The Story
It Started over a beer, as it always does...
Howie Croft and Pete “Macca” McDonald have been friends and colleagues for over 25 years, flying choppers all over the north west of WA and beyond. Getting hold of quality beers to their tastes was tough in the late 90’s, this led them to home brewing. This grew beyond a hobby and the boys started to realise they could do this commercially, with Macca completing a Certificate of Business Management in Craft Brewing.
The Wedgetail name and logo came about as they realised; they needed an iconic Australian identity for the brand. They settled on the suggestion from Macca's son Jack who was obsessed with Wedgetail Eagles at the time. As there was a connection to the Pilbara region where they did most of their flying -in fact they spent a lot of time avoiding Wedgies in the sky – the name was a great fit! The connection to the WA landscape still features through the earthy tones of the beer labels and Tap Room's colour scheme.
9 years ago they built a large shed out of local stone on Howie’s property, that was to house their commercial Brewery which produced around 25,000 litres of beer annually (and they're looking to double that with the new brewery & Tap Room). The boys focus on traditional styled beers made in a modern fashion. The core range includes crowd favourites such as the American Style Pale Ale, New World Pilsner & the ubiquitous Hazy IPA, also some heavy hitters like the Double Choc Oatmeal Stout & Double Red Ale, and the literal dark horse - the Munich Dunkel – Dark Lager.