Cypher Head Brewer Matt Thiele and Indigenous knowledge holder Richie Allan have teamed up to create Australian Native Bush Co. Photo: Supplied/Cypher Brewing Co.
Cypher Brewing has shared a lot of its milestones with the National Multicultural Festival: it launched its brand there in 2023, and also debuted the hugely popular Yuma Ginger Beer – made with native botanicals – there in 2025. This year, it is official hospitality partner of the festival, and has teamed up once again with Ngunnawal man Richie Allan for more tasty beverages.
While the team was working on their Yuma Ginger Beer, Richie brought in some iced teas which he’d made at home with native ingredients. As a Ngunnawal knowledge holder, he has expertise in local plants which have been used for food, drink and traditional medicine for tens of thousands of years. And they were a hit with the Cypher team, who were keen to collaborate further.
He and Matt Thiele – who also has Indigenous heritage – decided to team up under a new business: Australian Native Bush Co. They’ve got the backing of Cypher Brewing Co (they are also manufacturing their beverages onsite at the brewery) and will launch the first of their product range at the National Multicultural Festival in February.
Richie told Region he hoped these drinks opened people’s eyes to the potential of native ingredients.
“We want to show Australia the flavour and the health benefits of the bush. Our people have been doing it for thousands of years, and we have so much to give but people don’t always take the time to learn,” he said.
“Creating this drink is an education tool, but also when you smell and taste all those flavours there’s this excitement in your mouth.
“It’s Australia in a can.”
Australian Native Bush Co is launching its Native Bush Iced Tea at the National Multicultural Festival in February. Photo: Supplied/Cypher Brewing Co.
The focus of the new business is to share native Australian ingredients with customers through contemporary, non-alcoholic beverages, grounded in cultural respect and local production. These drinks, as they say, have been “in the making for over 65,000 years”.
Together, Matt and Ritchie have a great partnership with Richie’s deep knowledge of plants and botanicals and Matt’s brewing and production experience. But, as Matt told Region, there was still a lot to learn.
“It was a bit of a different R&D process [to brewing beer] because we’re dealing with natural plants. We did some trial and error on the smaller 100 L system to test things out,” Matt said.
“Some things became a bit bitter – like when you get a tea leaf in your mouth and it’s a bit astringent – so we had to work out the process for steeping and removing the plant matter. Each ingredient is different, but we could adjust the temperature and timing.”
Once they were happy with the test batch, it was time to scale up production.
Cypher Brewing Co has been a popular spot at the multicultural festival in previous years. Photo: Supplied, Cypher Brewing Co.
There will be two products launching at the festival: a native iced tea and natural energy drink (both non-alcoholic). The drinks will be all natural, with no need to add sugar thanks to naturally sweet ingredients such as rosella and banksia nectar, which the team has foraged locally.
“I’ve added an energy drink so the younger generation can drink native energy, just like our people have been doing for thousands of years,” said Richie.
“Let’s get rid of Red Bull and Mother and all that … by putting it in cans we want to show what our people did. Our people had the first energy drinks!”
The team have also been working with the University of Queensland to test the health benefits of their products. Richie knows that his ancestors have used these ingredients as traditional medicine for thousands of years, and the team are excited to have the scientific proof to back that up.
Richie says this business is an opportunity to showcase native flavours and Indigenous knowledge to Australia and the world.
“We really want people to get behind this,” said Richie.
“In the future, let’s see native drinks in every shop and cafe, let’s put these cans on Qantas, let’s have people be so proud of them they’re walking around overseas drinking our native energy drink and showcasing what the Australian bush has to offer.”
Find Australian Native Bush Co non-alcoholic beverages and a range of Cypher Brewing Co beers at National Multicultural Festival on 6 to 8 February.
Cypher Brewing Co is located at 3/35 Hinder street, Gungahlin. Find out more about Australian Native Bush Co by following Cypher Brewing Co on Facebook or Instagram.
