Build Me A Brewery

We now move on to our Raw Materials & Ingredient Suppliers segment. This is where we talk all things Malt, Hops and Yeast and the important considerations on each in regards to building relationships with suppliers, contracts, handling and storage and much more. 

Our first episode of the segment, I chat with Hayden Lockie from Gladfield Mallt. Hayden has come from a brewing background having worked at Batch Brewing as an Assistant Brewer and then making the jump across to Malts Sales & Supply. Having a Graduate Certificate in Brewing Science, Hayden shares with us some great advice on setting up malt contracts, the varying types of malts available on the markets, recipe design and tools out there that can help fellow brewers when it comes to honing in on their malt flavour profile for beers.

EPISODE LINKS:
Gladfield Malt Website

Visit us at www.buildmeabrewery.com.au and sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when episodes launch plus exclusive Brewery Building Content.

Also like and follow us on Facebook
Build Me A Brewery Facebook Page
Build Me A  Brewery Discussion Group

Support the show

The final episode of the Brewery Equipment Sourcing segment.  I chat with Gavin Van Vuuren from Synergy Custom Solutions. Originally from South Africa and another IT background convert, Gavin spent too many years in IT Project Management which began to eat away at his sanity. Through a friend he discovered brewing, distilling and packaging equipment and fell in love with the industry.

Synergy Custom Solutions provides complete brewery consulting and equipment services for the Brewing industry and are an approved supplier of Tiantai brewing equipment which was the Chinese manufacturer that the Black Hops boys started out with on their brewery journey. 

Following suit with other episodes in this segment, however Gavin also dives into some details around Freight considerations when dealing with overseas manufacturers as well.

EPISODE LINKS:
Synergy Custom Solutions Website

Visit us at www.buildmeabrewery.com.au and sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when episodes launch plus exclusive Brewery Building Content.

Also like and follow us on Facebook
Build Me A Brewery Facebook Page
Build Me A  Brewery Discussion Group

Support the show

In today’s episode I chat with Julian Sanders from Spark Breweries & Distilleries based in Melbourne, VIC. Spark started providing services to the brewery industry back in 2014 who primarily provide systems from 5HL right up to the production scale 80HL brewhouses. 

Having a background in Engineering and Commerce Julian honed in on his craft and vision for what has become the modern day Spark business by spending time over in the UK absorbing their real ale culture while doing some practical engineering by day. He then found his way back to Oz, studying everything craft beer. He soon became a beer judge and helped at various beer events so it was only natural that he combine his two passions to become a brewery and distillery design engineer. 

Spark started making a bit of noise in both the Australian market and international ones after developing a snug, low foot print, 2 vessel stackable brewhouse system called the SPARK K500 which earnt  Julian and his team an international patent for which has become a hit to the brewpubs of this world supplying 5 & 10HL systems in this compact model to nano breweries for pubs, clubs, cafes and even seriously keen homebrewers with big garages. 

Julian provides some great insights on what brewery model concepts that neatly tie into the decisions you can then make on the types of systems and equipment you should be looking for. Having been involved in over 40 brewery installs in his career in the industry, Julian is very well placed to provide aspiring brewery owners advice and perspectives on what to consider when purchasing equipment for their brewery.

EPISODE LINKS:
Spark Breweries & Distilleries Website

Visit us at www.buildmeabrewery.com.au and sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when episodes launch plus exclusive Brewery Building Content.

Also like and follow us on Facebook
Build Me A Brewery Facebook Page
Build Me A  Brewery Discussion Group

Support the show

In this episode I chat with John Gonzales from Bespoke Brewing Solutions. Originally from Austin, Texas, and at the age of 24 back in 2007 he found himself relocating to China within the IT & Logistics space. During this time he found himself occasionally supplying Stainless steel growlers and soon began building some good connections with people within the brewing industry. In 2014, John started Bespoke Brewing Solutions along with other experienced industry professionals, for the past 6 years now they have been designing breweries and installing equipment all over the world with a good solid list of clients now here in Australia.

