Froth Craft Beer Magazine by Froth

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Letter from the editor Hello! Happy October! Here’s to Oktoberfest parties, Halloween beers and hayfever. In this exciting FemALE edition of Froth magazine, we pay homage to all the fantastic women in the Australian beer industry. When I started making Froth magazine, I was struck by the number of seriously awesome ladies in craft beer, however mainstream media seemed to always portray beer drinkers as white bearded dudes. Frankly, it gave me the shits. So here’s to all the clever, classy and cool women who brew, sell and do other wonderful things with craft beer. Hope you like it! Cheers! Emily Day, Froth editor.

Beer News – We check out all the latest goss from the craft brew scene

Breaking New Ground – Froth chats to Australia’s first female Certified Cicerone

Beer Reviews – What beers to get excited about this spring

#beerexperiments – Celia Drummond explains why you shouldn’t drink and text

Sydney Craft Beer Women – We discover awesome beer peeps in the pretty city

Dive into Beer – We shoot the breeze with Beer Diva Kirrily Waldhorn

Save the planet - Himmel Hund’s Annabel Meagher explores green ways to brew

Women in Beer – We salute Melbourne’s top craft ladies

Beer legends – We catch up with Jade Flavell from the Wheaty in Adelaide and Mountain Goat's Jess Craig

Wonder Woman – Kettle Green brewer Mia Piechocinski steps out in style

Token Male Article – Ale of a Time’s Luke Robertson offers tips on how to get men into craft beer

Sh*t My Mum Says – Silvia Day visits the lovely Hargreaves Hill

Flying High – The only way is up for Spotswood brewery Two Birds

Intelligent Design – Jessie Jungalwalla explains why beer labels need to be more than just pretty

Home Brew Heroes – Ruth Barry from the Merri Mashers gets excited about Saccharomyces

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Lost but Not Forgotten – We meet the Little Creatures brewer who has set up shop in Bristol

FROTHBEER.COM

Don’t have a cow – Shannon Driscoll checks out Melbourne’s best vego burgers

Beeramisu – Louise Singleton makes tiramisu using a delectable stout

How I got into Craft Beer – Sarah “Salty” Otton shares her heart-warming story

Books & Tunes – Gemma Mahadeo matches a book with a beer while Froth fan-girls over Thelma Plum

In Harmony – Songstress Kel Day explains why stouts in summertime are sublime

Fun Page – Check out our latest Frothword, Beer Quiz, Crafty Comic and Bad Advice Column!

FROTH CRAFT BEER MAGAZINE IS AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION PUBLISHED IN MELBOURNE. INDEPENDENT. AWESOME. FREE. Publisher: Alfie Dog Media Editor: Emily Day Printer: Printgraphics Design: Clint Weaver (@pocketbeagles) Contributors: Emily Day, Nicci Peet, Julz Fowler, Jenna Franklin, Courtney Hall, Celia Drummond, Marie Claire Jarratt (newsouthales. com), Annabel Meagher (himmelhund. com), Luke Robertson, Silvia Day, Jessie Jungalwalla (craftinstinct. com), Ruth Barry, Shannon Driscoll, Louise Singleton, Sarah “Salty” Otton, Gemma Mahadeo, Rhea Caldwell (gracelandpresents.com) Printed by Printgraphics in Melbourne on paper produced using sustainable forestry practices. Illustrations: Sarah Canning (labfervour.com), Leyla Bulmer (leylabulmer.com), Clint Weaver (pocketbeagles.co)

CONTENTS

Cartoon: Leyla Bulmer Frothword: Emily Day Cover Art: Kelly Day (facebook.com/ kddesignmelbourne) All information © Alfie Dog Media. The opinions of the contributors are not necessarily those of the publisher. For editorial and advertising inquiries, contact frothbeermag@gmail.com

facebook.com/frothbeermag @frothbeermag @frothbeermag

THANK YOU

Huge thanks to the family and friends of Froth who keep us going and feed us chocolate (and beers). Huge thanks to our wonderful contributors, who are so kickass it’s incredible, inspirational smart people such as Cassie O’Neill, Lea Fohlmeister and Ruth Barry, and to all the lovely breweries and bars who bought an ad in Froth to help keep us going. Massive thanks to Froth designer Clint Weaver (pocketbeagles.co) whose hard work makes Froth pretty each month. And thanks to all the lovely women who inspired this edition.

BEER NEWS

Words by Emily Day

Sydney brewery Modus Operandi has launched their third beer to can, Modus Session IPA. Modus says: “This brew has only been around for a couple of months, but is proving very popular so we thought we would make this brew our third addition into package. We are really excited about this beer because you know us – we love our bold hoppy memorable beers – and we have managed to keep all the Modus personality in this 4.1% Session IPA. The use of US heavyweight hops, Simcoe, Citra and Chinook gives this beer a full IPA flavour, with a great citrus and melon nose, finishing with a nicely rounded dryness. Waistlines & driver’s licences are celebrating everywhere!” www.mobrewing.com.au

Vegan beer fans celebrate! Melbourne Vegan Eats is launching the first annual Brew & Food Fest on Saturday November 5 in Michael St, Brunswick. The free street party features “a line-up of our favourite businesses making the best vegan food and drinks around”, organisers say. The festival is a licensed event featuring pubs, bars, restaurants, cafes and breweries that do great vegan

Mornington Peninsula Brewery has also launched their latest tinnie – a 5.9% Mosaic IPA. While this not a fun nitro can like their previous couple of releases, it's a single-hop American IPA featuring wonderful stonefruit flavours and aromas. Mornington says: “Due to the popularity of their original specialty keg release of Mosaic IPA, the team decided it was well worth it becoming the seventh member of the #tinnage family. Providing a dry fruitiness without the sweetness, the hop makes Mosaic IPA a lovely combination of crisp bitterness and fruity essence. The artwork, designed by The Snake Hole, a studio in Mornington, is reminiscent of both Day of the Dead celebrations where mosaic tiles are used liberally on skulls and skeletons, and also embodies drinking at an old Western saloon, paying homage to the North American origins of the Mosaic hop. Basically, we thought it was really cool and would look great on a beer can.” www.mpbrew.com.au food and drinks. Local food vendors and breweries including KAIJU!, Golden Axe Cider, Hop Nation, Hawthorn Brewing Company, Cavalier Brewing, Stone & Wood, Brown Brothers Winery, Remedy Kombucha, Wide Open Road, Cornish Arms, Glass Den, Tahina, Halfpint Vegan Dairy, Lord of the Fries, Ray, and Doughnut Time. www.facebook.com/melbourneveganeats

Breaking new ground Froth chats with Cassie O’Neill, Australia’s only female Certified Cicerone. Words and photo by Emily Day The first thing you notice about Cassie O’Neill – besides her Irish accent – is that she knows a lot about beer. A lot. The former bar manager at Local Taphouse in St Kilda, and now venue manager and beer rep at the new Stomping Ground brewpub in Collingwood, says she hadn’t even tried craft beer when she left her home country five years ago. “Your options in Ireland were Guinness, which was awesome, and then like seven lagers,” she says. “So it was either a terrible Irish lager, like Harp, or Tennents – Scottish – and then Budweiser, Coors … terrible.” In a bizarre twist of fate, she left her home country after missing out on a dream job on Game of Thrones, which was being filmed in Belfast. She was offered the role of assistant to the executive producer, but then they found she didn’t have a driver’s licence. Cassie raced out to get one. “I passed it and I called them, and they said ‘I’m sorry we gave the job to somebody else’.” At the time she was managing a “little old man’s pub, the most stereotypical Irish pub you’ll ever see in your life. I just looked around and was like ‘I can’t do this anymore’.” She embarked on a round-the-world trip, but after travelling through Asia she arrived in Australia and found it hard to leave. “I was only meant to be here three months and that was five and a half years ago,” she laughs. In her role at the Stomping Ground, she’s excited to sell local brews to punters, even though it might sometimes be an uphill battle. “In Melbourne, people care so much about the coffee they drink, they care about the food, where it’s from,” she explains. “Then they drink Melbourne Bitter and Asahi and it blows my mind. They care so much about ‘Oh I have to drink my coffee at Allpress because it’s roasted there, and I have to go to the Abbotsford Famers Market and support the local farmers, but then on the weekend I’m going to drink a beer that is owned by a Japanese company or a South African company or an American company.’ “When you can drink something that was brewed in Abbotsford, or Cheltenham or Bayside – why would you not?” Stomping Ground brews a wide range of its beers, from its Gipps Street Pale Ale to an 11.4% barleywine. Cassie says it’s important that at the brewpub, “we have a beer for everyone”.

“We’re all beer nerds, so we love double IPAs and barleywines and lambics and all that, but we don’t expect that everyone wants to drink those. So no matter where you are on your craft beer journey, we should have a beer that fits you.” Cassie says that she understands that people can’t be hurried into craft beer. “I only started drinking craft beer four or five years ago,” she says. “When I started at the Local [Taphouse], I would not drink an IPA, and everyone used to make fun of me. It was like 'Ha! Cassie doesn't like hops!' And now I love IPAs – I’ll drink double IPAs – but it was a gradual thing for me.” She says she learnt a lot at the Local Taphouse, where owners Guy Greenstone, Steve Jeffares and Justin Joiner encouraged staff education. When the opportunity arose for staff to do the Certified Cicerone course

"It’s such a male-dominated industry. There should be more women in it, and they should be given more respect in terms of how much they know." – a US beer qualification that involves competitive examinations – five of the staff applied, and four passed. Cassie says there are now 12 Certified Cicerones in Australia, “and one female”, pointing to herself and laughing. “Although I feel like I’m about to lose my crown … but that’s all right, I hope there are more female Certified Cicerones in Australia. It’s such a male-dominated industry. There should be more women in it, and they should be given more respect in terms of how much they know.” Cassie says she still faces ingrained sexism from customers. “I have, on many, many occasions, have had a customer come up to the bar, and I’ll be serving them, and they’ll turn to the guy beside me and ask him the question about beer. It makes me really mad. But what do you say? ‘I’m his manager and I’m a Certified Cicerone, and he’s worked here for like a week, but you’re going to believe his opinion over mine because he’s male?’ “It’s the same as when you go to a bar, they assume because you’re a woman – ‘Oh you should try this’ – and they may as well say ‘because you’re a woman’. ‘Try the lager, or try the pink one.’ And I’m like ‘I’ll have the imperial stout.’ And then they’ll say, ‘Do you know that that’s really strong?’ And I’m like, ‘I do know that that’s really strong. Give it to me.’” Despite this, her love for craft beer remains strong. “My whole ethos is why settle? Why have a cheeseburger when you can have a steak? Why have a Carlton Draught when you can have … anything!” www.stompingground.beer

STOUT AND ABOUT By Julz Fowler

STONE BREWING COMPANY: MOCHA IPA Is it possible to mix mocha and IPA seamlessly and deliciously? Signs point to yes. With its light golden twinkle and the aroma of a classic IPA, you could be forgiven for being taken aback by the chocolate and coffee combination, with an aftertaste of nougat and amaretto. Surprisingly, the hoppiness doesn't take over and is complimented by the creaminess of the mocha. If your conundrum is deciding between a beer and a coffee, this will fit the bill, and then some.

Long gone are the days of Guinness's reign as the sole exemplar of dark beer. With an array of stouts, mochas, porters, dark ales and other lighter beers with stout characteristics taking up fridge and tap real estate across Australia, now is the perfect time to get your stout on.

It smells like a chocolate bar, looks like coffee syrup and pours like dark brown motor oil.

