When Capital Brewing talk about Good Natured Brews, they aren’t kidding.
Whether it’s the beers, lively taproom, support for their Canberra community or the natural world, the brewery has been driven by purpose since day one.
That story started out with Laurence Kain and Tom Hertel; two Canberrans who met while working in the city’s bars and eventually opened their own with a focus on local craft beer. That love for local beer only boomed and eventually, the mates discussed creating a brewery that would, quite literally, put the city they’d grown up in, front and centre.
But first, that love for craft beer led them to America and San Diego where they found their head brewer, Wade Hurley, who at the time was busy brewing at Coronado Brewing, having learnt the trade at Green Flash. The founders were impressed with Wade’s ability to blend incredibly balanced beers, whether it’s the bold West Coast IPAs that made his home so famous or the likes of the Coast Ale, a Californian Common that’s become the brewery’s flagship.
Officially launching in 2016, Capital Brewing soon opened their home in Canberra’s outer suburb of Fyshwick. Historically it’s been an industrial area, but in recent times it’s steadily transformed as restaurants, rock climbing and coffee roasteries have all moved in.
At the heart of the area Capital and their substantial production brewery that sits towards the back of their expansive warehouse, with an open space for dining in front. It’s the kind of setup that’s equal parts production and hospitality, where visitors can watch as the action takes place on the brew deck and see how the beer in their hand was made.
Food is the domain of the Canberran phenomenon Brodburger, the city’s cult food truck, which started out slinging burgers in local parks and has a permanent home in the taproom. Whether it’s thanks to the many beers or burgers, Capital’s home has truly been embraced by locals and visitors alike with the sprawling venue often filling despite its space for hundreds.
The different spaces within include cosy spots by the fireplace where you can watch a band take to the stage, or a beer garden where you can spend hours catching up with mates. The taps meanwhile pour through Capital’s well-loved core range and a steady roster of pilot and specialty release beers. Since 2020, the brewery’s also had a taproom inside Canberra airport, giving visitors the chance to enjoy one last Capital moment before heading home.
Central to Capital’s story is the stunning natural world that surrounds them and the brewery’s gone to great lengths to ensure the coast, bushlands and environmental they get to enjoy stays healthy. As one of Australia’s tiny number of B Corp breweries, Capital rigorously track their energy use and impact on the world around them and continually find new ways to mitigate them.
That includes their ongoing Trees for Tomorrow campaign that sees the brewery work with a range of partners to get trees into the ground in the Snowy Mountains, while in 2022, they became Australia’s first carbon neutral brewery.
Good Natured Brews? Certainly, but everything else they do is good natured too.