A butcher by trade and with a career in government under his belt, Chris De La Rue is also the founder of Eclectic Brewing – a small batch commercial business operating directly from his backyard in Campbelltown, Adelaide.
Recently the brewery received the highesthonour at the 2025 Royal Adelaide Beer and Cider Awards (RABCA), awarded Most Outstanding Beer in Show for its Mosaic Theory IPA.
De La Rue reflected on what it means to be a former hobby brewer leaving an impression on an industry he loves dearly with his small but mighty business.
“Brewers just try to make good beer and hope the punters like it. If an award or a trophy comes your way, well, that’s just validation of a good job. We have proved that even the small guys with the right processes and quality control can produce very high-quality beer,” he told Beer & Brewer.
He added that he first discovered home brewing in the late 1990s and, although he was passionate about, practicality was his priority.
“Everyone has the dream to turn pro, but it was not realistic at that time. I wasn’t prepared to give up a good government job and run on a wing and a prayer to open a brewery. I’m doing it now because I want to. It’s not about money. It’s just because I want to brew good beer and make people happy with it.”
He continued: “I’m a lot older now in my early 60s and it’s a big step to go and do something like this. But I’m doing it for the right reasons now. Before there might have been ego, and ‘look at me I’m the big shot’,” he joked.
Making an impact
De La Rue discovered the effect his beer had on people in 2017 when he began hosting annual parties for friends and family that celebrated good food and good beer – officially putting his hobby to the test.
“We’d have 75 people in our backyard, and I’d make sausages and smoked meat, and all the beers – sometimes 27 on tap. It was all for them. Everyone said that I needed to start producing, but I knew it wasn’t that easy. It was always sitting there in the back of my mind, but it wasn’t the plan.”
Until one day in 2021 when De La Rue overheard a conversation while sitting with his partner in a brewery that changed everything.
“We heard the owner saying that he was excited about upgrading. I looked at my partner, and she looked at me, and I called the bloke over. I said, ‘I heard you’re upgrading. What are you doing with this equipment?’ he said, ‘We’ll have to sell it eventually’.”
Moments later, De La Rue had bought the equipment, packed it up and taken it home, spending the next 12 months planning how to start a business and settling on a home-run brewery.
“It turned out to be a viable option and lowered the risk. We didn’t have to worry about paying commercial rent etc. Three months later, we were set up and operational.”
Small brewery with a big community
Without a hospitality venue or tap room to go with it, De La Rue reflected on the value of word of mouth when it comes to sharing Eclectic with his community.
“We rely on it or the occasional event. Over the last two years our beers have pretty much been sold out before we’ve even brewed them. That’s been a good problem to have, but it’s also stressful because you need to deliver. After winning our recent award I only had a couple of cases left. That’s the real challenge of our size,” he said.
Licensed venues and liquor stores selling Eclectic beers have approached De La Rue directly, thanks to the community – a lesson he said in sharing what you love.
“We’ve not gone to them. They find out about us generally by their customers saying, ‘we’ve tried Eclectic beer, and you need to get it in here.’ If you find a beer that you really like, don’t be afraid to go to your local and encourage them to get it, because they might just listen.”
Looking ahead
To meet demand De La Rue said he is scaling his business but emphasised that the goal is not to outgrow his space, rather work with it.
“We’ll be able to do potentially 1500 litre batches out of the same brew house, just with bigger fermenters. The space has been specifically designed to be able to grow with the business. We can still do the small batches, but we can produce more of the popular beers.”
For De La Rue, the future of Eclectic Brewing is about maintaining consistency and quality.
“My next batch, in my view, should always be my best. I want to continue down the same path and be able to concentrate on my beer. It is my number one priority.”
At its core, he said an ‘Eclectic’ beer will continue to be about bringing people together.
“A great beer is unifying. There’s nothing better than sitting down with your friends and having a couple of drinks. I want to keep offering up new and unique styles of beers that are worthy of someone’s hard-earned money.”