HAWKERS: IMPERIAL STOUT 2016 Brought into being by Joseph Abboud, chef and restaurateur (Rumi, Moore's Head), joined by Mazen Hajjar, the founder of Lebanon's first craft brewery, this heavy-hitter from Reservoir is surprisingly subtle in terms of alcohol, given its 12.2% rating. It smells like a chocolate bar, looks like coffee syrup and pours like dark brown motor oil. First impressions reveal a big, chocolate hit, with underlying flavours of coffee, caramel and nuts. Marshmallow and a hint of bourbon round out the flavour profile without being overpoweringly sweet. Skip dessert and try this instead.

STOCKADE BREW CO: FALLEN ANGEL CHILLI MOCHA PALE STOUT At first glance this pale brew looks like honey, but don't let its pristine appearance fool you: this Fallen Angel hides the breadth of its coffee and cacao influences behind its golden exterior. If you close your eyes and take a sip, you could be forgiven for thinking you were drinking a light, spicy stout. The nose is unmistakably chocolate, but the taste is nowhere near as sweet as you might expect. This somewhat thin and sessionable drop also provides a hit of chilli on the aftertaste that leaves you wanting more.

SPRING HAS

WEST CITY BREWING: FOOTSCRAY ALE This was my first foray into craft beer and will always be a staple in my fridge. Despite my reluctance to describe it due to inexperience when I first tried it, I likened it to the sauvignon blanc of the beer world and I stand by that today. It has an aromatic, floral nose, great balance and that hoppy punch I love so much. Seriously, if you haven’t necked one of these beauties yet, you most definitely need a sixer.

SPRUNG By Courtney Hall

Well, spring has sprung and it’s not as though I need an excuse to drink beer! That said, this little black duck is all ‘stouted’ out and ready to move onto something fresh, fun and good to drink in the sun!

As an avid craft beer drinker since I was introduced to the scene back in February this year, I’d have to say there aren’t too many styles I don’t enjoy or can’t find the occasion for – be it a Russian imperial stout, dark lager, red ale, ESB, sour or a mad hopped-out double IPA. However, nothing says spring like a pale ale. So with summer just around the corner, what better way to get a jump on the silly season than to head to my local and pick up some delicious brews to refresh my palate!

HAWKERS: PALE ALE When you pick up anything by these guys you know you’re on a pretty solid bet, and their pale ale is no exception. It had a lovely, floral, almost citrus nose and is well-balanced between malty goodness and hoppy freshness. When you drink this you know you’re drinking a quality beer, and I for one could and most probably will drink more than my fair share of them over the summer.

PRANCING PONY BREWERY: BLACK ALE "Dude, it's so good" is written in the description on the label and the folk at Prancing Pony Brewery are telling the truth: it's so good! This opaque black brew with fine, tightly packed bubbles is creamy on the palate but light in texture. It has a balanced combination of sweet and bitter which makes it a versatile choice for any dark beer drinker. It hints at nuts, some liquorice, malt and mocha but none overpoweringly. At 500ml per bottle, this crowd-pleaser is just the right size if you feel like "only one beer". BOATROCKER BREWING COMPANY: RAMJET WHISKY BARREL AGED IMPERIAL STOUT WITH COFFEE With an array of awards and perfect scores online, this lauded stout comes with high expectations. It certainly meets them. It pours like ink, is dressed with a caramel coloured head and the first sip reminds you of the 10.6% alcohol volume. Malt is front and centre, but its sophistication lies in its lingering layers of bitterness, bringing to mind a strong Italian espresso as well as vegemite. The Ramjet is sweet like a milk stout, smooth and chocolaty and brings to mind the complexity of an aged tawny. If you stick with this beer all night, you'll go home happy and warm, but likely on the early side. BARROW BOYS: PEDLARS PALE I’ve got to say this is tasting fantastic! It’s very tropical on the nose but not excessively on the palate. I get a solid hit of hoppy goodness which is well-balanced by the malt, and a resinous bitterness that smacks you in the back of the throat which I adore. That said, it’s not too hopped-out to be a session choice. I’d recommend this as one to add to your trolley on the next visit to your local. That’s my take on where to start as the warmer weather approaches!

REVIEW OF FOGHORN BREWHOUSE, NEWCASTLE Foghorn Brewhouse is located in the heart of Newcastle and what better way to spend a Monday afternoon where craft beer locations are few than at the one place where the beers are freshest in town! I decided to have a Calm Before the Storm paddle, which consists of The Ideas Beer (an American wheat beer), Summer Ale, Foggy Brew pale ale and Roaring 40s ESB. On this paddle, The Ideas Beer is a standout. American wheat beers are an interesting style – a little hoppier than a normal wheat beer, a good example is California brewery Sierra Nevada’s Kellerweis. The Ideas Beer captures the essence of Newcastle – it makes you feel like you’re sitting at the beach on a hot summer day throwing back a delicious cold one. One of the great things about this 5.3% beer is that

American wheat beers are an interesting style – a little hoppier than a normal wheat beer it is not a spicy wheat beer, it’s a hopped-up one. This beer is bound to create wheat beer drinkers even out of all the haters! Foghorn’s co-owner and brewer Shawn Sherlock should be super proud of this delicious brew. They have another 13 beers on tap to satisfy your craft beer desires and all are as fresh as you can get. And if that is not enough, they have a delicious American-style menu. If you’re coming to Newcastle it’s definitely worth the stop in at Foghorn Brewhouse, there is a beer on tap to suit everyone’s taste buds. By Jenna Franklin

BOOK YOUR CHRISTMAS PARTY NOW!

#BeerExperiments Celia Drummond discovers why you shouldn’t drink and drive social media. We’ve made it! We’ve survived the winter months, and now the weather is a little warmer we can emerge from our caverns and enjoy a Sunday session outside with mates, or lounge about on the balcony with a beer in hand and cat at your feet. But just like in the depths of winter, it's important to heed a well-known piece of advice:

"Stay off your internet after you've had a few drinks, it will only end in tears!!!"

Or words to that effect. It’s hard, I know. There was the time I accidentally "liked" an ex-boyfriend’s current wife's mum's photo of her garden. Once I bought a couple of t-shirts online with cool designs on them but when they arrived I discovered they were baby clothes. There was also an incident when I uploaded an Instagram photo of my darling cat with the X-Pro II filter and the hashtags #pussy and #xxx. Some interesting profiles started following me.

Clearly, the advice to lock up your phone after a few quiet ones can indeed be sound. For some reason, a deliciously hoppy brew brings out one’s courage, and the confident assertive Celia – whom I wish existed in other situations, such as asking my boss for a pay rise – starts to emerge. Despite all this, I’ve also had some fun moments as a result of pairing ales with the internet. Here are some memorable experiments that I have conducted to prove that alcohol and your smartphone can live together in harmony.

Beer: Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo Extra IPA Decision: Organise a 20-year primary school reunion. Method: Take a sip of your old friend Torpedo and reminisce about old friends from the past. Realise that it's been a whole 20 years since you left primary school and decide it’s time for a reunion. Create event and invite the friends on Facebook you went to primary school with. Search for others you've lost touch with. Try to guess what they look like 20 years older when pressing, "Add Friend". Result: Delight in catching up with old school chums and reminiscing about the time Sophie sharpened Shane's finger with a pencil sharpener. Beer: Murray's Fred IPA Decision: Acquire tickets to a sold-out Melbourne gig. Method: Sit and think about how you really like that sweet band that busk around your home town, while also being delighted by the balance of bitterness and malty sweetness of Fred IPA. Discover they have a show soon but it's sold-out. Direct message the band and ask nicely. Be honest about how much of a fan you are, but don't overdo it – you don't want to sound like a weirdo. Instead of using actual emoticons, finish each sentence with descriptions of emoticons. For example: "I look forward to hearing from you. Wink face emoticon." Result: Acquire tickets and enjoy a wonderful musical experience. Beer: Garage Project’s Pernicious Weed Decision: Buy a vacuum cleaner online. Method: Enjoy the delightful hoppy glass of beer and get excited by the grapefruit flavours. Go online and impulse-purchase a rather expensive vacuum cleaner. Result: Sure, you have to charge it for 17 hours to use it for 20 minutes but by gosh you feel like you're one of those guys on the morning breakfast shows, demonstrating how easy it is to suck up errant kitty litter, grapefruit peel and other pernicious weeds from your kitchen floor. Beer: Arrogant Brewing’s Arrogant Bastard Ale Decision: Tweet your favourite Arrogant Bastard, Ricky Gervais. Method: Watch TV show Extras, paired with a glass of bitter, caramelly, punchy beer. Compose a tweet to Ricky Gervais to let him know how much you enjoyed the show. Result: Ricky Gervais replies with a smiley face emoticon :) You live off this little interaction for years, you even include it in an article you write for a craft beer magazine.

So while it is probably socially unacceptable to ask your boss for a pay rise while under the influence, remember that there can be some joy in pairing your favourite craft beer with the internet. Just try to stay off your ex-boyfriend’s current wife’s mum’s Facebook.

Words by Celia Drummond Illustration by Clint Weaver

SYDNEY CRAFT BEER WOMEN By Marie Claire Jarratt (newsouthales.com)

In the lead-up to Sydney Craft Beer Week, we speak to three women about working in the industry.

AGI GAIJIC / BREWER, YOUNG HENRYS After working for four years at a craft beer bar in WA, Agi decided to become a brewer in what she describes as a “cliché light bulb moment”. Realising that making beer for a living was a sensible career path, she was determined to make her dream a reality. “I relentlessly pestered breweries until one of them gave me a job,” she recalls. “I was lucky enough to walk in to Young Henry’s tasting bar clutching my resume with my sweaty little hands when the timing was right. They were on the brink of expanding as they couldn’t keep up with the thirsty folk who love their beer.” Starting out behind the taps once more, she began to refine her skills by helping out around the brewhouse. After several months’ cleaning kegs, she was let loose to make her first batch of commercial beer – Young Henry’s Real Ale. Now a part of Young Henry’s brewing team for over three years, Agi has never looked back. “My job is built on problem-solving, which is super fulfilling,” she says. “Brewing is a science, you’re constantly learning and applying your knowledge, which makes work challenging and interesting.” Agi has found it fairly easy to be a part of a male-dominated industry. “Craft brewers are so supportive of one another … we are all working for the same cause. “It’s an easier climate to be a female in this industry, people are having less and less time for discrimination.”

“CRAFT BREWERS ARE SO SUPPORTIVE OF ONE ANOTHER … WE ARE ALL WORKING FOR THE SAME CAUSE."

SALLY TURKI / SALES & MARKETING, ROCKS BREWING CO Hired as a marketing intern while studying media, Sally was promoted to full-time when she finished her studies. Before that, she had worked at a bottleshop for several years selling craft beer. “It was interesting to see how people had such passion for their beers,” she says. “They’d spend ages picking their drinks and which brew would go with what they’d be eating or what occasion they were celebrating.” Now, as part of the sales and marketing division at Rocks Brewing Co, her role includes event and sales support, festival co-ordination and social media. She also assists sales reps and venue managers with marketing and PR. “Keeping up with craft beer trends is key,” she says. “Simply making craft beer isn’t enough – you have to step outside the box in order to get the traction you want.” Such an example is the recent adoption of packaging beer in cans, which is currently being trialled at Rocks before an official launch before Sydney Craft Beer Week. Sally has a simple piece of advice for women new to the industry. “If something is said that bothers you, you speak out. It’s important to stand up for yourself, be respected and be taken seriously – and if someone won’t take you seriously because of your gender, the problem is with them and not you.”

