STORY BY MICHAEL HARDEN, PHOTOS BY CHRIS TURNER

If you’re after a good example of someone being ahead of the curve, Scott Wilson-Browne from Ballarat’s Red Duck Beer is an excellent candidate. When Scott and his wife Vanessa decided to try their hand at brewing 15 years ago there were about 10 breweries in Australia, including the major players. Now there are between 700 and 800 across the country producing a staggering variety of product.

So how does Red Duck survive in the face of so much competition?

Scott believes it’s a combination of variety – he has more than 20 different beers available at any one time – and sticking to his original artisan plan.

“We’re definitely an artisan brewery,” he says. “Everything is all natural, conditioned in the can, the keg or in the bottle and my production methods are very hands-on. We don’t do filtration, we don’t pasteurise and we don’t use any chemicals which means my production is slower – it takes us three to four weeks to get a beer out the door whereas the big guys can do it in three to four days – but you end up with better flavour, better mouthfeel and more complexity. That’s what keeps people coming back.”

Given the quality and variety of his beer – everything from popular Pale and Amber Ale styles through to more out -there brews like a barrel-aged, French farmhouse-style saison called Walking With My Wild Best Friend – it’s hard to fathom that Scott is basically self-taught.

He started Red Duck Beer on the shores of Lake Purrumbete near Camperdown in Victoria’s Western District, in 2005 as a “value add” for the luxury guest house he and Vanessa were running at the time. He did a one-week course and then took it from there. But it wasn’t until 2009 when the family moved to Ballarat that beer became the main event.

“We looked all over Victoria for somewhere that would be suitable and affordable and we decided on Ballarat,” he says. “Ballarat had a vibe about it, there was a lot going on and an emerging foodie scene, some wineries just up the road that were fairly hot and Daylesford was less than half an hour away and so it ticked all our boxes for potential, housing and good schools for our kids.”

Scott has now expanded the business to include a distillery, contained in the same building as the Red Duck brewhouse. Kilderkin Distillery focusses on premium gin – called Larrikin - and premium whisky which has not yet been released.

“I only really want to release a super-premium whisky,” he says. “And so I’m prepared to wait until it’s just right. It’s shaping up very nicely right now but I think it will be ready for release in 2021 or 2022.

It’s not as if he doesn’t have anything to keep him busy until then. He and Vanessa are expanding the small cellar door facilities at Red Duck by moving some storage and equipment into a building next door to change the focus from the current tasting room situation to more of a bar where people will bring their friends and “buy a pint rather than a tasting paddle”.

With most of Red Duck Beer being sold in the local region, it won’t be too hard to attract the locals. Quality product always finds a crowd.

Red Duck Beer

5332 0723

redduckbeer.com.au

Michaels Drive, Alfredton, Ballarat