Cattleyard Brewing Co. was born out of a shared love of cold beverages, culinary delights and top-notch tunes. In 2017, Rod Little and Steve Halpin of Cattleyard Promotions, the founders of regional touring festival Groovin the Moo, and the partners in charge of catering and partnerships, Fernando Motti and Blake Smith of Motti+Smith, joined forces to pour their love of beer into a collective passion and created a tasty, thirst-quenching lager under the moniker Cattleyard Brewing Co. After testing the initial brew on eager festival-goers with great success, the lager was canned and made available at the Maitland and Canberra legs of the festival in 2017. Spurred by the positive response, the crew created a pale ale, which was available at all six festivals in 2018. The following year, the Cattleyard Brewing Co. crew engaged Newcastle-based J.J.King as head brewer (previously from 4 Pines and Green Beacon) and the range expanded to include a lager, pale ale, Summer Red and Zingiber (a refreshing ginger beer).

Just as production began to ramp up, COVID-19 struck and struck hard. All six legs of the festival were cancelled and Cattleyard Brewing Co. was left with a tonne of beer and no-one to drink it. Whilst it might sound like a sad story, the team refused to go silently into the night and with a little extra time on their hands, increased distribution and delivery channels so you can now purchase nationally through BoozeBud or buy direct through its brand new website. Even though the festival was unable to proceed in 2020, Cattleyard Brewing Co. has still shown its commitment to showcasing Australian musical talent with every carton and can scan-integrated to launch an ever-evolving Spotify playlist, the Fortnightly Fortyfive. Headed up by DJ Lex Deluxe, the initiative is curated by a different local artist each fortnight, with the playlists giving the stage back to Australian artists during a time of cancelled shows. So far, the Fortnightly Fortyfive has featured local legends Split Feed, Motorik, PhonoLab and Just A Gent, with Kim Churchill now live! Upcoming guests include the likes of Danny Clayton, Pat Stevenson and Joe Barrs, with more to be announced.