Of all the parties Sheree Sullivan has seen unfold at Grünthal Brew, perhaps the most important one happened just this month.
It was not the biggest event the Adelaide Hills venue has hosted, nor the most elaborate. It was not a wedding, corporate function, or one of the many celebrations that now fill the busy Verdun venue week after week. It was her daughter Stella’s 18th.
“She asked me, ‘Mum, can I have my 18th at Grünthal?’ and I actually said no at first,” Sheree said, worried she’d turn away too many customer inquiries to use the Greenhouse for herself.
Then she changed her mind.
“We had the best time,” she said. “I didn’t anticipate how much fun I was going to have. It gave me a chance to be a customer, and be a mum, and be a host of an event, not the business delivering the event.”
For Sheree, owner of Grünthal Brew alongside husband Saul, the night became a clear full-circle moment. Stella, now 18, grew up around her parents’ businesses. So did her younger sister Lily, now 16. Today, both girls work at Grünthal, part of a family story that has been unfolding in the Adelaide Hills food and beverage scene for more than two decades.
Before Grünthal Brew, there was Udder Delights. The cheese business was founded by Sheree’s parents in 1999 as a goat dairy and cheese factory in Lobethal, before Sheree and husband Saul took the helm growing it into one of Australia’s largest producers of Brie and Camembert. Saul and Sheree later opened the iconic Udder Delights Cheese Cellar in Hahndorf in 2006.
“When we opened the Udder Delights Cheese Cellar, my husband and I sold our unit and one of our cars to fund that business,” Sheree said.
That commitment has followed Sheree through her working life, both as a mother and as a businesswoman, after 27 years in the Adelaide Hills food and beverage scene.
It was that same commitment that led her to open Grünthal Brew on the site of a famous brewery that closed its doors after a 2016 fire.
“Grumpy’s Brewhaus was this iconic site in the Adelaide Hills,” Sheree said. “I actually had my hens night there years ago.”
After the fire, the site had become tired and sat prominently at the Verdun roundabout.
“It was such a high-profile position, but vacant, it just looked like an eyesore,” Sheree said.
Then, in 2022, Sheree was offered the opportunity to take on the old space under a new name, and there was a decision to be made.
She thought back to Simon Sinek’s TED Talk, Start With Why, which centres on the idea that before you work out how to build something, you need to understand why it matters in the first place. For Sheree and Saul, that meant looking beyond the practicalities of taking on another business and asking what would give the venture meaning, energy and heart. A ‘why’.
What followed was weeks of weighing up the future of their business and searching for that ‘why’.
“Then,” Sheree said, “One day I woke up and said to Saul, ‘Let’s do it, because it’ll be fun.’ And that became our why.”
That idea still sits at the centre of Grünthal Brew today.
“Grünthal Brew is all about fun dining, not fine dining,” Sheree said.
They also call themselves the party venue.
“We generally say yes to everything a winery says no to,” Sheree laughed.
But getting there was far from easy.
“The truth is, it hasn’t been fun at times,” Sheree said.
While the public saw a new Adelaide Hills destination take shape, behind the scenes Sheree was managing the pressure of building a physical venue, creating systems, developing menus, finding staff and preparing the business for operation.
“Overseeing a construction site while you’re also trying to build a business behind the scenes, with staff, menus, kitchen and systems, was really hard,” she said.
“Towards the last couple of months before opening, it was terrible. I hated it. It was just very stressful. You don’t really sleep because you don’t have enough time.”
Two nights before opening to the public, Grünthal held a practice night for family and friends. It didn’t go to plan.
“It went so badly that my adrenaline kicked in,” Sheree said. “I didn’t want to be there.”
In hindsight, that difficult night helped shape the venue into what it is now. The team had two days to reassess what was working, what was not, and what kind of dining experience truly suited the space.
“The good thing about that family and friends night is we had two days to turn it around and ask, what are we going to change?” Sheree said. “That essentially put Grünthal on the path it is now.”
The venue moved away from formal mains and toward small plates, tapas-style food and pizzas that better suited its atmosphere. Now, four years on, Sheree says Grünthal has found its place as a brewery, a spot where you can stop in for lunch, grab a delicious dinner, or book out the whole place for a huge celebration.
“Now we’re four years old, and in the last year, I’ve absolutely loved it,” she said. “We’ve hit our sweet spot.”
Today, Grünthal Brew is thriving as a busy, booked-out restaurant, brewery, and function space, that brings together craft beer, gin, local wine, Udder Delights cheese, food and celebrations. The venue is home to 12 different pours on tap, with three distinct segments Sheree describes as lighter craft beers, traditional brews, and the ones for people who don’t like beer, which even has its own ‘I don’t like beer’ tasting paddle.
Lagers, pale ale, stout, session ale, easy IPA, XPA, Hazy NEIPA, pacific ale, cloudy apple cider, ginger beer, and watermelon sour are all on offer, and all brewed in house. The venue also serves its own in-house selection of three gins, and has just released a line of spiced rum, aged brandy, and single malt whisky. Grünthal Brew is the home of Hesketh wines, and also serves up an impressive lineup of house cocktails.
“The team and I have worked really hard at making Grünthal a really accessible place that’s not too intimidating, but still feels special and has delicious food and an amazing backyard,” Sheree said.
The venue now hosts everything from first birthdays and baby showers to 21sts, 60ths, engagements, weddings, anniversaries, corporate events and any social occasion you can think of.
That celebratory atmosphere was on full display during Stella’s 18th, when the moment spilled beyond the function rooms and into the restaurant, with the entire venue belting out “Happy Birthday” as a candle-lit cake was carried to the table.
It summed up what Grünthal Brew has become for Sheree. A place where her daughter could celebrate turning 18. A place where strangers celebrate one another. A place built from years of cheesemaking, hospitality, hard work, family, and a very simple reason to keep going.
Fun.
Grünthal Brew
Where: 827 Mount Barker Rd, Verdun SA
When: Monday – Thursday 10:30 am – 4 pm
Friday & Saturday 10:30am – 10pm
Sunday 10:30am-5pm
For more info, click here.
