Country Brewer Bathurst running beer battle competition

"I know when you're a home brewer it sounds kind of fun to try and throw everything you have, every kind of ingredient, every type of hops you want to use," she said during a recent visit to Country Brewer Bathurst.

"But for a beginner, keep it basic.

"And then you can start making it a bit more complicated as you go along."

Ms Lepage and Stephen Szabo, of Reckless Brewing, were at Country Brewer to promote the Brewmuda Beer Battle, which will be judged at the end of next month.

Local home brewers are being invited to be part of the challenge for the chance to win a number of prizes, including an opportunity to see how the professionals do it.

"It's a competition run by the three Country Brew stores in Orange, Bathurst and Mudgee," Country Brewer Bathurst owner Adam Cavanagh said.

"Our leg is sponsored by Reckless Brewing.

"There are some great prizes to be won, where you get to go down and become a brewer for a day with the professionals down there at Reckless.

"It's open to all brewers and hopefully it's going to get some of the brewers to come up with some pretty good recipes and that will impress these guys."

And does Bathurst have a taste for home brewing?

"Yeah. It's quite a busy little store," Mr Cavanagh said.

"And since these guys [Reckless] have come to town, I reckon it's helped us out, actually.

"Every time someone comes in, we talk about one of your [Reckless] varieties and we try to give them something to see if they can make something similar."

After a number of years as a gypsy brewery, Reckless found a home in the Crago Mill complex in Piper Street in 2022 and opened to the public last September.

"Grace [Fowler] and Jarrod [Moore], two of the co-owners, live in Oberon, and one of the local beer people from the area tipped them off that Two Heads [Brewing] were operating out of there and there was a brewery sitting vacant, basically, with the right kind of licensing and all that stuff," Mr Szabo said.

"We got the keys a bit over a year ago and three months after that, four months after that, we were open and trading.

"You can't do that if you don't already have all the existing licences and infrastructure."

He said the response from Bathurst in the months since had been extremely positive.

"Such great community support. We've been really blown away by it, actually."

Mr Szabo said the craft beer revival of recent years tied in with a larger shift.

"I think it comes from a wider trend of people wanting to engage in things fresher and closer to home," he said.

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He said people are taking a local approach and are interested in "making sure that what you're buying is supporting the community around you".

"That includes your local home brew store, your local supermarket, knowing where your produce comes from," he said.

Ms Lepage, meanwhile, said people also seem to be realising that "there is just so much to beer".

"There's that many different varieties you can do now and types of things you can add to it to make it so much better," Mr Cavanagh said.

But back to the tips for those who are new to - or just curious about - the world of home brewing.

Mr Szabo has one word: "Sanitation."

"Cleanliness is the key," Mr Cavanagh agreed.

The Country Brewer Bathurst Brewmuda Beer Battle is free to enter and judging will be held on July 29 and 30.

More information, including prizes and entry details, is available from Country Brewer Bathurst's Facebook page.