Something Wild Beverages will launch the Wattleseed Lager on July 4. The beer has been brewed in the Adelaide Hills in partnership with Mismatch Brewing Company.
The wattleseed is roasted and milled before being added to the brew towards the end of the mash.
Adding wattleseed to brews is not new, and features in Woolshed Brewery’s Judas the Dark and the Coca-Cola-owned Aus Beer Co’s Wattle Seed Ale.
Mismatch Brewing works in collaboration with Adelaide Hills Distillery and Hills Cider Company. The group’s Toby Kline said a few kegs of the Wattleseed Lager are already being poured at craft beer bars in Sydney.
He said wattleseed’s subtle nutty aroma and hints of chocolate and coffee when roasted are well suited to the brewing process.
“It’s a really crisp, clean lager with some secondary characteristics of honey and toasted peanuts on the back-end,” he said.
“There’s a lot of interest in it but it’s very early days for the product. It’s currently a tap offer only, but we’ll be going to a packaged format soon.”
Wattleseed has been part of the diet of indigenous Australians for thousands of years, and was traditionally ground into a flour.
Something Wild Beverages is a division of native food company Something Wild Australia, which specialises in sustainably sourced indigenous foods such as kangaroo, wallaby, magpie goose, native herbs and fruits.
Something Wild is majority owned by well-known Northern Territory Australian rules football family the Motlops, and is committed to promoting the ethical, sustainable and permitted use of native Australian ingredients.
The Wattleseed Lager launch will coincide with the Northern Territory launch of Something Wild Beverages.
“As an Indigenous-owned company it’s great to be able to come home and show people how we’re shaking up the Australian food and beverage industry,” said managing director and part-owner Daniel Motlop.
“By working with traditional landowners we can create opportunities and outcomes for the Indigenous communities who not only harvest products, but also hold a wealth of knowledge about how to use them.”
Something Wild Beverages teamed up with Adelaide Hills Distillery in February to launch Australian Green Ant Gin, which features a "pinch" of green ants in each bottle, in the same way that worms are used in tequila, to provide the finishing touch.
Mismatch brews out of the same facility as Adelaide Hills Distillery, and Kline said more Something Wild beverages are on the way.
“If we can get them out before the end of the year that would be good, but the demand for the Green Ant Gin has been quite high, and hopefully the lager will go quite well,” he said.
“The satisfying thing about the gin is that most people said it was going to be a gimmick but the actual liquid inside the bottle is of such a high quality that it is ensuring it keeps going and we have also have that commitment to sourcing native botanicals using the permit system.
“Mismatch Brewing and Adelaide Hills Distillery are soon to commission their new plant so we should have plenty of capacity to start playing and creating some more beverages then.”