The former home of Temple Brewing will reopen as Keeper Brewing on Friday. Behind the new venture is one of beer's best-known names, bringing with them a dedication to a single beer.
Phil and Harry Sexton are launching the brewery alongside others the father and son worked with at the Matilda Bay brewpub in Healesville, which Asahi closed earlier this year.
On the off chance any readers don't recognise the name, Phil is one of the key figures in the rise of craft beer in Australia. He founded Matilda Bay in 1983, left when CUB took full control in 1990, helped relaunch BridgePort in Portland, USA, where he designed their trailblazing IPA, then returned to Australia as part of the team that founded Little Creatures and later White Rabbit. As well as brewing, he’s also made a whole lot of wine, creating Innocent Bystander and Giant Steps in the Yarra Valley.
As for Harry (pictured above), like his dad he studied biochemistry at uni with the intention to work in either brewing or winemaking. And, again like his dad, he's done both, working in wine both here and overseas, and later becoming the head brewer at Matilda Bay's brewpub.
He'll head up brewing at the Keeper, saying the decision to take over the Brunswick East site came quite quickly after the brewery closed just weeks after Asahi announced they were to close Matilda Bay.
“It wasn't a plan that had been hatched for years,” he told The Crafty Pint. “We heard the news from Asahi before they announced it publicly and before they announced it to the other staff and just went, ‘Oh god, now what do we do?'”
Initially, they'd hoped to stay in Healesville but Harry says they couldn't work out a way to take over the Matilda Bay site and launch a new brand there.
“Then Temple Brewing came up and it fit what we wanted to do in terms of the kit, scale and size of the place,” Harry says.
“We want to run it as a neighbourhood business that can survive in a market that’s so tough at the moment.”
Alongside Harry and Phil, two other Matilda Bay former employees are part of the project: Andy Dunn is leading business strategy and Mariam White will be in charge of their hospitality offering.
“That's really exciting,” Harry says. “Plus, we really want to use this venue for not just beer, but to host some music events too because my other love is DJing and the nightlife scene of Melbourne. So we want to really have a home for that here.”
Beer will, of course, be central to the operation – and just the one beer too: Keeper Pilsner. The unfiltered pilsner will be the only beer in their lineup, with each batch taking 12 weeks to go from grain to glass. It’s an unusual approach, even in a market that has embraced quality pilsners, but Harry says it’s what they’ve long wanted to do.
“We are going to brew one beer, which isn’t that common a thing in Australia but Dad has been kicking the idea around for ten years,” Harry says.
He points to how Phil’s time at Little Creatures was focused on the brewery’s flagship Pale Ale; on returning to Matilda Bay in 2019, he again stressed the importance of a having a strong flagship, telling The Crafty Pint at the time: “I want to get one beer out that can be successful and that we can really get focus on. A beer I want to do and that I’m comfortable with.”
That beer would ultimately become Matilda Bay’s Owl Original Ale, an English golden ale; while the focus on a single beer wasn’t right at that brewery, Keeper gives them a clean slate – and Harry feels the time is right to champion the clean style.
“We were looking at it for Matilda Bay but it was the wrong brand for that because it had so many well-loved beers,” Harry says. “We just think it’s the right time for a pilsner like this to tackle the market because it’s such a good style.”
In terms of the beer itself, as the lengthy lagering period suggests, Keeper Pilsner is steeped in tradition. While on a months-long cycling trip through Europe, Harry spent time exploring breweries in Germany and Austria, although stresses Keeper Pilsner is its own beer.
“We’re taking inspiration from that in terms of how cleanly and beautifully they make those beers,” Harry says. “But we’re not brewing German pilsner, we’re doing Keeper Pilsner and using some Australian ingredients too; the carbon miles on German malts would kill me.”
In part, the dedication to pilsner has come from looking at the wider hospitality scene around them, where cafés, bars and restaurants have zeroed in on perfecting a niche.
“Lune Croissant did it ten years ago, or look at Tarts Anon – they’re just doing tarts that are just incredible. You talk to a lot of people in hospitality and they are really narrowing down their offering too so the time does feel right,” Harry says.
“Why pilsner? Because we think it’s the best style; I’m sure there will be a lot of long arguments over beers around that one.”
For the foreseeable future, the focus will be on serving Keeper Pilsner through their own venue, while also focusing on keg sales. With limited funds and a small team, Harry sees it as the best way to ensure the quality lives up to their expectations, wherever drinkers might find it.
“We want to really narrow in on who want to sell to just to keep our beer fresh and incredible wherever it’s on tap,” he says.
The brewpub itself, which is a stone’s throw from Lygon Street, has been given a facelift too, with the streetside beer garden and inside bars reworked. The kitchen will serve up small and larger snacks and, while Keeper Pilsner will be the focus, it won’t be alone.
“The venue itself will champion our beer but pilsner’s not the style everyone wants to drink so we will have guest taps on,” Harry says.
As for the ethos behind the brand, Harry says they’re also avoiding the term “craft” given they aren’t making limited releases or brewing the breadth of styles found at most small breweries.
“We’re making beer brewed properly,” he says, “with as much time as it needs to make a beer as good as possible. Which isn’t what big corporate breweries are doing; they’re churning and burning and getting it out in three weeks.”
Keeper Brewing opens on Friday, November 29 at 3pm. You'll find them and their pilsner at 122 Weston Street, Brunswick East.
From there, the opening hours are from 3pm on Thursday and Friday from midday on Saturday and Sunday.
Will Ziebell is a history graduate who knows more about The Wire than he does about beer. He was awarded the AIBA Best Media trophy for 2018; HBO have told him to please send his fan mail elsewhere. He can be found on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer:
Spending time living in the UK (and backpacking across Europe) when I was 21 certainly gave me a better understanding of the beer and different styles of the world. But I'd say it was a holiday to the High Country a little while later when lunch and a tasting paddle at Bridge Road Brewers created an obsession with Australian breweries and locally made beer.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
-
Boatrocker's Miss Pinky: It's a raspberry-packed Berliner Weisse that neither looks or tastes the way many people conceive of beer.
-
Bad Shepherd Hazelnut Brown: A luscious mix of chocolate and hazelnut that can appeal to the sweet tooth within us all.
-
Stone & Wood Pacific Ale: As the father of my oldest friend once said to me: "It's the perfect refreshing pint that smells like they've loaded it with the God's herb."
The last beer you enjoyed:
Garage Project's DFA while sitting at the bar at Miss Moses as the sounds of The Rolling Stone drifting in the background.
Three things that represent you:
- Bruce Springsteen
- Ken Burns
- The State Library of Victoria
