The buzzing beer scene in South West WA is to gain another new brewery, with construction work beginning this week on Shelter. It's set to be one of the most ambitious projects of recent years too, combining brewery and expansive 300-seat, 500-capacity venue a mere stone's throw from Busselton's iconic jetty.
It's also been a long time coming. Jason Credaro, one of six brothers from two local families overseeing the venture, has been exploring the possibility of opening a brewery on the town's foreshore – initially under the Blue Mile banner – for years. But now, with his brothers, Matt, Chris and Mike, plus Zeb and Asher Packard-Hair on board, the vision is set to become reality by spring 2020.
"The project itself hasn't changed too much," Jason says. "It's still a microbrewery on the foreshore. The one thing we have changed is now it's very much focused around the brew system and the beers and that craft beer culture; it's all about the community.
"I've seen that trend in the States – it's about owning your postcode."
The six directors have a fair claim to the postcode too – they're the fourth generation of both families to live in the area; Jason's family first moved there in 1922 and operate the Credaro Family Estate, while the Packard-Hairs operate Old Broadwater Farm, a popular venue for weddings and festivals. They intend to make Shelter family-friendly too, with an outdoor playing area for kids part of the plan.
“We want to create a place and an experience that captures the essence of Busselton’s relaxed beachside community and lifestyle,” Jason says.
"I grew up down here and you'd all go to the Dunsborough pub or here [the interview took place over breakfast at The Goose] or the Ship Inn, but slowly things changed, the live music scene kind of faded out a little bit.
"Now there's The Goose and Fire Station in town, Hamish [Coates of Rocky Ridge] is doing his thing [the brewery cellar door and craft beer bar Darleens are in Busso]. It's bringing life back to town.
"Busselton is quite a busy tourist town now – the low season is shrinking every year. A lot of people from Perth are coming down for weekends even in winter."
As well as sharing director duties with the other five brothers, he'll be taking on the head brewer role, having spent five years at Little Creatures from 2009 to 2014 and worked for other breweries, including Brick Lane in Melbourne, in the intervening years.
The plan is to install a 25 hectolitre system and large tanks – "My background is in big craft," Jason says. "I see value in economies of scale." – and line the roof with solar panels.
As for the name of the brewery, it's a reference to the nature of the location in Geographe Bay, sheltered from the conditions experienced by the coast to the west. And they hope the brewery itself will act as a shelter; if you visit in winter, you might not want to experience the cold on the beach for too long but you can sit inside with a beer and still take in the views.
What those beers will be remains to be seen, although Jason hints that approachability and sessionability will be key, given their intention to become a community hub. He acknowledges that people are increasingly open to craftier beer styles too – with the wider Margaret River region home to more than a dozen breweries, including some of the best-loved in the state, drinkers have had plenty of opportunity to expand their beer knowledge in recent years.
"I want to keep the permanent lineup to six or seven beers then have seasonals," he says, with "creative, bigger beers" there to help generate interest.
"All of us brewers down here have spoken about educating people about what craft beer is. That was one of the big things with WABA [the Western Australian Brewers Association] – how do you educate people about what craft beer is about?"
The scale and location of Shelter should ensure they have plenty of opportunity to do just that.
"It's a bit scary," he says, as construction workers arrive at the site next door to where we're sat. "But we'll wing it!"
For more on Shelter, head here.
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
