After developing a passion for American-style, hop-forward beers, Dave Padden founded Akasha Brewing in 2015. From the outset, the mission for Akasha was simple: create high quality, hop- forward beers and aim to have as many people as possible experience them.
With that in mind, Dave released Freshwater Pale Ale in April 2015 and introduced Akasha to the world. Popularity for that beer soared (and it remains Akasha’s most popular beer to this day) and by October of 2015, Dave and his relatively small team had built their very own brewery in Five Dock and soon after launched our first venue – the Akasha Taproom.
The next few years saw Akasha continually grow and develop its reputation as one of the country’s top independent craft breweries. Midway through 2020 – a little over five years from that first brew – Akasha rebranded to show how the mighty hop watches over everything the brewery does. The new look, featuring an Illuminati inspired eye, aimed to reflect the almost spiritual component of drinking fantastic beer, while also capturing the brewery’s desire to open the doorway to great beer and let others inside.
In 2022, Akasha reached another milestone in its history, undertaking a crowdfunding campaign which raised over $1.6 million. The purpose of this raise was to enable further expansion, increase our brand awareness and create our Inner Circle – a group of over 500 passionate Akasha fans turned shareholders who all subsequently became brand ambassadors.
In addition, this crowdfund enabled Akasha to purchase two new venues in 2022: the Akasha Barrel Room in Leichhardt and the Edwards in Newcastle. Both venues were acquired for their unique appeal and strategic significance. The Barrel Room became a premium venue, showcasing our Barrel Aged Beer program in an elevated setting. The Edwards was already a famous venue in Newcastle, renowned for its reputation of incredible food, beer and wine, and would become a base from which to grow our brand awareness in the Hunter region.
While a lot has changed at Akasha over the course of 10 years, the reason why we do what we do has never faltered: we love making everyday experiences remarkable. Whether that’s crafting a delicious beer in our brewery, plating an artful dish in our venues or even hosting an event – we all love what we do and we love sharing the fruits of our labour with as many people as possible.
