QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Aussie brew beats Germans at own game! 30 May 2012 An Australian couple has beaten German beer makers at their own game by taking out a top international brewing prize. Brennan and Peta Fielding are raising their glasses after being recognised as the finest purveyors of south German-style beer in the world. The Gold Coast couple claimed the title at this year’s Brewers Association Beer World Cup in the United States. Mr Fielding, the director of brewing operations, says the German media was astounded when they won the gong…. “I just had to learn more about this company who took it to the Germans and won,” said Peter Ludlow, tasting the research prospects for this story with understandable relish. Brennan Fielding was happy to oblige with some details: “We ran a brewery in Hawaii for five years, then sold our interest in it and came out here in 2002. My wife is Austral ian and she wanted to raise our kids here. I worked for another company for a few years to find my feet here, then we opened the Burleigh Brewing Company in 2007. “We started off brewing German beers, because there are certain styles of beer that are recognised in the world. If you look at the history of Germans and German brewing, you cannot have a beer without being affected by the German brewing “So we brew a mid-strength beer known as Helles which translated means ‘light’. In Germany you might see it shortened to Hell . Or you might have a dark beer, Dunkeles , which we brew once a year for the Brisbane Oktoberfest at the RNA Showgrounds, which is held over two weekends in October. “We do a German Pilsener beer, and a limited release called ‘Unkle Dunkle’ – this a type of Dunkeles Weizen (dark wheat) beer – and Schwarzbiers (black beers),which are not to be confused with Stout, which is an ale and is typically from the UK. “Prior to 1880, all beers were ales, but after 1880 lagers were introduced internationally from the Germans, and today about 95% of global beer consumption is of lagers with only 5% ales. “We also do the Hefeweizen , which is the German wheat beer – for which we just won a Gold medal at the world championships. If you go to Bavaria, this is the most popular style of beer there. process. When they discovered lager yeast strains in 1880 in Germany, they took that technology with them around the world.

“The German royalty had a corner on the market for wheat, and they were the only ones who could make wheat beer, because they had the recipe. It was not until 1873 when someone bought the rights to brew the beer outside of the Royal Court. So for 500 years, only the royals had this beer. ‘In our Hefeweizen we use German wheat and hops, and Bavarian yeast. This is indicative of our policy for all the beers we brew, whether they are German, English, or American beers: we source the ingredients from their respective countries.

“We make the style of beer from the country of origin. I’m a bit of a purist that way. I like to replicate styles in the best way I can, and fortunately lots of beer drinkers around the world think that we do it well, too, so we have lots of gold medals. Winning competitions is a feather in the cap. “The ‘World Beer Cup’ is held every two years. It’s the largest competition of its type in the world. There are 799 beers submitted in 95 categories. We were number one in the Hefeweizen category. “There must be another 30 or 40 German styles of German beers that are brewed. I’ll get to all of them eventually,” Brennan said. “As a footnote, apparently my great great grandfather and my great-great great grandfather were in the brewing industry as well, and they were immigrants from Germany to San

breweries from 54 competing countries, 220 judges from 40 different countries, with 3,921 individual

Francisco in the 1870s. They were both involved with a brewing or bottling operation called the Golden West Brewery. “I’d been a brewer for quite a while before I found out that there had been brewing in the family, both on my mother’s side (half Swiss and half German) and on my father’s side (half English and half German). So the German heritage comes down through the forefathers.” burleighbrewing.com.au

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