The people behind craft breweries are often eager to find ways to improve the community around them. It might be through the simple act of sponsoring a local fundraiser, working out how to cut down on the waste created by the brewing process, or switching to solar power.
At Spangled Drongo Brewery, however, doing good is built into every aspect of what they do. Sure, they make beer in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, but brewing is only a part of what drives them. What matters most is brewing for impact.
Even the Murwillumbah brewery’s name is a cute reference to such practices: the spangled drongo is the only member of its species native to Australia and is known for protecting young birds – both its own and others – from larger birds of prey.
Likewise, this Spangled Drongo contributes too: each beer sold protects a square metre of natural habitat in Australia so threatened and endangered animals have more places to live. And just as their namesake’s protective nature sees other birds set up nearby, the brewery’s ethos has fostered a community around it too.
The founders’ commitment can be traced back to the brewery’s very beginning when, at the start of 2022, Murwillumbah and the surrounding region were hit by the worst floods anyone had seen. By then, the three founders, Tom Cornish, Brian Kiss von Soly and Steve Murphy, had secured a lease on the town’s Regent Cinema with the dream of building a brewpub and skate bowl inside the Art Deco building.
But when their neighbours lost their homes, or found themselves stranded on their farms, they swung into action and turned their would-be brewery into a volunteer hub. Led by Tom, who has spent years working on energy projects in India and runs a tuk-tuk rental business in Sri Lanka to support local drivers (indeed, it’s quite a story which you can read about here), they rallied together to create donation drop-offs and to get supplies to those in need.
As the recovery continued, the brewery team decided the Regent might not be the right home for them and instead secured a substantial site in the town’s industrial area, right by Stone & Wood’s main production site.
By midway through 2023, Brian was leading all things beer on their 25-hectolitre system, the brewer having previously worked at their sizeable neighbour as well as Balter up on the Gold Coast. Beyond his experience working in some excellent breweries, Brian’s background warrants a few thousand words of its own: he holds a Guinness World Record for kite surfing after he travelled from his home in the Northern Rivers to his parents’ house in Melbourne.
The brewery’s core range is led by their flagship Pale Ale and a mid-strength Organic Lager. When it comes to how they brew, Brian keeps drinkability high and the “craft” element of craft beer high. Rarely for a production brewery, this means Spangled Drongo avoid using processing aids to keep the beer as nature intended.
Their care for the world runs through everything they do, aided by one of the local beer world’s leading sustainability champions, James Perrin. Like Brian, James is a Stone & Wood alumnus; while there he focused on implementing the brewery’s sustainable ethos up to the point they sold to Lion.
Joining the team as a late stage co-founder, James’ role with Spangled Drongo ensures they remain focused on their mission of doing good while brewing good. Such measures include the compostable can holders they use that take a little longer to package but don’t stay in the earth for several lifetimes, their preference for local ingredients, and their many community events.
Indeed, such events have been a major part of the brewery’s story since the early days, with Spangled Drongo working closely with local artists, organisations and musicians. In particular, they’ve formed close bonds with both the punk rock and skating scenes; co-founder Steve has spent his life skating and his career marketing the sport.
As such, while at the time of writing the brewers are still working towards creating a taproom, they’ve already found a community to call their own. After all, beyond delicious beer, community has long been at the heart of craft beer and here, as with the eponymous bird, protecting the world around them is in their nature.
Will Ziebell
