WINE CELLAR
RIDING THE SOBAH WAVE Sobah Beverages, a true social scene surfer, launches its second wave of development. WORDS MARJ OSBORNE AS ‘LOW AND NO’ alcohol drinks move into the spotlight, it says a lot about Dr Clinton and Lozen Schultz’s intuition that their product, Sobah, was already paddling the wave before the rest of Australia even saw the swell approaching. Still leading from the front, Clinton spoke to Cove about the next exciting phase of development for their company, Sobah Beverages. Sobah (ever y pun intended) is a non-alcoholic craft beer produced by the Schultz’s Queensland-based company. Founded in 2017, Sobah was named after sobriety and the local Aboriginal word for ‘place’ (bah). Literally, ‘Sobah’ could be taken to mean ‘the place of sobriety’. A Gamilaroi man, Clinton first recognised the need for a non-alcoholic beer when he himself went sober. A former chef, now a Bond University lecturer with a full-time psychology consultancy, Clinton tells us he made the decision to place honesty and accountability at the forefront of his relationships. “I wanted to be a positive role model for my children,” Clinton says.
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– Issue 85
“Being a community counsellor, as well as personally, I know the problems alcohol can cause. “I also don’t like hypocrites, so it was important for me to be able to have honest encounters at home, at work and socially.” It was only when Clinton decided not to drink that he discovered a yawning gap in the beverage market, an absence of enticing nonalcoholic adult wine and beer alternatives. ‘Why not make my own?’ he thought, dipping into the home brewing knowledge he already possessed. At the time, the couple operated Clinto's Kupmurri, a food truck selling native ingredientfocused street food. It was a natural fit for them to make and sell their first Sobah beverages from their truck. Native-infused and non-alcoholic, it was the perfect drink to complement their food, at the same time smashing stereotypical images of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples. Trading off the interest they had sparked with customers, Sobah gained its first big break when it launched a crowdfunding campaign on Pozible, pre-selling product to raise the capital to launch Sobah Beverages commercially in a can.
Using contract brewing at Pickled Pig Brewery in Tweed and Tribe Brewery in Goulburn, Sobah uses ethically-sourced materials, gaining unique flavours through native ingredient infusions: Lemon Aspen Pilsner infused with Far North Queensland lemon aspen, Finger Lime Cerveza featuring finger limes from south-east Queensland and Northern New South Wales; and the Pepperberry IPA which uses fruit from the native pepperberry tree. Sobah makes other seasonal products as well, such as the Davidson Plum Gluten-Free Ale which, at the time of its production, was the only non-alcoholic gluten-free beer in Australia. Recently, the demand has more than doubled annually for ‘low and no’ alcohol drinks from those who have made the decision to reduce or abstain either for a short time or for life. Their reasons may include religious beliefs, personal preferences, ability to drive and operate machinery, work commitments, pregnancy, physical intolerance and other health reasons. Sobah’s Pozible campaign, by default, provided the team with a groundswell of community support for their product, at the same time giving those supporters a sense of community by being part of a group.