KATE MARSDEN / GENERAL MANAGER, EMPIRE HOTEL Kate has worked in the craft beer industry for over eight years, since she became licensee of the Forest Lodge Hotel in Sydney’s inner west. “My relationship with craft beer began when our CUB contract ended,” she recalls. “I decided not to renew and started rotation taps of craft beer.” A few years later, she left to assist in renovating Annandale’s Empire Hotel into a unique bar. “It was a massive learning curve and such a rewarding experience to do up a place.” Much of Kate’s role involves talking to beer reps and keeping on top of the rotating beer lists. She also organises monthly beer clubs and dinners – five-course beer and food-matching events which have included guests such as Pirate Life, Modus Operandi and Brooklyn Brewery. Kate says that she has “not run into many issues over the years” as a woman in the industry. “At first, eight years ago, it may have sometimes felt awkward to be the only female at an event or meeting, but that quickly changed and has never been a problem for me. Being a strong, independent type has obviously helped!” Kate notes that over 30% of attendees at the Empire’s beer club are women. “Craft beer has gone a long way to ridding us of that old-school idea that it’s a bloke’s drink,” she says. “All the styles and varieties now available make it more appealing to a wider range of people.”

Sydney Craft Beer Week runs from Friday October 21 to Sunday 30 www.sydneycraftbeerweek.com

DIVE INTO BEER

Froth chats with Beer Diva Kirrily Waldhorn about working in beer education and getting beer nerds to pipe down.

Kirrily Waldhorn is something of a standout in the beer industry. Tall and elegant, she cuts a classy figure in this casual scene, and her extensive knowledge means she is often invited to host special events and education sessions. “‘You don’t look like a beer drinker’ is the classic line I always get,” Kirrily says. “But once I start to talk about it, people can see I’m passionate about it and I probably know more than they do – without being a dick about it.” Kirrily began working in beer in 1999 for Lion’s marketing team. She then moved to “planning and insight, looking at how do you grow beer versus wine, spirits and RTDs”. She began to learn more about beer and who was drinking it – and who wasn’t. “Not much has changed in terms of the big opportunities for [growth in] beer – women being one of them,” Kirrily says. She found herself getting interested in beer education and started her own company, Beer Diva, in 2008. “I thought that was something I could do – go out and be a voice in the beer industry … an alternative voice, and I just wanted to show people that it was OK to be a female and drink beer and do it in a way that was elegant and sophisticated. Around this time, “craft beer started to really boom in Australia, so the timing was great – complete fluke but it was nice!”

I just wanted to show people that it was OK to be a female and drink beer and do it in a way that was elegant and sophisticated. One aspect of craft beer that she loves is exploring the nuances of beer. “I could never pick out different characteristics in wine … but with beer you get these distinctive hop characters, distinctive malt characters, which to me I found really exciting.” Through Beer Diva, Kirrily also delivers education sessions for corporate groups. “I enjoy engaging with people in that scenario,” she says. “Those moments where you see the light bulb go off, or their eyes light up when they realise that ‘beer is something I could like and enjoy and I might treat it differently next time I drink it – I might actually think about what’s in it, I might think about who’s made it, I might think about the flavours’.

As a woman addressing a male-dominated audience, she says she has had surprisingly few issues. “You get the occasional home brewer – we all know who they are – who likes to nerd out about it a little bit,” she says. “There’s been the odd occasion where people are rude ... [but] it’s more that show-offy to their mates and colleagues. I shut it down pretty quickly – I grew up with boys!” Kirrily’s other passion is fashion – and she manages to combine this with craft beer. “I love fashion, I always have, she says. “Six years ago I did a show at the Opera House in Sydney where we matched fashion and music to beer. “The fashion can lift the beer, the beer can lift the fashion. It felt like a fairly natural pairing to me. Champagne and fashion – that’s just old and boring!” During Good Beer Week this year, Kirrily hosted a night of opera with Rodenbach beers and cheese in a church, which drew rave reviews from punters. Despite not being a huge opera fan, she says she “just knew it would be an amazing combination”. “Opera is so far in most people’s minds removed from where beer sits,” she explains. “Then we used the Rodenbach range of beers, which also push the boundaries of what people think beer is. It was just doing something completely out of context.” Kirrily is studying for her Cicerone exam in November, but she says there can also be joy in not overanalysing things. “Sometimes for me it’s about how I feel when I’m drinking the beer, as opposed to dissecting it too much. The emotional response you get from drinking beer, and where it takes you. “That’s what I love about beer. There are so many directions you can take it. It’s limitless. There aren’t any rules, and if anything we’re really trying to break rules and stereotypes.” By Emily Day

SAVING THE PLANET ONE BEER AT A TIME By Annabel Meagher, head brewer at Himmel Hund

We’re all interested in the impact beer has on our pockets, but what about the cost to the environment? Brewing is essentially a manufacturing process, and just like other industries, it relies on a hefty amount of utilities and produces substantial waste. A small brewery producing 2000 litres of beer per month will use about 450kg of grain and 11,000 litres of water per month. The good news is more and more breweries are starting to reduce the amount of consumption and waste they produce. Some breweries even employ a sustainability manager, and there are exciting advances happening in terms of environmental sustainability.

holding hot water – if brewing back-to-back batches, this saves on power otherwise required to heat cold water for mashing in. This also reduces water usage because the hot liquor is no longer going down the drain. Otter Brewery in Devon, England, has a high commitment to conserving the environment. They mature and cool their beers in a large underground cellar beneath the brewery, removing the need for an energy-guzzling glycol cooling system. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, so this by-product of brewing is not particularly friendly to the environment. Some larger breweries are starting to use CO2 capture and scrubbing technology to catch the gas and sterilise it for carbonating beer brewed onsite. This has been practised in German breweries for hundreds of years, with the Reinheitsgebot prohibiting CO2 to be purchased outside of the process.

WATER Water is the biggest culprit of consumption in brewing. Not only is it the key ingredient in beer, it also gets used for cleaning, cleaning and … well more cleaning. Many breweries already implement water-saving strategies such as rainwater harvesting, steam cleaning of kegs and reusing treated water for rinsing and cleaning of equipment. Stone & Wood Brewery are one of the best water minimisers in Australia, using no more than 3L of water per 1L of beer produced.

"Breweries such as Bright Brewery in the Victorian High Country and Anderson Valley Brewing Co in California use solar power to generate electricity for their breweries"

GRAIN, HOPS & YEAST Once the sugar in malted grains has been extracted by the brewer, they are left with a mass of what’s known as “spent grain”. The most common use of spent grain that most breweries undertake is to give or sell the grain to farmers who feed it to their livestock. It’s high in protein and fibre, making it a nutritional supplement to the diet of cattle. Saltwater Brewery in Florida has taken a unique approach to repurposing spent grain - they have developed an edible six-pack holder out of spent grain that when washed out to sea, dissolves and serves as a food source for turtles and other marine life, rather than a being a dangerous plastic trap. N17 Brewery in Ireland has used spent grain for fish farming, making dog biscuits and growing mushrooms. Some pig farmers feed the yeast run-off to their pigs as it is jam-packed full of nutrients. Larger breweries such as XXXX in Queensland send their spent yeast to the Vegemite factory. Leftover hops post-whirlpool can easily be added to the compost of garden – it is just plant matter after all! ELECTRICITY & CO2 Breweries such as Bright Brewery in the Victorian High Country and Anderson Valley Brewing Co in California use solar power to generate electricity for their breweries. Once the wort is boiled, it is chilled via a heat exchanger. Contact between the cold water and the hot beer cools the beer, leaving you with very hot water. It is common for breweries to recycle this hot water back to a tank used specifically for

PACKAGING & KILOMETRES Beer packaging creates a lot of waste and uses loads of energy making glass and processing aluminium, printing labels and sterilising bottles. Young Henry’s is well known for their great growler system. People can come in and buy a growler, fill it with fresh beer from the tap and return the growler for a refill next time. The most common sized growler holds nearly two litres of beer, meaning that you are getting about a six-pack of beer without the added environmental costs – and it’s reusable. Not only does drinking local beer reduce the pollution caused by transportation of the product, but it tastes better! For example, hop character degrades with time so your favourite IPA is best served fresh. Even better is when the brewery uses locally sourced ingredients, such as Red Hill Brewery in the Mornington Peninsula who grow their own hops right next to the brewery for an annual hop harvest beer. Breweries like Mountain Goat encourage their staff to cycle to work too. So next time you’re at the local bottle shop or pub, think about where and how your beer got there and give some support to the breweries who support your planet. In addition to the aforementioned environmental crusader breweries, here are some others worth checking out – if you’re in the area of course! 1. Beard & Brau, Mt Tamborine QLD 2. Full Moon Brew Works, Phuket, Thailand 3. Steam Whistle Brewing, Toronto, Canada 4. Odell Brewing Co, Colorado, USA 5. Adegas Menduiña, Galicia, Spain 6. Sierra Andina Brewing Co, Peru, South America

women in beer

KATE PATERSON / General Manager Good Beer Week

This month I ventured into the Good Beer Week lair (a basement office in Collingwood) to meet the woman behind the scenes of one of the best beer festivals in Asia-Pacific. General Manager Kate Paterson joined the Good Beer Week team within days of its inception in 2011, and since then she has seen the festival grow into an annual celebration that attracts 50,000 attendees from Australia and overseas. Plans for next year’s festival are already under way and it’s full steam ahead in preparation for event registrations opening on October 1. This year the competition for a spot in the Good Beer Week program will be stiff. Paterson is expecting 400 applications, but only 250 events will make the cut. In regards to creating a successful event, she advises “the crazier the better”. Then quickly adds, “obviously within responsible service guidelines”. She knows Melbourne punters expect more than a simple tap take-over and suggests that event organisers step outside the norm and try something they’ve never done before. Last year she saw everything from a Rodenbach beer and opera pairing (that brought tears to her eyes) to 7 Cent Brewery creating a bellybutton lint beer. This year she’s looking forward to including new venues and encouraging collaboration amongst the creative minds of the industry. She is also hoping to program more free entry and lunchtime events – budget-conscious and CBD workers rejoice!

Looking to the future, Paterson aspires to boost Good Beer Week’s reach both interstate and overseas. She would love to bring in more international talent and also dreams of a budget big enough to send brewers abroad to promote Melbourne. In five years’ time she hopes to see Good Beer Week as a massive tourism draw to Melbourne and on the international calendar as a ‘must-attend’ event.

“the crazier the better... obviously within responsible service guidelines” Paterson is passionate about the Good Beer community and the people it brings together during the festival. She loves the simple pleasure of chatting with event attendees - from ticket winners to enthusiastic Kiwi beer drinkers to industry rock-stars such as Brooklyn Brewery’s Garrett Oliver, who is also editor of the Oxford Companion to Beer. As she says, “this community is amazing... you never know who you’re sitting next to.” Words by Jenny Schmidt

SIOBHAN KERIN / Event Manager at Good Beer Week How long have you been working in the beer industry for? Hard to say but maybe 10 years. I've been pouring beers for 17 years but these have not always been good beers. How did you get into the beer industry? I was bar manager for a couple of beer-focused bars. Beer DeLuxe is probably where I really became more involved. What do you like most about it? Everyone is so amazing, passionate and supportive. It never feels like work. Shout out especially to all the ladies of beer for being rad badass role models. What do you like least about it? The people who take it too seriously and forget that beer is fun. And wheat beers.

Siobhan (left) and Kate of Good Beer Week

What is your favourite beer at the moment? Anything cold and easy. I'm working long hours at the Royal Melbourne Show so have been hitting the AIBA Brew Bar for my knockoff beer each night with Stockade Chop Shop, Hawkers Pilsner and Fixation IPA all hitting the spot perfectly.

RUBY NELSON-WILL Hargreaves Hill beer rep

How long have you been working in the beer industry? Long-time beer drinker… but I have only been officially working in the beer industry for just over six months.. oh and the time I worked in a brewery/bar in Guatemala for a few months last year. How did you get into the beer industry? I have always loved beer, and at the end of a year-long backpacking trip through South and Central America and working in the brewery/bar in Guatemala, I wondered if I could make a career out of something I really loved – beer. Turns out you can, and it couldn't be a more rapidly expanding industry! SIMONE CLEMENTS Quality Officer at Gage Roads in WA How long have you been working in the beer industry for? Coming up to two years. How did you get into the beer industry? While doing a bit of overseas roaming I had a short stint volunteering at a tiny brewery in France called La Brasserie De L’Ours (The Bear Brewery). I’d also had a fair bit of laboratory and beer drinking experience at that stage, so when I Photo credit: Dabelyn Ng returned home and saw the Quality Officer position advertised, I thought I would give it a shot. What does your job involve? I’m a defender of quality throughout the beer-making and packaging process. I collect, test and taste samples of the fermenting beer and water from different stages of the purification process, and I collect samples for microbiological analysis. I get involved in various investigations and sometimes get to look at cool stuff under a microscope.

