This week we meet up with Dr Tim Cooper, Managing Director of Coopers Brewery, this year celebrating its 150th anniversary.

But first we catch up with Prof’s travels to Tasmania for the 2012 hop harvest and the brewing of the Cascade First Harvest, then he talks about his experiences at a cider blending workshop.

Then we introduce a new segment, or at least a new name for Matt’s apparently now regular soapbox rant.  Chris from Melbourne University suggested a segment called What The Froth — WTF? — and Matt takes off on a rant about XXXX Gold Island reinforcing the damaged brand for the beer category just to gain a bump of a few points in market share.

Tim Cooper

“Ched Bojic taking a sample from a puncheon in the cellar. On the right are the ‘doughnuts’ to collect the yeast as it rose through the bunghole.” From Jolly Good Ale and Old

Then we get serious and talk with Tim Cooper who gives us over an hour of his time to talk about all things Coopers, including:

• Coopers Clear and whether Coopers is still ‘craft’
• When is ‘traditional’ not the best way to do it?
• Why the brewery replaced the old puncheon system (photos right)
• The plans for a commemorative brew for their anniversary, and
• The challenges of large retailers selling below wholesale price.

We’re sure that you will find this episode fascinating and an insight into the  venerable brewery.

Podcast from the Pub

Don’t forget the Podcast from the Pub with Professor Charlie Bamforth.

We have teamed up with our good friends at Thunder Road Brewing and the Great Northern Hotel and will be hosting an even on the evening of 27 March featuring the recording of a live podcast with Charlie Bamforth.

The details are:

Date: 27 March 2012

Time: 6.30 for 7pm start.

Cost: $11, includes a couple of free beers courtesy of Thunder Road Brewing.

Bookings Essential. Seats are limited.

The night will be a very laid back affair, in which we will record a Q&A podcast with Charlie, including plenty of opportunity for you to meet with and ask questions about everything beer related. It is the perfect opportunity for the beer lover, the home brewer and even the working professional brewer to learn everything they ever wanted to know about brewing but didn’t have a resident beer professor to ask.

Join Matt & Pete as we have a beer with a true beer professor, and have a great night of beer conversation in a great pub.

BOOK HERE

Finally, we say good-bye with a rousing rendition of Beer Barrel Polka that will have you following the bouncing ball. This week performed by Mitch Miller & The Gang With Chorus And Orchestra from their self-titled album. The Germans have a word Ohrwurm, or ear worm for tunes that get stuck in your head. Trust me, this version will burrow in and refuse to leave.

This week we head to Port Melbourne to speak with Matilda Bay’s Scott Vincent.

But first, we start by discussing the Hahn Pioneering Beering ads…

But then we get serious about our beer, announcing the details for the Podcast from the Pub with Professor Charlie Bamforth.

Scott Vincent models some itchy green pants

This will take place on 27 March from 6.30pm for 7pm at the Great Northern Hotel.

You can book here.

In our interview with Scott we look at a wide range of issues facing CUB’s craft brewing arm, including the challenges of scaling up production from the Matilda Bay Garage brewery to have them brewed at Cascade whether that impacts the ‘craftiness’ of the beers. We also discuss the techniques of brewing, the move to the new site and also challenges of being a small part of a big brewing company in which one import can sell more than the entire craft segment…interesting in light of last week’s announcement from Corona. Will they increase their focus on Matilda Bay now?

We put some questions to Scoot from listeners Frozen Summers, Paul Pacey and Radical Brewer, who asked for the recipe for Alpha and Scott gives a pretty good guide to how to brew it.

We finish up by ushering Garry Sherman into the studio to play Beer Barrel Polka from his album Percussion Goes to Dixieland. Buy it, you won’t regret it.

As always, if you like what you hear you can help us out by leaving a review on iTunes and telling your friends.

Newcastle isn’t the first city that springs to mind when beer lovers talk about hot beer destnations, but over the past three years Corey has turned his pub into a mainstream-serving pub into a significant craft beer oasis. We talk to Corey about how he had effected this transformation and some of the things he has learned during the process.

Among the things Corey tells us is:

• Serving craft beer has made the working lives of staff much easier because of the changed demographics in the hotel that has been attracted by craft beer. By attracting customers drawn to beer for flavour and not effect, beer has changed the ambience of the hotel.
• In changing the beer offerings at a hotel, staff are critical. If you put craft beer on, your staff must be engaged in the process and know about what they are selling…or it just wont sell.

It’s a great look at how to turn around a pub with craft beer.

We also catch up with Simon Coghlan from the Ballarat Beer Festival which was held in January. It was a huge success in its first year and we wanted to find out from Simon what they had learned in pulling together a beer festival and what they have planned for next year. Pete’s thoughts on the festival are below too.

