Looking back, it was an exciting, busy and challenging 2017.

We turned 10 years old! A time to reflect on where we’ve come from, and where we’re going. It’s been quite a ride. Some days it feels like we only started yesterday, while other days it feels as though we’ve been working at this for quite some time. We’ve grown up from our humble beginnings of me delivering kegs on my scooter and Meg cold-calling restaurant accounts, but at the same time we still so often feel like we’re finally just getting things going.

We’ve matured as a family business and keep on striving to make the best, most inspiring beer we can, while maintaining the best service levels to all our customers – which comes with its fair share of hurdles – with more moving parts than ever before. From increased production, sales, marketing, and distribution to a new Taproom… jeepers, we’ve been pretty busy.

With all of that in mind – the most important thing we insist on, and always come back to – is to remain true to our original vision – to make premium, well made, honest beer that is crafted with inspiration and full of flavour. Always.

Moving forward into 2018 – we see some challenges ahead, particularly in distribution. Based on this, we are excited to partner up with Heineken SA, to help take our brewery into 2018, and the next chapter of the Jack Black story.

We don’t think we could have chosen a better partner – a family-controlled company that operates in over 70 countries and is renowned for successful partnerships. Sure, they’re big, but they’re also pretty darn great.

Heineken will acquire a minority share, so myself and my team (who are not going anywhere) will retain control over our heritage, our recipes, our day-to-day operations, and our company’s future direction.

Essentially, we’ll have a partner that will help us expand our network and get our beer to all parts of the country, and possibly beyond. This means you’ll have better access to our beers, which at this point is something we’ve only dreamt about.

I can honestly say we’ve had great, genuine interactions with the team from Heineken and that we’re super stoked about our plans for the future, or frankly, we wouldn’t be doing this. We truly feel it’s the best thing for us and our business – to be able to achieve the potential we have as a brewery.

We look forward to this exciting new chapter as we continue brewing beers that we hope will inspire you, as much as they inspire us.

Yours in beer,

Ross