Take The First Exit

May 14, 2014, by Crafty Pint

Take The First Exit

They grew up in the same neck of the woods and their mums played tennis at the same club, but it was their careers that first brought them together and beer that looks like changing their lives. Fraser Rettie and Craig Knight – or Frase and Grum to their mates – are the pair behind one of Australia’s newest brewing companies, Exit Brewing (we’re afraid to say “newest” as the chances are another three will have launched since you started reading this intro), and released their first beer earlier this month. The pair both hail from Melbourne and are both living in Melbourne these days, but have enjoyed a rather circuitous path in the meantime.

“We both grew up in the outer eastern suburbs of Melbourne, near Croydon,” says Frase. “We didn’t know each other as kids but ended up working together on the same IT project at Citipower and found out that our mums knew each other from playing the same tennis club.”

In 2000, Frase headed to the UK to work on another IT project. Grum’s brother was also working over there and, eventually, the pair was reunited and began to develop a shared passion for good beer, something that was scarce in Australia at the time.

“We are inspired by and thoroughly supported the revolution we saw firsthand in the UK,” says Frase. “We were also lucky enough to be close at hand to some fantastic very small breweries such as the Kernel and Brodie’s in London and Marble in Manchester.

“But our first inspiration was going to Belgium. The first time you go there and see all these different beers – the massive variety they have there – you are just, ‘Wow!’. I was also lucky enough to live in Brussels for three months – about a 25 minute walk to Cantillon. [It’s] virtually impossible not to get inspired by that.

“We liked a lot of the British real ales too so we decided to give the brewing lark a bit of a go. I’ve been to the US plenty of times and been to Philly Beer Week and you meet so many people through beer and it seems to be a terrific community.

“It’s not nationalistic. Wherever you go – Germany, Belgium, the US – there is a terrific community.”

And so it was that, five years ago, they began homebrewing before making the step up at the start of this year. After more than a decade overseas, they returned to Australia within six months of each other and then signed up for the ever-growing community brewery that is Cavalier in Melbourne’s west after sharing their grand vision with one of the staff at Frase’s local bottleshop, Slowbeer.

“We weren’t interested in contract brewing,” says Frase. “We got the opportunity through Shayne, who works at Slowbeer and at Cavalier and told us what they were doing at the brewery. This seemed like a great, cost effective way for us to bridge the gap between home/nano brewing and getting our own brew house. We bought a 3000 litre fermenter there and also have a pilot/nano system that a UK brewer had put us on to set up in an industrial unit in Seaford. We use that to brew experimental stuff – one keg and a few bottles at a time.”

With their shiny new fermenter in place at Cavalier, they chose to brew a Saison as their first beer. And what a debut it is: an elegant, spicy, herbal and dry take on the style featuring Galaxy, Sorachi Ace and Citra hops that belies the fact it is their first stab at commercial brewing, tagged Exit #001.

“The world doesn’t need another pale ale,” says Frase. “I have nothing against them but we love Saisons and it’s a beer tends to have quite a broad appeal. It appeals to the beer geeks as well as people who are just coming across.”

Its packaging is a tight as the beer inside. When meeting Frase for the first time we commented that it reminded us of the packaging and graphic design used by many of the new wave of English craft brewers in its simplicity and boldness. It turns out this is no accident: their main inspiration for it was London’s Kernel Brewery, where they would spend many a Saturday morning with fellow beer lovers sampling the brewer’s latest wares.

“I think when we saw the very small set up of the Kernel’s original brewery that sowed the seeds that made us think we can give this a shot,” he says.

 

Exit-Brewing-2
Grum – left – and Frase – right – at the launch

 

There are no plans to have a core range – hence the Saison being labelled #001 – although certain beers will reappear (including, hopefully, Saison). The next large batch will be a Scotch ale, with plans for experiments out of the Seaford setup using “different fruits, yeasts and other tasty ingredients, which may or may not include my mum’s cumquat marmalade at some stage,” says Frase.

Beyond that, they hope to get their own brewery at some point – and maybe offer a similar helping hand to others that Cavalier has offered to them. As they say, it’s a fantastic community.

Frase and Grum’s Favourite Aussie Beers

  • All the KAIJU! beers – great guys and fantastic beers (and cider).
  • Hendo (BrewCult) does some great stuff in particular his Hop Zone and it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t mention what a fantastic help he has been to us since we first met him.
  • Other faves are Holgate Mt Macedon, Feral beers (in particular Raging Flem), HopDog, Boatrocker, La Sirène and Mountain Goat (especially Surefoot) will always have a place in our hearts.

The Lifechangers

Gouden Carolus Classic, BrewDog Hardcore IPA and Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus all blew us away and inspired us in different ways and, in turn, turned us on to so many other great beers and breweries.

Find Exit #001

The beer is (or at least, has been) at Slowbeer, Two Row in Smith St, Collingwood, The Terminus, Carwyn Cellars (where we will be on tap for their Belgian event at Good Beer Week), The Gertrude and The Junction in Newport.

Bottles will be available Slowbeer and the Park Hotel in Werribee “and hopefully many other places to come”. They are at the Hair of the Dog Breakfast at Good Beer Week (sold out) and the Cavalier Open Day on May 17 (almost sold out).

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