Redoak brews up world champion beers
Former Ballina Shire resident David Hollyoak has had his brewing skills recognised at the highest level — the World Beer Cup.
David’s Redoak brews won two gold medals and a bronze at the Beer Cup at Seattle in the United States.
In Seattle, Redoak won:
- A gold medal for its Redoak Honey Ale (Specialty Honey Lager or Ale category)
- A gold medal for its Redoak Rauch (Smoke-Flavoured Beer category)
- A bronze medal for its Redoak Baltic Porter (Baltic Porter category).
Other Australian medallists at the Beer Cup included the likes of brewing giant Cascade, winning gold for its Blond Lager.
Previous Australian gold medal winners were Lion Nathan (2000) and Hahn Premium and Tooheys in 1998, so you can see that David is now in elite company.
The Brewers World Beer Cup attacted 2221 entries from 540 brewers in 56 countries.
David, who grew up at Tintenbar, owns the Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe in Sydney. His brewery also is located in Sydney. The cafe is managed by his sister Janet, and another sister, Kerry, is the distribution manager for northern New South Wales and Queensland.
David told www.ballina.info that his first brewing experience was at the age of 14. He used some leftover ginger to brew up ginger beer, and was hooked on brewing.
He left Lismore’s Trinity High School in 1990 and took up a civil engineering scholarship at the University of Sydney.
He became involved in construction work, setting up his own company and then doing a Masters degree in engineering.
But the lure of the brew kept calling him, and three years ago set up his brewery, which now brews about 40 different styles of beer.
The 33-year-old has been encouraged to expand his sales area after trying it at the Spotted Cow in Toowoomba. “It went really well,” David said.
Now he’s looking to find outlets in northern New South Wales. “A lot of our beers are unique and are well-suited to restaurants,” David said.
Unfortunately, David was not in Seattle to revel in his success. He says he couldn’t afford to go — but that may change if he keeps getting world recognition.
April 30th, 2006 at 7:22 pm
Nice article Barry - we will have to try and organize a tasting.
May 13th, 2006 at 11:04 am
[...] The win followed Redoak’s double at the World Beer Cup in Seattle, where David’s beers won two gold medals (see http://www.ballina.info/blog/2006/04/30/redoak-brews-up-world-champion-beers/) [...]