The origin of Holgate Brewhouse dates back to 1999 after Paul and his wife had been on holiday in the U.S. and felt inspired to join the industry due to the small and independent nature of craft breweries that were in business for the love of their product. This sentiment resinated with Paul who had a love of baking, making jams and ginger beer and was intrigued by the nature of first principles production, before the advent of modern production technology.
Their brewery took shape in their back yard, in Woodend, where they started selling beer while working and raising a family. Thankfully the couple invested heavily in tourism and hospitality when they took over a historic hotel and transformed it into Holgate’s!
We got the chance to sit down with Paul and discuss government grants, independence and which is the best drunk food. I’ll give you a hint, it’s definitely not chicken dim sims.
