Victoria’s Castlemaine Brewing Company will now be known as Shedshaker Brewing, with its original identity proving too close to Lion’s Castlemaine Perkins trade mark.

Castlemaine Brewing established its own brewery and taproom early last year in Castlemaine, Victoria, after a period of contract brewing under the name.

The brand eventually came to the attention of Lion’s legal team, and Castlemaine has complied with a request to change it, co-founder Jacqueline Brodie-Hanns confirmed to Brews News.

Castlemaine Brewing is now moving all branding to Shedshaker Brewing Company, with Lion agreeing to a reasonable transition period.

“We had 20,000 units of packaging that we had to consume so they’ve been relatively generous in that department – they gave us plenty of time,” Brodie-Hanns said.

“We’ll be completely Shedshaker Brewing, we just want people to understand that we haven’t sold up. It’s the same people, it’s the same company, it’s the same beer – we’re just changing the name.”

Some confusion

Brodie-Hanns acknowledged there had been some confusion in the market over the likeness to Castlemaine Perkins, which actually takes its name from the same Victorian town.

The original Castlemaine Brewery began operations in Castlemaine in 1858 before undergoing nationwide expansion, including into its current Milton site in Brisbane.

“We’re taking it on the chin, but the thing that is annoying about it is that Castlemaine Perkins left town in 1874. There is no Castlemaine in Queensland,” Brodie-Hanns said.

The new brand identity for Shedshaker Brewing Company

She said that in any case, the name may have run its course for her company, which has evolved its approach over the last few years.

“The company started in 2014 and at the time we were all about being out and proud about our town. Castlemaine’s got a huge local food and beverage production culture – for us the beer was a natural fit,” she said.

“Being Castlemaine Brewing Company was the original motivation but we almost feel like we’ve moved on from it.

“The irreverence of Shedshaker is more fitting… We’ve moved away from, ‘this is all about local’ to ‘this is about having a good time’,” said Brodie-Hanns.

Holy Grail
Shedshaker was the name of one of Castlemaine’s beers, which is to be rebranded as Holy Grail.

The beer takes its new name from the hit record by Hunters and Collectors, with brewery co-founder Doug Falconer having formerly drummed with the band.

Brodie-Hanns said that otherwise, the entity now known as Shedshaker is enjoying continued growth and has recently acquired a bottling line from Holgate Brewhouse, enabling it to bring its packaging entirely in-house.

She said the company has an established customer base in Melbourne, but its current focus is on building its presence in Castlemaine and surrounding areas such as Bendigo.

“The brewery bar is incredibly successful,” she added. “We put music events on and community events on… it’s just become a really great venue and the fact that it also happens to have kick arse beer as well, is an added bonus!”

A Lion spokesperson told Brews News: “Lion is happy than an amicable decision could be reached by both parties.”