Craft beer is much more than the liquid in your glass, can or bottle, it’s the wider community that surrounds it too. Quiz Meisters see themselves very much as part of that community – they like to refer to themselves as the “craft beer of trivia brands” – and as part of their 20th-anniversary victory lap, they’ve collaborated on some beers of their own.
As the milestone approached, CEO Steffan van Lint invited nine of their brewery partners to create some truly unique beers to match the trivia questions they will accompany.
Since its foundation in 2004, Steffan says he and the team have been on a mission to rewrite the rules of the weekly trivia night. Led by a sense of the ridiculous that has inspired quiz segments the likes of “Can They Eat It?” – which is just what it sounds like – Quiz Meisters see themselves as constant innovators in the industry.
And, from early on, Steffan found that their creative and hands-on approach to trivia, as well as an overlap of customers, made them a natural fit for the craft beer world.
“We were small and doing things differently,” he says. “Our quirky style resonated with craft beer lovers, and when we approached anyone who was selling craft beers, they would think similarly to us about how to do events.”
He hosted trivia nights at Saccharomyces Beer Café in Brisbane for many years, incorporating some beer tasting questions inspired by the venue’s international selection into the mix. Fast forward to today and the numbers speak for themselves: almost a third of Quiz Meisters’ 160-plus weekly quiz venues are breweries.
Steffan identifies weekly quiz nights as a great way to cultivate a loyal community following, particularly for breweries in the suburbs.
“They need more than just a great beer to bring people in, they need another reason to come down and taste that beer,” he says. “Our brand of trivia works really well for that because it’s something in the week that keeps that regular crowd coming back.”
Marketing and events manager at Tallboy & Moose, Lisa Ethé, agrees: the Preston brewpub’s Thursday trivia nights are an important time for them to engage with all manner of locals.
“The crowd is always super diverse. We have families coming in with their teenage kids or friends catching up,” Lisa says. “Trivia is amazing because it’s so low pressure and fun.”
Their host is like an extension of the Tallboy team too; Lisa says he's been hosting their regular trivia nights since the end of rolling COVID lockdowns.
“[Dave]’s just a legend, he’s in our staff group chat," she says. "He’s helped to make those Thursdays totally reliable.”
Even with the growth Quiz Meisters has experienced over the last two decades – Steffan says they’re now the biggest trivia company in Australia, no less – the founder stresses that keeping a small-business feel is their priority.
“One of my main questions is: how do we still make it personal and fun without becoming a big factory production of trivia?”
Part of that lies in working closely with their venues to give them the best chance of success with their trivia nights: “We don’t just go in and give them the questions and say good luck,” he adds. “Obviously, long-term success for them is long-term success for us.”
Which brings us to the collaborative 20-year campaign in partnership with brewers across the country: nine unique beers brewed to mark the birthday.
“We do stuff that’s a bit weird in our trivia,” Steffan says, “so I thought, ‘Let’s get the brewers to do something weird in their brewing.’”
Among them are a blueberry, chocolate and marshmallow dark lager by Brisbane-based Happy Valley (whose trivia night is pictured at the top of this article), a beetroot and ginger Berliner Weisse from Brightstar Brewing in Adelaide, and a walnut, coffee and ginseng pastry stout by Rocks Brewing.
Plus there's others from Crafty Robot, Cavalier, Akasha, Nowhereman, Woolstore Brewery and The Suburban Brew, while also in the mix is Deep Steep, an amber ale brewed with camomile that sees Tallboy & Moose go back to their roots: it was their first ever brew.
“It’s a really nice, full circle moment,” Steffan says, adding that the series also allows participating breweries to flex their creative muscles and reach new audiences.
Lisa agrees: “It’s a great way to get to talk to new people and venues that hadn’t had Tallboy on their taps or in their fridges before.”
All special-edition beers will be available throughout the month of May at their respective taprooms and participating Quiz Meisters venues. Many of the participating breweries have also arranged keg swaps.
Georgie Preston is an Arts graduate and choral singing enthusiast. She visited more breweries before the age of ten than is generally considered acceptable, and now enjoys anything from a stout to a sour.
