It’s time to welcome back our occasional series featuring the “Agony Aunt of Aussie craft” Jayne Lewis. To the handful of people that haven’t come across Jayne or her wares (just where have those people been hiding…?), she is the brewing half of Two Birds Brewing, former brewer at the likes of Mountain Goat, Matilda Bay and Little Creatures, as well as beer judge, educator, nail art perfectionist and, most recently, tattoo collector.
Earlier this year, she offered to answer any questions had about anything to do with the beer world and is back with another answer (or answers) today.
If you have any beery queries playing on your mind that you’d like answered, just email crafty@craftypint.com and we’ll pass them her way.
Question
Now that Golden and Sunset Ale are a success, any plan to introduce a new full time brew to the line up? And if so, will it be another ale, or a different type all together? – Dave Perry
Brewer Jayne:
We are definitely planning to add a third brew to the line up. We had hoped to have it out by the end of this year, but some things just don’t go to plan!
To be completely honest, no particular beer style has stuck out as the next “must-make” beer for us.
Golden Ale and Sunset Ale were such natural decisions, that we haven’t wanted to “force” the decision on another beer.
How do you go about deciding what beers to add to your roster?
Brewer Jayne:
Here are the sort of things that we think about when adding another beer to our lineup:
We need a beer that will compliment what’s already in our range and it needs to offer a point of difference from the other two beers in the range. The new addition should not cannibalise our current offerings, by “stealing” sales from the existing beers.
We like to seek out gaps in the market, so we like to aim for beer styles that aren’t currently well represented.
We like to put our own spin on things.
We are realistic. I would love to make some crazy out-there beer, but it needs to be a beer that has commercial viability and needs to live by our mantra: “Sessionable, approachable and easy-drinking.”
We listen to our customers, so when we released Taco for GABS Festival in May and it was an unexpected success, we had to bring it back. Given the positive reaction to Taco on its second outing, it may join the ranks as part of our regular range, or more likely, as a recurring seasonal release.
We’re always willing to hear people’s opinions, so feel free to hit me up with your suggestions of what you think Two Birds' third beer could be!
Thanks, Jayne. So come on then, folks, what should Two Birds' third be? Pop your suggestions below; we’re sure that if you come up with the winner there’ll be something in it for you, like a Two Birds stick on tattoo at the very least!
