While the Goats toiled for years, craft beer still wasn’t taking off in Australia. A small handful of breweries had sprung up, but the market was still underdeveloped by most modern standards and not showing many signs of life. Bonighton recalls doubts creeping in around 2006-2007. He was starting a family, and the brewery had been chipping away for a decade. Nevertheless, he says “there was never any thought of throwing it in.”

Then, in 2009, they launched Steam Ale. The market was finally catching up. For Mountain Goat, this was the beer that things turned around. Inspired by German Dampf and American Steam beers, Steam Ale was their own take on the style. Vibrant, fruity, and drinkable, it’s the beer Bonighton says “changed the business overnight.”

These days, Steam Ale makes up 40% of all of Mountain Goat sales. Followed by their Summer Ale, a canned beer Bonighton calls a “version” of the Steam Ale, just a bit drier and slightly hoppier.

Meanwhile, their American-styled Pale Ale, simply called Pale Ale, which was relaunched in 2015, is catching up. It replaced their IPA, which was a style that never worked for them in packaged form despite trying two versions over the years.

“The first iteration of the IPA was organic—it was probably a dumb beer style to produce organically,” Bonighton says. “You need lots of hops and not many people are growing organic hops. It was the wrong choice of beer.”