What do you like most about it? I really enjoy working in a booming, changing, industry with great people, where I get to talk about beer all day. When I tell people what I do they often have a shocked, amazed, "is that a job" look on their face ... and I enjoy seeing that look. What do you like least about it? I find there can be quite a few ingrained, negative stereotypes still floating around in the beer industry, especially in regards to females. The amount of times I get asked if, for one, if I actually like beer, or get a surprised look when I say I enjoy hoppy or dark beers. The answer is, yes I like beer ... ask yourself, would I work for a brewery if I didn't? What is your favourite beer at the moment? This is a hard one... I find I spend so much time trying new beers when I go out/to the liquor store, so I have no real 'go-to'. I have recently really got into Oud Bruin/Flanders Brown styles, but truly, I can never go past anything hoppy, so the Hargreaves Hill Zenith IPA (shameless plug!), anything Pirate Life or a Wolf of the Willows XPA would be my go-tos. REBECCA KRAMP Bar Manager at 3 Ravens in Thornbury How long have you been working in the beer industry? Longer than I'd like to admit. How did you get into the beer industry? Lucked into my second-ever bar job at The Local Taphouse many moons ago! What do you like most about it? The glorious humans I have the pleasure of working with. And tax-deductible booze. What do you like least about it? When people forget that I have other interests.

What is your favourite beer at the moment? I’m going to be boring and say Gage Roads Little Dove. It’s the delicious fruity beer of my dreams, I just wish it wasn’t so potent so I could have more than two pints before needing to go to bed.

What is your favourite beer at the moment? I had a Negroni IPA at the Catfish the other day that knocked my socks off! Cheers to lady Taz for the recommendation and sorry I wasn't paying attention...

Pink Boots Society is a not-for-profit organisation that empowers women beer professionals to advance their careers in the beer industry through education. The profits from brews, events and fundraisers go to the Pink Boots Society’s scholarship fund, whereby women who earn an income from beer can apply for grants offered throughout the year. Recently four women from around Australia were offered scholarships to attend the CBIA Conference in Brisbane - they will use the experience they gained to pay it forward and share the knowledge they gained at the conference. Members brew collaboratively throughout the year and all profits from these beers supports the scholarship program. The latest Pink Boots brews have taken place at White Rabbit, Rocks Brewing, HopDog Beerworks & Mountain Goat and included representatives from the Beer Diva, Mountain Goat, White Rabbit, Red Hill Brewery, Little Creatures, Good

Beer Week, Two Birds, Beer Girl Bites, The Crafty Pint and many passionate supporters of good beer! “(Pink Boots members) are the female movers and shakers in the beer industry. We get the beer brewed and fermented with the highest possible quality. We also own breweries, package the beer, design beers, serve beers, write about beer, and cover just about any aspect of beer, and we are all women. Most importantly, we teach each other what we know through our own seminar programs, and we help each other advance our beer careers by raising money for educational scholarships.” Membership is open to women who are actively employed or retired from a career in the beer industry, who are in the process of opening a brewery, or are students enrolled in a beer industry focused program. Membership applications can be found at www.pinkbootssociety.org/membership For more information, find us on social media @PinkBootsAU or email us at info@pinkbootssociety.com.au

TRICK OR WHEAT Brewer and publican Jade Flavell from Adelaide’s Wheatsheaf Hotel discusses sexism, beards and the joys of running a brewpub. By Emily Day

here’s no getting around it – Jade Flavell is one of the most interesting and awesome people in the Aussie beer industry. Co-owner of Adelaide’s iconic Wheatsheaf Hotel, she installed a brewery two years ago, took up brewing and began pouring the Wheaty Brewing Corps’ delicious and eclectic beers. Jade has been working with beer for most of her life. “It was one of the first jobs that I got out of school. I started working pulling beers to get through uni, and then started liking pulling beers more than I liked uni. It was a lot more fun than law school.” She says her passion for pubs started in earnest while working for the Exeter Hotel in Rundle Street. “It was a Coopers pub, and that’s where I got pretty comfortable pouring the Coopers Stout and Sparkling and Scotch Ale, and got a taste for those beers.” She also developed a love of home brewing. “It was a Coopers kit, dump-and-stir kind of proposition. I was mucking around with that a little bit, and then after about eight years at the Ex I met [future Wheaty co-owners] Liz and Trotty.” The Exeter came up for sale, and the trio – Jade, Emily Trott and Liz O'Dea – put in a bid. “We were pretty keen by that point to start finding our own pub. Thankfully we were unsuccessful in that bid … It was in town, it was a very well-established venue, not at all beer-focused really, and would have been really hard work pushing it in a different direction.”

"It was really there, in the US, that an Alaskan smoked porter changed my life." They worked in other pubs for another couple of years, before Jade and Trotty went overseas. “It was really there, in the US – as with so many people – that an Alaskan smoked porter changed my life. I remember trying that the second day in the US, and that combination of roast and smoke was just amazing. The whole trip then became about beer and tracking down beers. The next beer to change my life was Sierra Nevada Pale. Couldn’t stand it the first time, I thought, ‘What is this hoppy, floral, fruity, shit.’ I tried it the next day and said, ‘OK, there’s something going on here.’ "And by the third time it was like, ‘Right that’s it I’m hooked.’ I spent the next four months in the US tracking down beers and breweries and brewbars and tasting everything I could. That was probably about 15, 16 years ago.”

Returning to Australia, they continued to hunt for their own independent, pokie-free, live music venue. “When we got the Wheaty about 13 years ago, beer was the focus from the beginning. For years it was the case of ‘Yeah, yeah, we’ll put the brewery in one day.’ And then about four years ago I was like, ‘We need to make the call whether we do actually put a brewery in or put a kitchen in’. Reason prevailed and we put a brewery in instead.” Making the leap to professional brewer was “an extremely steep learning curve”. “For me the end game is brewing our own beer and being able to test all my dubious beer theories on unsuspecting punters. Having tried and poured literally thousands of beers over the past 13 years, I’ve got a fair idea of what I like and what I think works. To be able to play on a larger scale has just been fantastic.” Wheaty Brewing Corps has produced about 70 different beers since in the past two years, and Jade loves coming up with new ideas. “But that’s not to say that will always be the case. At some point, maybe in four years, we might have a couple of hundred beers under our belt and we might say, ‘Right that’s enough of that, let’s just nail a bloody pilsner.’” One of their more bizarre ideas is a range of anchovy beers: anchovy stout, smoked brown porter with anchovy, black gose and English-style IPA. “It was just a straight-up, fresh, savoury, English IPA, that just happened to have some anchovies in it. Some people found that notion really repulsive, others were intrigued. We’ll definitely brew something similar again – without the anchovy. It will taste very, very similar, but it will just be an easier sell.” Another remarkable beer was a blue beer for International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day (IWCBD). “Blue Stocking, we called it – a bit of an historical reference. IWCBD encouraged people to brew something new this year or use a new ingredient or technique. We saw the logo and I thought: ‘I kind of like that deep blue-indigo logo’ – and ‘Why aren’t there more blue beers?’ “I happened upon these Thai flowers, the butterfly pea flower, and I thought ‘Wow’. Quite apart from being a beautifullooking flower, in Thailand it’s quite popularly made into an iced tea. I tracked some down and then put it in a fairly neutral, very, very light wheat ale. It was a lot of fun. My fear was that it was going to be dishwater grey, arguably the only colour that you can’t sell in beer. And when it was first coming through the hop-back it was bloody dishwater grey. I started calling it arctic blue but it was just bloody dishwater grey. And then as it steeped for a bit longer, it became this really deep, dark indigo colour, like pen ink.” The colour varied depended on the pH level. “So the more acidic it gets, the pinker it gets. Every day it was changing. Then once we poured it, it would change as well. So it was a pretty ridiculous concept, bizarre-looking beer but it tasted really quite sensible – it was just a nice, hoppy, clean, conventional wheat ale. It just happened to be blue or indigo or pink, depending on when you drank it. We actually served it

with a wedge of lime on the side, and if you squeezed the lime into it, it would change colour. So that was pretty cool – and completely unWheaty-like.” Jade says the brewpub gives her the independence to follow her own ideas. “I often say I’m unemployable now – I think I would really struggle working for anyone else. The independence and the ability to play is amazing.” She also finds the industry itself fantastic. “I was blown away by the technical support I got from other brewers when I was setting up the brewery. That camaraderie is phenomenal. I’d call any number of brewers and say ‘Listen, I’ve got this issue … and within minutes, the best brewers in the country

"Even if I’m introduced as the brewer they’ll be looking around for the guy." would turn around and say ‘Right – this is what we do.’” However, Jade says being a female brewer in the beer industry can sometimes be frustrating. “Certainly it’s a very blokey industry. On a personal level, almost all of the brewers I have dealt with have been fantastic.” She dislikes the stereotype of a craft beer drinker as a “tattooed, bearded hipster”. “It’s pretty lazy and lame to keep peddling that stereotype, just like it’s lazy and lame for the mainstream breweries to peddle the stereotype that basically

only blokes drink beer. If there are any women in mainstream ads they tend to be decorative, they’re either serving the beer or they’re lookin’ pretty. The problem with that is then it convinces many women that beer isn’t for them. “But we’ll have women who don’t drink beer, and when they come to the bar, within 30 seconds they’re in love with a Russian imperial stout or a double IPA, or a gueze, so they go from zero to hero in seconds.” Jade says the idea of a ‘girl’s drink’ and ‘man’s drink’ is widespread. “Drinking, sadly, is still quite gendered in Australia. We still get women who come up to the bar and want a girly beer, and blokes who apologise for ordering a cider, or feel it necessary to tell you the glass of chardonnay they’ve ordered is not for them. It’s like, I don’t care – it’s a drink! I’m not going to start questioning your masculinity if you drink a glass of riesling.” She says that there is still a way to go before female brewers are accepted unquestioningly. “We’ve had supplier reps walk out to the brewery, I’ve been literally in the middle of brewing, and they walk past me to have a chat to my 19-yearold glass collector about … the brewery. The number of times that happens is extraordinary. Even if I’m introduced as the brewer they’ll be looking around for the guy. “A lot of blokes are more comfortable knowing that a bloke is in charge because it reinforces their worldview. And if women can run pubs and write beer lists and make beer, then, Jesus, what else can they do?” wheatybrewingcorps.com

THIRSTY FOR IMPROVEMENT

Froth chats to Jess Craig, Quality Manager at Mountain Goat Beer

Tell me about your beer journey I studied Food Science at Ballarat uni. I think the best day of my life back then was when I had to sign a waiver to say ‘I will not drive to uni today’, because some of my electives involved drinking beer. I majored in brewing, and the uni always got us involved in the AIBA awards, back then they were done at Ballarat. So we’d do the stewarding … and we’d taste a few as we’d go. And they still gave me the job again the next year, even when I tipped a tray of beer over a judge. I’ve known Dave [Mountain Goat co-founder Dave Bonighton] for a long time. He’s vaguely related to me, he’s married to my second cousin. So when I was studying I did a couple of uni projects on his brews, and I always sort of thought, ‘I’ll get there eventually’. That was my first introduction to Australian craft beer. And I’m still a fan of the Hightail, that’s still my favourite beer. I ended up going more into food science, I worked for Meadowlea, I was a taste-tester at Allen’s Lollies. So that was twice a day, 8.30am and 4.30pm, shovel party mix in your gob. We were testing for texture, any off flavours, true to type – not unlike with beer. Then I got more into beverages, I worked for Schweppes, and a small soft drink and water bottling company. I knew I would do a stint overseas, so I was kind of waiting to get back and [brewing] would be my real job. I did Ireland for a year, and

did England, and worked at Carlsberg in the UK. I caught up with Dave when I was overseas, and he said ‘When you’re ready to come home, we’re big enough for a Quality [Assurance] person now, if you’re keen.’ So I got back and started here and it was all hands on deck. It was summer [2013], and it was mental. So I didn’t get stuck straight into quality, it was more like ‘Can you get on the kegs’. It’s been really good to learn all the processes here, and then be able to add the quality side to it. [Asahi’s buyout of Mountain Goat] hasn’t been a bad thing. If anything, it’s opened up more opportunities for us really, sharing a bit of knowledge between the two. We can do this better, they can do that better.

