Five Barrels. Ten Years. One Family.

The Crafty Pint Podcast · Feb 25, 2026 · 1h 2m

“We built a business that was really there to be connected directly to the community, and I think we succeeded in that.”

There are plenty of family-owned and run businesses in the local beer world, but few in which so many family members are as directly involved as Five Barrel Brewing in Wollongong.

As if to prove the point, on the day we visited to record this podcast, Jane (mum) and Mike (dad) were setting up the bar and beer garden. Meanwhile, two of their three kids working in the business, Phil and Lucy, took a break from work to join us upstairs above the brewpub where, at various…