Little World brewing a storm

LITTLE World Beverages, the listed brewers behind the popular Little Creatures beers, increased profit by 28.5 per cent to $2.29 million in the first half.

Australians continued to drink boutique beers, despite the downturn.

The craft brewer also announced yesterday that it had taken a 20 per cent stake in the Byron Bay-based Stone and Wood Brewing Company, which gives LWB a contract to distribute selected products from the fledgling craft brewer.

"LWB has great respect for and confidence in the abilities of the Stone and Wood founders and views the relationship as very complementary, and the business as an attractive long-term investment," the company said. LWB shares closed at $1.38.

Full Story

Mildura Brewery 'Storm' Cloudy Ale

Another small brewery pumping out tasty beers. Bring them on.

Apparently based on an American Pale Ale style, this rather tasty orange/light brown coloured beer has a quite hoppy aroma, reminiscent more of the Little Creatures style, but not quite as overt. The palate has a citrus character & a richness that I'd more commonly associate with wheat beers. Refreshing simple beer that went perfectly well well chilled with some honey soy marinated pork ribs & roasted sweet potatoes with garlic.

Full Story

White Rabbit flies Little Creatures flag

THE team behind Little Creatures beer has unveiled major expansion plans for 2009 including a new drop from an east-coast brew house.

White Rabbit will be made at a newly built brewery at Healesville in Victoria's Yarra Valley from March.

Four months ago, a new, larger German-built brew house began production on the Fremantle site, and the old brewery was shipped to Victoria for installation on the White Rabbit site, where construction was completed three weeks ago.

Mr Cearns said launching the new White Rabbit brand instead of setting up a second Little Creatures brewery on the east coast reflected an older ethos of craft brewing.

"We like the idea of the return to breweries when they were part of the village and the neighbourhood -- it had a personality and a soul and the characteristic of the region," Mr Cearns said. "When you start spreading your production everywhere it becomes harder to control and manage the palate of the beer. The water and ingredients can be different, so you're not getting consistency."

White Rabbit aims to be a "distinctive, exceptional beer", Mr Cearns said.

"The White Rabbit brewery will be the same size Little Creatures was initially. It will be a hand-sell, on a small scale," he said.

"It will only brew once a week at first -- the brewery will have a capacity of 1 million litres per annum but we've got to work our way up to that volume over several years."

Full Story

Beer is the new wine

I recently had some beers and a meal at a place called Little Creatures dinning hall in Melbourne Australia.

For the uninitiated, Little Creatures is a craft beer which has it’s origins in Australia and has recently opened a flagship ‘dinning hall’ - seen below.



You get a taste in little groovy pony glasses of all their different beers, then choose one you like. One of their ‘Little Creatures Beer Experts’ comes and sits down on your table with you and they explain all the different types of beers. A real sit down for 10 minutes. A rare treat when the usual situation is waiting 10 minutes for crappy service in bars and restaurants. They teach you how to taste each beer and the slight nuances of each. They even provide an idea what type of people generally like the different types.

Full Story