Like a hard lemonade? There's fun things brewing at Capital Brewing

They might settle in with a quick snack from the Brodburger van, pour a glass of the best-selling Coast Ale, or Alc-Less, the alcohol-free option which is proving popular, and workshop a few ideas.

At this time of year, there's a special limited-edition beer to make for the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular, Australia's premier indoor craft beer festival this June.

Australian brewers go a little crazy - think S'mores served with toasted marshmallows; sushi beer, spaghetti beer, banana blueberry pancake smoothie beer, even bacon beer - brewing beers especially for the festival.

Capital's entry is a Cherry Cola Sour which smells like a dream and tastes like a fizzy cherry cola, it's made using cherry juice sourced from local farmers.

It reminds head brewer Wade Hurley of the sour cola bottle candies he used to eat as a kid growing up in San Diego, in the United States.

"The GABS festival is a great chance to play around a bit and it usually leads to something a little outside the box," he says.

"But this year we're kind of using the project to work on some other plans we have, too."

Capital is keen to extend its range into the ready-to-drink sphere, drinks which are already pre-mixed and ready for consumption, such as pre-made cocktails and hard seltzers.

Consumption of RTDs has increased rapidly post-COVID. According to the latest research from Roy Morgan, consumption has doubled in recent years, from 2,138,000 Australians (10.8 per cent) pre-pandemic, to 4,319,000 (21 per cent) in late 2023 - a massive increase of over 2.1 million people. Data from IWSR, a global leader in drinks market analysis, shows that RTDs now hold a 13 per cent share of the total beverage alcohol market.

"It's an interesting phase Capital is in right now because we've seen the popularity of RTDs but we're brewers, so we're combining the two processes to see what we can come up with," says Hurley.

"We've done a Blackberry Hard Lemonade and a Ginger Beer which we've got on tap here and they're brewed styles, not just mixed together, where we add the flavourings to the brewed base."

While it's also a way of working around some tax excises, Hurley says the flavour is enhanced.

"It's fun trying to make something that tastes like an RTD but it's actually fermented, which makes it taste completely different," he says.

The popularity of Hard Solo, now known as Hard Rated, hailed a boom in the hard lemonade market but Hurley said Capital wanted to branch out from the lemon flavour.

"We saw an opportunity but I didn't want to recreate Hard Solo, that's boring, so we added blackberries to it and it came out this dark purple and was really eye-catching. It's sweeter but there's this crafty feel to it, too," Hurley says.

The Ginger Beer is already available in 330ml cans. The Blackberry Hard Lemonade will launch in cans in June.

In other beer news, BentSpoke Brewing Co. won two gold medals and a Championship trophy at the International Brewing Awards held in London recently.

Co-founder and head brewer Richard Watkins was on hand to collect gold for Barley Griffin in the smallpack ale category and for FreeWheeler, BentSpoke's alcohol-free offering, in the ultra-low alcohol category. Barley Griffin brought home the championship trophy.

As BentSpoke gears up to celebrate its 10th anniversary in early June, these awards are more than just medals, Watkins said.

"Winning gold medals is a great accolade but to win the championship trophy for the second time amongst such an esteemed number of breweries worldwide is an amazing result for our brewery," he said.

"The likes of Sierra Nevada, Firestone Walker, Deschutes and Round Corner Brewing etc are all world-class breweries and now BentSpoke has its name on the trophy for the second time, after our 2019 win.

"This incredible result is justification for dedication of our team to make world class beers on a consistent level. It really is an awesome result."