The Crafty Pint has only been around for 30 months, yet in that time we’ve seen one of Australia’s craft beer characters crop up in a number of guises. Steve “Hendo” Henderson once landed at Prickly Moses and began making small batch, high alcohol version of their beers and new ballsy releases. He cropped up for a while at Southern Bay to help them focus more strongly on their own brand beers. He’s appeared in one or two other spots too. And now he’s reinvented himself once more as BrewCult.
It’s his own brewing company this time, one that will be installing a 3,000 litre tank at Cavalier Brewing’s new home in Sunshine into which Hendo will be pouring the likes of Hop Zone, a typically “Hendo” beer – ie hoppy. He’s also got a rather intriguing beer lined up for this year’s Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular (GABS): Acid Freaks is a Balsamic Baltic Porter he’s created with his brother, an award-winning artisan vinegar producer based in Queensland.
He is officially launching his new venture just before Good Beer Week kicks off, so we asked him a few questions to find out all about it.
Why are you taking this route?
I have always dreamed of owning my own brewery and now I’m going to live the dream, sit around a brewery and drink beer all day. That’s how it goes right? OK… starry-eyed moment over. There’s a number of things I want to achieve with BrewCult over the coming years.
Firstly, I want to add some innovation to the craft beer landscape by creating beers that have not been done before either here in Australia or elsewhere. Keep an eye out for some classic beers to style as well as some curveballs like Acid Freaks.
It’s also important to me to participate in this vibrant industry in a holistic way. As soon as I can, I’ll be moving closer to Melbourne and that will allow me to participate in the industry more frequently. For example, BrewCult has just joined the CBIA and I would like to actively participate in our industry’s national organisation and help the industry grow.
Finally, I want to learn, travel, meet cool people and have some fun. Even before the first pint of Hop Zone has been poured, I have been on a steep learning curve about parts of the industry I’ve never had to deal with before. It’s challenging but I’m relishing the challenge thus far.
You’ve been through many breweries in a pretty short space of time – why is that?
Three breweries counts as many? Ha ha! Perhaps it’s easy to confuse the large number of beers for other brands that I’ve silently worked on over the years with actually working for those brands – mainly whilst being Head Brewer at a contract brewery like Southern Bay.
Truth be told, when I started at Southern Bay a little over a year ago, I approached it as a long term proposition. I soon realised that whilst the technical challenge of being a contract brewer was interesting, there was little creative outlet in brewing a beer to a customer’s strict specification. I’m proud of my achievements at Southern Bay – mainly in improving the quality of all of the products that come out of such an old brewery as well as seeing some of the brew crew achieve bigger and better things in their careers (like Ryan Tyack moving to Scotland to work for Brewdog and Alex Lovelock releasing his first commercial beer). But the creative outlet was not being met sufficiently so I ventured on.
Starting BrewCult allows me to satisfy the technical brewer as well as the creative brewer within. BrewCult beers will be a true reflection of my personality because the brand is a reflection of me – an alter ego if you will.
Do you think you were destined to work for yourself?
To work for myself, yes, but to work by one’s self is not something that I aim to do with BrewCult. I love feedback and collaboration.
Back in 2004, whilst living in Perth, I made a long-term commitment to myself that “in 10 years I will own my own brewery”. Back then the format I envisaged was a microbrewery and restaurant. Over the years, I came to the realisation that I know very little about hospitality and running a restaurant/pub/kitchen and that it is best that I focus on what I’m good at – making beer. So I’ve cut the concept down to its core and that became BrewCult.
I’m proud that BrewCult beer will be poured in less than two weeks time – one year ahead of what I committed to nine years ago. It’s turning out different to how I had imagined it all those years ago – but I’m happy, it’s mine and I look ahead long term again to where BrewCult will be in the years to come and sharing some great beer.
How will the setup work at Cavalier?
The arrangement between BrewCult and Cavalier has been borne out of a long working partnership together. A couple of years ago whilst at Prickly Moses, the Cavalier boys approached Otway Estate and asked if there was any excess production capacity available so that could brew Cavalier Pale. I was tasked to work with Steve, Heath and Andrew to help them scale up their recipes from 100L batches to over 1100L. I believe that they were producing beer out of there for almost two years.
It’s Cavalier’s brewery but by buying the first of many tanks, I have reserved access to production capacity to meet demand whilst Cavalier get the benefit of a faster return on their investment through increased production. Think of it like Cavalier owning a house and I’m the lodger renting out a room to help them pay the mortgage. Perhaps we should do a brewhousewarming party beer together or something …that would be fun.
Will BrewCult have a style / ethos?
Yes. Whilst I plan to approach a broad range of beer styles over time, hops will be BrewCult’s main focus for the first 12 months or so. Hops are perishable so it’s important to drink hoppy beers as fresh as possible. Whilst I recognise the concerns in the industry with regards to the number of imported beers hitting the market, what those imports don’t have is the ability to be local and therefore as fresh as the locally produced beers. My commitment to the punters is to bring them super-fresh and super-awesome, world class hoppy beers.
From there, you’ll see BrewCult having the charisma of a pro wrestler, the class of a ballerina and the mind f*ck of a dubstep DJ.
Balsamic – really?
Yes. Really! Acid Freaks is a bit of a tongue in cheek poke at the whole sour beer thing that has the beer geeks enthralled at the moment whilst being a true beer-meets-food fusion like Pepper Steak Porter.
I will do genuine Belgians and sours in the future but as you know, these take time.
So this beer was borne out of a session with my brother, Ian (right), where a few too many beers were consumed (this is when the best beer ideas come out). Acid Freaks is going to be very unique.
I haven’t seen anything like it being done anywhere before but point me in the direction of someone who has by all means. The sweetness of the Baltic Porter will be balanced by the sourness of the barrel-aged Balsamic vinegar.
My brother owns a boutique vinegar company called LiraH and he’s been doing it for almost 10 years now. He has a degree in vinegar making and he’s also a Churchill fellow.
Prior to becoming a professional brewer, I spent a year working with him and it was a fun learning experience.
The first BrewCult beers
Acid Freaks (7.5%). “This is my beer for GABS and is a Balsamic Baltic Porter. This is a beer I’m doing in collaboration with my brother Ian who is a craft vinegar maker in Queensland. He has selected a Cabernet Balsamic which has been aging on American Oak. The sweetness and low IBUs of the Baltic Porter is balanced by the tartness of the dry Balsamic blended into the beer. This beer will be bottled and will be available immediately after GABS. Venues TBA, however Randalls, Odyssey Tavern and the Gertrude Hotel have expressed interest in this beer.”
Hop Zone Session IPA (5.0%). “Clearly it wouldn’t be a beer company from Hendo unless we through some hops around! So, I wanted to do an IPA with all the big gun hops: Simcoe, Nelson Sauvin and Galaxy yet do it with a five per cent base beer that was something you could happily settle in for an afternoon or evening session. It’s got a liberal helping of Munich and Carahell malts which help to balance out the aggressive hopping. Expect a tropical fruit experience that’ll leave you wanting more.”
