By Ian Williams
By any measure it should be a tough gig selling beer to one of the world’s biggest producers and consumers of the amber brew.
But that’s exactly what Adelaide Hills micro brewery Prancing Pony has achieved after just three years in business – exporting beer to Germany.
Now the company has invested $1 million in new state-of-the-art brewing equipment as it expands to keep up with demand at home and overseas.
It’s one of those wonderful coals-to-Newcastle stories that began in 1983 when German migrants, husband and wife Frank Samson and Corinna Steeb landed in South Australia.
They loved their adopted country apart from one minor detail – Frank couldn’t find a traditional German beer anywhere. So he started brewing his own – a hobby that just kept growing.
“About four years ago we realised we had a small brewery in our garage so we sat down and looked at setting up our own business,” said Corinna. “It’s been a helluva roller-coaster ride since but we haven’t looked back.”
Frank Samson and Corinna Steeb – Prancing Pony Brewery
The couple has diverse professional skills which are proving key to making such a venture work.
Frank is a physicist, engineer and project manager while Corinna started out in medical sciences as a physiologist before becoming a business strategist.
Today Corinna is Prancing Pony’s CEO while Frank is the head brewer who used his engineering expertise to design the company’s early brewing equipment.
“We soon grew out of our Mt Barker facility so moved to larger premises in a more prominent position outside of Hahndorf on the tourism trail,” said Corinna.
They opened a large 120-seat restaurant next to the brewery which proved an instant success with 500 to1,000 people visiting every week.
But there was still one downside – the brewing equipment was great for making ales but not traditional-style German brews such as pilsner and hefeweizen wheat beer.
The solution is a top-of-the-range brewing installation from Braukon in Germany – the only equipment of its kind currently in use in Australia. To celebrate its commissioning Braukon brewmaster Andreas Wagner joined Frank last week to brew Prancing Pony’s first imperial pilsner.
The size of the equipment also means Prancing Pony can substantially increase production from 250,000 litres a year to a maximum three million litres.
The expanded capacity is most definitely needed with production this year expected to reach 400,000 litres.
Prancing Pony has quickly penetrated the South Australian market and has just appointed a national distributor.
“We’re also expecting more orders from Germany and we’ve also exported to London and Hong Kong,” said Corinna. “We’ve only been in business for three years but it feels more like 100.”
Prancing Pony is a Brand South Australia member.
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