[Working at the Asahi brewery in Laverton] is always go go go, and I like that a lot. You’re never bored. It’s given me the chance to align our recipes a bit more and make a few improvements. The pale ale’s been great lately – I’ve done a few tweaks to it, a couple of different processing changes. I don’t want to blow my own trumpet but ... [laughs] it’s got a bit more hop aroma for a lot longer now. They’re little wins, but I like looking at a process and making it better. goatbeer.com.au

Out of the Green

Words by Emily Day / Photos by Sam Piechocinski / Illustration by Maria Kim

Emily Day chats with Kettle Green’s Mia Piechocinski about brewing and branching out on her own. When five RMIT fashion students asked Melbourne’s Cavalier Brewing if they would sponsor their fashion show, Cavalier’s Mia Piechocinski replied: “I’m the head brewer but I’d actually like to put forward my own label.” Mia also brews under her own label, Kettle Green, in her spare time, and thought the fashion show would be the perfect fit for her unique, one-off beers. The fashion honours students – Grace Alateras, Victoria Bliss, Madeleine Sinco, Alinda Tralongo and Katie Barter – will stage a runway show called The Line Up on October 18, featuring outfits they’ve made and an exhibition of their work. Grace says she loved the idea of working with Mia to make a beer for the show. “I really loved the concept of how Mia brews beer – one batch, you sell it and it’s gone forever. It’s got a really nice exclusive nature to it. So we met up and went from there.” While Mia started planning the special beer, she also suggested the bottle labels feature the girls’ garments. Illustrator Maria Kim, also in their course, drew sketches of their work, creating five unique beer labels. “I think [the design] really captures the idea that we are a collective,” says Grace. “Because our work is really diverse but the illustrations are in unison, the beer’s in unison, so there are elements of diversity but harmony as well.” Despite her penchant for odd ingredients, Mia brewed an approachable beer for the event. “It’s the only beer on the night, so I thought it needs to be something pretty easy-drinking,” she says. She made a California Common – a San Francisco-style steam ale which is like a lager but slightly fruitier and hoppier. She christened it ‘Crumpet California Common’ and made a whole batch so can also sell it after the show in select bottle shops. “Crumpet might sounds weird, but it’s slang for a pretty young thing so I thought it seemed right,” says Mia. “Also I do alliteration in all my beer names.” Mia brews her beers on a fermenter she bought at the Cavalier brewery in Derrimut, in Melbourne’s west. “It’s my investment property,” she says with a laugh. Each of the Kettle Green beers are different, and have included an American wheat ale with hemp, a Hibiscus lager and Belgian Dubbel with coffee. Mia says that she usually does about three batches a year. “It’s a bit of a project for each one. It’s not the most financially viable project but it supports itself. I go out and sell beers and it goes towards the next batch.” Her solo project has been up and running for over a year, and One of the she has also brewed for Cavalier fashion designs that for nearly four years. “They will feature taught me everything I know”, on the beer she says. labels.

Mia Piechocinski from Kettle Green brewing gets into the spirit of things while making the Wonder Woman hibscus lager.

While she is now a beer connoisseur, she admits it wasn’t always that way. “I used to drink Carlton Draught with lime cordial because it was the cheapest booze I could buy at the bar,” she says. A trip overseas to Europe and Canada in 2010 opened her eyes. “I put together a whole scrapbook of all the beers I drank while I was travelling. That’s how I got into beer, like how it was made and stuff, that’s how I got interested. “I did six months across Europe and then three months in Canada. In Europe I was trying all the local beers … they are all very different to ours and they actually taste nice, so that was new. She also went to Canada and was struck by the similarities between Melbourne and Montreal. “[Montreal has] a European kind of feel to it,” she says. “It’s

"one batch, you sell it and it’s gone forever. It’s got a really nice exclusive nature to it" quite cultural, and people like to eat and drink a lot. They don’t have a local bar down the road, they have a local brewpub. So I went to Dieu Du Ciel and a couple of others and they just have big blackboards with one to 15 [beers listed on them] and they’re constantly changing what they have on tap. I thought that was really good. “The city was so similar to Melbourne and we didn’t have anything like that – there was obviously a gap in the market, something was missing. So it occurred to me to try to bring that home, more or less,” she says with a laugh. “That’s still in progress.” www.kettlegreenbrewing.com.au

TOKEN MALE ARTICLE LUKE ROBERTSON FROM ALE OF A TIME SHARES HIS TIPS ON WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR MAN JUST DOESN’T LIKE CRAFT BEER.

Ladies, you know what it’s like. You get to the bar, ready to get some dankness, sourness or roasted fun into your face, and the blokes in your party have that look in their eye. The one that is partly “I’m a lost little lamb” and “I don’t see anything I recognise”. Or maybe “I’m going to ask if they have a Corona”. We all know it. Blokes are rubbish when it comes to trying new beer. If it’s not their usual run-of-the-mill sweet lager then they’ll have a bit of a cry about bars not having any real beer anymore. “Wah, I just want a beer, not this fruity hipster stuff”. What are we going to do about these fellas huh? Send them packing off to a bar where they can grunt in silence and talk about the time they had “beers with the lads”. That would be too easy on them. And we want this to be inclusive. To help you out I’ve put together a list of the top five beers to help convert men, either your lovers, husbands, or friends, into card-carrying crafties. I know it’s not easy but you’ll be happier for it next time you go for a couple of after-work bevvies and not have to hear them whinging about the bar not having Carlton Draught.

TEMPLE – BICYCLE BEER Most people would think a Temple Powerstance Pilsner or a Rye Hard would be the blokiest drinks when visiting Temple in Melbourne. But that would be entirely incorrect. Powerstance is a great pilsner with a gorgeous grainy profile and just enough noble hops to make the whole thing sing on the palate. It’s too good. Blokes won’t be ready for this note-perfect recreation of a classic pale lager.

And Rye Hard might be tempting because of the whole Die Hard thing, but one sip and this bloke’s face will be screwed up in a sea of spicy bitterness. He’ll be confused and lost. What to do? A gentle, easy-drinking Bicycle beer. It’s pale so it won’t freak them out, and not too bitter with a nice fruitiness. They’ll pretend they aren’t into it at first but get them a pint and watch them reach for another.

LINDEMANS – KRIEK Next time you are picking up a Lindemans Cuvee Rene or Cuvee Rene Kriek for yourself, think of the man in your life and grab him a Kriek. Tell him it’s a Belgian sour beer and he’ll be a little bit interested (don’t use the word “lambic”, it’s too foreign sounding). Talk to him about the wonderful history of sour beers in Belgium. A land brutalised by war but tough enough to keep a proud beer drinking tradition.

Tell him how they add cherries which give it the colour. Don’t mention the sugar or juice because guys like to think they don’t like sweet things. That bloke palate is primed for the sickly training-wheels Lindemans range. The best part; give him a sip of the sweet stuff then a sip of the legit sour stuff and he’ll make all sorts of faces and leave you to neck a 750ml of Gueuze to yourself.

“Blokes are rubbish when it comes to trying new beer.” BROUWERIJ VAN STEENBERG - GULDEN DRAAK

Speaking of sweetness and Belgian beers, this is the top of the heap. Firstly tell the poor fella that he’s getting a 10.5% beer and he’ll be like “Omg woah I’ll get smashed. The boys are gonna love this story.” Secondly it has that white plastic label – this is crucial. Start picking at it absent-mindedly

and before you know it he’ll make the old joke about sexual frustration and picking at beer labels, which dudes love. His spirits will be lifted and this craft beer thing will start making sense. He’s having fun now! And finally it is sweet as anything. So like the Lindemans, his palate is pumped for that sweetness. Turn on some footy and watch him fall asleep by the third quarter.

ANY MODERN CIDER Men just love a cider. They pretend they don’t but make it a sneak attack on a hot day. Get him one “by mistake”. Watch him guzzle it down, happy as a clam. He’ll think “this is a bit different, and not so bad”.

Fortunately for you, many modern craft breweries are making a sweet version for blokes just like the ones in question. It’s a stealth manoeuver. It gets them familiar with a new brand and will give them pause to reconsider what they know about boozing.

BREWDOG – TOKYO* The beer that has launched a thousand dudes into “wow-weee craft beer” territory. It’s sweet, it’s 18%, and has all sorts of idiotic punk rock and video game talk on the label. Admittedly it’s a bit of a mess but male palates are barely

formed so he won’t notice the harsh jagged edges, and instead be embracing the sweet, sweet, high-ABV-monster destroying his palate. If the boys loved hearing about Gulden Draak, then they are really going to get a kick out of this.

Words by Luke Robertson / Check out Luke’s podcasts at www.aleofatime.com

SH*T MY Silvia Day heads to the Yarra Valley to sample the brews at Hargreaves Hill. Words by Silvia Day

MUM

I am doing a beer review for the 'F' issue! What is it? Female? Feminine? Feminist? I don't know as it hasn't come out yet. This review will be in it & I guess we will all find out then. I assume it can't be female as a magazine does not have a gender, does it? It can't be feminine as that would imply girly with high heels and a necklace & maybe an expensive handbag. (I think. I may be totally wrong!) Can it be feminist? That would imply equality with men in terms of beer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Drinking? Judging? Writing about it? Yep! I think that's it!! Anyway, stop analysing & get on with the job. I am late enough already. Last night, the phone rang. I pick it up. Emily. 'What's up, 1. HEFEWEIZEN: 4.9% Em?' I ask. 'Mum, I need the beer A lot of breweries seem to like using this Bavarian name, but I don't think the beers reviews.' she replies. 'Oh, right, when?' are necessarily the same just because they have the same name. This is a very pale, I ask her. 'Yesterday.' she says. 'Ok, but not totally clear beer. It is fizzy, fruity to a degree, but I can't taste the supposed nutmeg, clove & banana. Instead, it tastes a bit like an Alka Seltzer, but it is not Em, I'll get onto it!' I hang up. So you revolting, nor does it hang around for ages, so it is possible to drink! see, no more procrastination! On with the job!! I shall leave it up to all of you 2. GOLDEN ALE: 4.7% to decide what sort of issue it will be. Very pale & not as fizzy, but a bit stronger & longer lasting taste. A bit too hoppy Thank you. for me. We went for a lovely drive to the Yarra Valley and ended up at a lovely place 3. PALE ALE: 4.9% called Hargreaves Hill. I believe they This is more golden than the Golden Ale and not as pale! It is a bit easier on the palate have some lovely wines, but once again, too â&#x20AC;&#x201C; somewhere in between the Hefeweizen and the Golden Ale. they were bypassed in the quest for beers to review, so enough use of the 4. EXTRA SPECIAL BITTER: 5.2% word 'lovely' as I get down to serious Darker in colour, not fizzy, a bit cloudy, bitter tasting, but surprisingly dissipates quickly. There's a hint of a flavour I can't quite pin down, but it's not the grapefruit or work now. passionfruit that I am told is there. This began with a tasting paddle that I worked my way through with the grateful help of my other half who finished off every glass after I sipped & tasted & scribbled notes on scraps of paper. 5. PHOENIX IMPERIAL RED ALE: 9.6%

SAYS (ABOUT CRAFT BEER)

"Next time, I shall try the wines!" Clear, reddish colour, non fizzy with a thick, milky & slightly sweet taste which seems strange especially as the strong, lasting bitter taste at the back of the mouth gives it a weird ending. Totally confusing!

