Welcome Swallow Brewery opens in Valley of Love after ‘nightmare’ year
A small Tassie brewery team was “on our knees for a long time” and hadn’t paid themselves a cent for 20 months during Covid-19, but now they’re ready to open with a bang. THEIR STORY >>
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A small brewery team was “on our knees for a long time” and hadn’t paid themselves a cent for 20 months during Covid-19, but now they’re opening with a bang.
Welcome Swallow Brewery co-owners Nigel Graham and Elias Eichler took over a New Norfolk building in October 2019 with plans to open the brewery and tasting bar, but the pandemic up-ended their plans.
“We thought it would be 12 months before we could open,” Mr Graham said.
“We had to go into packaging, canning, that was a whole nightmare in itself.”
The finishing touches on the build have finally wrapped up.
Mr Graham said their stall at the recent Dark Mofo festival gave them enough funds to install toilets last week.
“We were running on zero for a long time,” Mr Graham said.
“Because we hadn’t been trading when Covid-19 hit there was basically no support for us.”
The brewer said it felt “amazing” to bring everything together, installing the fireplace on Thursday.
“It’s been a dream for a long, long time and it’s finally going to happen,” he said.
The opening event on Saturday will include music from local blues legend Crofty, tasty food and a “beautiful space” to enjoy beer.
“We have a Berliner Weisse, it’s a sour raspberry beer with organic raspberries from my family’s farm,” he said.
“We love our hoppy beers, our barrel-aged chocolate porter, stout.
Welcome Swallow Brewery is open 12-6pm Friday and Saturday at 99 Ring Rd, New Norfolk.
More information welcomeswallow.com.au
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