Our wee operation started in 2017 with two couples, Matt & Stacey and Shiree & Dave, over beers creating Hop and Clover Brewing Co. At the start of 2019, Matt and Stacey felt they could not dedicate the time and decided to move away from the business. We have been very fortunate to have their unwavering assistance, impressive skills and amazing ideas over the last couple of years.
So now, it’s just Dave and Shiree. Dave is originally from Derry/Londonderry in Northern Ireland, where he was a sailor in the Royal Navy before transferring to Sydney to the Australian Navy around 9 years ago. Dave met Shiree in Sydney and they moved to Darwin for Dave’s work. Dave started brewing during the Wet Season when we couldn’t leave the house. When we returned to Sydney, Dave continued to brew. Shiree is from Mudgee and we are moving there in 2021 when our daughter starts school, along with the brewery (there’s no water in Mudgee so being a sailor won’t work).
For the moment, we are gipsy brewers and are proud to brew out of The Rocks Brewery in Alexandria. We still work our full-time jobs in defence and hospitality (Shiree’s taking some time to pop out a couple of weans) whilst juggling orders, emails and making beer. We would like to say “we wish them well on their journey” to Matt and Stacey but that would sound silly. But we do need to publicly thank them for their contribution at the beginning of Hop and Clover Brewing because without them we wouldn’t exist.