Whether it’s hitting the town on a Friday after work, enjoying the sunset over Darwin Harbour, or wetting a line with mates, there are boundless possibilities to crack open a cold one, and more often than not that’s exactly what we do.

But while there are thousands of beers out there, some are uniquely Territorian, even brewed in the average Rapid Creek back yard.

For many, it starts off as a little experiment and grows to so much more.

Darwin’s newest brewery Beaver Brewery in Coconut Grove is a family operated business, with brewer-at-large Chris Brown leading the show. While he’s brewed for the best part of 15 years, he only got serious about it after he moved south for a year-long stint in Hobart, following his wife’s career as a doctor.

“I took 12 months long service leave and was a stay at home dad at my time in Hobart … I volunteered at Captain Bligh’s Brewery down in Hobart,” he says.

“I met all the craft brewers and all the families that go with it and we decided when we moved back up here we’d get into it and start our own planning, and we now have Beaver Brewery.”

Chris currently has three beers he distributes, a Pale Ale, an Indian Pale Ale and a Brown Beer, but he is constantly experimenting with different flavours and styles.

While he loves a drink and testing new recipes, he says a large part of brewing is the community that it brings.

It is something everyone can enjoy — it is familiar rather than fancy.

“We’ve done everything, our cool room and our cellar door, they’re done by hand — it’s going to look like your grandfathers shed, it’s not flash, it’s not new but that’s just our home,” he says.

“For the level we’re at and the brewers in Darwin, you’re not going to make millions of dollars but your going to have a great living and a great lifestyle, that’s what we’re trying to offer to other people as well — craft beer brings people together.”

He’s found the community is also helping to get the name of his beer out in town, with Lola’s Pergola, The Precinct and Six Tanks all supplying Beaver Brewery beers to their clientele.

Chris’ concoction has elements from his Hobart brewing roots, with a darker beer one of his favourites.

“You adjust some of your recipes and profiles just to give a different mouth fill because obviously it’s a lot warmer up here, you want the beer to be less in body where as down in Hobart it’s a colder climate, everyone wants a dark beer, a full bodied beer that makes you warmer,” he says.

“We’ve adjusted slightly just to adapt to the climate but the brewing process doesn’t change, it’s just a lot harder on your gear, trying to keep it cool.”

“We’ll do a lot of different beers, dark beers and stouts because I love dark beers but we’ll cover all the different varieties and between the craft breweries up here, we should be able to cater to everyone’s palate.”

Beaver Brewery is one of three major companies in circulation in Darwin, with Six Tanks and One Mile other common names on the pub circuit. But it’s camaraderie rather than competition between the brewers.

“We’re very lucky that ourself and One Mile, we don’t make the same styles of beer,” Chris says.

“You can go between us and have five to six different types of beer which is great.”

But going forward, Chris may be looking to experiment more and more, rather than following market trends are sticking too closely to his Tasmanian experiences.

“I’m new to town this year so we’ll do a lot of different releases this year, four seasonal releases this year,” he says.

“I like to call myself a home brewer so I have really great ideas at the last minute and I’ll just start brewing something that I think is going to go well.”

He’s planning for the future too — hoping to bring even more of the community into the Beaver Brewery world.

“We plan on doing an open cellar door every second Friday — we want to make it a bit of an event people will specifically come to,” he says.

“I’ve got a family and we’ve got a couple of kids so we don’t want it to be too hard and too much — it’s a one of a kind thing — we’ll get a food van out the front, people can come in and enjoy themselves.”

Open for just a matter of months, Chris has seen a dream come to fruition through his brewery and is sharing the taste of success with the community.

For others, brewing is simply a hobby gone too far.

Ryan Lucas first started the habit after being gifted a DIY kit, commonly found in the supermarket.

“I was given a home-brew kit as a gift so that’s sort of what got me into it — I didn’t really do it for about 18 months and then I found it one day in the laundry and thought ‘ah I should really give that another crack’,” he says.

“Once I made that beer, I invited a bunch of people over and they tried it and admittedly that batch of beer was pretty ordinary but we thought it was good because I’d made it myself.”

It’s now blown out to a full-scale operation, which takes up most of his back deck at his Rapid Creek home. Instead of opting for supermarket brewkits, he also buys the raw ingredients.

