Udder Delights to open brand new brewery and cheese cellar this summer • Glam Adelaide

There’s something of a delicious oddity in an Adelaide Hills site long associated with a business named Grumpys Brewhaus soon to be home to a revitalised Udder Delights Cheese Cellar, a craft brewery and an eatery due to open in Summer 2021. But that’s precisely what is unfolding on the high-profile site between Verdun and Hahndorf after the new business concept, owned and operated by the entrepreneurs behind the multi-award-winning Udder Delights brand, Sheree and Saul Sullivan, succeeded in securing a $275,000 state government grant to kickstart the $2.5million project. The Grunthal Brew project received the grant this week from the Tourism Industry Development Fund (TIDF) and will be headlined by the Grunthal Brewery and Bar and the Udder Delights Cheese Cellar, which will relocate from Hahndorf to provide greater space and enhance the customer experience, thanks to a commercial kitchen and large masterclass area. These facilities will be complemented by a casual fun pizza and brewery restaurant; a dedicated conservatory for private function use and tourism experiences, including cheesemaking and beer-making classes and flights; and a landscaped backyard overlooking the Onkaparinga River, where children can roam while adults soak up the sun in a relaxed and casual setting. “We are thrilled to receive this generous grant from the TIDF and thank them for rewarding our exciting vision,” Sheree Sullivan said. “With our venture partners, local developers Marc Cheney and brothers Bill and Rolf Alander, we aim to create an enticing, fun, accessible and delicious tourism venue at the prominent entrance to the town we love and know so well. “We look forward to becoming part of an emerging cluster of high-quality venues that showcase some of the Adelaide Hills’ finest produce and strengthen the region’s reputation as a premier hospitality tourism area.” The project includes a new fit out of the old Grumpys brew shed that survived the venue’s 2016 fire (incorporating new state of the art brewing equipment), and the building of three significant facilities – a 304sqm main building on the original Grumpys footprint, a 106sqm conservatory and an 80sqm courtyard dining area. Other amenities and a generous car park complete the project. It is expected to create new jobs and stimulate the area’s economy during the construction process, as well as 12 new full-time positions spawned across the brewery, bar, restaurant, and cheese cellar when the venue is operational. Sheree Sullivan will manage the venue, including the restaurant, and continue to host her legendary cheese classes, while husband Saul will oversee the brewery where daily brewing of craft IPAs, lagers, stouts and nitros will be carried out by experienced senior local brewer Kai Cook. Why Grunthal, you might ask? Sheree had driven many years past the sign in Verdun that stated “Verdun, formerly Grunthal” never giving it much thought. After researching it she discovered that Grunthal was the original German settler name for ‘green valley’. “We thought it was perfect,” explained Sheree Sullivan, “a great description of the Onkaparinga Valley that we’re in” “But more than that, this green valley provided hope to the Prussians fleeing religious persecution when they settled here in the 1840s. They were surrounded by pristine waters, crisp air, rolling hills and fertile soil. We think Verdun was once their greener pasture, and we want Grunthal Brew to become a modern-day greener pasture in the lives and hearts of locals and tourists alike.”