From Garage to BWS

In December 2018, my life changed.

At 1:45am on a warm Monday morning, I stood staring down at my newborn son, Joel. His eyes still closed shut and a whole life of adventure and opportunity ahead of him. As all fathers will agree, it’s the most magical feeling in the world.

It is also, the scariest feeling in the world, instant fear, anxiety and the absence of ‘me‘ time, which as an only child was challenging.

In the first three months of Joel’s life, my job also changed significantly and at one point I had seventeen direct reports. My anxiety grew and grew with no release.

Over the course of many sleepless nights, cradling Joel to sleep I reflected on the independence I’d enjoyed before he arrived on the scene with his big blue eyes flashing. I had an increased heart rate, angst and cortisol was running through my body constantly.

I needed something to take my busy mind away from work and family before I broke. I needed a passion project.

In March 2019, I invested in some beer making equipment – I tend not to do things half arsed, so I went all in on some quality gear, decked out our garage with a 3 tap pouring system for 60 litres and started studying beer… Drinking, mixing, trying different recipes, temperatures, hops, yeast, and grain. Making beer is much like making a cake, a recipe, with lots of variables and calculations to alter the result. 

The beer began to take shape, and more importantly my brain had another focus, my hormones hopped, skipped and celebrated whilst my anxiety decreased. I would spend 5-6 hours every 2 weeks making Pale Ales, Milk Stouts, IPAs, NEIPAs, Cider and more, locked away from the world in the garage.

Fast-forward 12 months and Springside Brewing is alive. My passion project is soon to launch the production of thousands of cans of beer for sale across Australia. I’ve networked with some amazing people along the way and even found my way into a ‘local luvvas’ competition that BWS are running to be ranged in hundreds of their stores!

So why am I sharing this? 

Sometimes we need to step back, and take some time for ourselves, to look after our own mental health. Remembering it’s OK to not be OK.

You’ll be amazed at what you can achieve when you are passionate about something and it will very likely give you a release that you need to be more productive in and outside of work!

Hit up @springsidebrewing to see the journey.