Craft beer for those dedicated to their trails.

Bridge Road has launched its Ales for Trails program

Bridge Road Brewers are excited to announce their Ales for Trails program, an initiative aimed to reward those who volunteer their time creating, progressing and maintaining their local trail network.

Ales for trails will also give ‘dig day’ organisers that extra leverage needed to motivate their volunteers into joining them and the next planned dig day.

We all know that beer currency works quite differently to actual currency and goes a long way to getting someone motivated to give up their time. The beer economy in Australia has long been a positive part of community spirit, and a shared beer after a community effort really enriches the social component of the effort. Because of this Bridge Road Brewers will be shipping beer out to successful applicants to support them for their dedication to their trails.

Bridge Road Brewers is located in Beechworth, in Victoria’s High Country, where mountain biking is not only part of their community lifestyle, it is also a growing market for tourism. Recognising this, Tourism North East have developed the Ride High Country program to capitalise on the cycling credentials of the north east. According to Eddie Wilson, Industry and Product Development Manager – Cycling, ‘this initiative has helped bring more than 100,000 cycling visitors to the Region over the past year, providing positive economic impact for High Country communities’.

Bridge Road Brewers founder Ben Kraus, also a passionate mountain biker launched the initiative this weekend with a bushfire recovery day at the NSW south coast township of Tathra. Ben and his family travelled for the weekend with their beer trailer to assist in the trail work and then tapped two kegs to provide volunteers with a reward for their effort. The event was a huge success with over 80 volunteers from the local community and farther afield lending a hand

The Rake n’ Ride event was an incredible day, said Tathra MTB Club’s Andrew Johnson.

“They say you never know who your friends are until there’s a crisis, and the Tathra trails certainly have a lot of fans”.

Over 80 people from far and wide turned out for the day, which saw the town’s 25km of burnt Bundadung trails immaculately raked in about 1 hr.

Rakers were then given the opportunity to ride their handiwork or join in a Club race on the area’s other 22km of Fire Shed trails which were untouched by fire.

To wrap up the day Club put on a free BBQ, and Bridge Road Brewers rolled out a keg of their renown craft beer.

“Having a beer and barbie at the end of the day, is a great way to unwind and share some stories.” Says Johnson.

“ It also gave us the opportunity to thank those who came out to lend a hand.”

Ben has his own experience of leveraging help using beer; “The idea is for clubs and groups to use our beer as extra leverage to encourage volunteers to help build and maintain their trail network. As a member of the local Beechworth Chain Gang I know first-hand the difficulties in rallying the troops for a maintenance or dig day. We have found that building the social aspect of such days with a beer and bbq a great way to increase participation, not to mention bolster the strength of the relationships within the group”.

“I take my bike whenever I can when I travel and really appreciate the efforts volunteers go to in providing trails not only for themselves, but selflessly for the wider local community and for visitors to their area. I love to see a trail builders reaction to a visitor thanking and praising them for their work, the least I can do is shout them a beer for their effort”.

Bridge Road Brewers welcomes the support of Flow Mountain Bike, Specialized Bikes, Shimano and Pearl Izumi. With Pearl Izumi offering a Pearl Izumi Dirt Rider gift pack valued at $250 for each successful application.

The program is currently open for submissions via the brewery website.