Nine craft breweries now officially make up the High Country Brewery Trail with two newcomers joining the ever-expanding fold – Mitta Mitta Brewing Co. with its new range including a cracker Belgian-styled farmhouse ale and Billson’s Brewery Beechworth, a brand that’s relaunched a series of historic beers using original recipes taken from a recently discovered secret brewer’s diary.

Earlier this week all member brewers travelled to trail’s most north-easterly point Mitta Mitta, for the annual collaborative brew day. The aim was to cook up the new signature #Rule 47 beer; a name inspired by velominati.com’s cycling etiquette rule #47 that outlines how to ‘beer is a cycling recovery drink’, and that one must ‘drink quality beer from real breweries – life is short, don’t waste it on piss beer’.

Mitta Mitta’s Tim Cabelka and Alec Pennington

The 2019 Rule #47 brew is a Kveik Red IPA, featuring a Norwegian farmhouse strain of yeast (Kveik), Voyager Craft Malt from a single origin small batch craft house and hops from the Ovens Valley’s Rostrevor Gardens. Brew day hosts, Tim Cabelka and best mate Alec Pennington, with partners Jen and Chris, launched the Mitta Mitta craft brewery last year, successfully building the business from scratch following a tree change from the Mornington Peninsula.

Nathan Cowan and Felicity Cottrill – new energetic owners of Billson’s Beechworth

Newcomer to the trail, Nathan Cowan joined the brew team this week. Nathan is highly respected for transforming the historic Billson’s Brewery in Beechworth into a thriving producer of not only a new range of cordials and sodas ; but for crafting tonics, gin, whisky and now, beer using the spring water sourced from a restored water well on site. In the 1880s when Billson’s was the biggest supplier of beer in the North East.

Beer paddle and fresh hops are a signature of the High Country Brewery Trail

The latest additions to the High Country Brewery Trail join Black Dog Brewery in Taminick, Blizzard Brewery in Dinner Plain, Bridge Road Brewers in Beechworth, Bright Brewery, King River Brewing in the King Valley, Rutherglen Brewery and Social Bandit Brewing Company in Mansfield – the group offering visitors a sensational way to explore the stunning scenery, fresh hop and malt flavours making up some of Australia’s finest lip-smacking beers.

Mitta Mitta Brewing Co
639 Mitta North Rd, Mitta Mitta, Victoria
Tel 0499 600 914
mittabrewing.com.au

Billson’s Brewery
29 Last St, Beechworth, Victoria
Tel 03 5728 1304
billsons.com.au

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