We chat with Murray’s Brewer Sean Costigan

The magic of a good beer: Water, malt, hops and yeast.

As a Newcastle based liquor wholesaler, Global Brands Liquor (GBL) is 100% behind Newcastle and Hunter producers and suppliers, and Murray’s Brewery is no exception.

Located on the drive to Nelson’s Bay from Newcastle, Murray’s Brewery is a destination that sees almost 1000 people stop by for a cold one and a bite to eat each weekend.

Murray’s Brewery started in 2006 in Taylors Arm at the Pub With No Beer. “They were one of the first breweries to do a double IPA or an imperial stout”, explains Sean, “all those kind of common place craft beers you see today”.

Having been in the market now for many years, Murray’s is well supported by both both customers and venues alike. During this time GBL has developed a strong partnership with the brewery, working together to help each others business grow.

Like a lot of people have done at some point in their lives, Sean started home brewing from a young age, “just started doing really bad kit beers”. Then in 2010 he decided to actually start making it from scratch, which he admits “is a whole different ball game”.

“I got a job at a home brew shop and I was there for about 2 years, and got to meet the original brewer, Shawn Sherlock, who was here and is now at Fog Horn in town. He offered me a job as an assistant Brewer [at Murray’s].

Tell me a bit about the process of how beer is made?

“It’s pretty complex so I won’t talk all day about it, but the basic overview is that you use 4 main ingredients water, malt, hops and yeast.

“Water, specifically here, we have a unique situation where we actually process our own water, we aren’t on the town grid…it goes through many different filters but the main one being reverse osmosis, so out the other end of that you get really nice soft water. We actually add to it certain types of salts to create water profiles that suit certain styles of beer. 

Malt, malted barley and malted wheat, is basically where we get our sugars from. There are a lot of flavours that come from the malt. For example, if you get a stout or something like that, that really dark colour and those chocolaty, coffee roasted flavours, that comes from specialty malts that have been treated in a certain way. You can get a very diverse range of different flavours.

“After mashing the malt, we then separate the grains from the sugars, which is now in solution. The grain is then a waste product, but here we give it to Oak Vale Farm down the road for their cows, and also Kookaburra Farm Stay over the hill. 

“So, we have the sugar in liquid which we boil up and you can add hops to it. Hops are used for a couple of different reasons, bittering being the main reason and also flavour and aroma which comes from the oils in hops. You can get a really wide and diverse range of flavours and aromas from hops, depending on where it’s grown and what the variety is. We use a bit from Australia, a bit from New Zealand and a bit from America, depending on the style of beer we are making at the time”.

What are the most popular flavours at the moment?

“I think lower bitterness, especially this time of year, easy drinking session beers. But something you can get a lot of character out of so something that smells great, taste great but isn’t going to leave you with an intense after taste. 

“Lagers are always in, we sell a lot of lagers over our taps, so just that cliché, session-able, crisp, delicious beer.

“And who knows what’s next, it changes so quickly. Especially new and interesting styles, they will come and go so quickly. Whether that is a good thing or bad thing I don’t know”. 

Do you have a favourite beer at the moment?

“From ours on tap? I have to say our XPA. And I suppose that is sort of following that trend at the moment of higher hop character and low bitterness, really drinkable but really flavoursome at the same time”.

I have recently noticed a lot more beers packaged in a can. What are your thought on cans compared to a bottle?

“It’s changing quite rapidly towards cans. As far as packaging goes, cans are more accessible, but there still is a bit of a stigma against them. There is the benefit of them being accepted into festivals and sporting events, and they are 100% recyclable.

“From a brewing perspective I really like them because they are better at excluding light and oxygen, they are lighter, and you can fit more onto a pallet. We currently do about 50/50 cans”.

Murray’s Brewery offer tours and tastings everyday at 2:15pm for only $5. Plus, if you’re coming from Nelson Bay there is a shuttle but so need to shot gun not driving!