Brew Am I: conceived to represent the band’s origins – wheat from WA, malt from Victoria and hops from New Zealand Photograph: James Smith There is the usual gig merchandise on offer: remastered albums, t-shirts, limited edition vinyl. But as You Am I tour the country in celebration of 20 years together, the band also has something different to offer fans: their own beer. Brew Am I – created with Newtown brewery Young Henrys – is just the latest examples of collaborative brewing, a trend that has been sweeping the Australian beer scene.
It was 2011 when Melbourne’s Mountain Goat Beer?first joined forces with leading British craft brewer Thornbridge to create the Thorny Goat Black IPA. The brewery has since hooked up with New York’s Brooklyn Brewery, Danish brewer Mikkeller, and musicians Henry Wagons and Mick Thomas (Weddings, Parties, Anything). Other Australian brewers meanwhile, have released beers conceived with writers, surfers, chefs, rockers and coffee roasters.
For Young Henrys’ head brewer Richard Adamson, the You Am I venture is merely the latest in a series of “rockstar” brews that began with Sydney’s Crow and Front End Loader last year and saw three new band collaborations beers launched at a raucous closing event for the recent Good Beer Week festival at Cherry Bar.?
But do these collaborations create great new beers – or are they merely smart marketing ploys? Adamson says there genuine benefits from seeking ideas outside the brewery; that collaborating broadens the experience for both the brewers in the brewery and for those drinking the beer. “In every beer we have made in collaboration, the resulting beer is not something we would have come up with ourselves,” he says.
Ben Kraus of Beechworth’s Bridge Road Brewers, who has brewed several beers with European brewers and created a Bar Series with staff from many of Australia’s leading beer venues, admits that “there’s obviously marketing and exposure.” But, he says the benefits go beyond that.
“Our collaboration with [Norwegian] Nogne O has ended up on tap in Barcelona and Amsterdam – I knew nothing about it [going there]. But you also get to learn how other people brew, how and why they do things, compare ideas and take some things on board.”
And some collaborations do give brilliant, unique results. The Bridge Road/Nogne O India Saison – which came about through the two brewers love of saisons (a French/Belgian farmhouse style) and Kraus’ ability to source Australian hops not then available in Europe – is first rate. The unique Gypsy & the Goat, featuring native pepperberry, from Mountain Goat and Mikkeller was rated one of the best beers of 2012.
But how involved individual collaborators become tends to vary case by case. In some cases, guest brewers might offer little more than recipe input and a cursory nod at the mash tun on brew day, while in others collaborators have milled grain at dawn and really earned their knock-off beer several hours later.
In the case of Brew Am I, the beer was named by singer Tim Rogers and conceived by bassist Andy Kent with Adamson to represent the band’s origins – wheat from WA, malt from Victoria, hops from New Zealand – but also to serve a particular purpose. “Essentially, it’s a beer that goes with rock‘n’roll,” says Kent. “You need to be able to drink it from the first song, get as much down your throat as people do at gigs, and still want more after the encore.”
When non-brewers are invited into breweries they also often set challenges that test the skills of the brewer. For a media brew competition at last year's Beervana NZ festival, I came up with the idea of a smoked Belgian imperial mussel and oyster stout. It was the genius of Murray's Brewing's head brewer thar turned a disaster-in-waiting into a competition-winning beer.
“You get some interesting ideas,” says Kraus. “We had some really good experiences using oak, spirits and chocolate in the beers for the Bar Series and got to trial new hops that have led us to change the recipe of existing beers.”
Aurora Borealis/Aurora Australis by Bridge Road and Nogne O
Ben Kraus and Norway’s Kjetil Jikiun brewed two batches of a 14% plus Belgian ale on either side of the world, placed them inside barrels (pinot noir in Australia, whisky in Norway) and sent them unrefrigerated by sea across the globe. A couple of barrels exploded along the way. They’re now doing another using Port and Cognac barrels.
Our Anchovia by The Wheatsheaf Hotel and Birra del Borgo
Leading Italian brewer Leo di Vicenzo agreed to brew a one-off with Adelaide’s leading beer bar earlier this year. Based on a pun of his famous collaboration with US superstars Dogfish Head, My Antonia, it used actual anchovies – and there are rumours it could happen again on a larger scale.
Acid Freaks by BrewCult
The founder of fledgling Aussie brewing company BrewCult has a brother who makes artisanal vinegars in Queensland. So they hooked up to create a balsamic porter that’s due for release in bottles soon.
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