It's because his project has just doubled its previous production run and it appears that Canberrans have taken a liking to its first locally-made gluten-free craft beer.

"You know what they say: from little things, big things grow," Mr Sides said as he cracked a joke with mates helping him stack and rack his Wild Polly pale ale inside the Zierholz brewery in Fyshwick.

Mr Sides, an agricultural scientist and soil conservationist, is living the dream shared by many beer lovers; he has developed his own recipe, started up his own craft beer label, and is even making a modest quid out of the enterprise.

However, the craft beer baron dream is not without its labours.

To make his pale ale gluten free - which he readily concedes is a strong point of marketing difference in the craft beer business - he has to source his unusual grain bases, such as sorghum, rice and millet from farms in northern NSW and southern Queensland.

These are milled in Leeton, than malted in the Riverina to Wild Polly's specifications, and then brought to Canberra, where the brewing process begins.

Three batches of the pale ale now have been brewed under contract at Zierholtz and while Mr Sides concedes his project is a very hands-on process, he wouldn't have it any other way.

"I'm the owner, marketer, packager and delivery boy, and any other odds jobs that need to be done," he said.

In a Canberra craft beer market dominated by the successful and ever-growing Capital and Bentspoke brands, Mr Sides says his major point of difference is the gluten-free aspect.

Beer's customary grain bases of barley and wheat contain proteins that cause a gut reaction among coeliacs and those with gluten sensitivity or intolerance.

The symptoms of intolerance vary from person to person but in the largest-ever diet survey released by the CSIRO three years ago, 12 per cent of Australians were reported to be avoiding wheat and/or gluten products to alleviate adverse or distressing health symptoms.

The survey also found that many people also remain undiagnosed, which raises the unpleasant notion that for some beer drinkers, your favourite amber liquid may be causing significant unpleasantness within your lower intestine.

By using so-called "ancient grains" as its base, Mr Sides's pale ale is one of a handful of gluten-free beers around the country and he has the product tested, just to make sure it meets the standard.

"It's certainly more complicated to produce because of the grain sourcing, and before we start the brewing process, all the vats and hoses have to be carefully washed through and cleaned out," he said.

Mr Sides and his family ran a sheep farm in Wagga Wagga and was heavily committed to the "paddock to plate" philosophy of livestock production but it was on a family caravan expedition through WA's Margaret River wine-growing district that the seed of the Wild Polly Brewing Company first germinated.

"There are literally dozens and dozens of small wineries and cellar doors around that area but we found that the ones which were really busy were the ones which had little craft breweries on the side," he said.

"Both our sons are coeliacs and when travelling around, we found there's not many places which provide foods to suit people with coeliac disease or who are gluten intolerant.

"I love a good craft beer so the more I thought about those two very different ideas, the more this gluten-free beer concept started to come together."

The Sides family is planning to return to its rural roots on a small acreage outside Gundaroo and his dream is to produce beer out there, and sell from a cellar door as another point of difference.

"What surprised me a little bit was how supportive the local and independent Canberra craft brewers, retailers and pubs are to new little producers," he said.

"It's like we're on all this adventure together."