CRONULLA BEER CO MOTHERS MILK
A dart in one hand and this beer in the other; it’s a great way to have a pointed - pardon the pun - conversation about life and all its ups and down.
Origin – Cronulla, New South Wales
ABV- 6.0%
Size- 375mL can
Style- Milk Stout
Some fell in love here, married here. Some fell apart here, started a race riot here. Some learned to surf on those perfectly formed point breaks. Some kayaked with dolphins and sea turtles. Some heard the migratory humpback whales singing their way down the coast long after their parents had been harpooned, then shipped to the slaughterhouse to be processed into margarine. ‘You f…ing idiots,' the protesters would rail back in the early '60s. 'Whales don't breathe through their throats.' My mum demonstrated here – on occasions without clothes on – against the ban on nude bathing! A once hard-boiled, working-class suburb, as property prices skyrocketed, rents soared, and influencers descended, Cronulla was transformed. 'This is paradise here, you guys,' Chris Hemsworth, in town to film the new Mad Max, told two locals recently. 'You don't know what you've got.' Except those who live – or are being forced to leave – this emerald patch of Sydney know precisely what they've got: a crisis of economic disparity.
While mates Chad Townsend, Daniel Wagstaff, Adam Goode, Tim Frowly and Ryan Gardner were far from living from meal ticket to meal ticket when they kicked around the idea of opening a brewery at a backyard BBQ, having grown up in semi-derelict red brick apartments of North Cronulla, the group has seen how mega-money has changed their childhood paradise. 'I had enough to pay the rent, grab a six-pack, wax the board and pick up a pair of footy boots.' says Adam. 'People think we must now be creaming it, owning a beer brand and all, but most of the lads and I are still just doing our best'.
It is their hope, however, that with Chad's celebrity status and Tim's medal-winning batches – the recent Australian Independent Beer Awards landed CBC a three-medal haul – rather than contract brewing, they might one day open a tap room of their own. When that happens, if its popularity is anything to go by, one of the beers pouring when the weather is right will be this velvety milk stout. Smooth and chocolatey, dark and toasty, and oh-so-wonderfully thick and creamy.
As the label insinuates, it's just like a chocolate milkshake, only for grown-ups. And at only $20 a 4 pack, it's a little luxury we can all afford!
