Showcasing South Australia

For nigh on 27 years, Des Hooper has been making booze on the edge of the Great Southern Ocean on the Limestone Coast. In close proximity to Robe and Kingston, the lifestyle here is as refreshing as the salt from the waves he’s surfed since settling here in 1993.

His beer production began in 2014, when he, and a couple of mates played around with mash brewing in an old warehouse at the back of the Cape Jaffa Winery – Des’s other booze company right next door. Dave Murdock, a mate of his, had built a three-vessel brew system which could crank out 50 litres of beer at a time. It was basic, but it did the trick and it whet his beer production appetite.

Once Tom O'Rielly joined the team at Cape Jaffa from brewing for Stone & Wood, things quickly progressed. Fast forward a few years and beer sales improved so much, that Des bit the bullet and built Tom a proper brew house. And the name? Both beer lovers, they’d seized opportunities and escaped everyday life. They’d found their Loopholes.