Chris Shanahan: Badlands Brewery to open in Orange

After years of home brewing, Jon Shiver completed post-grad studies in brewing at the University of Ballarat and established Badlands Brewery at Orange, NSW.

While Shiver developed his own beer recipes, he had the beers brewed under contract in Sydney, while he built his own brewery. With construction recently completed, he expects to be brewing in Orange by mid October, when he returns from a trip to England.

For some time he’s been offering Badlands beers at the Orange brewery site. But he recently moved the tasting to a new venue, The Agrarians – an outlet for produce of the Orange region. The venue includes a cheese factory, a café and a wine bar, says Shiver.

The high quality of his pale ale, reviewed below, suggest it’ll be a highlight of Orange’s fast-growing local food scene.

Badlands Brewery Pale Ale 330ml $3.85
From Orange, NSW, Badlands Pale, sits between the uber malty–hoppy American pale ale style and the mild, delicately balanced English versions. The back label carries a little matrix of maltiness, hoppiness and bitterness, accurately reflecting the rich, smooth, but not over-sweet malt, pungent but not overwhelming hops flavour and lingering, fresh bitterness.