6. FOREIGN EXPORT STOUT: 6.2% Black, non fizzy, very hoppy, bitter taste overrides the slight hint of other stuff. What is it? Chocolate? Coffee? Can't really tell as I need a load of bread or other stuff and water to get rid of the bitterness that refuses to leave the back of my mouth!

Silvia Day samples the beers at Hargreaves Hill

7. RUSSIAN IMPERIAL STOUT: 10.5% A frothy cough mixture with a strong bitterness residue. Not my cup of tea! Next time, I shall try the wines!

F LY I N G H I G H It would be impossible to do a story on awesome women in the Australian beer industry without including Two Birds – Australia’s first and only female-owned brewery. Two Birds has won a slew of awards for their core range, which includes the Golden Ale, Sunset Ale, Bantam IPA and the famous Taco beer – a one-off which proved so popular it has become one of their bestsellers. A joint venture between Perth mates Jayne Lewis and Danielle Allen, Two Birds has established its “Nest” in Spotswood in Melbourne’s west, with a cosy brewpub and large brewery pumping out truckloads of their sought-after brews. With the brewery currently expanding, it’s a busy time at Two Birds, but brewer Jayne says she’s still excited about the work. “I love it,” she says. “It’s the greatest industry to be a part of.” On top of their core range, Jayne gets to have some fun with seasonal beers such as the Oatmeal Stout which proved a hit during winter. Their latest seasonal is called Spring Saison – “That’s the best we could do with the name”, laughs Jayne. Made with Cascade and Ella hops and French saison yeast, it should be available now on tap at select pubs. “I really like it because it’s nice and estery and fruity,” Jayne says. Craft drinkers may have spotted another special Two Birds beer out and about – the Double Sunset, which Two Birds brewed to celebrate their win for their Sunset Ale at the AIBA awards earlier this year, which won the Gold Medal for Best American-Style Red Ale. Jayne says the Double Sunset is just like the Sunset Ale but with more of everything. “I really enjoy drinking it, it makes it hard to go back to the Sunset!” Another project that gave them a chance to push the boundaries was their limited-release Chardonnale – a beer/ wine hybrid which came out of a collaboration with Express

BREWERY

Vienna Lager

Witbier

Mathilde

Seasonal. Refreshing. Naturally.

Winemakers from Denmark in Western Australia. Jayne admits the brew was “incredibly stressful” at first because they weren’t sure if it was going to work. They harvested the chardonnay in WA, brought it back home, pressed it, inoculated it with two Belgian strains of beer yeast and let it do its thing – while keeping a close eye on it. Once it was finished in barrels, it was transferred to the tank and dryhopped with Enigma hops, which Jayne says seemed the right hop to use “in a beer and wine hybrid that was something of an enigma … it’s known for having quite winey characteristics anyway”. At bottling time, they dosed it with more sugar and yeast – a technique known as méthode champenoise which allows secondary fermentation to occur in the bottle, as the yeast acts on the sugar and the resulting carbon dioxide remains trapped. This gave it “beautiful really fine bubbles”, Jayne says, and a flavour somewhere between sparkling wine, beer and sour beer. She says she would like to try a similar beer/ wine hybrid next year, perhaps pushing it more towards the beer end of the spectrum. Two Birds will be hosting an Oktoberfest event at the Hophaus Bier Bar, Southbank, on Thursday October 6. Two Birds have brewed an altbier – an old-style German beer – for the event. The cost is $68 per person, and also includes food by Hophaus head chef Damian Love. Bookings essential: book online at hophaus.com.au or call (03) 9682 5900 www.twobirdsbrewing.com.au By Emily Day

“I love it... It’s the greatest industry to be a part of.” – Jayne Lewis

THE ART OF BEAUTIFUL BEER BRANDING by Jessie Jungalwalla

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all? Browsing the shelves of a craft beer store can be like walking through an art gallery – your eyes might be hurt by the occasional offensive design, but for the most part, beauty is all around. However, it ain’t just about looking pretty. A beer label might be a work of art that would make Michelangelo green with envy, but if it’s inconsistent with the brewer’s brand, no one is going to recognise it. Beer branding is fascinating (to a creative beer nerd lady such as myself), as the artistic possibilities are endless, but it does force the designer to meet challenges that are unique to the craft beer industry. Here are a few I’ve met as a craft beer graphic design specialist:

"Labels are the biggest storyteller of all for a brewery"

FLEXIBLE TEMPLATE

Many breweries start off with a strong simple label template, but then a few years down the track, after a number of beers are added to their range, find there is no visual room to move for new releases. So they just go gung ho and start creating labels that are completely different from their original branding because they are bored with using the same restrictive template. Might create some great artwork, but no one recognises the brewery. Not good branding practice. Good practice would be to design a label template which remains the same across all releases. It has lots of flexibility for different designs, but basics like the company name, logo, artwork and beer style stay in the same place every time. Consistency like that makes me purrrrr with delight as it allows the company to be adventurous in their designs without compromising a strong brand presence. Which brings me to the next challenge…

STRONG BRAND PRESENCE

A brand isn’t just a logo. To me, a brand is a feeling the consumer gets in reaction to the messages a company communicates. It comes across in everything, from the typeface in an advertisement, to photos posted on Instagram, to the language used on the website. If you have a distinct brand, all those things will tell the same story. The key is consistency. Labels are the biggest storyteller of all for a brewery. A good label design will stand out on its own, but the real art is to create an amazing label while maintaining consistent colours and shapes with the brewery’s brother and sister releases. It might stand out on its own, but you gotta know which family it belongs to.

GOOD STORY

Everyone loves a good story. Craft beers are a form of art, and art is often a product of inspiration. It’s wonderful to hear the story of how a beer came into your hand, what inspired the brewer, where the idea came from. Was it a movie? Did the idea come in a dream? Maybe it was an accident? If a label can visually communicate this inspiration it really does become a work of art. So next time you are perusing the aisles of a delightful little bottle-o, you might shout out with glee when you come across a beer that ticks all these boxes. The label will jump out at you, then as you look closer you will get a certain feeling (your reaction to the brand), you will identify the brewery and the beer style (a good label template), then as you pick it up and read the back, you might feel inspired (the story). Hopefully for the brewery, inspired enough to buy it. The feeling continues as you take your first gulp (yes gulp it at the start, you can taste it better if it hits all the taste buds). Then, as you sip away at the delicious brew, all the warm fuzzy feelings combine together into pure admiration, and you sit with a satisfied smile that says it all. And that to me, is the true beauty of craft beer.

Jessie Jungalwalla is the founder of Craft Instinct, a brand development and design company specialised for the craft beer community www.craftinstinct.com

SOME AUSSIE BREWERIES WHO HAVE NAILED BEAUTIFUL BEER BRANDING

Home Brew with Ruth Barry How did you get into home brewing? I had an ex who used to brew pretty basic kit & kilo batches with his brothers. I guess that's what initially sparked my interest in making my own beer and experimenting with ingredients. Though, to be fair most of those beers were pretty woeful. It was a good lesson in how not to brew. Particularly the batch of bottle bombs that after the third exploded within half an hour, there was an executive decision to move the rest of the batch to the freezer upstairs. Fortunately nobody died... What were your first home brews like? My first homebrew was kit & a kilo of honey, and utter shite. Lucky I had a housemate who kindly obliged in disposing most of it for me. By the second batch I had found an old fridge to ferment in, and by the third I'd moved to five-litre allgrain batches on the stove. Around that time I joined a local homebrew club. Being a part of a club is a great way to learn better ways to brew. From there things greatly improved.

'I'm particularly interested in better understanding metabolomics of non-Saccharomyces yeasts' Why are you studying Biochemistry? Good question. I don't have a direct answer for that. It could just be that I’m a masochist. Ha. Mostly I thought I'd study Biochemistry to fill a few second-year subjects related to my planned majors, Microbiology and Chemistry. I'm doing a general undergrad science degree because my application a few years ago into the Ballarat graduate brewing course was turned down. In hindsight this was probably a blessing, I'm not sure I would have developed quite the same level of appreciation for the importance of metabolic pathways (and their metabolites) for flavour production in beer. I'm particularly interested in better understanding metabolomics of nonSaccharomyces yeasts and how they interplay with products produced by lactic acid bacteria and other organic compounds found in ingredients such as grain, hops, fruit and wood. What are you getting out of the course? Not a lot of stuff that is directly transferable to everyday home-brewing processes, I guess. By that I mean, that it hasn't improved the quality of my beer drastically. I’m still

Ruth Barry (above) at a community lab in Brunswick: “We were making potato extract for YPD agar (yeast extract, potato, dextrose) to grow some yeasts on. We then ate the leftover potato mash because, students. Lol.”

battling my nemesis of oxygen ingress on most of my beers. But hopefully moving to ageing with brett and glass carboys should help with that in the long-term. But I am learning plenty of practical skills in Microbiology at the moment, mostly about using selective and differential media to isolate wild/non-Sacc yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. Also having the means to look at the viability of bottle dregs takes out some of the guesswork and wait-and-see nature of propping up commercial strains. I definitely wouldn’t have had access to these methods without the skill sets and contacts I’ve acquired since undertaking the degree. What are you brewing at the moment? Currently have a kettle sour in the fermenter at home. I also have six experimental batches, ranging from five months to three weeks old, sitting in five-litre demijohns, and another two planned in the next week. Most of these are secondary ferments with dregs/commercial brett strains/mixed-bug strains/etc of clean beers. And at my brew partner’s house we are still in the process of getting a Flanders Red happening in a 220L barrel. What is your favourite brewing method? Experimentation with fermentation. I brew BIAB in a crown urn, which is a massive pain for limited gain (11-hr brewdays for 30L!), so I either brew on a friend’s rig or pay for pre-made wort. I like to have enough for a clean primary ferment beer that'll get me a keg’s worth plus a few litres extra to fill a one-gallon demijohn to age with various bugs. This way I can get a pipeline of experimental batches to blend at a later time. This is only a newish venture, so will be interesting how it eventuates in a couple of years or so. What would be your dream brewing job? Barrel whisperer would make a pretty nice job title, I think. Eventually I’d like to work in a sour beer/mixed fermentationonly brewery. Maybe I’ll start my own one day. Who knows. At the moment though, I’m just happy making mistakes at home and getting a feel for the industry. What is your favourite beer? Anything delicious. I really enjoyed the Boatrocker L.A.B. recently. In a perfect world I'd rarely drink the same beer twice within the same month. I love ridiculously fresh beer, irrespective of the style.

