Rod Williams

Having spent over 15 years brewing beer in England, Rod moved to Australia in 2005 to share his talents with the Australian beer drinking community.

Raised & educated in the UK, Rod studied brewing at Heriot–Watt University in Edinburgh (now the International Centre for Brewing & Distilling) where he gained not only a degree in Brewing & Microbiology but also a future wife, Moyra, who happened to be training as a brewer at the same time. Following graduation in 1987, they travelled together in Australia before returning to England where they both took up careers in the UK Brewing Industry.

In 1989, Rod joined the renowned London family brewers, Young & Co. of Wandsworth, spending the next three and a half years learning the art of brewing good real ale before joining Moyra on the brewing staff at George Gale’s Brewery in Horndean, on the South Coast of England (where Moyra was to actually spend over 15 years brewing great beers such as HSB & Prize Old Ale).

In 1994, Rod left Gale’s to take up the role of Development Brewer at Ringwood Brewery on the edge of the New Forest in Hampshire. Ringwood Brewery had been set up in 1978 as one of the pioneering micro-breweries established in England at that time & had become renowned for brewing high quality ales, including it’s legendary flag-ship beer, “Old Thumper”. The attraction that Ringwood offered was of a successful micro making steady progress towards becoming a really well established regional brewery & the immediate task was to commission the new brewhouse & fermenting room that was being installed as part of a major expansion.

In 1997, Rod was promoted to Head Brewer at Ringwood, overseeing a doubling in beer production over the next 7 years, establishing the brewery as one of the major real ale breweries in southern England.

Having fallen in love with Australia during their trip here in 1987, Moyra & Rod decided to give up their careers in the UK & moved to the Yarra Valley in early 2005, their arrival fortuitously coinciding with the birth of Coldstream Brewery.