Coast beer voted among Australia’s best

A business idea based on a party-shirt-wearing larrikin has helped two Coast blokes grow their brewery business by almost eight-fold within one year.

Your Mates brewery founders Matt Hepburn and Christen McGarry had their best year yet in the GABS Hottest 100 countdown. Photo Patrick Woods / Sunshine Coast Daily.

A business idea based on a party-shirt-wearing larrikin has helped two Coast blokes grow their brewery business by almost eight-fold within one year.

Your Mates Brewery’s Larry pale ale was voted the fourth best craft beer in Australia in this year’s GABS Hottest 100 awards.

It was one of five of the Warana brewery’s beers to feature in Saturday’s countdown and one of eight from the Sunshine Coast.

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Within one year Your Mates brews have gone from being in 150 bottle shops to 800 in Queensland, with interest now sparked interstate.

Co-founders Christen McGarry and Matt Hepburn said it was their biggest year yet in the countdown.

Mr McGarry said the result showed the Sunshine Coast should be known as Australia’s “craft beer capital”.

Jake Black and Justin Swayn from Your Mates Brewery selling takeaway.

“We have more brewing per capita than any other place and the appetite for good beer is insatiable,” he said.

Mr McGarry said demand for their flagship beer, the pale ale Larry that accounted for 75 per cent of business, was now coming from interstate.

But Mr McGarry said the brewery would need to be 10 times its current size to keep up with that demand.

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“After getting number four in the Hottest 100 we now have people from around the country calling and emailing saying they want to get our beer in their bottle shop or venue,” he said.

Mr McGarry said each of Your Mates’ beers had their own personality, and Larry’s was the party shirt wearing mate everyone has – particularly on the Sunshine Coast.

“We want to take Larry further than the Sunshine Coast and Queensland sometime in the future, but we want to keep that expansion here on the Coast,” he said.

“Brewing is a serious industry and the growth we’re seeing means there’s going to be even more opportunity for people to be able to stay here on the Coast and gain stable employment.”

A record 20,000 people voted in this year’s GABS Hottest 100 countdown to help name Australia’s best brews.

Alexandra Headland’s 10 Toes Brewery landed at number 25 with its Pipeline brew and number 90 with its Culture Kick Sour and Heads of Noosa scored number 37 with its Japanese Lager.

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