Lost in the moment

Froth’s UK correspondent Nicci Peet checks out Lost & Grounded Brewery. It’s early on a Friday morning in mid-September when I arrive at the Lost & Grounded Brewery. After battling school-run traffic and navigating industrial estates, the brewery is a white oasis. Walking inside, I’m greeted by giant gleaming stainless-steel tanks and everything still has that new brewery smell. I’m here to meet Alex Troncoso (pictured above), former chief brewer at Little Creatures and now the proud owner of Lost & Grounded Brewery, which he opened in August with his partner and cofounder Annie Clements. I ask Alex about moving to the UK and his vision for the future. What made you up sticks and move to the UK? Alex: I'd been with Little Creatures since 2004 and I was thinking about the next step. Everything happened at the same time: I finished a master’s degree and Little Creatures got acquired by Kirin. At same time I came over to the UK and thought "Well, it could be kind of interesting to come over here because I could see that everything was about to rapidly change”. I got the job with [London brewery] Camden Town and worked there for two and a half years. After that we really thought that London probably wasn't for us and we were [either] going to go back to Australia or stay in the UK. Then we found Bristol and thought ‘We'll stay in the UK’. How did you find Bristol? We had some friends in Melbourne who lived here and they always said it was really cool. We were going to Cornwall on holidays and we looked on the map and thought, ‘We'll stop somewhere for a night – oh we'll stop in Bristol’. We immediately felt at home. There's lots of independent business, it's quite

a creative city. There are about 10% university students so there are always creative people coming through and it’s quite community-orientated. When did you decide to open a brewery? We thought about it in Australia in 2012 but for whatever reason I didn't quite feel confident. Then in December 2014/January 2015 … some switch clicked and we decided ‘Yeah, we can probably do this actually, so why don't we just back ourselves and go for it!’ How did you come up with the brewery concept? We thought, ‘If we're going to do this, what do we want the company to be and how do you treat people? Out of that we came up with four words: 'humble, inclusive, clever and raw'. At that point it could be a button factory or a shoe factory or a restaurant or anything – it doesn't have to be a brewery, it just happens to be a brewery. That’s driven the decision on the people we want to recruit, those same four words. Annie, my partner and co-founder, she had a lot more involvement in the branding. We found this website called ‘Drawn in Bristol’ and found [an illustrator], Alexia Tucker. She started with the logo and then we ended up with this amazing landscape of Lost & Grounded brewers.

"It’s easy to make beer but it’s hard to actually make beer special."

How did you come up with your beer range? The last few years I've gone to Germany and Belgium a lot and it has finally crystallised the sense in my mind that I was most fascinated with brewing from those countries. We didn't want to recreate anything. It started out having a focus on more German beer and how it’s ended up being was almost like the West Country equivalent of a Belgian family brewery. We have a beautiful lager, then a range of weird and wonderful things underneath. Lager is often overlooked in the UK craft beer scene, but you have two great lagers in your core range. If we're going to do lagers, let’s really try to do this properly. We put in a biological acidification plant so we BELOW: One of the make our own lactic acid in the brewhouse, Lost & Grounded beer decals by which is a very traditional German method. Bristol illustrator I don’t know if it’s being clever but it Alexia Tucker. cost me more money and it’s another thing the guys have to manage. You have to think “Oh jeeze, we've got to fill the tank and feed the beasties”. But we wanted to do something special. It’s easy to make beer but it’s hard to actually make beer special. Follow Nicci Peet on Twitter @niccipeet lostandgrounded.co.uk

BACON SCHMACON

Shannon Driscoll checks out the best bars in Melbourne serving ace vego treats.

Are you vegetarian, vegan, or does your doctor think your heart might need a break from eating pigs with beer? Are you sick of “chips” being the only meat-free option at pubs, and the brutal hangover that ensues as a result of guzzling delicious craft beers on a nearly-empty stomach? Here’s a list of a few standout pubs in Melbourne’s north and west that offer great craft beer selections along with amazing meat-free dishes on their menus.

Tramway Hotel 165 Rae St, Fitzroy North tramwayhotel .com.au The “Miss Destiny” Burger at Tramway Hotel The Rundown: The Tramway is a cosy neighbourhood pub that boasts a fun menu with a North American twist. Featuring burgers, hot dogs, poutine and a solid line-up of delicious bar food all around, the Tramway caters to vegans and meat-eaters alike. With 10 rotating taps of craft beer, a solid selection of bottles and cans, there’s plenty of tasty options to wash your food down with. What to order: You can’t go wrong with either of the vegan burgers- there’s the Whipper (a Big Mac-style monster with a wheat gluten-based patty) or the Miss Destiny (a smoky sweet potato and bean patty topped with a hash brown. Be still, my heart!). Other favourites include a tasty mac n’ cheese dish with a chilli kick and classic poutine (you can always trust the poutine when the chef is Canadian). Specials: “Superfuzz” Wednesdays with $10 big dog and fries, $12 burger and fries, and $15 jugs. Includes vegan options. The Cornish Arms 163A Sydney Road, Brunswick cornisharms.com.au The Rundown: The Cornish Arms may look like your regular run-of-the-mill Sydney Road pub, but their beer selection and menu sets them apart. Offering both meat and vegan versions of pub classics such as parmas, burgers, and pizzas, with a list of nine vegan craft beers on tap, there is definitely something for everyone. What to order: The vegan parma, eggplant chips, or whichever veganised pub meal you are most curious about. Specials: Join the email list to be alerted of each fortnight’s vegan special.

B.EAST 80 Lygon Street, Brunswick East the b-east.com.au The award-winning Morrissey vegan chicken burger

The Rundown: Nestled amongst myriad Italian eateries on Lygon Street is The B.East, a venue with a specific focus on burgers, booze and bands. With a clearly marked “Vegetarian & Vegan” section of the menu, there are three burgers to choose from, two of which are vegan. Round your meal out with an order of beer-battered fries and a craft bottle or pint from one of the four rotating taps. What to order: The Morrissey (voted one of PETA Australia’s Top 10 Vegan Burgers) off the standard menu, and the vegan Mac n’ Cheese Bombs and vegan Chicken & Waffles on Mondays. Specials: “Mock The Casbah” Monday nights with punk tunes, rotating $10 craft beer pints, and vegan food and dessert specials. The Reverence 28 Napier St, Footscray reverencehotel.com The Rundown: The Reverence is well known as a band venue and as a bit of a gem in the inner west for pub food that accommodates for everyone. A primarily Mexican-inspired menu mixed with pub classics such as burgers and pizzas makes The Rev a solid choice for a few beers and a top-notch meal. While their craft beer selection is not as extensive as some pubs, it is well-curated and rotates regularly, with stalwarts like Two Birds always present to quench your thirst. What to order: Nachos, Vegan Mesquite Popcorn Chicken, and if you’re starving, the vegan Gringo pizza (essentially the best of both bar foods combined – nachos on a pizza). Specials: Taco Tuesdays, with $3 tacos (2 vegan options) and $5 bowls of spiced shoestring fries. Rotating food specials board with vegan options throughout the rest of the week.

For more craft beer and vegan food pairing, be sure to check out the Brew & Food Fest hosted by Melbourne Vegan Eats on November 5th at Michael St, Brunswick. With several craft breweries in attendance and heaps of vegan food specials, it will no doubt be an interesting addition to the craft beer event scene in Melbourne. See facebook.com/melbourneveganeats for details.

Beeramisu Recipe

Some people say it's a bit contradictory creating vegan recipes for health purposes then adding beer, destroying any goodness? However I believe if you're going to have the calories why not get some nutrients too – and why do we need to have animal products in everything anyway! This way everyone can enjoy good beer and good food (unless you have nut allergies or are coeliac). I went searching for the best coffee stout around for this recipe and I do believe I found it – Almanac Cold Brew Coffee Barrel Noir. Maybe I'm crazy for using such a good quality (and expensive) beer for cooking but #yolo in all honesty though you could use any coffee stout, next time I'll probably go with a Founders, or a liquor, but for a beer mag you go all out! A little note on the vegan sponge – this may be where people either loved or hated it – I preferred it, made with spelt and coconut sugar which gave it a nutty flavour.

VEGAN BEERMISU

(makes 4 glasses) Ingredients Cream and Cheese Layers 2 shots espresso/nespresso 3/4 cup coffee stout 1 can rice whip 1 jar vegan whipping cream (I found this at Prahran Convenience Store on Commercial Rd) 2 tbsp coconut sugar

Vegan Sponge 1 chia egg (tbsp chia & 1/3 cup room-temp water mixed together and left for 15 mins) 3/4 cup coconut sugar 2 tsp oil (I used hemp) 1/2 cup nut mylk (I used macadamia mylk) 2 tsp apple cider vinegar 1.5 tsp baking soda 2 tsp arrowroot starch 1 cup wholemeal spelt flour 1/2 cup ground oats Grated dark vegan chocolate for garnish

METHOD FIRST STEP: Make the Vegan Sponge 1. Make chia egg 2. Prepare loaf tin/ round tin whatever tin is in your kitchen, preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius 3. Combine dry ingredients 4. Mix together wet ingredients 5. Combine the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined 6. Pour into prepared tin and bake for 30-40 minutes (until skewer is dry – it needs to be dry to soak up the coffee stout) 7. Let cool SECOND STEP 1. Combine espresso stout and espresso to a bowl 2. Cut or crumble the sponge into the bottom of glasses/jars (I like the messy look and crumbled) 3. Drizzle 1-2 tbsp of espresso stout mix on each bottom layer 4. Add a layer of vegan whipping cream to the sponge layer 5. In another bowl combine remaining jar of whipping cream and 1/4 cup of espresso stout mix and a generous squeeze of the rice whip, coconut sugar and lightly stir to combine 6. Add another layer of the vegan sponge to each glass, drizzle with coffee stout and add a layer of rice whip mix, continue to create layers until jars are full, add a squeeze of rice whip to the top of each beermisu and grate chocolate on top to garnish. 7. Cover and leave overnight for flavours to develop. Serve with a yummy coffee/chocolate stout :)

P.S. As expected I did get a little tipsy whilst putting them together and made these in individual jars instead of a slab so they started to vary in layer size and style etc. By Louise Singleton Instagram: @sofreshnsoclean_

What a Strange Trip… Sarah “Salty” Otton recounts her journey to beerdom. If you ask anyone who has ever met me, they will all say one thing: Salty really, really loves beer. But where did this passion stem from? Like most things in life, it was contextual. Growing up in a farming family (my parents owned an oyster farm and my grandparents owned a cattle farm on the far South Coast of NSW) meant that from a young age I was exposed to people doing hard work (I mean really hard work – physical labour, none of this desk jockey stuff). So after a day on the tools, everyone’s thirst had to be quenched by a couple of problem solvers over a laugh, and good bit of banter about the day’s events was the norm. It was the classic Australian cliché. Cue every 1980s beer commercial, ever! I have always been amazed by beer’s ability to bring individuals together. I see beer as a leveller. Arguably the oddest bit of advice my Dad gave me: “Never trust anyone who won’t have a beer”. He was a strange man. He nicknamed his six-pack Esky the “happiness box” and he let me sip on the occasional brew when I was far too young. Apparently, I drank it with a smile on my face with no complaints. Fast-forward to when I was 15, the epiphany moment. One afternoon, after a hard day’s work mustering cattle, Dad had come back from the local bottle-o with a six-pack he had never seen before. He was good at doing this, always looking for diversity. We sat on the verandah and had one each. My mind was blown! It was a James Squire Amber Ale! It just tasted so different to anything I had ever experienced. However, it was a backpacking trip around Europe that saw my true beer revelation begin. I drank true Czech Pilsner – so clean and smooth. In Germany it was Franziskaner, while Belgium had the good grace to introduce me to interesting SOUR beers! And I have to mention the CAMRA (Britain’s Campaign for Real Ale) club. Hello Ales! As a naïve Australian, the flavours were so exciting! Then back to reality and the beer wasteland that

was Wollongong at that time and my first crack at university. Remember that song from the 90s, Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen? Somewhere in that song it said that interesting people didn’t know what they wanted to do with their lives in their early 20s. That was me, I knew I didn’t want to be a medicinal chemist and I knew I didn’t want to live in the “Gong” (although I miss the surf terribly). During this time my Dad succumbed to brain cancer. Throughout his treatment, he maintained a strong focus on “hydration”. He often asked for a beer, so I would oblige and find a six-pack of his favourite, James Squire Golden Ale. After the heaviness and the commitment of Dad’s death, I needed to do something for me, something big. So, I packed up my life in my car and moved to Melbourne to follow the growing craft beer scene. In my first week I got a job at the glorious Great Britain Hotel in Richmond and my love of beer was nurtured. Soon after, I was approached by Luke Tremewen to work at Mountain Goat as a taster, which led to my first exposure to a functioning brewery. I was hooked. I re-enrolled at RMIT in a double degree of Food Science and Business Management. I have been so lucky at RMIT to tailor most study toward beer, including a research project at Carlton United Breweries, where I researched and analysed iso-α-acids and reduced iso-α-acids (go on, ask me!). Today my love of beer has not diminished by any stretch. In fact I am the President of the Beer Brewers and Connoisseurs Society at RMIT and I also play in the Renegade Pub Football League (‘carn the mighty Easybeats). Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to win a Pink Boots Salty Scholarship to the CBIA Otton, and conference in Brisbane with her father David which blew my mind! (opposite). I am now in the last semester of my degree and am looking forward to re-entering the brewing industry. I am not sure where I am going to be working, but I sincerely look forward to making YOU a beer that you will love.

