News
Great Barrier Beer Launches in Cans – Yes We Can Save the Reef!
Brisbane start up, The Good Beer Co, Australia’s social enterprise beer company, has launched a new Great Barrier Beer for the Australian Marine Conservation Society with a call to action to all Aussie beer drinkers: Yes We Can Save the Reef!
Continuing their work with national environmental charity, the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS), The Good Beer Co has launched a rebranded Great Barrier Beer in cans to help raise funds for the AMCS and their vital work to protect Australia’s national icon, the Great Barrier Reef, from the threats of climate change and pollution.
The “Australian Lager” will be brewed with all Australian ingredients for The Good Beer Co by award winning independent craft brewery Ballistic Beer Company in Brisbane.
Ten percent of the price every keg and carton sold will go directly to the AMCS to help fund their work to protect the Reef.
The new branding, featuring a watercolor painting using water from the Great Barrier Reef, was done for The Good Beer Co by Brother & Co in Brisbane who worked pro bono in support of the social enterprise and the cause.
The new Great Barrier Beer was launched at the Beer InCider festival on Friday 21st and Saturday 22nd of September where it raised over $1,000 for the Australian Marine Conservation Society, and at a special event for supporters at Ballistic West End Bar on Wednesday 3rd October.
QLD Minister for Innovation and Tourism, Kate Jones MP, pulled the first beer and launched a pre-order crowd-fund campaign for the first batch of the new Great Barrier Beer in cans.
The Good Beer Co Founder James Grugeon said he was excited to be relaunching the popular beer in cans with new branding a new brewery partner and a new style of beer. “This is a great Australian beer for a great Australian cause. Good beers drinkers at Beer InCider loved the beer and they loved that it is helping the Australian Marine Conservation Society protect our Great Barrier Reef from climate change and pollution too. We can’t wait to get it out there.”
Darren Kindleysides, AMCS CEO said: “We already know that Great Barrier Beer is a brilliant and simple way to get our important message out there and to raise funds for our work to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Our Reef needs all our help right now. Every time someone drinks a Great Barrier Beer they are raising a glass to a better future for our Reef.”
Ballistic Beer Company Head Brewer, Lachy Crothers said: “We’re stoked to be brewing this revolutionary good beer for a good cause for The Good Beer Co. It’s an absolutely cracking Australian Lager made with all Australian ingredients, just perfect to be enjoyed in the Queensland summer that’s coming!”
The Good Beer Co will be making the new Great Barrier Beer available in cartons via a special pre-order crowd-fund campaign – www.pozible.com/
And from early 2019, Great Barrier Beer will be available through The Good Beer Co website and, potentially, at previous stockists of Great Barrier Beer including Woolworths (BWS) as well as through a special campaign targeting supporters of Australia’s national icon and action on climate change and pollution.
For more information visit the Good Beer Co website by clicking here.
Day three of my trip to Somabay and we were spending the day on the Lady Christina and diving on the wreck of the Salem Express.
Diving wrecks for me is always one of mixed emotions. The excitement of diving a wreck is more than often tempered by the thought of loss of life when she sank. The Salem Express was a passenger ship and a roll-on/roll-off ferry travelling from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to Safaga, Egypt. Most passengers were of poor class travelling home from their holidays while around 150 people were returning home from their pilgrimage to Mecca.
The ship struck a reef and sank within 20 minutes. Passengers were trapped below deck and the ship was filled with fear and panic.
The wreck area is strewn with personal belongings from the crew and passengers such as a transistor radio and a flat iron for clothes. A diver at sometime has put them in a prominent place to be seen.
Tragically only one life boat was launched while the others went down with the ship. More than 600 men, women and children lost their lives here.
It’s a stark reminder that the sea can be unforgiving and so when we dive on such wrecks we should do so with humble regard.
Returning to the surface, shoals of fish are gathered under our boat and seem to be welcoming us back into the light.
Back at the Breakers I sat in the dining area with a beer and a very good meal while my thoughts still remained with the day’s dive on the Salem Express.
Check in for part 3 tomorrow for Jeff’s last day of diving with Somabay on the off-shore reefs looking for turtles.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
For a week at the end of February I was invited to sample the diving with Orca Dive Club based at the Breakers Diving and Surfing Lodge by courtesy of SOMABAY.
Somabay covers an entire peninsula and is home to several resorts as well as residential compounds. Somabay caters for scuba diving as well as many other sports, including windsurfing, golf, sailing, go-carting, horse riding and many other activities.
All the activities are of a world-class standard and any or all of these can be booked directly from The Breakers.
I took Easyjet from Bristol (UK) to Hurghada. Easyjet are not by any means my favourite airline but the flight was cheap and direct (except for the surprise extra £48 I was charged at the gate for my carry-on bag).
I was met at Hurghada airport by a driver and car and taken to the Breakers 28 miles (45Kilomaters) south along the coast. Once at the hotel I was too late for an evening meal and so a basic meal was delivered to my room. That and a beer from the fridge and I was fast asleep.
Early the next morning after breakfast I arrived for my rep meeting at the Orca Dive Center for 8.00am. I was immediately made to feel welcome, and after brief introductions I got some dive gear from the store, had a chat with my dive guide Mohamed and got ready to try the house reef situated at the end of a very long wooded pier where all diving gear and divers are taken out by buggies.
Once at the end of the pier, a helping hand from staff makes sure your gear is set and then it’s a short walk to the very end where you can either climb down a ladder of simply jump in the water next to the reef. The house reef extends both north and south giving a very easy and safe dive with plenty to see. At this time of the year the water temperature was a constant 22 degrees Centigrade and there was little or no current, so there were no issues in swimming back to the pier.
Quite a few divers were in dry or semi-dry suits, but being from the UK and used to the cold I found a 3mm wetsuit with a 3mm neoprene vest quite comfortable. Even after 50 years of diving I still find that first dive of a trip slightly nerving until I am actually underwater and then all becomes relaxed and I ease into auto diving mode. There was plenty to see with many of the Red Sea favourites along the way.
After the dive and a buggy ride back to the hotel for a very good buffet lunch I was back in the water, once again on the house reef for an afternoon dive.
Check in for part 2 tomorrow when Jeff gets on a day boat and dives a few of the off-shore reefs.
Book your next Red Sea dive adventure with SOMABAY! For more information, visit www.somabay.com.
Stay at the Breakers Diving & Surfing Lodge when you visit! For more information, visit www.thebreakers-somabay.com.
Find out more about ORCA Dive Clubs at SOMABAY at www.orca-diveclubs.com/en/soma-bay-en.
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