Temple Brewing will add a pilsner to its bottled range as it seeks to consolidate its position as a national brand under new ownership.

Temple owner Nick Pang, national sales and marketing manager Mark Waghorne and brewer Glenn Harrison joined Radio Brews News last week in an episode recorded at the brewery in Brunswick East, Melbourne.

“The absolute bones are here in this business. We just need to sort a few things out in terms of distribution, and production-wise,” said Waghorne, who joined the company from Mountain Goat in October.

“Nick and Glenn and the team are letting me do what I do, and that’s acquiring people for sales and looking for more distribution channels.”

Waghorne said he had been impressed when he first tried Temple’s Power Stance Pilsner, which is set to join Bicycle Beer and Anytime IPA in the company’s core 330ml bottle range in February.

“I was pretty blown away by it because there’s not too many out on the market in the Australian craft scene… it’s going to be a very important part of our story,” he said.

Harrison said Power Stance is a “true-to-style craft pilsner” as opposed to many examples that are lagered for only two or three weeks and bolstered by New World hops.

“I think if you’re going to do a style you’ve got to give it justice. This is 100 per cent pure German pilsner malt, one German hop, German yeast… and time,” he said.

“Financially it’s not the smartest move, because it ties up a tank for eight to nine weeks when I could turn that tank over three times.”

The Temple Brewing 330ml bottle range

But owner Nick Pang, who was formerly a corporate restructuring specialist, said taking a longer-term view will be key to his approach at Temple.

“I came into this looking at it as a very very serious business. There’s got to be strategies behind everything that we do,” he said.

“Forward thinking is very important… We’re starting to work on strategies for three to four years now, because we need to look that far ahead… at what point in time do we need another brewery?”

Temple’s beers are available nationally through selected independent retailers.

Waghorne revealed Bicycle Beer is now available through Dan Murphy’s stores in Victoria, while Anytime IPA has been ranged by Vintage Cellars right across the eastern states.

Episode 72 of Radio Brews News is available here.