Unanderra's Seeker Brewing opened in March last year and is already making its mark on the international craft brewing scene.
At the Australian International Beer Awards held in Melbourne last month, they walked away with four gold medal-winning beers – the Daydream XPA, Triple-Double IPA, Dougie's Chocolate Porter and Sapphire Coast Wet Hop Hazy. They also picked up two silver medals and two bronze medals with a reduced alcohol ale and other India pale ales in the competition. At the end of the three-day judging process, all eight beers Seeker Brewing entered had collected awards.
I asked owner and head brewer Jeff Argent (also the drummer in indie-pop band Pirra) what inspired him to open the brewery and make the Illawarra his home.
Who are the brewery heads and how did you all come together to start Seeker Brewing?
Seeker started primarily with myself, having the opportunity to purchase the brewery previously called Bulli Brewing. Having been brewing for a few years, with gypsy brewing company Grassy Knoll, it was a natural evolution into starting something new with Seeker for the local area.
Other key members include Ben Boorer, my cousin, and Curtis Argent, my twin brother, who are integral to the operation of the business.
What’s in the name?
The name is a homage to 'the search' for good beer, adventure, surfing and mountain bike riding – all of which most of the staff are passionate about.
What made the Illawarra the perfect home for your business?
The Illawarra is the perfect melting pot of surf, mountain bike riding, music, and young business all in one. Having come from the Mid North Coast, I feel like it's got all of the charm of a small town whilst still having the excitement of a bigger city.
Did you run into any challenges in the early days? How have you overcome these?
Yes, a few months in we actually had an issue with a grain supply that we used in several beers that had to be dumped or recalled. This put a huge stress on our cash flow, especially not long after opening. Even though the grain/beer was still safe to consume, the quality was just not there for us and it was a tough few months making the decision to pour the beer down the drain.
Do you source any of your ingredients locally?
We try to when we can. Due to the nature of where both hops and grain have to be grown, it can never really be local. That being said, we have used hops from a farm down on the South Coast in Bemboka that we love using. Another big one is yeast from Mogwai labs in Wollongong, who we are so excited about using!
With regular live music and bold artwork featured everywhere from your walls to your cans, why is it important to you to showcase local and Australian artists?
As a musician myself, it is so important that there are venues and places to showcase your music/art. We also just love working alongside artists and musicians.
You recently swept the board at the Australian International Beer Awards, taking home eight awards for all eight beers entered. What do those wins mean to you?
We have always entered into these awards (well, just the two) for evaluation from judges in the brewing profession. Getting the medals has been a great confirmation that we are doing the right things with our process. Medals aside though, there is always something to learn from as the judges give you pretty tough feedback. Making quality beer is our first and foremost, so it's good to know you're on the right track.
When you’re not hard at work running the taproom or experimenting with new brews, what are you doing?
Trying to stay active and work off all those beers! Surfing and mountain bike riding usually. We also have a Seeker basketball team that is mostly made up of the staff that play in a local comp at Berkeley, which is super fun.
What’s next for Seeker Brewing?
We would love to grow a touch with our capacity, but mostly looking to just keep pushing our knowledge of brewing great beers, provide a valuable taproom experience to the area and have a sustainable business that will be still here in years to come.
There is this idea that if you're not growing you're slowing but I don't think that's necessarily true. We want to make sure we all still have time for a surf and a ride at the end of the day!