Brewery and surf club toast their beer

Bells Beach Brewing and the Jan Juc SLSC have filled the first cans of their joint beer project and delivered it to thirsty customers.

The partnership between the Torquay beermakers and the surf life saving club began about 12 months ago.

The end result is the Jan Juc Pilsner, an entirely new beer made and canned at Bells Beach Brewing, with a percentage of each sale to be donated to Jan Juc SLSC.

Brad Papworth and Peter Smith from Jan Juc SLSC visited Bells Beach Brewing on October 1 to help fill the final 20 or so cases of the initial 110-case production run and have a couple of sips of the pilsner (for quality control purposes).

“We had a few beers here one night and caught up with Jeff (Bells Beach Brewery co-owner Jeff Crow), and Jeff wanted to do something for the community,” Mr Papworth said.

“And rather than just a straight sponsorship, we spoke about a partnership that could last forever and benefited both organisations.

“So the idea of a beer came up, they didn’t have a ‘Jan Juc’ product, so we talked about that, workshopped that, and came up with the pilsner.

“It’s easy to drink, and that’s what we loved about it when we tried it – it’s a beer for everyone, it’s a really nice summer beer, and we can’t wait to get it into more people’s hands.”

Mr Crow said he welcomed the addition of a pilsner to Bells Beach Brewing’s lineup, which already features brown ale, pale ale, saison, IPA, XPA, session ale, lager, and cider.

“I’ve actually been pushing the boys here for more than three years to make me a pilsner, so it was lucky these guys came along and happened to like the beer.

“It also tastes great, so I’m happy with that.”

The label of Jan Juc Pilsner features a photo of the Jan Juc SLSC clubhouse as viewed from the water.

“When we talked with the boys from the surf club, they wanted it to be a truly Jan Juc local beer, and they wanted to feature the surf club on it, so the only way we could really do that is have how the locals see the surf club, which is from the water,” Mr Crow said.

“James from Rip Curl went swimming on two different times to shoot the surf club from the water, and we designed the label with Ben at XIBIT.”

He said the final steps of getting the beer into a can and then into a box for shipping took a lot of work, so he appreciated Mr Papworth and Mr Smith’s efforts.

“It’s not a hard process but it’s very time- and labor-intensive, and it just keeps going; it’s a machine, so you just keep feeding it and getting beer out of it, it doesn’t stop. So after a few hours, it does get tiring.”