The show ends on a high note with a high energy performance of Beer Barrel Polka performed by Joe Maphis and Merle Travis from the album Country Guitar Giants. If you don’t already own this little piece of recording gold, you can buy it here.

If you like the show and want to help us out, you can leave us a review on iTunes.

And, of course, our welcome this show was inspired by this classic beer ad from the days of Bondy…

Ballarat strikes it rich again

Around one hundred and fifty eight years ago a veritable convoy of humanity descended on a small town in Victoria’s west-north-west hoping to find a fortune. They trekked in droves travelling for days over vast distances (around 105kms from the CBD for those playing at home) with the express intention of putting a big smile on their faces. They sought gold.

On Saturday January 21 in 2012 this historical pilgrimage was repeated when, just as they did before, thousands of fortune seekers descended upon Ballarat’s City Oval in search of gold. And Amber. And maybe some Dark or a little Pale Straw.

Brewers along with wine and cider makers were there to greet them, in tents pitched along the boundary of the tree-lined oval to quench the hardest earned thirst. They were joined by purveyors of every foodstuff from gourmet burgers, paella and Asian delicacies to good, honest Rotary Club bangers in bread. Entertainment in the form of some quality local and internationally renowned musical acts punctuated the festivities from the main stage and kids were well looked after with face painting and magicians.

For a full wrap up of the event, beer-by-beer and band-by-band, James Davidson has done a cracking job of painting the picture here. For now, what does the first outing say about the future of the event? The feedback on the day – and since – has been enthusiastic to say the least and the few areas for improvement are simple fixes that will cost neither time nor money and can easily be put down as ‘learning experiences’.

As an outsider looking in, it would be simplistic to say that the unused third of the oval could be used to fit more exhibitors in as well as dispersing the crowds more fluidly. However, this area was set aside in the event’s Displan as an evacuation area so any change would need to be carefully considered and a suitable alternative sited.

There was talk before the Festival of holding the event over a weekend rather than over a single afternoon but a one day event will always be preferable – if you are unsure of this, speak to any of the brewers! Holding the Festival on Saturday is a boon for the local economy anyway as many stayed overnight and presumably spent their leftover cash at cafes, shops and tourist attractions in the region. The fact that you couldn’t book a room in Ballarat on Saturday night is testament to the peoples’ ability to fit all their beer-festing into a single day.

V-Line, too, must have been pleased with the peak in patronage of the train service from Melbourne. According to a confidential but reliable Brews News correspondent (see, Amanda Le AKA @lemandapantz I told you your identity would be safe) the train ride contained many excited beer festival-related conversations. The trip home was considerably quieter.

More exhibitors would have led to a thinning of crowds across the event area but it is clear from the feedback of the punters that more variety is not necessarily what is sought. The mix of brewers was clearly appreciated with larger players Matilda Bay and festival Major Sponsor James Squire sharing the crowd with small region, local and other brewers.

A fair range of ‘standard’ or ‘entry level’ beers was available for those of the crowd (in all probability the majority) for whom a Kolsch or a Pale Ale or an IPA might be a step up from the ‘usual’ mainstream beers. More than one punter was overheard enquiring of a brewer; “What’ya got that’s closest to Carlton Draught, mate?”

For those wanting something more, the brewers had some limited release and other specialty brews on hand. If there is a better way to showcase a good range of what Victorian brewers have to offer the novice in a regional setting, let me know.

The food offerings received warm praise from the Festival goers with a wide range of styles, cuisines, price and levels of ‘gourmet-edness’ all in a separate but adjoining section of the oval. Seating and some shade was welcomed here as the sun broke through. Here is where some adjustment is required for next year’s Festival.

While roving volunteers were seen offering sunscreen it may, in hindsight, have been better to have located sunscreen booths at certain points o the grounds as many a cherry face was seen leaving at Festival’s end. Fresh water at little or no cost (or available at each stall to double as a glass-rinse) was probably the only universal criticism and this is something easily fixed.

The story is relevant this week because of a story by Sam Fletcher that takes a look at Platinum Liquor, a favourite craft beer store in the tough Sydney market, but one that also proudly boasts of selling grey import beers, including Stone.

Anyway, listen to Greg Koch and make up your own mind about the practice.

Next week we will be back with our regular show.

Don’t forget you can subscribe on iTunes, and if you like the show you can leave us a review there too.

You can also watch the video of Greg’s interview below (If you’re reading the email feed, you can see the video here) :

And, of course, our welcome was inspired by this classic bit of Queensland…

The real Beer Professor, Charlie Bamforth

(It was amazing to see a time in which brewers celebrated beer’s fifth ingredient, even using sweeping images of sugar cane fields in the opening scene of their ads!)

Today we again catch up with Professor Charlie Bamforth, a truly engaging guest who is passionate about beer but very neutral and considered about some of the topics that inflame passions in the craft beer world. Coupled with his easy personality and simple explanations, it always makes for a thought provoking and informative discussion.

