“Serve the People” YOUNG HENRYS -NEWTOWN BREWERY
“THE STORY”
Like most good stories, ours started over a beer. Meeting on opposite sides of the bar, Richard Adamson and Oscar McMahon got talking over their love of beer and music, and discovered they also shared the view that the Australian beer scene felt a little stagnant – that it should be more adventurous, innovative and fun. With Richard’s experience in brewing, and Oscar’s hospitality know-how, they decided they should do more than just talk.
Overcoming a tangle of red tape, Young Henrys eventually found a home in a modest warehouse in the backstreets of Newtown. With a few friends, a small brew kit and the maxim to ‘serve the people’, the first Young Henrys beers were brewed in March 2012.
Joining the YH team early on, Dan Hampton came onboard as Head of Sales in a team of one. Sharing a love for good beer and Australia’s ever-growing craft beer industry, Dan became the third leg of the Young Henrys tripod. From being the youngest cop in the NSW police force, to managing hospitality venues across NSW and QLD, Dan has adopted the lifelong lesson on how to meet new people and talk honestly.
Bringing this gift into the YH world, Dan now plays coach to a sales team of 35-strong, spreading the good word of Young Henrys across the country.
The idea has always been pretty simple: brew beer our local community would enjoy and be proud to call their own. As much as we’ve grown, that’s remained fundamentally the same, with “our community” stretching far beyond the geographical; constantly evolving to include like-minded folk throughout Australia, united by the values we hold dear – music, art, culture & community.
Still young but growing fast, in a blurry landscape of big beer buy-outs and crafty labels, we sit proudly and reliably independent. With our Newtown brewery upgraded to a high-efficiency brewing system (HEBS mash press), we send kegs,Still young but growing fast, in a blurry landscape of big beer buy-outs and crafty labels, we sit proudly and reliably independent. With our Newtown brewery upgraded to a high-efficiency brewing system (HEBS mash press), we send kegs, cans and bottles to quench thirsts in watering holes around the country, including our own bustling tasting bar. Newtowner – our Aussie Pale Ale and homage to the suburb we call home – has proven a firm-favourite country wide; polling at #4 in GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of the Year 2017 and again in 2018.
“And we think everyone deserves to drink good beer…”
OUR BEER
We brew beer to suit the modern Australian palate and climate. Our core range is made up of well-balanced, easy-drinking beers. Free from bells and whistles, these stalwarts best showcase Australian hops and malts wherever possible.
Our limited releases provides our brewers the chance to colour outside the lines, while helping shine a light on the legends who make them. For the recent ‘Brewers’ B-sides’ series we plumbed the depths of a Coral Sour, Tiramisu White Stout, Brut IPA, and Rumming with the Devil Rum & Raisin Brown Ale.
Our frequent collaborations offers a playground outside of the brewing industry, whether it be with a hazy lager for The Foo Fighters or a super-sessionable hemp IPA using a world-first water-soluble hemp oil method with Byron-based clothing label Afends.
“…whether they’re at a pub, bar, music festival, footy game or in the backyard. ”
COLLABORATIONS
We’ve never been fans of only talking shop with our own industry. When you team up with people who share your pride, care and passion for the thing they produce – whether that’s music, art, food or other tasty beverages – you hit that sweet spot where interesting things happen; beautiful alchemy occurs.
We don’t mean to name-drop, but over the years we’ve had the honour of working with some incredible talent in some pretty diverse fields:
Deus ex Machina, Afends, You Am I, Foo Fighters, Toby’s Estate, Campos Coffee, FBi Radio, Art Gallery of NSW, Frenzal Rhomb, Jameson, Download Festival, Fairgrounds Festival, Newtown Festival, Sydney Symphony Orchestra Vanguard, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Sydney Fringe and Melbourne Fringe as well as countless independent bands, artists, venues and galleries
SUSTAINABILITY
Working towards a greener future, one beer at a time.
At Young Henrys, we’re mindful of our impact on the planet and those who call it home. For us to keep the good times, good gigs and good beers flowing well into the future, we’re embracing our responsibility to choose more sustainable ways of operating.
OUR APPROACH
Our approach to sustainability is underpinned by how we can best support our crew, mates, community and environment. As such, we’ve committed to a set of principles to both guide and keep us accountable for what we do.
UNITED NATIONS GLOBAL COMPACT
We’ve signed up to the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, using them to inform how we behave in relation to human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. The holistic principles are designed to ensure that businesses hold the same set of values across everything they do– not focusing on one area at the expense of another.
You can learn more about the principles here and see our most recent progress report here.
INCE OPENING OUR DOORS IN 2012…
..we’ve considered our impact on the environment and tried to operate by the most sustainable means possible, every step of the way.
