Australia’s beer revolution is unlocking minds and palates as craft beers come into their own.
Cast your mind back—if you can—30 years. Back before the advent of fusion cuisine, before the wine renaissance and before the word ‘barista’ became part of our everyday lexicon, let alone becoming a respectable occupation.
It was a time of meat and three veg. A time when sophisticated evening dining began with a prawn cocktail, comprising an open champagne glass stuffed with shredded iceberg lettuce and draped with peeled crustaceans. Entrée was likely followed by Steak Diane served with a carafe of red—wine was pretty much only red or white. These were the days when cheese was cheddar, coffee was instant and beer was lager, and its brand determined by the state you lived in.
How the world has changed.
Today, we intelligently discuss the differences between the shiraz produced in South Australia and those from Victoria, the differences between Robusta and Arabica coffee beans, and how a boutique fromagerie—we even know what this word means these days—can survive selling nothing but an astounding array of cheese.
For all of these culinary advances, however, until recently beer hadn’t changed very much at all. Beer was still lager and lager was beer, a pale and fizzy liquid whose purpose was to act as a fluid backdrop to sport and barbecues.
It was a summer sessional, perfect for knocking off after the lawnmowing. For all the flavour-driven changes taking place elsewhere in the food and beverage world, the amber fluid was an uncomplicated beast, a drink for thoughtless consumption.
Change is coming though. After many years of being a prisoner to its most successful style, there is now a quiet revolution taking place in Australia, akin to the wine revolution of 30 years ago. Basic lagers, bland and unexciting, are giving way to such exotic styles as saison, hefeweizen and barley-wine created by artisans, both here and overseas.
One of the bright young lights of the craft brew movement is Victorian Ben Kraus. At his Bridge Road Brewery, based in Beechworth, he is crafting an interesting stable of beers that introduce an exciting range of flavours to the palate. Kraus himself notes the lateness of beer’s arrival on the gourmet scene.
“Beer is just where wine was 20 years ago,” he says. “Wine used to be either red or white, but now people want their merlot with 30 per cent grenache. They know a lot more and it’s starting to get that way with beer.”
“There is an emphasis on quality, not quantity, and people are looking for flavour.”
Kraus has had the opportunity to compare the wine and beer industries first hand; originally studying winemaking and viticulture and working for wineries both here and in Europe.
He returned to Beechworth with the plan of setting up his own winery but finding the region crowded with vineyards, he decided to set up a brewery instead.
He has no regrets about swapping the grape for the grain, saying he feels that beer affords him more creativity.
“With beer you’re not limited by the local ingredients, by the grapes that are grown in the region around the winery,” he says.
“You can buy the best malts and ingredients from around the world and if you see a style from, say, Belgium that is really interesting and you want to replicate it, you can. There is nothing to stop us.”
This flexibility allows him to produce an eclectic mix of ales and lagers, from a Robust Porter bursting with chocolate and coffee flavours to an Australian Ale, a lighter beer in the style made famous by Coopers and with hints of honey and apricot on the palate.
One of his more interesting beers is a saison, a style pioneered in French-speaking farmhouses in the Belgian province of Wallonia. The style was originally brewed for a farm’s employees as a refreshment to keep them going throughout the summer harvest.
Kraus’ version is a hazy, straw-coloured beer with a complex and spicy character that definitely challenges but rewards the reforming lager drinker. His most recent experiment is rarer still, a chestnut lager of which he knows of only one other example in the world. A dark honey-coloured lager, brewed with chestnuts, it has a bready character and lingering peppery finish.
While Kraus is craft brewing these creations in north-east Victoria and selling them on the regional gourmet tourist trail and into specialty outlets further afield, this is part of a much wider trend towards the ‘premiumisation’ of the beer market.
Renee Mathie is a partner in BeerMasons, a recently established boutique beer appreciation club, in the style of the wine clubs that have been operating for years. While over the years Beer of the Month clubs have come and quickly disappeared, Mathie believes there is now a market for quality beers at a premium price.
“There is a huge pool of wine drinkers—of connoisseurs generally, and many are women—who are geared to flavour and taste, to things that are new and interesting and to matching wine with food. We are turning these people on to the premium end of the beer market simply by giving them the quality that they demand in other products.”
She says that the process has been something of a slow burn as expectations of flavour in our glasses have only gradually expanded across to beer.
