Red Hill celebrates ten years

Mornington Peninsula’s Red Hill Brewery will this weekend unveil Batch One Thousand, the second beer ina special series to mark its 10th anniversary.

Red Hill’s Karen Golding told Australian Brews News that Batch One Thousand – which also marks its 1000th brew – is a Red Belgian Tripel that follows on from The Bloody Plums, a saison brewed with plums from a tree on the Red Hill property.

The third beer in the series dubbed The Red Project will be Red Hill’s GABS contribution, the Red Rauchbock – a lightly smoked Bock.

“This year we’ve got our six or seven regular seasonal beers plus the ten red beers, so we’ve got a pretty jam-packed brewing schedule,” Golding said.

A decade ofbrewing beer
Reflecting on the last ten years, Golding said the industry had changed for the better since she and husband David launched Red Hill in 2005.

David and Karen Golding – photo courtesy lovethepen.com.au

“It’s changed a huge amount, thankfully. The market for craft beer has opened up amazingly… The Local Taphouse started up at about the same time as we did – they were our earliest customers. Now there’s plenty of options,” she said.

While Red Hill has a strong following for its creative specialty brews, it is the Golden Ale that continues to be its number one seller, closely followed by its Pilsner.

“I think there’s a really big market for nice lagers. That’s definitely an area missing in the craft beer market – lower alcohol, four per cent easy drinking, tasty craft beers,” Golding suggested.

But at this weekend’s anniversary celebrations, it will be the specialty beers that take centre stage.

“We will have one keg of our red celebratory Batch One Thousand to giveaway to everyone there between 11am-1pm both days celebrating with us,” Golding said.

The Batch One Thousand label

The celebration will also feature The Bloody Plums and Batch One Thousand on tap, Imperial Stout aged in whisky barrels, the new release Hop Harvest Ale and other specialty brews.

Red Hill’s birthday celebrations get underway at 11am this Saturday and Sunday at the brewery, 88 Shoreham Rd, Red Hill South.