William was spinning cotton candy (AKA: "fairy floss") at the Bridge Road Hop Harvest festival in Beechworth recently. Beechworth has a population of 2789 people. It's three hours and eight minutes from Melbourne by car. In the historic township you'll find local honey, wine, produce, and one of the proudest family breweries in Australia, Bridge Road Brewers.
During our visit, founder Ben Kraus stressed the importance of keeping production in-house and in the center of town. He told us he had no plans to open an off-site brewery to satisfy demand—even though there's plenty of it, both in Australia and internationally. (Bridge Road is carried by Shelton Brothers in the U.S.).
He said he'd much rather his brewers come to work at the brewpub than in an industrial estate. He likes they can have lunch with the entire team in their restaurant. And plus, they get occasional access to some of the area's finest, locally-spun fairy floss.
