“It’s not going to be about the big companies, it’s gonna be with the little guys making good quality stuff and people are gonna learn”
There was a time when to buy a beer in a Queensland pub meant getting a pot of Fourex slammed down in front of you, its contents spilling over the sides onto a soaked bar mat.
But the past decade has seen the end of the traditional tiled-floor pubs decorated with tin ashtrays and a trough under the bar for those unfortunate spills. In their place are the architecturally designed pubs and clubs we see throughout the city and suburbs, their stainless steel and polished timber bars propping up the patrons that lean on them.
And a soaking, old pot of Fourex just won’t do with this crowd. They have a taste for the exotic; the imported, premium beers that make the fridge behind the bar light up like a Christmas tree.
Brennan Fielding, owner/operator of the Burleigh Brewing Company on the Gold Coast, says this is by no means a new trend. He says it’s more a return to the “old-style”, and is pleased as punch things have come full circle.
“There was a time when there were hundreds of regional breweries that only serviced their area, and they cared about how their beer tasted,” he says, “Then the big breweries came in and the smaller ones were all bought up.
“Now we’re seeing them come back, smaller regional breweries are on the up and people want to drink cleaner, fresher and more interesting beers.”
Brennan, a native of Hawaii and a beer-brewer of 20 years, makes three different beers at his brewery: a European-style premium lager, a pale ale and a mid-strength beer. He says these choices cater more to where Australian tastes are going, not so much to Australian tastes now. And he would know, having won more than 50 awards internationally for his different brews.
“It’s not going to be about the big companies, it’s gonna be with the little guys making good quality stuff and people are gonna learn.”
And the proof is in the pudding, or in this case… the keg.
Brisbane now sports a variety of pubs and bars that have microbreweries, or cater for the beer drinker who wants that little bit more out of their beer.
One such pub is the International Hotel in Spring Hill. Its own microbrewery is the dominant feature, and keen beer drinkers crowd around the bar tasting the four different beers on offer from the pub’s master brewer, Rudi Herget.
A middle-aged local man known only as “Rob” is one of those keen beer drinkers. Rob says he’s been coming to the hotel ever since it started supplying beer from the microbrewery.
“I just really enjoy the more boutique style of beers,” he says, “I generally don’t drink the standard Australian beers anymore, but it has nothing to do with not liking them or anything.
“I like to try a wide range of beers and now that I’ve started looking, I’ve realised there’s so much out there to try.”
Rob is also keen to share some of the better beer experiences he has had, “The London Club in Teneriffe has an unbelievable beer called the Knappstein Reserve Lager,” he says with a broad grin, as if remembering a first kiss, “It was such a good drop and such a different tasting beer.”
He also says a visit to the Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe in Sydney is a beer enthusiast’s necessity, “All of their beers are accompanied by meals that are designed to enhance the taste of the beer,” he says, “It’s a bloody great night out.”
Back at the Burleigh Brewing Company, Brennan Fielding pours himself another Duke and explains that liking the more boutique range of beers is not a “high-class cliché”, but more an “appreciation of well-made beer”.
“I’ve been called a lot of things; a beer snob, a beer junkie, an alcoholic,” he says, “But the truth is I just love beer.”