings.

“I think the quality of food here in SA is very high on a world scale,” Toff says.

“We have access to great produce and we have people who care about the food.

“That’s something that should be promoted to the world.”

To gain more insight into SA’s small to medium enterprise sector, join Brand South Australia’s Industry Briefing on April 10. Click here for more information.

I Choose SA for Small to Medium Enterprise stories are made possible by Bendigo Bank:

Visit I Choose SA for Industry to learn more stories about key industry leaders, why they’ve chosen SA as a base and how the state is enabling them to succeed.

2nd Nov 2017 by brandsa2018

From bait to plate – top restaurants snapping up SA pipis

Thirty years ago it was unusual to spot the Goolwa pipi anywhere but on the end of a fishing hook.

Now the small surf clams – locally known as pipis or cockles – are dished up at some of the finest restaurants, and Australia’s largest pipi fishery Goolwa Pipi Co wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Port Elliot-based company’s managing director Tom Robinson says pipis are in high demand as South Australia continues to be recognised internationally for its world-class produce.

“In the early 2000s less than 1% of commercially farmed pipis were for sold human consumption, but now 80% of our pipis are sold for food,” he says.

“Like many things, you could once only get squid as bait. Now it’s a delicacy and it’s the same with pipis.

“It almost seems sacrificial to put them on a hook.”

Australia’s best restaurant Orana in Adelaide, as well as Iberia and Africola are some of the top establishments that are cooking with SA pipis.

Aside from experiencing demand from the local restaurant industry, Goolwa Pipi Co is preparing to enter export markets in Europe.

Its credentials include Marine Stewardship Certification while the SA Shellfish Quality Assurance Program reguarly tests the waters to ensure pipis are safe for eating.

The pipis are harvested from surf beaches on the south east side of the Murray Mouth, off a remote part of the Coorong National Park.

Fishers stand in shallow water while burrowing their feet into the sand, where the pipis are found, raked in and scooped into nets.

The Hoad fishing crew dig for pipis, using their feet to penetrate the sand, bringing the pipis to the surface.

The Hoad fishing crew dig for pipis in the sand off a remote part of the Coorong National Park.

Goolwa Pipi Co fishes year-round, harvesting up to one tonne of pipis per day.

They’re taken to the company’s Port Elliot processing centre where they are immersed in tanks of salt water for a day and naturally rid themselves of sand.

The pipis are packed in Modified Atmosphere Packaging or are immediately blast-frozen.

Goolwa Pipi Co was launched in 2014 by a collaboration between a small number of families, including third-generation fishing family the Hoads.

Tom says the business collaboration between families is the key to the company’s success as it allows them to share risks and costs.

For Tom himself, a former advertising executive, the seafood industry was relatively unfamiliar territory until 15 years ago when he decided it was time for a literal sea change.

“I was working a desk job in Adelaide and I left to become a fisherman,” he says.

Tom confesses that he’s better at the paperwork side of the business, preferring to leave the harvesting to the trained team of professionals.

“I don’t do it because I’m not tough enough,” he laughs.

“But our teams fish in temperatures of around 10C and they’re in the water in shorts and bare feet in the middle of winter.”

Goolwa pipis with garlic, butter, tarragon, parsley, capers and lemon.

He points out the difference between cockles and pipis.

“The mud cockles that are harvested off Coffin Bay near Port Lincoln are the true cockles,” he says.

“These cockles have a ridged shell, whereas pipis have a smooth shell.”

Tom says the business is collecting more pipis than ever since a quota system was introduced in 2008 to stop the species from being overfished.

“SA fisheries are some of the best in the world and it’s great for us to be able to harvest in a sustainable fishing environment,” he says.

“Our stock levels are healthy and we’re confident we’re fishing in a sustainable way.”

Restrictions apply for recreational pipi fishers. For information on limits and closed areas see here.

Header image is Fleurieu food identity Olaf Hansen.

Like this story? Nominate a story from your region.
Click here to nominate >>

These inspiring regional stories made possible by:

Major Partner[logooos_saved id=”5491″]Program Partners[logooos_saved id=”17589″]Major Media Partner[logooos_saved id=”5506″]

21st Jun 2017 by brandsa2018

Willunga wedding guru among Pitchfest finalists

Regional
Fleurieu, Regional, Start-up, Willunga

By Melissa Keogh

Taking the stress out of a bride and groom’s big day is no easy feat, but one Fleurieu woman is hoping to ease the process before it begins.

Willunga’s Melissa Little is launching an online event planning tool, VENYU, which will help brides carry out the most expensive part of wedding planning – selecting a venue.

The online decision-making tool, which allows loved up couples to search for available wedding venues across the Fleurieu and Kangaroo Island, has received the nod from the 2017 Australia Post Regional Pitchfest.

Regional Pitchfest seeks the country’s top innovators and entrepreneurs and will award the winners with cash prizes to help launch their ventures.

Melissa is one of five South Australian finalists who will head to the State finals in McLaren Vale on July 28.

If successful, she will head to the nationals in Wagga Wagga in August.

The expert event planner says she is “really proud” to be recognised among the cohort of regional thinkers and innovators.

Willunga’s Melissa Little is a Regional Pitchfest finalist.

The idea of VENYU sparked two years ago when Melissa’s sister was forced to find an alternate wedding venue after being double booked three weeks before the big day.

“We rang 90-odd venues … nothing was suitable,” Melissa says.

“It highlighted to me that it would be so simple to just jump online.”

From the dilemma sprouted the start-up venture, which Melissa says will allow users to shortlist suitable venues using search refinements “not currently offered by any other site”.

The VENYU concept is similar to property and accommodation sites realestate.com and Airbnb and will officially launch by the end of July.

“Usually 50% of a wedding budget is spent on the venue – it’s the most expensive component and the first decision made,” Melissa says.

“Some venues are booked out two years in advance (and) small venues don’t often market themselves.

“There are some beautiful small venues out there.”

South Australian landscapes offer the best wedding spaces.

Melissa’s advice for the bride-to-be is to look for unique and unsuspecting locations.

“It’s all about having it somewhere that your friends haven’t seen before,” she says.

Check out the other Regional Pitchfest South Australian finalists here.