A brief company history.

In the late nineties, Carl was fresh out of university and working as a chemical engineer, and after trying some beers made by a co-worker, was convince to start making home brew. Leaving the tannery to backpack around Europe for 6 months in 2000, he spent afternoons drinking beer by the litre in German beer gardens, evenings mispronouncing the names of Belgian beers, and some cold nights drinking warm beer in English pubs. Access to these great beers inspired him to return home and scale up the brewing to 60L batches, thanks to a stainless steel pot which sat over all four gas jets on Mat's kitchen stove.

Nine slightly different versions of a Pale Ale were made, and a discerning tasting panel was put together, unanimously deciding on the recipe which would later form the basis for Emerald Hill Pale. A similar process was undertaken for the development of the Wheat beer. While the brewery dream was always there, financial considerations meant a few more years in engineering, managing bottling lines in the food industry before managing projects in the petrochemical industry. At Xmas in 2004, the decision was made to start the brewery, so the process of planning and researching began.

After taking a number of friends and family through a structured tasting of 8 different beers, there was enough interest to go ahead, with the Emerald Hill Brewing Company formed in June 2005. A suitable premises was found in Ross Street and the huge task of constructing the brewery while simultaneously gaining the required licenses was started. In April 2006, construction was finished, the permits were all sorted and  and after cutting through mountains of red tape, the business had all the licenses and permits required, and the first couple of brews were made and left to condition.  

So why Emerald Hill?  Well the hill on which the South Melbourne Town Hall now stands was first known as Emerald Hill, because it was originally a green island surrounded by lush swampland. The hill was a traditional social and ceremonial meeting place for a number of Aboriginal tribes. In 1851, gold was discovered in Victoria and fortune seekers flocked to a permanent tent city known as Canvas Town, which had been established on the south side of the Yarra, between Emerald Hill and St Kilda Road. The first blocks of land in Emerald Hill were sold in 1852, with the area coming to life in 1854 when Canvas Town was dispersed. In 1883 Emerald Hill became a city and changed its name to South Melbourne.