Meet the maker: Two Birds Brewing

“It started after a holiday in the United States,” says Jayne. “We spent a whole lot of time over there chatting about our lives and jobs, visiting breweries, and we came back and both thought, this is what we want to do. We’re going to open a brewery.” 

Not long after that fateful trip, the two “birds”, Jayne Lewis and Danielle Allen, launched their craft brewing company in 2011, the very first Australian female-owned and run brewing company, Two Birds Brewing.

“It was a bit of an aha moment”, Jayne recalls. “Going through school I really enjoyed science, but knew I didn’t want to be in a lab. I always wanted to do something in applied science. There was a winemaking course available and I thought, that sounds kind of interesting.” After completing a Bachelor of Science in Viticulture and Winemaking and working in wineries, both in country US and Margaret River, Jayne wanted a gig a little closer to the city. 

“I was sitting in a pub drinking some Cooper’s sparkling and thought this is so good. Then I went to Little Creatures in Fremantle – everything was so interesting and I remember sitting there saying, ‘I’m going to work here’, and about a year later I was.”

Danielle, who had been working in product development at Woolworths for years, had long wanted to start her own business and had a real passion for beer. “I’ve always drunk beer. From a cultural point of view, I was attracted to it. It’s a beverage that sits well with the Australian climate. But our time in the US was very much that lightbulb moment to actually get into the industry,” says Danielle. As was hearing the product ideas Jayne had been quietly harbouring. “I said, ‘I think I can help with that’, maybe keep those ideas a secret and let’s do them ourselves.” 

Unlike a lot of other beer brands, Danielle and Jayne took the least risky route into brewing. “We didn’t get a whole bunch of money from investors or the bank, we decided to tread carefully and road test the brand and that this was actually what we wanted to do with our careers and our future,” says Danielle. 

The pair started with what the industry calls ‘contract brewing’ (also known as ‘gypsy brewing’) – which is basically an agreement to brew your product at someone else’s brewery, using their tools and equipment for a fixed fee, but doing all the marketing and distribution yourself. 

“It’s very common today, but it wasn’t 11 years ago. We only had a couple of options to get our beer contract made. We were pretty fortunate, actually, in terms of the partners we made and the beer we put out,” Danielle recalls. But fortune only goes so far – after that, you’re relying on hard work and experience. Luckily these two had plenty of that – Danielle with her skills in product development and Jayne now with a decade of experience brewing beer for others. 

The Golden Ale would become their successful debut can, no longer in action, but remembered fondly. “It was a less crowded market back then, so cutting through, I wouldn’t say was easy, but walking into a bottleshop or a bar with a new beer that looks slightly different, bright, colourful and fun, that we could say came from a brewer that had 10 years experience, it was pretty exciting and thrilling to get a lot of yeses from the get-go,” says Danielle. 

A few short years later, the pair were ready to set up their own shop. In 2014, the doors opened at their official home, ‘The Nest’, in Melbourne’s western suburb of Spotswood. Today the location still serves not only as the beating heart of all their brewing, packaging and distribution, but also as a thriving pub where locals can enjoy a pint in the sunshine. 

Jayne and Danielle must surely be tired now of answering the age old question: ‘Is it hard to be a woman in beer?’ But the fact remains that it’s an industry in which men significantly over-index. Over 79% of beer consumers in Australia are men and less than 2% of breweries are female-owned – which makes Jayne and Danielle’s breakthrough that much more laudable.

For these “two birds” though, the experience has been largely one of support. “I was really lucky that where I came from I had a bunch of friends who are now the industry pioneers,” says Jayne. “When I was initially coming up through the industry I had a bit of that pushback, but when we came through with a product 10 years later, we had industry support behind us and really easy acceptance from consumers.” 

Jayne recalls there were odd clueless punters calling the company a ‘token’ or a ‘stunt’, but she let the quality of their beer speak for itself – and just one sip told you that it was exceptional. Anyone who might dare point to Two Birds as “good for a woman’s beer” is swiftly proved wrong (and rightly so – ick). This is stellar brewing, no matter how you slice it. 

Danielle puts their success down to being truly authentic. “It’s definitely a, ‘This is us and this is our story and we like beer and here it is. If you like it, great, if you don’t, see ya later.’ ” 

Not only do the gals produce a delicious sweep of beers, but they also spend time fundraising and supporting women in need. A particularly important date marked in the calendar every year is International Women’s Day, when the team fundraises for their chosen charity. This year they worked with Dan Murphy’s and Givit to help women in brewing, construction and labour jobs afford safety boots. All profits from their Summer Ale sales from 24 February–9 March went through Givit directly to women in need. 

“We always focus on helping women, whether that’s in a creative space or music or in traditionally male-dominated industries – it’s definitely about helping women get a leg up,” explains Danielle. “At the moment we’ve linked up with Share the Dignity, which is an organisation that supports women in poverty who can’t afford sanitary products. A dollar from every beer that is sold in our tap room goes to that organisation.”

These two walk the walk – in pink boots, for that matter. Though she’s since handed over the reins, Jayne started the Pink Boots Society 11 years ago as a place to support female, female-identifying and non-binary individuals in the beer industry through education. “These days I’m someone’s mentor. Much more of that one-on-one support,” says Jayne. 

And now Jayne is in the process of setting up a not-for-profit that aims to support and encourage diversity, equality and inclusion in the beer industry. “That’s where I’ve been putting all my energy recently,” she says.

“We always say ‘world domination’, but we probably need to scale that back a little bit,” says Danielle. World domination, perhaps not. But domination in the beer aisle? That’s certainly on the horizon.

Late last year, Danielle and Jayne sold Two Birds to their long-term idols and mentors at Fermentum (the parent company of fellow Australian craft beer heavyweight Stone & Wood). But never fear, the two remain heavily involved at the head of the company.  “We’re going to review our range and look to the next decade and what that means in terms of styles and branding. You’ll definitely start to see something new from us, in the not too distant future,” promises Danielle.

If their persistence and past success is anything to go by, that’s a future we can all very much look forward to.