Tom Gannon
The Latrobe Valley is only a few short months away from getting its first commercial-scale brewery.
Good Land Brewing Co in Traralgon East is the passion project of local lad Jimmy Krekelberg, who says he is ready to revolutionise local beer and create something that is the Latrobe Valley’s own.
Although the brewery is close to opening, the journey it’s taken to get to this point has been a long one.
Mr Krekelberg’s love affair with craft beer started over 10 years ago after getting his first experience with home brewing.
“I bought a slab of Little Creatures pale ale, which 10 years ago was the beer from a craft perspective. I drank all the beer and kept the empty bottles and caps and put my home brew in those bottles,” he said.
“I then took a six pack of it around to a cousin’s place and after a few I told them I made the beers and they couldn’t believe it.”
It was at this moment Mr Krekelberg said his eyes were opened to the possibility of pursuing his passion further and acted as the spark that would see him work at some of Europe’s best breweries.
“Ten years ago when I first tasted craft beer and made my first home-brew it was ‘I want this for my friends, my family, people I went to school with and to bring something to the community that we don’t have here’,” he said.
“That feeling of someone tasting something you’ve created made me think ‘this is what I want to do’ and the more and more I looked into going fully commercial I realised I needed to get experience from a commercial brewery.”
In 2011, Mr Krekelberg moved to Scotland and spent over two years working and learning at Stewart Brewing, Edinburgh’s largest independent brewery.
“They taught me things from marketing to sales to production, they were a really good business that did everything themselves,” he said.
After returning to Traralgon in 2015, Mr Krekelberg was “ready to hit the ground running” but found himself heading back to the other side of the world after landing a job at Brouwerij De Molen, one of the Netherland’s best breweries.
It was here he began to figure out what he was missing from beer back in the Valley.
“You could always taste the local region, you could always go somewhere and ask what local beers they had in at the moment and they would say ‘there’s a local brewery down the road and we’ve got this selection’,” he said.
It’s this local focus that Mr Krekelberg wanted to bring back to the Valley and provided the basis for Good Land’s ethos.
“I suppose the dream was always to have my own brewery in Traralgon since I was born here, went to school here and all my friends and family are here as well,” he said.
“For the Latrobe Valley to have its own brewery I think is a fantastic idea and people from the Valley and Gippsland are pretty passionate about the area and do like to support local and get behind businesses in the area.
“To have a brewery here where you can come and buy beer but also go out to local restaurants and cafe’s on the weekend and try a local beer there while supporting local industry is what I think people want and it’s what I like to do.”
The brewery plans to open with the launch of four unique beers, the recipes of which have been in development over the last 10 years.
This will include a crisp lager, a fruitier version of a pale ale, a session XPA/IPA (Extra pale ale and India pale ale) hybrid and a one-off seasonal beer, all of which will be made from recipes that have been in development over the last 10 years, something Mr Krekerlberg said will “bring a bit of nuance to old school beers”.
The brewery will feature a bar area that leads into the brewing room, giving patrons the experience of enjoying a drink right next to where it was brewed.
“I really wanted a place where you could come and sit amongst the stainless steel and the tanks, enjoying a beer that was brewed and crafted 10-15 metres away from where you’re drinking, it which is an awesome experience,” he said.
Mr Krekelberg hopes the brewery will open people’s eyes to the world of craft beer and become a Traralgon and Latrobe Valley institution.
“I really want this to be a social place that encourages conversation between like-minded people that want to be here, that enjoy the craft and enjoy the beer,” he said.
Good Land began its first brew on Tuesday and hopes to open to the public in in the coming months.
Updates can be found at www.goodland.beer
