EP-247 Phil Sexton of Giant Steps Winery and Matilda Bay Brewing

This is Luke Robertson, and you’re listening to the Good Beer Hunting podcast.

When it was announced in October of this year that Phil Sexton would be opening a Matilda Bay Brewing Company brewpub, the entire Australian beer industry did a double-take. If we were in a cartoon, we would’ve removed a hip-flask from under our coats and sworn off drinking. To say it was a surprise is underselling it.

Sexton cofounded Matilda Bay in the early ’80s. He left in the early ’90s after the publicly listed company was taken over by Carlton United Breweries (CUB). From there he went to the States to become brewmaster at the now-shuttered BridgePort Brewing Company, where he created BridgePort IPA, one of the early West Coast IPAs.

Then, back in West Australia, he teamed up with the old Matilda Bay crew to open a new brewery called Little Creatures. Its flagship Pale Ale played a big part in the next wave of craft beer in Australia, and the Fremantle brewpub is still a pilgrimage for Australian beer lovers 20 years later.

Like Matilda Bay, Little Creatures was publicly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange and was eventually taken over—this time by the Kirin-subsidiary, Lion. From there, Sexton focused on his other passion: wine. He launched two brands in the Yarra Valley, just outside of Melbourne, and for a while it looked like he was done with beer.

In his absence, Matilda Bay has been increasingly driven by marketers. The popular Fat Yak Pale Ale was spun off into its own brand, called Yak Brewing, and old favorites from the Matilda Bay range such as Redback Wheat Beer and Dogbolter Dark Lager were found in fewer and fewer places. Matilda Bay’s only recent launch is a beer called Frothy. Followers of Australian beer immediately pointed out its similarity to Lion Breweries’ Furphy, a Kölsch-influenced easy drinker. Frothy has the same-colored packaging, is a similar style, and even the names look and sound the same. While CUB says it was designed independently, the imitation is obvious and disappointing. For longterm Matilda Bay fans, it was a death knell for an old favorite … or so we thought.

Much has changed since Sexton left the beer world, especially with his old brands. Only in the past year, it was announced that Matilda Bay owner CUB would be sold by AB InBev to Asahi. Lion is also buying New Belgium Brewing, while BridgePort was a casualty of the competitive market.

Now that Sexton in joining forces with his old brand again, however, I wanted to find out why—and hear his thoughts on the chaos that is beer in 2019.

This is Phil Sexton of Giant Steps Winery and Matilda Bay Brewing. Listen in.