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Newcastle Herald

Business

Josh Leeson

Thirsty work walking Newcastle's 'beer trail'

Newcastle Peter Lorimer SHOUT Josh Leeson Max MasonHubers FogHorn Brewery Marina Neil Newcastle Herald Simone De Peak Modus

FogHorn Brewery owner and head brewer Shawn Sherlock. Picture by Marina Neil

Shout Brewing Co barman Sebastian Meagher hard at it. Picture by Peter Lorimer

Thirsty Messiah owner and brewer Thomas Delgatto. Picture by Simone De Peak

Newcastle Herald journalist Josh Leeson shares a beer at Shout with ale enthusiasts Robert Akers and Ryan Caldwell. Picture by Peter Lorimer

Method Brewing Co co-owners Gavin McKenzie and Matt Blofield. Picture by Max Mason-Hubers

Patrick Truscott, from indie band ChaiChester, performing at Shout Brewing Co. Picture by Peter Lorimer

Robert Akers says the beer trail is a great tourism opportunity for Newcastle. Picture by Peter Lorimer

Hamilton's Good Folk Brewing was the final stop on the craft beer trail. Picture by Max Mason-Hubers

Newcastle's craft beer scene is booming.

In the past year alone there's been five new brewpubs open in the Newcastle council area.

It's organically created an unofficial "beer trail" that players within the industry hope to maximise as part of the city's continued transformation into a tourism destination.

IT'S mid-afternoon on a overcast Sunday and we're parched.

Having walked the three-kilometre, 40-minute trek from Thirsty Messiah in Broadmeadow along the Styx Creek canal, through Richardson Park and up Chatham Road, our destination is in sight.

We look up Clyde Street in Hamilton North, past the railway crossing and the Wholesale Superstore's imposing orange brick wall, and spot a small "now open" sign in front of Shout Brewing like an oasis among the industrial grime.

We've arrived at the halfway mark of our five-stop walking tour along Newcastle's unofficial craft beer trail.

It's hardly fresh ground. Many Novocastrian ale lovers and visitors have been pounding the pavements of Newcastle's inner suburbs over the past year, since the likes of Method (Islington), Shout (Islington), Good Folk (Hamilton), Thirsty Messiah (Broadmeadow) and Grainfed (Lambton) have opened their doors.

They have joined the more established breweries such as FogHorn and The Rogue Scholar in the CBD and Modus at Merewether and dedicated craft beer cafe Grain Store in the east end.

Today's trail began at noon at the newly-opened Grainfed before taking the 1.3-kilometre stroll past McDonald Jones Stadium to Thirsty Messiah.

After a pit stop of pizza and amber refreshments, my beer buddies Robert Akers and Ryan Caldwell and I tackled the longest stretch of today's beer trail to Shout.

"The distance between Thirsty Messiah and Shout was really the only distance issue," Akers says of the beer trail.

"It would be very helpful if someone wished to open a brewery smack bang in the middle of them."

Following a brief musical interlude at Shout from Patrick Truscott, best known as frontman of Newcastle indie band ChaiChester, there was another 1.4km trek down Maitland road to Method Brewing.

Then the relatively short 750-metre walk up Beaumont Street brought our weary feet to our final watering hole, the uber-slick Good Folk, as the sun was setting.

"I think an official brewery trail has merit but there needs to be easier ways to get between brewers," Caldwell says.

"I'm not sure if the neighbours would be happy if it continued through suburban streets, and cutting across Broadmeadow and Hamilton North wouldn't be a great experience for visitors."

How to maximise the experience for visitors is top of mind for Newcastle brewers.

Newcastle boasts the highest concentration of independent breweries in NSW, outside of Sydney's inner-west hipster enclaves of Marrickville and Newtown, and many believe the time has arrived to tap into craft beer's tourist potential.

Last month the Newcastle Breweries Association was formed after Shout bar manager Gus Engler sent invitations to all local breweries, distilleries, and other stakeholders like Grain Store owner Corey Crooks, Luke Tilse from The Happy Wombat, Young Street Hotel and Apple Truck Cider, and the Carrington Bowling Club.

"We realised that this is really booming at the moment and I wanted to herd the cattle into a paddock to have a conversation about how we can benefit our whole community," Engler says.

After three meetings the Newcastle Breweries Association has a clear vision, the city's beer needs to be placed on the map - literally.

The creation of a beer map for tourists and locals is an idea that's already been successfully implemented by the Independent Galleries Newcastle with their art map and in Sydney's beer scene with the Inner-West Ale Trail.

"The idea is it'll be a tangible map that you can pick up from the bar top of any of these venues and then also a digital map that can be shared online," Engler says.

The map would also list public transport options and other businesses and bars around Newcastle that are supportive of craft beer.

Marrickville in recent years has become a tourist mecca for craft beer aficionados, lured by the diversity and short distances between the venues.

However, unlike Marrickville, the Newcastle Breweries Association's ability to capitalise on their tourism potential is hampered by the distances between venues.

Engler says, it's only in the formative stages, but the ultimate goal of the Newcastle Breweries Association would be the creation of a courtesy bus or a tour operator for busier periods on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

"Having public transport would be incredible," he says. "That's really going to appeal to people from out of town like Sydneysiders.

"That'll be the appeal for council too, big time."

Last month Thirsty Messiah owner and brewer Thomas Delgatto submitted a last-minute application for an economic development grant to the City Of Newcastle on behalf of the Newcastle Breweries Association.

While the application was rejected, Delgatto says council urged the association to reapply and were enthusiastic about the creation of a beer trail map.

Since opening in April Delgatto says he has regularly had Newcastle punters stopping by on foot or bicycle going in between breweries.

"I wouldn't be walking between the breweries, it's too big of a hike for me at my bloody age, but I'd be happy to get on a push bike," he says.

"I could see electric bikes or the rent-a-bikes potentially happening."

Ever since opening FogHorn Brewery in 2015, owner and head brewer Shawn Sherlock has been advocating craft beer's untapped potential in Newcastle's post-industrial transition towards a more tourism-based economy.

Sherlock is also a highly respected figure in the local scene and regularly provides assistance and advice to fledgling brewers.

With the formation of the Newcastle Breweries Association, Sherlock says the city's craft beer scene finally has a vessel to lobby for its share of tourism support.

"It's a body for us as a group - that is local and a very young industry - to engage with authorities, be it council or potentially the state government to present a united industry voice in various forums," Sherlock says.

The craft beer trail kicked off at Grainfed in Lambton. Picture by Jonathan Carroll

"We're all independent businesses and obviously running our own race, but one of the great things about the craft beer sector is we all know each other and all get along, and we're all supportive.

"It's such a young industry and it's such a leap of faith to set things up and have a crack."

Sherlock says he has steadily seen Newcastle's weekender tourism market grow and he regularly has customers pass through his King Street brewpub who will also visit the Grain Store, Happy Wombat and The Rogue Scholar.

With the Newcastle Breweries Association in place, he expects the weekender market to grow further.

"For people who are keen beer lovers, it gives them a reason to come to Newcastle," he says.

"It might not be a massive group, but for a tourism industry that's relatively young, it's an important string to add to the bow and a key part of Newcastle's tourism offering going forward."