It Takes A Village - Meet Matt Herring
BACK TO FUN STUFFIt takes a village to bring Eagle Bay Brewing Co. to life, and with every village its people are its backbone. As part of our It Takes A Village journal, we catch up with some of the people that make our village so vibrant. Meet Matt Herring, hospo hero turned brewer at Eagle Bay Brewing Co.
Thirteen years ago, after deciding he wanted to surf 24/7, Matt resigned from his job as an automotive mechanic and moved down south.
“I left my job, decided to take a gap year to figure out what I wanted to do and started working in hospitality at Ocean Beach Hotel and surfing every day… it dawned on me that there are better hospitality jobs and way better surf down south, so I teed up a job and made the move to Dunsborough”.
“I worked at The Dunsborough Tav, Caves House Hotel, and Ockey’s Brewery. Eventually, I found myself working Front of House at Eagle Bay Brewing Co. It was just such a beautiful venue, a welcoming and homely family-like place to work. I ended up working FOH on and off for almost a decade. Every time I left the south west, I always found myself being drawn back to Dunsborough, back to that down south lifestyle and back to Eagle Bay. So I figured that Eagle Bay is the place I want to be and with my skill set and background in mechanics it made the most sense to go into beer production.”
Can you share with us one of your biggest challenges since starting in beer production?
“I’d been full time in the brewery for about a year when we received our new canning line. It was the middle of Covid and the canning line arrived in parts. Normally the supplier would send technicians over to commission the machine and get everything right and tight, but no one was able to travel. So myself, Keegan and Nick had to jump on the phone to a fella from East Coast Canning and basically build a canning line like the ultimate IKEA flatpack.”
“It had been freighted over from the States for 6+ months and once it arrived, pretty much every nut and bolt had rattled loose and every single adjustment had become unadjusted, so we literally had to go through the whole thing from the depalletiser at the start all the way through to the 4pack applicator at the end, but it was actually super fun to pull it off as a team and once complete we felt super accomplished. To be able to drink the final product in cans was awesome.”
What is your favourite part about working at Eagle Bay?
“I love the camaraderie we have in our production team and across the entire business. Everyone is always happy to see one another and it’s a really good culture. We are super proud of the beer we produce. That’s something great to be a part of because we love what we create and we love sharing it.”
Favourite hobby?
“Getting in the water and surfing… It’s the whole journey of it. Checking the forecast to figure out where to go, the track there, enjoying the scenery and then hopping in the water, feeling refreshed and a few hours later feeling exhausted. Then heading back into town, grabbing a pie from Taz’s and cracking a beer at home. That’s got to be my favourite thing to do”.
Favourite spot?
“If we’re talking surfing, Three Bears has it all. If we’re talking eating, Bungalow Social always has a really solid food menu and a good variety of beer and wine.”
Favourite Eagle Bay Beer?
“Right now it would be the Old School IPA. I love the strong malt profile up front that leads into a delicious pine and rockmelon hop flavour, and the big, bitter finish synonymous with any classic IPA.”
One final bit of life advice?
“Try different things. If you’re not happy with your job, try something else. I found a completely new lease on life when I left my job as a mechanic and started working in hospitality. I realised I could go anywhere I wanted in life, I just had to learn how to do it.”