Just like Neil from Asian Beer Network in Part 1 of this segment, John offers some cracking information on what to be thinking about when setting up your brewery and the important considerations when picking the shiny bits of stainless to start brewing on.

Having a good repertoire of clients here in Australia, John offers some great insights about the current and future outlook of the craft beer industry in Australia as well.

EPISODE LINKS:
Bespoke Brewing Solutions Website

Visit us at www.buildmeabrewery.com.au and sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when episodes launch plus exclusive Brewery Building Content.

Also like and follow us on Facebook
Build Me A Brewery Facebook Page
Build Me A  Brewery Discussion Group

Support the show

We now move into a much-anticipated segment of the podcast series, and that is Brewery Equipment Sourcing. Another 4-episode segment that includes conversations with a Brewery Consultants, Equipment Brokers & Manufacturers & Installers based here in Australia and China.

Our first episode of the segment, I sit down with Neil Playfoot from Asian Beer Network. Neil has over 20 years industry experience working in both brewpubs and production breweries on a wide range of brewing systems across many different countries including the UK, France, Bermuda and China. Currently based in China, Neil now provides Brewery Consulting services and can act as a man on the ground for people outside of mainland China for sourcing equipment. 

This chat with Neil was so informative and gave me so many different ideas and perspectives on when thinking about picking the right location, how to set up a brewery and considering the different brewery system arrangements to maximise production output.

EPISODE LINKS:
Asian Beer Network Website
Neil's Article on Brewery Building Requirements | Preparation 8 Tips

Visit us at www.buildmeabrewery.com.au and sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when episodes launch plus exclusive Brewery Building Content.

Also like and follow us on Facebook
Build Me A Brewery Facebook Page
Build Me A  Brewery Discussion Group

Support the show

Part 4 and the final episode of the Brewery Consulting & Quality Management segment, I chat with Pulkit Agrawal or PK as he mostly goes by, who is Founder & CEO of the 5th Ingredient. 

A topic that I never considered when planning this podcast about building a brewery, Beer30 is simply a Brewery Data Management software that helps breweries improve quality & efficiency with their brewing operations by replacing paper logs and spreadsheets by electronically capturing important data related to brew days, fermentation, packaging, inventory sales and many other back of house aspects.

This is a great chat, and a very interesting topic to cover for an aspiring brewery owner as well as for those already established breweries still slogging it out on paper when it comes to data capturing for their brewery operations.

EPISODE LINKS:
The 5th Ingredient Website
Hype Behind Beer3- Youtube Video - Craft Beer Professionals
Beer30 Demo YouTube Video - Craft Beer Professionals
Craft Beer Professionals Facebook Group

Visit us at www.buildmeabrewery.com.au and sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when episodes launch plus exclusive Brewery Building Content.

Also like and follow us on Facebook
Build Me A Brewery Facebook Page
Build Me A  Brewery Discussion Group

Support the show

Part 3 of the Brewery Consulting & Quality Management segment, I chat with Technical Managers Dan McCulloch or VB as he is known as in the Brewing Community and Richard Chamberlain both from the Lallemand Brewing Division. 

In this chat we talk all things Quality and the important considerations that brewery owners both new and seasoned need to think about to ensure that they are producing a high quality beer product and can do this batch to batch.  We also dive deep into why quality is so important in a brewery, particular controls and processes that breweries should be considering in their brewing practices, as well as discussing cost effective options around building your own lab and being able to effectively analyze your beer in real time. 

EPISODE LINKS:
Lallemand Brewing
Lallemand Best Practices
Dan's RV Beer Roadshow Youtube Channel
ATO Excise Guidelines for Beer
ATO Weights & Measures Guidelines
FSANZ - Food Standard for Australian & New Zealand
BIRA - Brewing Interlaboratory Reference Analytes
IBA Technical & Legal Documents


Visit us at www.buildmeabrewery.com.au and sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when episodes launch plus exclusive Brewery Building Content.

