I came to the Temple Brewing Company beers a bit late in the piece, compared to many other beer geeks.

I knew of them but – stupidly – I decided I didn’t like their labels and so opted to have nothing to do with them. The scales fell from my eyes one day late last year when I stopped in at The Pumphouse in Sydney. There weren’t many beers I hadn’t tried on tap – but one was Temple’s Smoked Weizen. Because of my label prejudice, I ordered one reluctantly and then found a seat. After that first sip I became a convert. It was wonderful – one of those beer experiences that sticks with you.

I then ran through the range and found I dug them all. So much so that I called Temple one of the best breweries in the country.

So like many in the beer community, I was saddened to read about Temple going into liquidation. A statement released by Renata Feruglio, one of the owners of Temple, said it was a “partnership disagreement that forced us into voluntary liquidation”. She added that they (presumably her and husband Ron) were planning to buy back the brewery so they can keep going.

I hope they’re successful in that endeavour because, for me, the beer landscape would be lessened by the absence of Temple. They’ve made some fine, fine beers – my favourite of which would have to be the Unifikator they made in collaboration with that German brewery whose name starts with W but whom I can never spell without looking it up on Google. And earlier this year, they released Temple XII – a 12 per cent barley wine – which I’d been itching to try but hadn’t been able to find. Now I guess there’s a chance I may never try it, which makes me sad.

Another thing that makes me sad is that I had included a visit to Temple on my forthcoming visit to Melbourne. I was so keen to go there that, after blocking out some time for GABS (the original reason for the trip) finding time to go to Temple was the very next thing I did. But now that visit isn’t going to happen and I have to find something else to do in East Brunwick that will replace it.

How the hell do you replace something like Temple Brewing?