Matt King and Glenn Wignall - The Grifter

Published: Aug. 24, 2021, 8 a.m.

b'This week we go back and visit Matt King and Glenn Wignall, who with their friend, Trent Evans, have been quietly building The Grifter brewery in Sydney\\u2019s inner west.\\n\\nWe visited the guys back in January 2018 and we\\u2019d invite you to go back and listen to that chat first if you haven\\u2019t already to learn the background to the brewery, which we don\\u2019t cover too much in this episode.\\n\\nOne of the things that struck me during that earlier conversation was just how quietly The Grifter team got on with what they did and not making much of a noise about it. In the intervening years they have continued not making waves on social media or troubling our email inbox with endless media releases or attention seeking novelties.\\n\\nSo it was that when I wandered into the brewery back in March this year to have a beer and chanced to bump into Matt and Glenn and had a brief catch up, I was gobsmacked that they said they were expanding again and had passed through the million litre production mark. That\\u2019s one of those production figures touted as being close to the other side of the \\u2018valley of death\\u2019 as Black Hops has described in its blog post on the topic.\\n\\nThe amazing thing about that - something Matt and Glenn confirm in the podcast - is that The Grifter has gone about it so quietly, compared to a brewery such as a Black Hops, that has driven its businesses very successfully harnessing the power of hype and novelty. And I say that in admiration for Black Hops prowess here, not in scorn.\\n\\nBut to me, it made The Grifter something of a Unicorn, growing to the scale of some much more notable breweries in such an unassuming way, and in a market that many describe as crowded.\\n\\nI was very keen to go back and revisit the teams and see if I could learn more about their secret sauce, or at least where they learned to make their secret sauce.\\n\\nOur partners\\n\\nRadio Brews News is proudly presented by Cryer Malt, who we are thrilled to announce are back supporting us for another year of conversations. With over 25 years in the field, Cryer Malt are dedicated to providing the finest brewing ingredients to help brewers create the foundations of a truly excellent beer. Your premium brewing partner - and our premium podcasting partner - Cryer Malt is proud sponsor of this conversion and the Radio Brews News channel.\\n\\nEvery guest on Beer is a Conversation receives a new piece of exclusive merch - a branded Yeti Rambler mug, thanks to our good friends at Yeti.\\n\\nIf you like what we do at Radio Brews News you can help us out by:\\n\\n\\nSponsoring the show\\n\\n\\nReviewing us on iTunes or your favourite podcasting service\\n\\nEmailing us at producer@brewsnews.com.au to share your thoughts'