“Never trust anyone who won’t have a beer”

BOOKS & BEER Words by Gemma Mahadeo

BOOK BEER

Maxine Beneba Clarke Carrying the world Bacchus Brewing Kraken IPA 6.8%

he says real poets don’t wrestle for silence / in beer-packed bars [...] … aren’t in your face aren’t big / aren’t black aren’t women… (Excerpt from Maxine Beneba Clarke’s ‘get real’ in Carrying the world)

The speaker in the above excerpt sounds like the kind of jerk who doesn’t actually know that much about poetry. A shame, because it’s these sorts of jerks who go on to educate others - about a very bland, narrow-minded type of poetry which ideally belongs in the nineteenth century. Maxine Beneba Clarke, an Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean heritage, is recognised locally as being a poet and spoken word artist, and until recently, most of her poetry was out of print. Thanks to the critical acclaim of her short story collection Foreign Soil and her super-recent memoir The Hate Race it’s probably easier for her poetry collection to see the light of day. The subject matter Clarke covers is confronting: she isn’t afraid to mine her personal history or experiences to educate others, and it doesn’t feel exploitative. An example, from the opening poem ‘armageddon’: he wore threadbare converse fingernails black like mushroom undersides

A skilful, economic and somewhat puke-inducing description of poverty, and the lack of access to basic necessities enabling someone to wash regularly. Other subjects in the collection include racial inequality, sexism and stereotypes, the Australian government’s continued violation of asylum seekers’ human rights, the disappearance and murder of black and indigenous individuals, and the assimilation and integration of those deemed ‘foreign’. the immigration minister of the day / he said these sudanese have a real problem with integration a black kid did not come home that day and that was his eulogy offering (excerpt from ‘disappeared’)

BREWS & TUNES

Words by Emily Day Illustration by Sarah Canning / labfervour.com

SONG BEER

Thelma Plum – Gold Prancing Pony Brewery – India Red Ale

I never really got into Chet Faker – maybe I was a little over white dudes with beards telling me what to think, but this cover of the hirsute wunderkind’s hit song Gold by indigenous singer-songwriter Thelma Plum captivated me at first listen. The talented NSW lass brings a warmth and vivacity to the original, and a sense of maturity to the lyrics that belies her youth.

"You gotta know, I'm feeling love Made of gold, I'll never love a Another one, another you It's gotta be love I said it"

One of the most powerful sections of this volume Carrying the world is ‘demerara sugar’, which details a confronting visit to a Liverpool museum devoted to providing a ‘hands-on’ experience of the history of slavery - in the form of an interactive ‘slave ship’. Now that we’ve determined that the real monsters are actually humans, it feels inappropriate to review a beer named after an imaginary creature, but Brisbane-based Bacchus Brewing Co. have created one of my personal bottled beer highlights for the year – rum-infused Kraken IPA (7% ABV, 500mL). The first mouthful of this nectar was a sublime balance of bitter hops and a slightly sweet but not cloying liquor. The beer itself was a transparent warm amber with a hint of cloudiness and a very fluffy off-white head. Sadly, I was too enamoured (and in severe bookish mode) to take photographic evidence but highly recommend it even if you don’t consider your palate to be particularly adventurous, or find hop bitterness challenging. Maxine’s poetry made me long for some decent Guyanese rum and my old man’s storytelling - there’s one bit of ‘demerara sugar’ that echoes something my father has told me about his birth country: your grandfather uncle buddy says he used to say he would never go back to that place - to plaisance guyana not even if somebody paid him the way he would say it / my dear ‘that place’ like it was haunted [...]

There’s every chance that the judges at the International Beer Challenge in London murmured these words as they sipped Prancing Pony’s India Red Ale, which scooped the award for Best Ale (5% and above) and then went on to pick up the coveted gong for Supreme Champion Beer. The India Red Ale from this South Australian brewery pours a glorious russet colour – like autumn leaves on a sunny day – and is deliciously malty with seductive caramel notes and late bitterness. It’s extremely approachable – even at 7.9% this beer goes down an absolute treat. Pure gold. www.prancingponybrewery.com.au Thelma Plum sings Gold for Triple J’s Like a Version: goo.gl/u8S9p5 Thelma Plum headlines at Dogapalooza, Melbourne's First and Only Dog Friendly Music Festival, Sunday October 9 at Burnley Park, Richmond. Tickets: $35 +booking fee. facebook.com/DogapaloozaMelbourne

IN HARMONY

Rhea Caldwell from Graceland Presents chats to Kelly Day from girl duo Broads, who launch the first single from their upcoming album at The Toff in Town on November 12. So firstly, what is your favourite beer? See I wanna stay away from inputting a particular brand or type because knowing the magazine I don't feel like I should do that. I wanna be a little bit more general. I think it's fine. I think it'll work. I wish I could represent my sister better with my beer choices but I don't think that's really the point. I love dark beer, the darker the better. I baulk against ideas that dark beer is purely seasonal, that it's only a cold weather beer, because I can session a stout in the middle of summer and it still feels like the most refreshing thing. Nice! Where were you the last time you had a dark ale? Some Velvet Morning â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Two Birds Oatmeal Stout. It was seasonal. So they'll be finishing it up soon but it did get me through my winter. Since this is the FemALE issue, I just have to ask, what does feminism mean to you? Ohhhh lots of big questions. Feminism

to me means a lack of fear, a release of inhibitions, the (sigh) ability to speak up for other people and for other people to speak up for you and feel like none of this is creating a power play. As a female singer, surrounded by a strong world of gendered expectations, it's refreshing being able to feature in a beer magazine. When did you first get into beer? Getting into drinking beer and getting INTO beer were two very different things. Beer went from a party pursuit to an interest when I visited my sister in Berlin. She was so excited about all the different German beers she could introduce me to and talk me through, and it takes someone to lead you in like that I suppose.

What's the new Broads album going to be like? It's an exciting new sound for us â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we've turned our existing duo into a full band during recording, and the result is RICH. If I was to describe it in terms of taste I would it was syrupy, aromatic and dark ... like an 11% porter. Disclaimer: Kel Day is the twin sister of Froth editor Emily Day. She does cool music though.

For more info: broadsmusic.com, gracelandpresents.com, thetoffintown.com

FUN FUN FUN FUN aunty

UNCLE WORTY'S ADVICE COLUMN

Dear Uncle Worty, Last night my mate Jono and I took our missuses to a bar. I was quite surprised when Sharlene (Jono’s wife) ordered a beer and not a bubbly or a sauv blanc. That made me think, was she pretending to like beer? Can women even like beer? Confused punter, Caulfield

Dear confused punter, I’ll let the cat out of the bag before it suffocates. This is not my husband Worty, he’s on a self-finding Yoga trip in Bali and has currently no internet access. However, I came across this mail in his inbox and thought that I might be in a better position to answer your question. Do women like beer? Do Eskimo’s pee ice cubes? Do dogs like cats? Well I’ll let you answer those questions. But let me ask you this. What do women have to gain from drinking beer and hanging out with round-bellied, black T-shirt wearing, beardy blokes at bars or beer festivals? Correct, obviously something that they don’t

BEER QUIZ

1 In which state would you find Prancing Pony Brewery? 2 Which Belgian brewery holds Zwanze Day when they release a rare beer at only 60 locations around the world? 3 Which Brisbane brewery recently released a beer called Tokyo Face Plant? 4 What is the name of the brewery run by the Wheatsheaf Hotel in Adelaide?

5 Which Victorian brewery recently released its Mosaic IPA in cans? 6 Which Melbourne brewery’s name means “sky dog” in German? 7 Which American brewery shares a name with David Beckham’s son? 8 Which Scottish brewery is seeking to crowdsource $50 million to expand into the US? 9 Which WA brewery is a synonym for impudent simian? 10 Which Little Creatures beer will be the first from the brewery to be released in cans?

CRAFTY COMIC

Guess the brewery illustrated above for your chance to win a prize! Email your answer to alfiedogmedia@gmail.com Crafty Comic guest illustrator is local artist Leyla Bulmer. Check out more of her work at leylabulmer.com or Instagram @leylabulmer SEPT FROTHWORD SOLUTIONS / Across 1 Storeroom 7 Bitburger 8 Inn 11 Snag 12 Tasmanian 14 Bath 15 Roo 17 Microbial 18 Cooperage Down 2 Tsingtao 3 Rubbish 4 Orgy 5 Marina 6 Young 9 Nanchang 10 Bay 11 Sidebar 13 Atomic 14 Breed 16 Echo

have (but want). What could that be you ask? Well if you haven’t guessed it by now, then I’ll refer you to a recent article that made the rounds on social media last week and appropriately states that women are only here for the … something that rhymes with chick. Is that really so far-fetched? Maybe it’s time to do some market research (make sure you leave your wife at home though as she might not be too pleased with the outcome…). Things to try: 1. Buy a girl a beer, 2. buy her another beer, 3. buy her a third beer, and so on. If she sticks around, then chances are she was only drinking the beer to get into your pants. On the other hand, if she doesn’t accept your offer or buggers off after the second beer, then she clearly finds beer and its hopsy bitterness so revolting that she can’t even follow the simple “no pain no gain” rule to get laid. Things not to try: 1. Tell her she smells of beer – as we have established, women don’t like beer and she’ll take it as an insult. 2. Don’t say intelligent things like “how about this sour beer? It’s really sour”. Your immaculate articulation and knowledge of beer might scare her off because, duh she doesn’t like beer anyway! Hope this helps! Aunty Worty

FROTH WORD

ACROSS 1. This easy-drinking beer originated in what is now the Czech Republic (7) 4. Two Brothers’ Grizz is an American _____ Ale (5) 5. When you mix a dark and light beer you get a black and ___ (3) 7. This Mexican beer tinnie may appeal to the budgetconscious (6) 10. The opposite of she __ (2) 11. The appropriate place to consume alcoholic beverages (3) 13. This beer style is often described as being malty (5) 14. This type of tree is probably not used in beer (3)

DOWN 1. South Australian brewery, _______ Life (7) 2. Melbourne city café/bar that sells craft beer, ___ Moth (3) 3. England is home to the Campaign for ___ Ale (4) 6. This beer is made by brewing lager yeasts at warmer fermentation temperatures: _____ ale (5) 8. Beers are commonly now being sold in a ___ (3) 9. One of the best things in the world ____ (4) 10. Saaz is an example of this beer ingredient (4) 12. Shakespeare may have been drinking a beer when he pondered the question: To be or not to __ (2) 13. French philosopher Rene Descartes was possibly hungover when he claimed ‘I think, therefore I __ (2)

Beer Quiz Answers 1 South Australia 2 Brasserie Cantillon 3 Newstead Brewing 4 Wheaty Brewing Corps 5 Mornington Peninsula Brewery 6 Himmel Hund 7 Brooklyn Brewery 8 Brewdog 9 Cheeky Monkey 10 Dog Days