Blood, sweat and tears. That’s what you’ll see when you walk into Watsacowie Brewing Company – or the results of them anyway.
The culmination of five years of hard work for owner Brendan Phasey and his wife Roxanne, Watsacowie Brewing Company is a brewery, cellar door and bar located in Minlaton, Yorke Peninsula.
The only business of its kind in the region, Watsacowie is housed in an old Highways Department depot, which Brendan and Roxanne, along with head-brewer Justin Murdoch (and many of their friends and family) have spent the past 12 months renovating and restoring.
Watsacowie Brewing Company is a brewery, cellar door and bar.
The team has clad the walls, painted the floor, built the furniture and installed the jewel in the crown – their English oak brewing vessels.
“We sourced a lot of our timbers from an old wool shed that had blown over in the area,” Brendan says.
“The bar is made from these recycled timbers, with an 80mm Jarrah top on it. The table tops are made from the wool shed’s Oregon beams, and the aesthetics of our timber-clad fermenters really work well with everything we have created.”
Roxanne Phasey (pictured) and husband Brendan have spent five years bringing Watsacowie Brewing Company into existence.
Working in IT for over 15 years, Brendan reached a point where he was tired of selling people a product which everyone needed, but no one wanted.
“It felt like the right time to move on,” Brendan says. “It is certainly a massive leap of faith… or a massive leap of insanity!”
Brendan and Roxanne both grew up in the Adelaide Hills, but moved around a lot for work, spending quite a bit of time living in regional areas.
“We didn’t want to open another brewery in the city,” Brendan says.
“We wanted to join a community and to be able to enjoy the lifestyle that goes with living in the country. Also, Minlaton has been known as The Barley Capital of the World – so where better to open a brewery?”
Resident red kelpie Jazz enjoying the ambience
The brewery can produce up to 80,000 litres a year and currently has four beers on regular rotation including a light, summer ale in the style of a German Kolsch, as well as a Hefeweizen wheat beer, and Brendan’s personal favourite, the Red Ale.
They also sell cider and wine.
The jewel in the crown – their English oak brewing vessels.
Brendan says they have definitely made the right decision in choosing the location for the business.
“We actually came close to running out of beer in our first few weeks,” Brendan says.
“We completely underestimated the demand. The support from the locals has been amazing and everyone here agrees that we have really only scratched the surface of what the Yorke Peninsula can offer as a tourism destination.”
Brendan says the company has plans in place to build a distribution market to sell the beer in Adelaide too.
“The whole project has been a really huge effort, not just for us, but also our family and friends,” Brendan says.
“We are incredibly lucky to have them helping us to realise this dream.”
Watsacowie Brewing Company is located at 9 Depot Road, Minlaton, open Friday to Sunday from 11am-6pm.
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