GOODIESON BREWERY
Jeff and his wife Mary have spent the last decade building Goodieson Brewery. The couple, who spent their twenties travelling through Europe, developed a taste for craft beer among the traditional beer houses of Austria and Germany.
Located in McLaren Vale, with views across the vineyards to the Southern Mt Lofty’s, Goodieson Brewery has consistently been recognised among Australia’s best craft breweries and producers of traditional and unique beer styles.
Jeff’s award-winning brewing practices incorporate traditional techniques and consistently deliver big flavoured, full bodied beers with fresh, clean finishes. All beers are brewed onsite using natural ingredients, without preservatives or additives and are vegan friendly.
Mary says opening the brewery in the very early days of the craft brewing movement was fairly simple. That said, the significant growth and ongoing change within the industry in the ensuing ten years has resulted in some big business learnings.
“Before we started out, we made sure that we had the required qualifications to get the finest results out of our ingredients,” said Mary.
“We started with a core range of two to four beers in the first couple of years; we are now brewing 27 different beers across the year, with a range of 20 at this very moment.
“A key learning for us is that your business development ideas might not always be what your industry dictates, you have to be malleable enough to go with a new direction and flow.
“Stay abreast of what is going on in your industry and what the next trend might be, but don’t lose sight of your core values and ethics.
“Be accessible to customers and consistent with your dealings, and don’t worry about taking over the world, just look after your patch and see where you go.”
“We have also learned to change, adapt and squeeze a lot out of our fairly small brewery, and a lot out of the work day.”
As well as producing quality products, Mary attributes personal service and a dedication to staying in touch with customer needs as vital to their success and longevity.
“We are committed to staying true to the promise we made when our rustic brewery produced its first ale – consistency.
“Looking ahead for the next ten years, we will definitely still be making outstanding beer, and who knows, we might be shifting to ‘the next generation’ – the children we have raised in our business.
“That would be an exciting development to see what new ideas and journey they might have in store for us,” Mary concluded.