Before pivoting to beer, Harriet McCready was a writer. She was the deputy editor of women’s magazines Dolly and Cosmopolitan. In 2019, McCready and her husband DJ McCready embarked on opening Mountain Culture, the first brewpub in the heart of the Blue Mountains.
B&T caught up with Harriet McCready, co-founder of Mountain Culture Brewery about how a career in fashion magazines translated to storytelling for a beer brand and the brewer’s new venue opening in Redfern later this month.
McCready drew on her storytelling experience to approach brand marking. She emphasised the importance of building genuine connections with consumers by sharing the journey and innovation behind the beer on Instagram.
Mountain Culture brewery, Katoomba.Creative Vision & Storytelling
“Being a writer and a storyteller myself in my old profession, I always understood the power of content and bringing people along on the journey,” said McCready. “It wasn’t just about the beer but about the community”.
“We are always doing something new and innovative with our beer and we love to share that with people. These stories have natural engagement because you’re not just trying to flog a product; that gets tiring quickly”.
The Mountain Culture creative director always thinks about the purpose of marketing material.
“In what way is it enriching someone’s life? How will our customers benefit from it? I hate the idea of wasting someone’s time,” she said.
“Part of what has made Mountain Culture successful is that we’re so creative. My husband is so creative on the beer side, and our brew team has followed his lead on that. ‘How can we use this hop differently? What can we change in the malt profile?’ are questions that are constantly being asked. On the other side, me being a creative, I’ve always been hyper-fixated on how we tell a story, what it looks like, and how it will make people feel,” she said.
The brand used crosswords and code words on a limited edition of its beer cans to playfully imagine how customers can interact with the products.
Mountain Culture Brewery was recently a venue partner for the Blue Mountains Writer’s Festival, held from Friday 1 November to Sunday 3 November.
“We’ve always been heavily involved in the community, any kind of festival, like music and culture. We love to support the local community and it’s great for businesses and locals and gives the tourists a good time,” she said.
Earlier this year, Mountain Culture launched its first national campaign, highlighting the company’s Status Quo Pale Ale – voted the best beer in Australia. The new campaign was produced entirely by Mountain Culture’s in-house team.
A New Venue in Redfern
Mountain Culture Brewery has its original venue in Katoomba and a production brewery and bar in Emu Plains. But now, the brand is expanding, opening a new venue in the inner Sydney suburb of Redfern. The brewery secured the former home of the Atomic brewery, which was closed by Good Drinks less than a month ago.
The space is set to open this month (we’ll be there) and will focus on beers, cocktails and food. McCready shared just how Mountain Culture launched into its latest venture.
“I was away overseas and I came back and DJ had a new set of keys. He took me to a venue in Redfern and said ‘This is our new bar’. As soon as I walked in, it felt right. It felt like Mountain Culture. I try to go off my gut instinct as much as I can,” said McCready.
“It will help more Sydneysiders discover good beer. It’s exciting for us to have a home in the city, and especially in Redfern. We’ve always loved the breweries in the inner west so being closer to that is awesome. Redfern feels really creative and that’s something that resonates with us”.
“It will be a spot to come if you want a good cocktail or a good beer. It won’t be as production-focused, it will be more about having a good time for a variety of customers,” said McCready.
It’s an interesting expansion for a brewery so closely associated with the Blue Mountains—it’s even in its name. We’ll have to wait and see how it plays with the broader brand. That being said, we’re sure the beers will still be cold and tasty.
Challenges & Lessons
“You can’t move a brewery around, so physical location matters. We wanted to open it in a place we were inspired by. We love the Blue Mountains as we are outdoorsy people,” she said.
“Finding the right site was the first major challenge we faced. We gave ourselves a year to get all the approvals and licenses you need to open a craft brewery”.
After the pair opened the brewery in October 2019, bushfires hit the area.
“We set up to be a hospitality business, but when there’s no one around, it makes it hard to operate. We had our first taste of that challenge and then our second one in 2020 when COVID-19 made us shut our doors”.
Looking back, one of the lessons McCready learned was the importance of seeing challenges as opportunities and ways to figure out something new. “It made us scrappy and find creative solutions because we had no other choice. While it was really difficult, it taught us a lot,” she said.
McCready also advised early business owners to be as lean as possible in operations and spending.
We were really lean in terms of our operations and our spending. When we weren’t generating that spending from people coming into the bar, we didn’t have to cut so many staff. We didn’t struggle as much with huge established payrolls.
There’s always a cheaper alternative that’s just as good. We’ve kept that mentality throughout the business.
