Brewery team raises a glass to new plant

Marking the start of a new era for Albany’s Wilson Brewing Co, the blossoming business has outgrown its original brewery and built a new one.

Wilson has expanded from its 500-litre hand-built model to a 3000-litre professional five-vessel, stainless steel electric brew system.

Director Matt Wilson said the demand for the product had gone through the roof and the business needed to increase capacity.

“We can produce 3000 litres a day, up from 3000 a week,” he said.

“We are looking at still supplying everything locally that we do and working on our expansion into the rest of the State.

“Maybe we will even start getting our beer interstate, which would be nice.”

Mr Wilson said the brewery would continue the five core beers, but the monthly sixth beer — using seasonal produce — would be the most affected by the upgrade.

“In the monthly seasonal, where we use a key local product, and on the 500-litre system, we just made chocolate-cherry-coconut porter, which is like a cherry ripe beer,” he said.

“This used 5kg-10kg of cherries but on the new system, we will be looking more like 100kg-150kg of cherries, so we can use the local produce and support local producers to showcase that local element in our beer.”

The new system was installed by the team at Wilson Brewing Co and local tradesmen and is due to be brewing in three weeks.

The first batches will be tested to ensure everything is working correctly, and the beers will be ready for customers in the weeks after.

“Everyone in Albany has been fantastic in supporting us, from our regular customers through to our member base and all the local businesses,” he said.

“Without the people of Albany, we wouldn’t be going anywhere.”