Cheers to a new brewery
Husband and wife set up their own craft beer in Shaka's Head.
What started off as a hobby, is now a fully fledged craft beer microbrewery in Shaka’s Head, producing six international favourites.
Ursula and her husband Gary Wilby left the corporate world to start The Great Railroad Brewing Company, which they opened in August.
“We have always been keen home brewers and decided to take a risk and turn our passion into a business. The name was inspired by the nostalgic romance of an old rain,” said Gary, who is an analytical chemist.
“We have had some fun setting up this brewery, especially when it came to figuring out the Chinese instruction manuals, which were not well translated into English.”
The brewery is now working at full pace and Gary said they can make any style beer on demand.
“We have specialised in six styles: the dark, German Marzen lager; Bohemian Pilsner, a classic pilsner with a twist; German Weiss beer; Irish red ale; American pale ale and a Dark Pilsner.”
Brewing the beer is quite a delicate process.
“You start off by putting the grain through the mill to crush it. The grain is then filtered and sent to the kettle, where it is boiled at about 96 degrees Celcius.”
This is where the hops is added for the bitterness of the various styles.
“The brew then has to be cooled down quickly before starting the fermentation process.”
The beer stays in the fermenter at different temperatures and periods depending on the type of beer they want to produce.
“Cold water is continually pumped through the pipes that spiral around the fermenter, acting as insulation. Ale needs four to seven days at about 18 degrees, where as lager needs up to two weeks at about 12 degrees.”
Once the beer has fermented and the bad stuff has bled off, it can be bottled or kegged and ready to be enjoyed.
“Our beer will hopefully be available in all local stores as well as on tap or in bottles at restaurants and pubs later this month,” said Ursula.
Anyone is welcome to visit the brewery at 13 Canton Park, Shaka’s Head to see the brewing process and to taste some of the golden liquid.
Check out their Facebook page to keep up to date with the latest brews.
“This has been an exciting journey and although we had a few teething problems at first, I am confident that we have now mastered this thing,” said Gary.
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