Also like and follow us on Facebook
Build Me A Brewery Facebook Page
Build Me A  Brewery Discussion Group

Support the show

In Part 2 of the Brewery Consulting & Quality Management Segment,  I chat with well known figure in the brewing community Steve Hendo from Rockstar Brewer. If you haven’t heard of Steve Hendo, he famously made his name in the brewing community as the founder of the BrewCult brand. Hendo did the gyspy brewing model for many years and built a massive cult following with his beers eventually developing a big core range exciting beer geeks all over the country with his innovate beer styles. 

Eventually things didn’t quite go to plan for Hendo with the BrewCult brand which he explains in more intimate detail in our chat, in which he then decided to take a step back from running a brewing business to just working in the industry, by having a stint at Stone & Wood as a shift production brewer. After finding his feet, and deciding on what next is in store for him in the Beer Industry he then began consulting breweries on best  brewing practices and quality processes for their beer production which gave birth to his current business Rockstar Brewer. 

Hendo does not hold any punches and is brutally honest about what it takes to open and run a successful brewery. He shares his mistakes, challenges and lessons learnt from his BrewCult days and he discusses the importance of Quality Management controls and processes for breweries and how he helps breweries both new and established to ensure high quality beer is being produced batch to batch.

EPISODE LINKS:
Rockstar Brewer Website

Visit us at www.buildmeabrewery.com.au and sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when episodes launch plus exclusive Brewery Building Content.

Also like and follow us on Facebook
Build Me A Brewery Facebook Page
Build Me A  Brewery Discussion Group

Support the show

This is a massive 4 part segment that features some big and well known names within the brewing industry in Australia who share a wealth of knowledge for aspiring brewery owners to consider when planning their brewery build with a focus on quality.

Our first episode of the segment, I sit down with Neal Cameron from Brewtique. Now Neal’s name has come up multiple times on this podcast so far, so it was great to finally line up a time to meet with him seeing how busy he is in the brewing industry. 

Neal has been working and consulting within the craft beer industry for over 15 years now. Having started out in the Wine Industry and then moving onto to helping with the set up of the Australian Brewery who we talked to in our earlier Meet The Brewer series. He then took a step back from that to co-write the first formal educational course at TAFE NSW related to microbrewing. Currently he works for Brewtique which is a Brewery consulting company which installs breweries all over Australia.

So as you can see this is why I really wanted to sit down with Neal, not many people in the industry has this many stories and experiences to share as he does when it comes to opening a brewery, his lived through 20 plus brewery builds in his long career all neatly explained in a 60 min interview.

EPISODE LINKS:
Brewtique website

Visit us at www.buildmeabrewery.com.au and sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when episodes launch plus exclusive Brewery Building Content.

Also like and follow us on Facebook
Build Me A Brewery Facebook Page
Build Me A  Brewery Discussion Group

Support the show

Part 3 and the final episode of the Brewery Licensing & Government Compliance segment.  

In this episode I managed to line up a chat with Mayor Darcy Bryne from the Inner West Council. Darcy, a craft beer enthusiast, has been a big advocate for the craft beer scene that has sprung up in Sydney’s Inner West for the past 10 years. He and other contributors have played a very big role in lobbying for better regulations across all levels of government to try making it easier for new breweries to open and operate. He also helped launch the Inner West Brewers Association that includes original members such as Wayward Brewing, Grifter, Young Henrys, Willie The Boatman and more. 

In our chat, I talk with Darcy about how he came to have a passion for the craft beer industry, dealing with local councils, the challenges still facing breweries opening up in regards to untangling red tape and what efforts have been made previously and currently for improving conditions for the craft beer industry.

EPISODE LINKS:
Inner West Council Website

Visit us at www.buildmeabrewery.com.au and sign up to our mailing list to be the first to know when episodes launch plus exclusive Brewery Building Content.

Also like and follow us on Facebook
Build Me A Brewery Facebook Page
Build Me A  Brewery Discussion Group

Support the show