Brisbane born brothers Craig and Lance Masterton have realised their dream of launching their Noosa Heads Brewing Company beer range in their home town.

More than 100 invited guests gathered at Mary Mae’s at the Brisbane Powerhouse last week for Brisbane’s first official tasting of their famed brews – brews that in January last year were Voted Most Popular Lager in Australia in the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers. They brew in Noosa where they built their own brewery, with the name inspired by the Noosa Headland where they loved to surf as kids. Heads of Noosa Brewing Company is independent, family owned and proudly Australian.

Head of Noosa beers can be found on tap at Mr Mista, Proof BBQ, The Prince Consort, St Lucia golf club, The Port Office Hotel, Brooklyn Standard, Sixes and Sevens, Cru Bar, Gerard’s Bar, Mary Mae’s, Mrs Browns, Reef Gasworks, Tartufo and The Eaton’s Hill.

In January 2020, Noosa Heads Brewing Company was Voted Most Popular Lager in Australia. Heads of Noosa Brewing Co. have had a massive debut result in the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers, Australia’s largest public beer poll, over the weekend with their Japanese Lager coming in at number 45 up against more than 2500 beers from all over the country. The result is an incredible achievement for the brewery still in its first year of operation with a limited distribution footprint. It also makes the Japanese Lager the highest ranked in its class, pale lager.

The additional polls released such as the ‘New Craft Beers 2019’ saw all 5 of Heads of Noosa brews place with the Japanese Lager coming in at number 6. Owners Lance and Craig Masterton are blown away by the results and are humbled by the loyal fanbase they’ve built in such a short time frame. “We couldn’t be happier with our results in our first appearance in the poll.” States Craig. “We knew the Japanese Lager was a crowd pleaser, but this is next level!”

The poll is dominated by ales making the result that much more impressive for the lager focused brewery. This year’s poll saw twice as many lagers place compared to 2018 suggesting the style is having somewhat of a resurgence in the craft scene. Heads of Noosa are one of, if not the only independent craft brewery in Australia to brew lagers exclusively. Lance who is also the Head Brewer takes a look back at the year they’ve had and how well the beers have been received. “2019 was huge for us, with 12 competition medals from 13 entries, being voted the best craft beer on the Sunshine Coast in a Mix FM public poll and now the results in the Hottest 100.” Lance explains. “It’s awesome to see so many people really enjoying the beers and we can’t thank our fans enough for showing their support when it matters most!”

Craig and Lance Masterton built their brewery from the ground up and produce and package 100% of their beer on-site at their purpose-built brewery in the heart of Noosa. ?Their lagers spend around twice as long in tank as the ale counterparts, this colder fermentation and longer maturation is important in the resulting beer, for which they’ve received so much applause. ?They invested in a state of the art bottling line.

The nature of beer manufacture draws on a lot of resources like water and power but they do what they can to reduce their environmental footprint. Some of their measures include heat capture from boiling and from the heat exchanger when cooling wort, as well as providing their spent grain to local farmers. They have over 300 solar panels on the roof that provide power to the brewery, offsetting over 140,000 kilos of carbon dioxide annually.

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