The picturesque town of Trentham is located in the historic goldfields of central Victoria.

By car, Trentham is about 75 minutes from the centre of Melbourne, to the north-west of the city. Down a laneway off the High Street, Trentham’s original Scotch oven bakery operated continuously from at least 1892 (and probably earlier) to 1987, through four generations of bakers. Independent bakers making high quality bread suffered a set-back in the second half of the twentieth century, due to the rise of the supermarkets and their cheap factory bread. Only a few Scotch ovens remain because in the 1950s and ‘60s, most were bought and destroyed by the large flour millers to eliminate competition for their new supermarket breads.

Fortunately, real bread is now rapidly regaining popularity.

Trentham’s bakery lay dormant until 2004 when Daylesford entrepreneur Adrian Kosky renovated it extensively. We (John and Alan Reid – brothers) discovered the restored bakery in early 2005 and could instantly see the bakery’s potential for producing large volumes of high quality woodfired sourdough bread and other baked goods. John had baked sourdough bread and worked with Scotch ovens for over a decade in several of Melbourne’s best bakeries. Alan brought a small business and communications background to the enterprise. We decided on the name RedBeard for the bakery because our surname Reid comes from a Scottish clan who were red-headed and -bearded; and because we bake in a Scotch oven. Beard is also an anagram of bread, and… it’s memorable! RedBeard Historic Bakery opened for business in mid-2005. We are the only bakery in Victoria (and possibly the only one in Australia) to create handmade, woodfired, certified organic sourdough bread. While other artisan bakeries may claim one or two of these attributes, RedBeard does it all.

Sourdough is rich in tradition and flavour, but low in gluten.

Around 6000 years ago, the Egyptians discovered how to make bread rise using natural fermentation. Since then, bakers have kept a brew of fermenting flour and water known as a leaven or wort. The misleading term ‘sourdough’ was coined during the American goldrushes. Good sourdoughs are never actually sour – a sour loaf results from letting the dough ferment for too long. Today, ‘sourdough’ simply refers to bread made with a traditional wort. RedBeard’s wort was created more than twenty years ago from wild yeast and lactose bacteria harvested from potato skins – a traditional Scottish technique. The yeast and bacteria produce bubbles of carbon dioxide, making dough rise.

RedBeard’s 140-year-old Scotch oven is a rare historical remnant that works better than modern ovens. Scotch ovens are traditional, woodfired, commercial bakers’ ovens. Scottish engineers built them throughout the British Empire for over 200 years and they were once the most common type of commercial oven in Australia. A Scotch oven has an arched ceiling, a firebox on one side of the main chamber and a flue on the opposite side. The oven’s shell comprises massive layers of brick and sand. The layers are tied together with steel rods so they can contract and expand without pulling apart. A Scotch oven stores heat wonderfully well in its massive masonry structure. The fire is extinguished before baking commences and the bread is bathed in deep and even heat that is gradually released by the bricks and sand. RedBeard’s oven weighs 75 tonnes and stores enough heat from one firing to bake 1,000 loaves.
The floor of our oven measures 16 square metres. People love to see, touch and taste RedBeard’s products because we make them with care and attention, using traditional techniques. The viewing window from our café into the baking room, as well as the tours and workshops, bring our bakery’s fascinating heritage to life. Several people have introduced themselves as ex-employees of Trentham’s bakery. Elderly bakers have detached themselves from tour groups and regaled us with stories of the perfect loaves they pulled from the depths of the Scotch oven as far back as the 1930s. The old timers say that little has changed in the traditional baking techniques we employ. Well, except… back then, when bakers were real men, the flour sacks they hefted weighed 70kg (instead of a measly 25kg) and dough was mixed by hand in a wooden trough instead of a mechanical mixer – up to 200kg at a time!

Unlike bread made with baker’s yeast, sourdough’s slow and complex fermentation produces outstanding texture and flavour and breaks down up to 90% of the gluten in the dough.

This means RedBeard sourdough is suitable for gluten intolerant customers, although it is not recommended for coeliacs.
Beware of ‘sourfaux’ – fake sourdough made with baker’s yeast and other additives, sometimes including vinegar! RedBeard’s authentic, handmade sourdoughs contain no baker’s yeast, added gluten, preservatives or dough improvers; just our traditional leaven, organic flours, salt and water; baked to perfection in our beautiful Scotch oven. RedBeard has won sustainability awards because we reduce our greenhouse emissions by buying our electricity from renewable sources and firing our oven with sustainable plantation hardwood (sugar gum from Western Victoria) – avoiding the greenhouse emissions that standard baking ovens (powered with coal-fired electricity) produce.

We support sustainable agriculture by supporting farmers’ markets and choosing: organic ingredients (to reduce pollution); locally grown ingredients (to reduce energy use in transport); and seasonal ingredients (to reduce energy use in food storage). RedBeard supports the local economy and strengthens our regional character and culture by: bringing tourists to the region; employing locals and training baking apprentices; selling our bread locally; preferring local suppliers; participating in farmers’ markets and numerous local festivals and events; and donating funds and in-kind support to many local community organisations.

Since opening in 2005, our business has grown more than tenfold.

RedBeard has become a national leader in traditional baking and a regional landmark.
Our success is part of a general trend: the increasing demand for authentic, high-quality, organic, locally-sourced food. Consumers are realizing it’s better for their health and for the health of the planet – and it tastes great!