OnTap Magazine

How did you get started in beer? I discovered my passion for beer while completingmy post-grad at the University of Stellenbosch. I joined the Stellenbosch brewing team, because it was a great way to save money as a poor student. After university, I joined the newly opened Franschhoek Beer Company as head brewer, where I worked for six years until moving to France. How did you end up in France? I was browsing LinkedIn and saw the position for Head Brewer at Fermentis. I travelled to France in mid-August 2022 for the final round of interviews and met the team. At the end of October 2022 I packed my bags and started the new adventure. What’s the biggest difference between working in South Africa and France? South Africans love lagers and especially light lagers. In the North of France, the beers are much heavier and higher in alcohol, which is definitely influenced by being neighbours with Belgium. In general, people mostly drink beer here and because of the beer culture there is a large variety of beers available at most of the bars. What’s the local beer scene like compared to South Africa? The craft beer scene in France is still relatively new, but growing quickly. There is a large scale of growth in comparison to the well-established beer industries of its neighbours, Germany and Belgium. The French know food and wine very well and I am excited to see how this will influence and help evolve the beer industry in France over the next couple of years. Do you see yourself ever coming back? I am very content where I am right now. The exposure to European and US beer market is phenomenal with a lot of opportunities to learn and innovate, so I’ll be staying in Europe for the foreseeable future. I do miss a good braai, and will definitely be visiting South Africa soon to get my fix. How did you get started in beer? I had initially moved to Australia after my parents had relocated here and bagged me a visa. After finishingmymicrobiology/ mycology degree at UCT I was actually looking for jobs on mushroom farms. While working on a mushroom farm, I began homebrewing because of the high price of beer in Australia as well as the readily available homebrew kits and homebrew stores that exist here. I moved back to South Africa after a few years and managed to get a job at Devil's Peak Brewery in October 2012 when they were still very small and brewing on a 500-litre brewhouse. How did you end up on an island 600km off the Australian coast? A job popped up in Byron Bay, which I had previously visited, and I knew it was a great surfy town. I was lucky enough to secure the role of head brewer from Cape Town and quickly moved in June 2015. I worked there for five years during which time the brewery was bought out by Lion Nathan, one of the two large national breweries. Then in December 2020, a job to install a brewery on Lord Howe Island came about. I jumped up and down to get this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start a brewery on a tiny paradisical island and have been here since then. What’s the biggest difference between working in South Africa and Australia? Perhaps it was my exposure to working for one of the large national breweries but health and safety in theworkplace is a large part of working in Australia. Also, labour is much more expensive so automation and equipment are highly valued. What’s the local beer scene like compared to South Africa? On the island, the local beer scene consists just of the brewery that I work at! So I'll answer more in the context of Byron Bay and mainland Australia. There is a genuine sense of camaraderie and community in the brewing scene as exists all over the world. A lot of this is centred around coming together annually for the Australian International Beer Awards, one of the largest beer competitions in the world. I got involved in judging soon after moving to Australia OLAF MORGENROTH Head Brewer, Fermentis by Lesaffre ALASTAIR GILLESPIE Head Brewer, Lord Howe Island Brewery Lille, France Lord Howe Island, Australia ontapmag.co.za | Summer 2023 | 35