“Most of our back deck area is dedicated to brewing, I’ve got three separate fridges set up, they’re all dedicated to brewing, I’ve got a steel bench area that houses all the equipment, I’ve got a range of different keg sizes, and bottles and various kind of housing,” Ryan says.

“I’ll buy a lot of my ingredients in bulk, often online and there’s really quite a few stores and markets out there which are set up to meet people’s needs which is great.”

He says apart from space and time, brewers also need a sense of cleanliness.

But he says it’s not a costly process. His batches, usually producing 40L to 50L of beer, cost about a dollar a litre depending on the style and amount of ingredients he has left over.

The supermarket packs are even cheaper and can cost as little as 30c a litre.

While it is a hobby, it’s a process constantly revolving and evolving, which now operates fortnightly.

“I really enjoy the process and it’s kind of a hobby that you can just enjoy learning about, so I really enjoyed that side of it but I give a lot away,” he said.

“If you want to make it a simple process you can make a brew in about half an hour, then it’s got to sit for two weeks but you can do it really simply.”

Ryan’s own process takes about five hours.

He likes to get involved with all the different steps and make sure he nails the critical elements.

Regardless, it all comes together at the end of the brewing process.

Ryan has found the craft beer community is much bigger than he initially thought it was and is a fraternity of sorts.

Through his ventures online to learn more about brewing and where to find materials, he came across a Facebook page of Darwin home brewers with more than 150 members.

“It’s an online community — a lot of info gets shared through the online page, and that might be organising a group catch up or exchanging grain or information about equipment available — there are daily posts,” Ryan says.

“I’ve had the chance to meet up with members of the group when we’ve been exchanging ingredients or equipment — from what I’ve heard the meet ups are really positive, people bring a beer or two to share and people will try a different style and share recipes. It’s just bringing together people who are passionate about the same thing.”

When he’s out and about, Ryan’s own experiences have influenced his palate and he’s open to experimenting with new flavours and leaning towards other craft brewers’ products.

“Whenever I go out I’m usually trying to try something different,” he says.

“Six Tanks often has a really good rotation of different craft beers from all around Australia, the Precinct as well have a great selection.

“I’m a huge fan of One Mile too, they sell a whole range of beers.”

His own community also appreciates his hobby, with his home now a popular venue among his friends. They’ve also come to expect home brewed beer for birthdays and Christmas presents.

“When people come to my house they know they don’t need to bring anything to drink,” he says.

“If I make a good batch, I’ll give some away or have people around to drink it so it doesn’t last long.”

Down in Central Australia, the Alice Springs Brewing Co. is the name to look for a local craft beer.

For Kyle Pearson and his team of brewers, the idea of brewing their own alcohol came from a need to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

He has been in the hospitality industry for a number of years and was looking to make a bar but being over resourced, he looked outside the box for just how to move his business forward.

“Being Alice Springs, there’s some great hotels and bars here but there wasn’t anyone doing their own beer,” he says.

“We saw the opportunity to start up our own brewing company and saw it as a point of difference to hopefully make a product for the Alice Springs.”

The town has its own unique climate hurdles for the brewery to overcome with a high contrast in cold and hot temperatures. Ahigh mineral content in the water also posed problems for Kyle initially but it was nothing his team couldn’t handle.

“We don’t live in the right climate to grow all our own hops or malt down here so we have to bring everything in but we try to make brews that serve the climate,” he says.

“We’re a bit lucky that we get a bit of cold weather (in Alice), so we brew some stout, IPAs and things like that.”

However Kyle and his team has managed to work around the weather to produce a truly local beer.

“Our flagship beer is our Centralian Ale, it’s a very easy style drinking beer which is by far our best selling beer,” Kyle says.

“We’ve sort of brewed that with the Alice climate in mind, so it’s very easy drinking and people really like it.”

Having been open just a few weeks, it seems the local community is getting behind the Alice Springs Brewing Co, with the business doing well.

In an industry as big as alcohol, beer is a staple of the Australian diet.

That Territorians can now buy local ales to quench their thirst can only be a good thing.

And for those in the brewing community, it’s even creating friendships between brewers.

Cheers to that.