When Tracey & Bruce Green opened Bandicoot Brewing on the outskirts of Echuca in November 2014 it was the first time in more than a century that the town had had a brewery to call its own. The town was once a brewing epicentre, in the late 19th Century, when it was an integral part of the national logistics network – as the closest river town to Melbourne. As the reliance on transportation via the river network waned, so did the brewers of Echuca with the last closing in the early 20th century.
Like many other stories that have been documented along this journey, the Green’s started out homebrewing. Unlike most husband & wife teams, it’s not Bruce who is the brewer but Tracey. Tracey won a Homebrew comp in 2011, where the major prize was a brew day at Holgate. The seeds were sown for what would become her brewery.
Brewery Type
Physical
Region
The Murray
Tasting Room
2B/100 Northern Highway, Echuca
This sparked 3 years of research, blood, sweat & tears. Bruce has a background in fitting & machining & ended up constructing much of the brewery from bits & pieces they could cobble together. They launched their first beers, Rusty Pale Ale & Barbed Wire Blonde, to the public on November 15th, 2014 at the Bendigo Craft Beer Festival. They initially came to my attention as the first, and to my knowledge only, Australian brewer to embrace the aluminium bottle – something particularly popular in South America. It has the same benefits as a can for the beer, but tends not to alienate people (does that even happen anymore?) in the same way.
Bandicoot Brewing, which takes its name from Tracey’s nickname, is located in a non-descript warehouse, behind another warehouse, off the highway into Echuca from Melbourne. You walk in through a large roller door to a small bar area off to the side of the brewery. The bar is only open a couple of nights a week & seems like a bit of an after thought, with stainless steel and barrels taking up most of the space.
The seating is mostly high stools, upholstered to look like car seats, around stainless steel tables. The bar is black & had a heap of taps to choose from, although there is this neon blue light that would seem more at home in a dive bar at 2am than a brewery open a few nights a week. Any aspersions the interior may inspire are allayed as soon as you speak to Tracey or Bruce, who are both truly passionate about they do & know their stuff!
Bandicoot are best known for their Southern Courage, a barrel aged Russian Imperial Stout. Before venturing to their brewery, it was the only beer of theirs I’d tried. I sampled a wide range of styles before settling on reviewing Nightmare. It’s billed as a Black Rye IPA & clocks in at an appropriate 6.66%. Regular readers would be aware how much I love Black IPA’s & rye beers, so a combination of the two has to be good! There’s plenty of roast. which I think obscures most of the rye as it’s not very prominent, some chocolate & licorice as well as pine bitterness. Like most of their beers it’s a good example of the style.
Remember it’s always Beer O’Clock somewhere in the world!