At the very start of the brewing process, the major by-product is spent grain. Since our very first brew, we donate 100% of the spent grain to local farms where it’s eaten by some very happy cattle. In 10 years of operating this way, it always made perfect sense to close that loop. It was only when we received a personal note of thanks from Graham the farmer we truly realised what a difference the grain makes in years of drought.
We give a lot of thought to the vessels we use. We are happy to have played a part in bringing back the refillable glass growler into everyday use in the neighbourhood and surrounds. For packaged products, we’ve always favoured the humble tinnie and in 2016, we made the switch to use majority tinnies for our core range products. Aluminium cans are light-weight, and due to their uniform shape are far more efficient to stack, trucking 25% more beer on every pallet. They are also infinitely recyclable, chill faster and protect beer from faults far better than glass bottles. Kind of like a miniature keg. As the company has gotten bigger, so has the potential impact.
For kegs themselves, we are proud to use Kegstar. The keg leasing program helps to reduce emissions as shared kegs are better utilised across the country, travelling one way then going back into use in local breweries instead of being freighted back empty. In this big country of ours, it makes a lot of sense.
In 2021, we’ll be working on our first ever “Zero-Carbon Newtowner,” capturing 100% of the C02 from brewing, and feeding through our algal bioreactors, turning it into oxygen.
We’ll also be 100% solar powered with a second solar farm being installed atop our brewery and will continue our research into reducing the CO2 from brewing using micro-algae, in partnership with UTS Science. Read more on our algae project.
OUR NEWTOWN BREWERY IS NOW GAINING 100% OF ALL POWER needs FROM renewable energy
We’ve installed our second solar farm atop our Newtown Brewery, with panels from Solargrain. Together with our existing solar farm atop the brewhouse, and our ENGIE Power Purchase Agreement – set up in 2019 to aggregate the energy needs of eligible Australian Hotels Association members and to underwrite large-scale investments in renewable energy – 100% of our electricity needs for our Newtown site, will be generated through renewable energy sources.
Thanks to our mates at Pingala, and YOU legends who helped make it possible by investing in this community-run solar project.
Pingala is a climate-focused, subscription-based organisation which offers members the opportunity to invest in sustainable business solutions in their local communities. Pingala Co-op members are then paid dividends on the projects of which they invest.
“Working with Pingala is great because they’ve got the best contacts within their industry so you end up with the right experience in terms of scoping what you need for installation and equipment.”
— young henrys co founder richard adamson
The first solar farm came in 2016, we installed a 30kW solar system on top of our brewery, raising $17,500 in 9 minutes by raffling off shares to invest in the then newly formed Pingala Cooperative. For the past 5 years, we’ve been able to run a third of the brewery’s power through the sun.
After reaching out to our mates via our Beer Club mailing list to offer the same community-driven initiative, we were overwhelmed with the response, receiving over $60K worth of pledges in 48 hours. Working with our eco-warriors Pingala, we’re able to green light the farm and get set to go full solar.
“We’re not perfect in terms of being environmentally sustainable, but you’ve just got tAVING THE PLANET, ONE BEER AT A TIME…
DATE: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26TH, 2021.
Today, we announce the next phase of our algae project where we examine how micro-algae can reduce methane emissions in livestock: one of the world’s biggest polluters.
Continuing to work with the talented scientists at UTS Climate Change Cluster, and now Meat and Livestock Australia, we’re aiming to create a more sustainable future for both the brewing and livestock industries, and it’s all thanks to algae
o take it one chunk at a time and look at how you can do your best.”
— Young Henrys Co-Founder Richard Adamson
To read more about Pingala and how to become a member, head here.
Why livestock you ask?
The beer-making process itself leaves behind spent grain, which is then sent to farms nationwide for cattle feed, and is a nutritious food source in times of drought. So with an already existing link between brewers and livestock producers, onsite algae production by breweries around the world could create marked change in the emissions of both industries.
COWS BURP AND PRODUCE METHANE.
OUR ALGAE REDUCES METHANE PRODUCTION.
With recent reports showing 14% of global greenhouse emissions are from livestock activities, and 0.7% of global emissions attributed from alcohol production (when the complete product lifecycle is considered), but 35.6% of Australians consume beer (according to the 2021 Roy Morgan’s Alcohol Consumption Report) and more than 90% of Australian households regularly enjoy eating beef, there has been no better time to bring The Algae Project to the forefront of the beer industry and beyond.
OUR INITIATIVES
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Proudly Independent SERVE THE PEOPLE
Young Henrys Brewing P/L
76 Wilford Street, Newtown NSW, 2042
ABN: 48 143 728 438
LICENSE: LIQW880014367
CONTACT: [email protected]
