Award-winning Head Brewer at Bright Brewery, Lewis Kerr shares his journey to a career in brewing and how his active lifestyle and connection to the environment have been significant influences of his work.
Kerr is a graduate from Deakin University with a degree in Business and Sports management, working in the sports industry for several years until one day he was made redundant.
With time to kill and by sheer coincidence, Lewis took up a new hobby that he never expected would turn into a career.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was probably one of the best things that ever happened. On the way home from the pub that day, I stumbled past the home brew shop, and they had a beginner kit for sale. I had nothing else to do until I found another job, so I started home brewing like mad,” he said.
Enjoying the process from day one, Kerr began reading and studying everything he could about brewing before finally landing his first job.
“I hustled and I harassed pretty much any and every brewery in Melbourne for about six months and ended up getting my first brewing job at Moon Dog. Fast forward eight years, and I’ve now worked at a handful of great breweries, completed my IBD certificates in Brewing and Distilling, and just finished my IBD diploma in brewing.”
He said one of his proudest career moments to this day is still the first commercial beer he released.
“It was a single keg of strawberry and rhubarb sour at Moon Dog OG, and I invited friends and family down to enjoy it and it was just sensational. Then watching somebody go back and pay for a second one and for a third one, knowing that it was good enough to warrant repeat business was pretty special.”
Kerr has worked at Bright Brewery for the past 2.5 years, after his family decided they needed a change of scenery. They traded in the city life in Melbourne for Victoria’s Alpine region where they could spend more time doing the outdoor activities they love.
When his wife landed a job at the local school, they “pulled the trigger and made the move”.
“I was lucky enough to pick up a job brewing for Bridge Road, in Beechworth, and after several months, another position opened up at Bright and the opportunity beckoned.”
“It’s pretty sick living up here, like I can go for a fish in the morning, knock off a brew, finish up the day with a mountain bike ride, wander down to the river for a swim right out the front of the brewery. We’re really living the dream.”
Connection to the environment
Kerr said something that makes Bright Brewery so special is that “we’re a brewery that’s aligned with the lifestyle, rather than just being a brewery for the sake of making beer”.
So, when creating new brews, he draws inspiration from his local environment and community in the town of Bright.
“The active community inspires the [brews] because we do have to brew beers for those who live up here, not necessarily for greater Australia. We’re surrounded by mountain biking, trail running, rock climbing, paragliding, a lot of active stuff, so a lot of people don’t want to go skiing or trail running hungover. Because of this, we focus more on the sub six per cent of ABV more often than not.”
As a lover of nature, Kerr said another high priority in his work and for the business is sustainability in brewing.
“We live in a pretty sensitive environment. We are seeing the effect of climate change up here firsthand. We’re seeing our winters get a lot shorter, our summers get a lot longer. So, it is something that we’re super conscious of especially because our lifestyles outside of work rely on the environment as well.”
As a result, Kerr said there is a great deal of support for sustainability across the business.
“As opposed to a top-down approach from management, we’re actually doing it because we can see the impact firsthand.”
Kerr told Beer & Brewer that a big part of Bright Brewery’s commitment to sustainability is operating as an electricity positive business during the day.
“We have 175 kilowatts of solar panels on the roof. I don’t know how to put that into perspective for most people but it’s literally every inch of our roof is a solar panel.”
In the day time the solar panels feed a significant amount of electricity back into a virtual grid network that provides power to the brewery, the bar and other local businesses.
“On a summer day, we would use less than 30 to 35 per cent of the electricity that we produce on site. So, we have a massive surplus, which is really cool,” he said.
Last year the brewery acquired a grain silo, which Kerr said has reduced plastic bag usage by almost 4000 units a year and reduced malt deliveries by about 20 to 30 times a year.
In the future Kerr hopes to see the industry continue to move towards “cleaner and greener beer”.
“It’s no secret that brewing has a massive impact on the environment. I think most people believe and are aware that legislation will be changing significantly over the next few years, which is going to make it more critical for breweries to simply be better and do better,” he said.
“I think token gestures and ‘close enough is good enough’ will no longer be good enough. Hopefully it’s not a trend, hopefully it is permanent.”
Growing with the business
Kerr noted a career highlight for him has been his involvement in Bright Brewery’s growth journey.
“We’re really transitioning from a small regional brewery to a medium-sized production facility. The project management, the process systems, and manufacturing structures that we’re working on at the moment, are all pretty exciting to me.”
After almost 20 years of success and hard work in Bright, the brewery recently expanded, acquiring the Prince Alfred Hotel (affectionately known as PA’s) in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton.
“It’s taken a few years and a few false starts to get off the ground down in Melbourne, but I think waiting for the right location, it was worth it in the end,” he said.
“It’s a massive step forward for us. I think it’s a sign of the brand maturing as well. We’ve got enough buy-in that we’re stable and that we’re comfortable to expand. We’ve opened our own venue, which allows us to move more of our beer and maintain oversight throughout the venue, throughout the channel, throughout the experience.”
The historic pub is located across from Melbourne University and is a popular student spot.
“We’ve got a lot of staff and business ties with Melbourne Uni, both alumni and current students. So having the venue next door really brings an element of nostalgia for some.”
Kerr said he believes Bright’s products are also a good fit for the changing drinking culture.
“Maybe 10 years ago, it was all about drinking the cheapest beer you could and going out clubbing and getting written off. I think maybe the culture is changing. We’re seeing a lot of the younger generation drink better, but drink less. So having a Uni bar that sells independent beer that’s not too strong is great.”
Looking ahead
Kerr said a key goal for Bright Brewery is to maintain the growth of the business.
“We’re lucky enough that we’ve still been growing over the past few years. We’ve also been working really hard to tidy up our recipes, work towards implementing key quality parameters, improving process efficiencies, managing our cost of goods and I think we’re doing really well. We have come a long way in a couple of years, but there’s always room to do better.”
In terms of new products, Kerr says that drinkers can keep a look out for their first beer adjacent products.
“We are probably one of the last breweries in the country that is as old as us, that has never offered anything but beer. This year, we’ll be releasing seltzers, and we’ve just installed some new packaging assets, including the pasteurizer.
“That’s going to allow us to start creating some really low and no alcohol beer for the first time ever. And honestly, it’s something I’m really excited about trying to develop and nail.”