The Brewing Nomads

A self-described nomadic company, mismatch utilises the equipment of other breweries to craft their ales. “I guess it’s another way of calling ourselves Gypsy brewers,” explains mismatch’s Ewan Brewerton on the nomad tag. “We’d love to have our own brewery but the capital outlay is extremely high. We want to spend the first phase of the company’s life cycle testing the market, to see whether our company has the legs to make it in a difficult South Australian market. Believe me, I would love my own brewery but it’s going to take a while to grow our capital and prove ourselves in the market. Once we achieve this, I’ll be ordering the brewery in the blink of an eye.” The company formed with a minimal budget but Brewerton says they have enough capital to make the best product possible. “To us, product is number one. We’re not paying big dollars for marketing firms to create our brand. We’d prefer the brand to be organically grown through time as we ultimately find our identity.” A former employee of McLaren Vale Beer Co, Brewerton ran the Salopian Inn before deciding to study brewing in the UK in 2011. He got a job with Little Creatures upon his return where he learnt about the brewing world and made enough contacts to go out on his own. “Fortunately a couple of mates in the industry were talking about starting a brewery at that time. Over a few months the stars aligned and we formed mismatch brewing company.” The company is a “mishmash” of craft beer lovers and aside from Brewerton involves Tobias Kline, Steve Dorman and Simon Tscharke. Brewerton is the only full-time employee. Mismatch recently launched its first batch – Archie’s Red Ale, named in honour of a friend of Brewerton’s who recently beat cancer. “The beer was named after Archie as a reminder that the more we discover about diseases, the more chance we have at beating them. Archie is the life of the party, a genuinely nice bloke and someone we’re proud to have named this beer after. It’s a tribute to beating disease.” Red Ale is not a traditional ale to launch with, however, which is why they chose it. “It was a point of difference and very limited in the market. When looking at putting this brand together, I was tired of companies always releasing a pale ale. Don’t get me wrong, I love a ‘good’ pale ale, but too many ‘brand-based companies’ were releasing pale ale, because that was deemed the norm and what people wanted (or told they wanted). “This particular ale is special to me because it’s my first commercial beer. It’s a scary concept to go to the market with a product that you’ve created. To make it a reality is really exciting! I’ve been testing brews for months on my small-scaled kit and had my family by my side trying each batch and seeing the improvements over time. This brew has had a lot of love put into it and will be special every time it’s brewed. We won’t be releasing it as a permanent line, but will save it for seasonal releases, keeping it special.” The red ale was brewed at Brewpack in New South Wales, as they couldn’t complete this locally. “I explored many options in South Australia but found that although the breweries had a brew-house we could use, they didn’t have the tank space available. There’s a new contract brewery opening in the next month or so called Big Shed Brewing, that’ll be filling this role of a much needed contract brewer in South Australia. Moving forward, we’ll be working with Big Shed to brew our keg products and Brewpack. We would love to move our pack production to SA when we find the right space. “The craft beer community is a small group but SA is experiencing significant growth this year. Generally, we come from a common love of craft beer, competing in a highly competitive market. We try and work together to encourage venues to try different beer and rotate them to change the drinking patterns of beer drinks. A simple philosophy of drinking less but better. This is a business model adopted by The Wheatsheaf in Thebarton. They have 12 beer taps rotating every day, with beers from all around the world and Australia. They pay full price for all their products and don’t bastardise brands by offering discount deals and happy hour. People go to the Wheaty to try something different, creative and delicious. Mismatch is currently in the development phase of its next release, a session ale. “It’s an easy drinking ale, light yellow appearance with a slight cloud, a nice malt character balanced with enough bitterness to make this beer drinkable and moreish.” mismatchbrewing.com.au