With brewing skills honed across the globe in Hawaii, Japan and the States, Burleigh’s brewmaster Brennan Fielding was always likely to bring a better quality of beer to the Queensland coast when he and wife Peta embarked upon their dream of opening a brewery in her home state – a dream they first discussed back in the late 90s. Major awards for the likes of his Black Giraffe coffee lager and Hef wheat beer have proved just that as Burleigh has rapidly established itself among the Aussie craft brewing fraternity.
Housed in a dedicated production facility a few kilometres from the Gold Coast’s beaches, with a 45 hectilitre brew length that dwarfs most micros, they still sell most of their beer locally; Peta jokes that she’d love to be able to shift all of their beer within 5km of the brewery. Their first two releases, a Premium Lager and a mid-strength Helles under the Duke banner, are still only sold at bars and bottleshops in the local region, inspired by the German tradition of breweries supplying their own communities. The remainder of the range – all unpasteurised – is increasingly available nationwide.
Although the brewery is set up predominantly for production, they do open their doors to the public on occasion, holding tours on one Saturday a month and monthly Friday night Brewhouse Bashes. At the last of these, they welcome guests into the brewery – filled with barrels, benches and sofas and decorated with surf boards to remind you just where in the world you are – for evenings of live music, food and plenty of beer – with all profits going to local causes.
Burleigh Brewing Company (QLD) Beers
The Regulars
Regulars
Burleigh Brewing Duke Premium Lager
One half of the Duke duo of beers only sold within the brewery’s local area, this is inspired by the European lagers brewer Brennan Fielding’s father and grandfather enjoyed on the back of the family sailing boat in Hawaii. This filtered lager mixes biscuity malts with light, citrusy and spicy hop characteristics and finishes dry, making it ideal for the warm Queensland coast.
Style: Pilsner
Strength: 4.8%
Burleigh Brewing Duke All Malt Helles
Only sold within the locality of Burleigh’s Gold Coast brewery, this is the beer formally sold as their mid-strength lager. All along, it was based on the German helles style of lager perfected in Munich, so the change in name made sense. Surprisingly full-flavoured for a lager measuring in at a mere 3.5%, there’s some delicate honey notes from the malt and a light floral hop character. No longer need the designated driver suffer!
Style: Munich lager
Strength: 3.5%
Burleigh Brewing 28 Pale Ale
Styled as a throwback to the 70s and the 28-day swell enjoyed at Burleigh Heads during that decade, the 28 is a fine addition to the canon of Australia pale ales. Floral and citrusy on the nose, it pours a bright copper, with some sweet caramel malts and a bitter tang with hints of orange marmalade, grapefruit and lychee, rounded off with a gently tingling zing. If you’re pairing it with food, the brewers recommend Moroccan Lamb as the perfect match.
Style: US Pale Ale
Strength: 4.8%
Burleigh Brewing HEF
It seems that pretty much every microbrewery in Oz has some form of wheat beer in their range, but they’re not always particularly good. Thankfully, Burleigh’s HEF is among the best, with flavours as full as the moustache on its label. Winner of the inaugural Queensland Food and Wine Show beer comp, it’s packed with banana and clove aromas and flavours from the special German yeast with a touch of citrusy tang. Goes well with seafood or spicy dishes.
Style: Hefeweizen
Strength: 5.0%
Burleigh Brewing Bighead
Bighead is Burleigh’s “no carb” beer, a lager registering just 88 calories per 330ml bottle for the most weight conscious of beer drinkers. Burleigh Heads, where the brewery is based, was originally given the name “burly head” – aka big head – back in the 19th century, hence the naming of this beer. Described by the brewers as “a full-flavoured, full-strength lager that is 100% natural, free of additives and preservatives, and has a smooth, clean taste”.
Style: Lager
Strength: 4.2%
Burleigh Brewing My Wife's Bitter
First seen as a limited longneck release from Burleigh back in 2009, the My Wife’s Bitter is their take on the classic bitter ales of the UK. Now it’s out in 330ml stubbies on a much wider release – and appearing on a fair few taps too. Using English crystal and chocolate malts, traditional English hops (Fuggles and East Kent Goldings) plus an old English yeast, the result is a malt-driven beer that mixes sweet caramels, some nuttiness (particularly in draught form, where we’re plumping for hazelnut) and hints of roast malts too. The hop character is gentle and earthy, the bitterness similarly restrained too.
Style: English Bitter
Strength: 4.8%
Specials
Burleigh Brewing Fanny Gertrude's Bickie Beer
Fanny’s back! The beer that made its debut on tap at The Local Taphouse’s Great Australian Beer SpecTAPular had a genesis as unusual as the actual brew itself, with deliveries of ingredients held up by the Queensland floods, thus making it a race against time to have it ready for the festival. As for the beer, the Gold Coast brewers added everything you’d expect from an Anzac bickie – coconut, golden syrup, oats – to create a really rather unique beer. Equal parts cream soda, nuts, toffee and the vanilla cream you get in the middle of an Arnott’s Shortbread Cream, it had a creamy, almost oily feel in the mouth and certainly raised a few eyebrows as one of the more out there beers on a generally out there lineup. It will be appearing in longnecks as the third Burleigh limited release sometime this year, but while we wait for artwork to be finalised for that, some more is appearing in kegs.
Available:
Beer DeLuxe
Biero
Burleigh Brewing
IN BOTTLES:
Burleigh Brewing
Archive West End
Nectar
Spotted Cow
Style: Cream Ale
Strength: 5.0%
Burleigh Brewing Black Giraffe
The second of Burleigh’s limited release longnecks (the first being the puntastic English style My Wife’s Bitter), the Black Giraffe is the beer that, more than any other, got Aussie craft beer lovers talking about the brewery. An exquisite coffee lager that packs in more flavour than is decent for a 5% beer, it’s won major awards overseas with judges impressed by the full coffee whack backed up by chocolate, toffee and mocha. It uses 100kg of Zarraffa rainforest alliance coffee and made Crafty’s Ten for 2010 so hunt it down while it’s still around.
Style: Coffee Lager
Strength: 5.0%
