More than 10 years ago, two Riverina mates had a dream to make great beer for a living.
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Simon Rossatato and Tim Martin started the Tumut River Brewery in 2012, opening their doors to the public in July 2013.
"It all began because I wanted to open a tourist attraction 12 to 15 years ago," Mr Martin said.
"I came to Simon and said 'I wanted to open a microbrewery' and he wanted in.
"That's as far as the conversation went and that's how it all started."
As the famous quote goes, if you do what you love, you'll never work a day in your life.
"They were full of shit," Mr Martin said.
"It feels exhausting but we love doing it and that's the upside."
When they started to tell people in the community about their plans, they had mixed reactions.
"It's a funny thing doing something like this in a small town because you have a certain percentage of the population who think you are crazy," Mr Martin said.
"They think why would you want to drink anything apart from Carlton.
"Then the other side who are so excited and they support us because they want to see us go and succeed."
After six years of putting in countless hours of work and testing brew recipes, Mr Martin said there were too many great moments to count.
"The initial highlight was opening the brewery," he said.
"The next big one was the expansion and being able to produce real volumes of beer.
"After that, opening the restaurant and the bar which really was a culmination of the original dream. Coming 97 in Hottest 100 Independent Craft Beers, getting bronze in the Destination NSW State Tourism Awards and being named Snowy Hydro Business of the Year was all pretty amazing."
Although the big moments bring a smile to Mr Martin's face, often it's the small victories which make it all worth it.
"A lot of tourists come in and say 'we saw you at a festival and we knew we had to come to Tumut'," he said.
"We had an ex-pat from the area tell us we are putting Tumut on the map and now when he tells people where he is from they say 'that's where the Tumut brewery is'."
"Those kind of things make you pretty proud of what you are doing for the region."
The owners aren't stopping now, determined to expand on what they built.
"We are trying to build our brand and are buckling down on wholesales," Mr Martin said.
"We also have a business plan, that is not funded yet, that could mean 50 fulltime jobs and branching into distilling and cider production and looking into teaming up with local businesses."
Mr Martin said they are so grateful to their supporters, not just in Tumut but in the wider Riverina region.
"We would love it if fans of our products could get local bars and restaurants to supply us," he said.
"Just ask for us and get our product name out there."
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