Cairns & Great Barrier Reef is the natural place to meet… and eat and drink! Ask anyone who’s visited, and they’ll tell you discovering our reef and rainforest is thirsty work.
Hemingway's Brewery
Our climate rarely dips into single figures so there’s a good chance you’ll be parched come sundown. But good news, Cairns & Great Barrier Reef has been quenching thirsts since our first bar opened in 1877 and we’ve been perfecting all forms of hydration since.
One of the many watering holes (of the hospitality kind, not to be mistaken with our insta-worthy swimming variety), is Hemingway’s Brewery. Producers of internationally award-winning craft beers in Cairns & Great Barrier Reef.
With two waterfront brewpubs in Port Douglas and Cairns, your next offsite event location is sorted. And what’s more, it will be contributing to the Great Barrier Reef. Let’s find out how.
An event with a delicious legacy
The Hemingway’s Brewery flagship range features 7th Heaven, a pale ale that contributes 50% of sales profit to Great Barrier Reef Legacy. Great Barrier Reef Legacy is a not-for-profit organisation and a leader in marine expeditions, delivering innovative science and education to accelerate actions vital to the survival of the world’s largest coral reef system.
By adding the 7th Heaven pale ale to your beverage menu, the bar tab at your gala dinner can directly support conservation efforts on the Great Barrier Reef. And the beer tastes pretty great too.
Time for a cleanup
The good deeds don’t stop at the menu at Hemingway’s. Staff at both Hemingway’s Breweries regularly volunteer their time with the Tangaroa Blue Foundation. Giving up a sleep-in on the weekend, staff jump in and clean up the many beaches in the region, ensuring they remain pristine and protected.
The Australian Marine Debris Initiative was set up to coordinate an on-ground network of volunteers, communities, and organisations that contribute to a database. The database is then used to create solutions to stop the flow of litter at the source. So far, Tangaroa Blue has cleaned up over 4000 sites, with almost 200,000 volunteers.
Hemingway’s Brewery is just one contributor of resources to Tangaroa Blue; you can add your event delegates into the mix. Spend the afternoon with feet in the sand, soaking up the glorious Tropical North Queensland sun, adding to the 18 million items of waste collected from our shores. At the end, delegates are rewarded with a sense of accomplishment and a cold can of 7th Heaven.
Legendary status
In 2020, Hemingway’s Brewery introduced Lager Legends; a competition to recognise members of the Cairns and Port Douglas community doing great things. The winner is chosen from nominations and receives a case of Hemingway’s beer. Born out of a desire to look for the good in our local community during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lager Legends title is one you can extend to a team member, industry peer or group and continue the gratitude at your next conference.
Service built on the basics of sustainability
Long before single-use plastic was banned in Queensland, Hemingway’s Brewery was dedicated to the cause. Glass bottles and aluminium cans are, of course, recycled, a standard practice for most these days. They don’t use plastic straws, only use paper takeaway bags for purchases from the Bottle Shop, and sell multi-use growlers. That’s not the noise coming from your empty stomach, it’s an airtight aluminium container used to transport beer from one place to another without losing quality and eliminating more waste, yet again.
Sharing is caring
Someone else who benefits from your welcome function or delegate lunch at Hemingway’s Brewery are the pigs! After contributing to the Reef, the clean beaches, and the community legends, Hemingway’s recycles their spent grain by feeding local livestock. Spent grain is what is leftover after the beer-making process. The by-product from the brewing industry isn’t a perfect food for the farm animals but its high fibre content and decent amount of protein makes it a great supplement.
If you do one thing in Cairns & Great Barrier Reef outside your action-packed, knowledge-filled, conference agenda, visit Hemingway’s Brewery for a beer. Do it for the pigs!
