On Wednesday 25th May we celebrated the opening of the Brasserie Bread Queensland bakery. Many of our customers were asking for our artisan products in south east Queensland, and we finally made it happen. But our Celebrate the Source event wasn’t just festivities for the opening; it was also the chance for us to honour provenance, traceability, and relationships to our farmers. Held at Up on Constance in Fortitude Valley, it was a delight to celebrate with our customers, suppliers, bloggers, and friends.
Wheat Traceable to Australian Farms
Our handcrafted sourdough is made with wheat that’s traceable to the source, freshly baked at our artisan bakery in Molendinar. We use two types of wheat in our sourdough from two different regions in Australia.
Gwydir Shire, NSW
In the heartland of New South Wales’ prime hard wheat growing region the Lancer wheat grain is harvested by Simon Doolin and his family. Simon joined us on the evening and spoke passionately about the wheat farming process. The Gwydir Shire provides crops with plentiful underground water from the Great Artesian Basin that’s as pure as rainwater. The red to chocolate brown soil is self-mulching, producing wheat for our sourdough with a finer crumb structure, a mild acidic profile, and a deep crust.
Southern Flinders Ranges, South Australia
Andrew Byerlee and a group of fourth and fifth generation farmers grow Katana wheat in the Flinders Ranges. Crops from this region are exposed to a long, hot ripening period in summer, intense sunlight and nutrient rich red and brown soils. There’s no air pollution allowing a clean and green grain to be grown. These conditions produce sourdough with a moist crumb, waxy mouthfeel, slightly sour taste, and a deep, golden blistered crust. Find out more about the story behind single origin sourdough here.
The Food
To match our artisan bread, we looked to our friends Pepe Saya and ALTO Olives – they’re always the perfect match! A cheese table was abundant with beautiful artisan cheeses by Kris Lloyd (including Grace ashed goats cheese and Betty ashed buffalo cheese) and Stone & Crow’s new range of Nightwalker washed rind, Ninety Nine semi hard goat cheese, Moonshine cows milk semi hard cheese. Beautiful artisan meats made by Salumi Australia in the Northern Rivers Region on New South Wales were perfectly complemented by hand picked Westmont Pickles. Pulled pork that was apple wood smoked for over 12 hours by our production manager Nigel Krieger was served on our milk buns. We ended on a high with ice cream sliders using Gundowring raspberry or licorice ice cream and our brioche buns.
The Drinks
It’s not a celebration without drinks, so we were delighted to be in great company. Guests were treated to handmade beers by Green Beacon, Bent Road Wines from the Granite Belt in Queensland using a minimal and reactive approach to winemaking, as well as Jansz Tasmania sparkling wine.
Big thanks go to the fine folks of Fino Foods, Up on Constance and all all the producers who helped us to celebrate on the night.