“It’s something the vast majority of us haven’t turned our attention to, but now with increased availability and the growing sophistication of our palates, it’s an exciting, new world for people to explore,” she says.
“Over the last 20 years we have seen such a massive increase in sophistication of people’s palates,” Mathie says. “Thanks to wine, cheese, and coffee, when people are exposed to amazing tasting beer, and to the long history of beer and the concepts of beer and food matching, it really does change their perceptions.”
For the brewers pushing the popularly accepted boundaries for beer, and the beer educators spreading the good word, it is bringing beer to the dining table and matching the flavours to contemporary cuisine that is the key to advancing this beer renaissance.
Kirrily Waldhorn believes this is her mission. Just as personalities like Len Evans were responsible for driving the changes in wine more than 30 years ago, the ‘Beer Diva’ as she is known, is educating people about beer and lifting it from the bar to the dining table.
“I am trying to get people to look at beer in a different light,” she says. “I am bringing beer to the modern dining experience because beer and food together are very important in changing perceptions about beer.”
Despite once working for a major brewery, she says her own epiphany came when legendary brewer Bill Taylor offered her stout and chocolate cake.
“Bill gave me a glass of stout in a champagne flute and served it with chocolate cake,” she recalls. “It wasn’t an unusual style of beer, but it was one of those defining moments because I had never considered how well paired beer and food could be.”
Waldhorn says it’s a great match because many people are turned off by stout, but the dominant flavours in the beer are mocha coffee and chocolate which they generally like, they’re just surprised they’re in beer. Matching it to rich chocolate cake frees up those perceptions.
“I’d never considered that beer didn’t have to be served in a pint glass and could be used in a culinary sense,” she explains.
“In changing wider perceptions about beer, food is crucial—it has to go hand-in-hand. By showing how well beer goes with food, it gives beer more credibility than the traditional pale lager commands.”
With beer comprising four main ingredients—water, malt, hops and yeast—a huge range of flavours is possible, and then there are a range of other ingredients that have traditionally been used in places such as Belgium to add further complexity to the flavour profile.
The Belgian wit style, of which Hoegaarden is the most famous brand, is brewed with a high proportion of unmalted wheat, in addition to barley malt and spiced with coriander seed and Curaçao orange peel. It is a spicy drink with a citrus zing perfect for the Australian climate. Waldhorn says its complexity and flavour profile makes it a great partner for food, too.
“One of my favourite pairings at the moment is a Belgian-style wheat beer with goat’s cheese. The flavour and aroma profiles of the two really match well and surprise people by how well they work,” she says. “But most of the beer and cheese matches will surprise people more accustomed to matching it with wine—and I think beer is a much better match to cheese.”
With a growing business consulting to restaurants and bars on their beer lists and matches, as well as being an entertaining speaker and beer educator, Waldhorn joins Ben Kraus and Renee Mathie as one of the faces of new beer at the forefront of a movement that is more revolution than fad.
“There’s still a long way to go, but once people discover the possibilities there’s no going back,” she says.
At the dinner table
Beer has a huge range of possible flavours, of which those shown in the typical lagers is a very narrow sliver. Some beers that demonstrate the possibilities include:
Stout: Two classic pairings show how beer can contrast and complement depending on the match. Stout and oysters is a classic match originating in Ireland—the dry bitterness of the stout contrasts with the brininess and mouthfeel of the oyster, lifting both to new heights. At the other end of the menu, when served with rich chocolate cake, the coffee-mocha flavours of the roasted barley complement the rich chocolate perfectly. Try: Coopers Best Extra Stout, Bridge Road Robust Porter, Nail Stout, Northern Rivers Stout.
Cheese: Beer really comes into its own with cheese matches. Try Redoak’s Wee Heavy Ale or Murray’s Icon 2IPA matched to Victoria’s Roquefort, Grand Ridge Moonshine with a strong, aged cheddar. Triple cream Brie goes beautifully with La Fin du Monde, an import from Canada inspired by Belgian Abbey ales.
Scallops: Pan-seared scallops are a simple pleasure, but a pleasure enhanced when paired with a German-style hefeweizen—wheat beer—such as that from Redoak. An Australian-style wheat, such as Matilda Bay’s Redback, works well too.
Steak: A beer with a good malt profile, with a hint of caramel, matches with the caramelised flavours of a well-cooked steak, while a bit of hop bitterness cleanses the palate. Try Coopers Vintage Ale.
