Sure, you might have had a beer or two in your time. But have you ever had an ‘epiphany beer’?
CBCo Brewing’s Head Brewer Ash Hazell has, and he credits it with setting him off on his path to brewing enlightenment. One single pint launched his 20-year quest to find the magic formula for the greatest tasting beer imaginable.
“There’s a term that brewers use called epiphany beers,” Ash says.
“It’s like the first beer they picked up where it’s changed everything, from being just a beer to get me drunk to something much bigger. This epiphany beer is a life-changing moment.”
For Ash, the pint in question was served up at Western Australia’s Little Creatures brewery where he celebrated his 18th birthday.
Up to that point he’d been brewing some admittedly pretty nasty beer – mostly as a way to get around his problem of being underage with a social calendar full of uni parties to attend.
“I was brewing horrifically bad beer and when I tried the Little Creatures Pale Ale, in that moment I was like, ‘I have to learn how to make beer this good’. That one beer sort of set my whole career path,” he says.
“I was studying chemistry at the time and was doing some boring mining-related chemistry units. So, I dropped out of all of them and instead I picked up some biochemistry and microbiology units to learn how to make that beer.
“And 20 years later I’m a tragically obsessed brewer, still trying to make the best beer I can.”
The shift from casual hobby brewer to full-time fanatic was swift.
“I was just obsessed. Absolutely obsessed. Every waking hour I was researching brewing,” he says.
“I’d built a semi-automated, fully stainless steel brewhouse in my back shed, using kegs I’d ‘borrowed’ from the back of pubs.
“I found a local welder to weld it all up for me and found all the parts online from across the world. At the time you just didn’t have access to homebrew equipment like there is now. You had to piece it together yourself.”
As it turns out, the efforts to upgrade his set-up clearly paid off. From that point Ash entered and won a couple of home brewing awards including one major national one.
As time went on, brewing became increasingly ingrained in his life and his studies. When his classmates were doing their final year research projects on crystal formation, Ash opted for his own beer-centric topic.
It was such a step outside the norm, that even his uni lecturer had no idea what he was talking about, so he was to enlist the help of an expert to verify his research.
Little did he know that this would be the beginning of his big break in the industry.
“On a whim I reached out to the head brewer at Little Creatures to verify my research and he agreed,” Ash says.
“I got questionable but somewhat useful results, but more importantly he offered me a job as a keg cleaner, cleaning kegs by hand while I finished my degree.
“And by the time I finished my degree I worked there full-time and have been a brewer ever since.
“There were probably only about 50 craft brewers in the country at that time. It was such a tiny industry, so just to get your foot in the door was huge.”
From there he began his slow rise through the ranks, jumping on new opportunities as they presented themselves.
“Little Creatures was growing really fast in those days. It wasn’t the easiest industry to work in at the time – the hours were long. It was a hard slog,” he says.
“But just by persevering through it, and being absolutely obsessed with it, I ended up getting lots of opportunities.
“My career goal was always to become the quality control manager of a significant Australian craft brewery, and I’d achieved that by the time I turned 25.”
When Little Creatures was bought out by global beverage giant, Lion, Ash found himself at a crossroads.
Wanting to stay fiercely independent and not work for ‘the man’ he took it as a sign to move on and started his own brewery with Little Creatures’ ex-CEO, called Barrow Boys.
Despite a few strong years in Melbourne, Barrow Boys eventually closed down leaving him looking for a new opportunity.
And that opportunity came at CBCo.
“I came here and chatted to (Managing Director) Lawrence (Dowd) about contract brewing,” he says.
“But I also knew he was looking for a head brewer at the time. So, I was half coming to suss out contract brewing for my old business, and half coming into suss out opportunities in case I lost faith that I could make that work.”
One thing led to another, and before he knew it he was head brewer at CBCo Brewing and the rest is history.
For Ash, the best thing about working at CBCo is that he gets the freedom to play with flavours, and for him that’s the magic of brewing. That’s what keeps his obsession going, even after more than two decades in the industry.
“When you work for one of the big guys, you have resources – and resources are great. But you also have many different gateways to pass between the idea and delivering the idea,” he says.
“The whole reason I love working in craft beer is that I love craft beer and I want to play with flavours, and I don’t want to work for a company that just wants to make boring beer.
“There’s nothing better than brewing a beer and having that first pint off tap and being like ‘Yeah, this is delicious; we’ve nailed this. That’s still what I strive for every day.”