About

Who is
Bentspoke?

On June 6, 2014, Champion Australian brewer Richard Watkins and co-founder Tracy Margrain opened the doors to their highly anticipated BrewPub in Braddon, in the heart of the Nation’s Capital. That weekend, punters drank over 3,000 litres of fresh, independent brews in the BrewPub alone – and that was just the beginning. BentSpoke has now been bending the rules of beer for 9 years, with over 1000 brews. Its flagship brew, Crankshaft, has been Australia’s favourite IPA in the GABS Hottest 100 for the past 6 years running, 2 of which it came first overall. The brewery has also received several awards and professionally judged competitions including the AIBAs, the International Brewing Awards and the World Beer Cup.

Canberrans know a thing or two about bending the rules. After all, we don't make them; we leave that to the transients in the big house on the hill. Our forefathers selected Canberra as the site for the National Capital due in large part to a critical ingredient in beer - a pristine water supply - and then quickly decreed prohibition on the territory. It didn't take the locals long to bend that rule!

We continue this proud tradition to this day, making the most of our gorgeous water, turning it into fine brews, themselves not afraid of bending the rules of how beer and cider should be made, all with an absolute commitment to full flavour, and exceptional quality.

Tracy Margrain

Tracy is BentSpoke's invaluable Jill-Of-All-Trades. She has experience in many fields including cider making, brewing, cooking and construction just to name a few. Tracy is BentSpoke's secret weapon. You can find her in the brewery, on the canning line, in the kitchen, or with a wrench in hand.

Richard Watkins

Rich is a twice crowned Australian Champion Brewer and has been brewing professionally for 20 years. He spent much of his career as head brewer at Canberra's renowned Wig & Pen before embarking on the venture that is BentSpoke. He is highly regarded as a brewer known for pushing the boundaries of his craft, not afraid to experiment and take a chance on a new untraveled path.

Community

Support
Local

We believe in supporting the community that supports us. We are proud to sponsor local sporting clubs, cultural groups and arts organisations. You can find us regularly serving beers at many local events and festivals.

BentSpoke Brewing Co acknowledges the Ngunnawal peoples, the Traditional Custodians of the Canberra region, and recognises their continuous connection to culture, community and Country.

Our BrewPub showcases our brilliant local region wines and a significant range of Canberra and Australian made spirits.

Local farmers collect spent grain from the brewery as feed for their livestock and in return, some provide us with produce for use in BentSpoke's kitchen.

Environment

Nurture
Nature

At BentSpoke we recognise the need to protect the environment we depend on for the supply of our brewery ingredients such as pristine water, fresh hops and grains. We are proud to play our part by implementing and investigating innovative ways to reduce our energy, water and waste such as:

• Spent Grain to our local farmers
  All the grain from our mash tuns goes to local farmers as feed for livestock. In return we receive produce from the farmers which is used in our brewpub's kitchen

• Heat exchanging
  When chilling wort prior to pitching yeast, we capture the energy from the hot liquid to heat the water for the next batch resulting in approximately 1L of hot water for every 1L of beer produced.

• Cans vs Bottles
  The decision to choose cans over bottles for our packaged product was an easy one. With cans, not only does the beer arrive at you in the best possible condition, but the accumulated energy savings of recycling aluminium is 96% (compared to a mere 26.5% for glass), they are significantly lighter to transport, they chill down quicker, and they are far more friendly in the great outdoors both to pack in and out, and they won't leave broken glass at your favourite river/beach/mountain.