Matilda Bay Bitter Beer ‘Fresh from the tap’ Poster

The Matilda Bay Brewery was the first of the modern-day boutique pub-breweries to operate in Australia. Completely independent of the long-established and powerful breweries, including the Swan Brewery in Perth, the new company was the pioneer in introduc­ing a new range of specialty beers and old-style English ales.

The promoter of this profoundly courageous venture was Philip Sexton, a young man who had worked for years at the Swan Brewery, and had been involved in developing the highly successful Swan Special Light. In 1983 he left Swan and completed a master’s degree in biochemistry in Britain, specialising in the fermentation of beer.

Returning to Fremantle, Sexton began to shape his vision of an up-market hotel brewery into reality. A company was formed in October 1983 as Dallenton Pty Ltd, changing to Brewtech Pty Ltd, and then Brew­tech Ltd in December 1987.

On 20 October 1988 the company was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, and CUB acquired a shareholding. This ultimately led to the takeover and total control of the Matilda Bay Brewing Co. Ltd and its operations by CUB in April 1990. CUB  decided to introduce a more commercial beer and the result was Matilda Bay Bitter.