T H E B AROS S A MAG | 61
Born to brew
WORDS ALICIA LÜDI-SCHUTZ
PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN KRÜGER
Brenton Rehn likes beer.
Sure, his sentiment is not rare, but what
makes Brenton a little different is that
his passion for a perfect pint has led
him to owning and operating his very
own brewery - a beer loving bloke’s
dream come true. “The thing is, you can make brewing
really complicated or you can keep it
simple. Sometimes I think people just
try and make it sound like it’s magic
- it’s not,” says the former long-haul
truckie whose big rig was a second
home for close to two decades.
Standing behind the bar at “Rehn Bier“
at Magnolia Road, Tanunda, Brenton
seems very much like the beer that
bears his name - down to earth and
uncomplicated. “Even winemaking, geez they go
overboard. You wonder hey, they’ve
been making beer and wine for like
nearly 5,000 years now – how hard
can it be?”
Not out to re-invent the wheel, flavour
and quality is key to Brenton’s brewing
philosophy and he has a dozen different
beers just waiting to be discovered by
beer connoisseurs.
“We’ve probably done about
20 overall and they range from
a very light style wheat beer through
to an imperial stout and everything
in between. European style beers,
American style beers, some of them
are malty, some are a bit more hoppy,”
he explains.
Surrounded by an impressive array
of highly polished equipment, Brenton
described its building process like
putting together a giant Meccano set.
It’s a far cry from the contents of
the shed at his Angaston home where
Brenton’s life as a brewer began.
“I started off with a Cooper’s home brew
kit, I was given it as a Christmas present
from my sister-in-law!” he laughs.