General News
19 June, 2026
Brewing dream becomes reality: Rightbank Brewing Society opens its doors
IT’S New Year’s Eve 2019, and Danny Whiteman is with his wife, Sam at an event at the Maydale Reserve with some friends, and the conversation turns to the subject of beermaking, with agreement about “how good it would be to have a brewery in Horsham?”.
“I'd been wanting something like this in Horsham for a very long time, but obviously no one had done anything,” he said.
“A lot of them said, ‘Well, why don't you do it?’
“Instead of talking about it, ‘be about it’ – I think was my motto, and I’m not a New Year's resolution type of operator, but I woke up on New Year's Day and thought, ‘I'm going to start learning how to brew’ and ordered a little five-litre kit and started brewing on – I still remember the day – the 12th of January (2020).”
Danny said the first batch in a soup pot “stunk the house out” and only rewarded him with 12 stubbies, but he was soon hooked “playing around” with tastes and much more.
“I was only doing it for a couple of months, and then I bought a 35-litre system and started brewing in the shed at home,” he said.
With experimentation and research lending itself to refining the product, he said he was also using his marketing and advertising career background to map out the business side of the operation.
“I was already developing the brand – the day that people said ‘you should do this’, I was sitting on the right bank of the Wimmera River,” Danny said.
“Horsham's brewing history is on the right bank of the river, so ... I decided to recreate it in some respects. It's been 100 years or more since there's been breweries in Horsham.
“From there we just started developing recipes; the names of the beers were starting to sort of flow.”
With a liquor licence and canning beginning in 2021 – some relaxation of bureaucratic hoops during COVID helping the venture – Rightbank introduced a mobile tap bar the following year to get out to events “and be the face of the business”.
“It was important that Sam and I were able to front up and basically say, this is who's making it,” Danny said.
The obvious next step was to secure a permanent space, which they found in 2024.
It took until just two weeks ago to complete the refurbishment, tick all the regulatory boxes with the authorities, and get it fit for opening.
Speaking to the interior design of the site tucked away off Darlot Street, Danny said Sam’s input had been crucial with the final atmosphere – “she was the visionary with the colours and how the place was going to look and everything like that (whereas) I just wanted somewhere to make beer”.
“We wanted it to appeal to everybody,” Sam said.
“We don't want it just to feel like, if it's only a male that drinks beer, that the women can't come as well ... we've got 12 locally-sourced wines, we do pick-a-platter foods, and most of our platter foods is regionally sourced as well.
“We also wanted to make it an experience for a whole family to come and sit here for an hour or two hours and have a couple of drinks, and then move on ... whether it's to go out to dinner or a show or something else locally.”
Sam said there were enough venues with distractions, and they wanted something that was far simpler.
“We were mindful of the fact that, there's obviously other local establishments that are pubs and stuff, and they've got their football, and they've got their TAB, and all that sort of stuff,” she said.
“Whereas we wanted it to be a place where people can come and sit and communicate with each other.”
To the beer itself, Danny said the gradual expansion of his range has been a rewarding journey, with his early work as a baker lending itself to having a head start on related food processes, and he has actively sourced information from other brewers online – he also invested in a professional brewing coach in Queensland to get him that little bit of extra understanding.
“I enrolled in his course – it was quite enlightening to know that a lot of the stuff that I'd already learned was accurate, and (then) just how important that last 15 per cent was – that I didn't know – which I felt like took our beer from good to really, really good,” Danny said.
The investment appears to be paying off, in an Australia-wide competition a couple of years ago against some very well-known breweries, his pale ale ended up with a bronze medal, which he considered “a validation ... I felt, we're on the right track here”.
From a marketing angle, he was a little reluctant to call what he offers craft beer “because it has a stigma in Australia” and added he has learned to listen a little better to what his customers were telling him.
“Maybe the error that I made early was trying to force people to drink what I liked,” Danny said.
“It is a business at the end of the day – make what the people want, not what you want them to want … but slowly but surely, we've converted a fair few people, even just to try a pilsner, which is a Czech lager.”
He said one of the great advantages of being independent was experimentation and being open to a recipe not selling and being able to admit “it didn’t work, let’s try something else".
“It's not about me,” Danny said.
“Developing all the different beers as well was about trying to showcase different styles of beer and then also showcasing different grains that make beer.
“People just think it's barley. Well, you can have barley, you can have a hazy pale ale, it's got oats, it's got wheat in it, and stuff. People are still fascinated that you can make beer with oats.”
On the subject of ingredients, Danny was especially pleased to source some of his grain from Rupanyup, noting how the area’s product was internationally renowned and should be leveraged locally.
“It's good enough for it to be produced around the world, but no one in Horsham is brewing with it – it just made no sense to me,” he said.
“The stuff that's grown here in Western Victoria is used around the world. You've got people from Asahi flying over to Australia to drive to Rupanyup to check out the quality of the crops. That's mind-blowing.
“I've done talks at farming events in Rupanyup about this as well, and you're standing next to the farmer that grows the product that's going to international brewing companies.”
Now that Rightbank is up and running at its own permanent location, Danny said “it's been nice that our friends and family are just as excited for us as what we are”.
“We thank Horsham for their patience while we were trying to build this,” he said.
“It's only early days, but the feedback has been great, and to anyone that hasn't been here yet, we would like them to come and make their own views, opposed to what they've heard or anything – come in and have a look and enjoy the space.”
Rightbank Brewing Society is behind Poolwerx on Darlot Street, and opening hours are Friday 1-9pm, Saturday 12-9pm and Sunday 12-6pm.