Homegrown beer brewing again
IT has been a long, dry spell but as of today, homegrown Cairns beer will no longer be a blue sky dream.
At 10am, 15 years after CUB turned off the taps on Cairns Draught and NQ Lager, the Blue Sky Brewery on Lake St will be turned on.
While the pub itself will not open until the first lot of brews are ready in a few weeks, the German-built brewery system will be fermenting away.
With the labels decided, the names of some of the six handcrafted brews set to be bottled and go on tap have been revealed: FNQ Lager, Cairns Gold, True Blue Stout and Woody Ale.
While the names are indicative of Australia and the region, Woody Ale has a special history.
Woody is named after co-owner and tourism identity Charlie Woodward’s father, Jack "Woody" Woodward, one of Cairns’ pioneers.
"He would have been rapt," Mr Woodward said.
"It is an honour to have a beer named after you."
Brew master Hayden Mokaraka said he was excited about producing the first batch of beers.
"It’s a great privilege to be part of history bringing back Cairns’ own beer," he said.
Licensee and co-owner Ben Newman said getting the brewery and pub to near completion had been a "labour of love".
"It has just been a great experience working with Charlie," he said
He said his family and the Woodward family had been hands-on in getting the project up and running.
Mr Woodward said the pub would be completed within weeks and the bottling plant would arrive in Cairns within days.
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Cheers: Co-owners Ben Newman and Charles Woodward toast the start of brewing at their Cairns brewery today. Six brews are set to be bottled and go on tap with one, Woody Ale, named after Mr Woodward’s pioneer father.
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