In this episode we get slightly technical, but Charlie keeps it easy to follow as we talk about about:

• malt
• yeast
• origins of lager
• getting rid of VDKs in fermentation (you’ll need to listen to understand this one, but it’s very clear when you do)
• how long before time becomes the fifth ingredient
• Whether using enzymes and other brewing aids is wrong and whether not using them makes better beer
• Beer in cans

And other things, too many to mention.

Don’t forget, Charlie has two excellent books that are highly recommended additions to any good beer library.

Finally, staking a date claim. As he advises in the show, Charlie is in Melbourne in March for the Institute of Brewing and Distilling conference and has agreed to let us drag him to a pub for a ‘Live from a Local’ Radio Brews News episode. If you’ve enjoyed listening to Charlie, we’d love to see you along for the recording of a live episode. We’ll keep you posted regarding  venues and details but keep 27 March free.

Don’t forget, you can help us by leaving us a review on iTunes, or letting us know what you think about the show by email.

Finally, in a very weak nod to the surprising number of Brazilian listeners we seem to have picked up, this week’s closing rendition of Beer Barrel Polka is from south of the border (though not quite far enough south, but we are trying) and is played by Maso Rivera from the album Y Su Conjunto de Cuerdas (Cantan Jose Luis Rodriguez y Tonin Miranda). You can purchase it here.

This week we interrupt Pete’s holiday to get his thoughts on the Ballarat Beer Festival, before quickly speaking with Brent Wright, National Beer Systems Manager for XXXX and find out a little about their new beer.

Regular listeners might be a little surprised that we are doing a segment on XXXX Summer Cloudy Ginger Beer but, in addition to being a conversation, beer is a broad church. The discussion looks at the new beer, how it’s made and some of the techniques brewers use to make beers targeted at the largest part of the beer market.

Finally, we catch up with Andrew ‘AG’ Gow, brewer at Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula Brewery. We have a wide ranging discussion about his career, his experiences at a variety of craft breweries and his current role at the recently established Mornington Peninsula Brewery.

We finish the show with what must surely be one of the greatest renditions of Beer Barrrel Polka ever, by Grady Martin and his Slewfoot Five. It simply has everything. You can buy it here, we recommend you do.

Relevant links for the show:

• Ballarat Beer Festival
• Good Beer Week
• Queensland Beer Week
• Hottest 100 (still time to vote)

Stay tuned next week when we catch up with Andrew ‘AG’ Gow, brewer at Mornington Brewer.

If you subscribe to Radio Brews News through iTunes, just note that we have changed our host and you may need to update your feed.

Don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes, as well as sending through your feedback and suggestions.

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Ballarat Beer Festival

Feral’s head brewer Brendan Varis

Then we catch up with Brendan Varis from Feral Brewing.

Brendan was on the steering committee involved in setting up Craft Beer Limited, the new national association of craft brewers. Brendan talks about the association and what they aim to achieve in craft beer over the next five years. We then talk about Feral Brewing and Brendan’s beer plans. We learn about his impending King Brown Ale, aged in 60-year-old cognac casks, that he has a new 50 hectolitre brewery on order which will be coming on-stream around March next year and also learn that Hop Hog and White may not be the beers that Brendan himself drinks…

More information:

Craft Beer Limited

Feral Brewing

For those who stick til the end, you will be rewarded with Bobby Vinton’s interpretation of Roll Out the Barrel, which you will no doubt want to add to your growing collection of Polka favourites. You can purchase it here.

You can follow Matt and Pete individually on Twitter, as well as the magazine and leave us feedback by email and on iTunes or in the comments below.

Martyn is the creator of the Zythophile site through which he writes about beer and beer history and, along the way, debunks a few myths. Martyn has gained some attention recently for suggestion the new Oxford Companion to Beer may be “a dreadful disaster” for perpetuating myths and inaccuracies about beer. He drew criticism from the book’s editor in chief, Garrett Oliver, for his comments. Martyn is also the author of the excellent book Amber, Gold and Black, a history of great English beer styles.

Martyn talks about beer history, beer myths and his spat with Garrett Oliver. This is a must listen for anyone who had ever uttered the words ‘IPA’ and ‘invented’ in a sentence.

Here is the promised link to the book by Australian beer historian, Dr Brett Stubbs, which is invaluable is learning about the history of one part of the Australian market.

For those who hang around til the end, the end music today is a snippet from Roll Out the Barrel — Beer Barrel Polka / Paddlin’ Madelin’ Home / Ma! (He’s Making Eyes At Me) by the Big Ben Banjo Band from their album The Banjo’s Back In Town. You can add it to your record collection here.

You can follow Matt and Pete on Twitter and leave us feedback by email and on iTunes or in the comments below.