Way back in the depths of time (okay, 2012) the launch of the People’s Pint – a beer that we had invited the country to invent – was used to announce the Temple Brewing / Good Beer Week Scholarship. It invited young brewers from across Australia to apply for the chance to work at Sierra Nevada in California for two weeks, with the trip funded by East Brunswick’s Temple.
The winner was originally to have been announced some time ago but, due to the trials and tribulations experienced by Temple Brewing in the meantime, this was delayed. However, with Temple now up and running again, the selection process has been finalised and Carrie McLachlan has been chosen. More than 30 entries were received, with a panel from Good Beer Week, The Crafty Pint and Temple drawing up a shortlist from which Sierra Nevada Brewery Ambassador Steve Grossman selected the winner.
For Carrie, it continues a rather rapid ascent through the brewing world. It’s not that long ago that she was with friends in Oregon, working the ski fields, when she first fell for craft beer; soon afterwards, back in New Zealand, she saw a job going at Creatures' HQ in Fremantle and impressed head brewer Russell Gosling so much with her application that they flew her across the Tasman and began training her as a brewer.
Today she works at Little Creatures’ new brewery in Geelong, where she helped set up the packaging line. Prior to becoming a brewer, Carrie worked as a bike mechanic and ski field lift operator. And it was in part her outdoor lifestyle as well as her focus on environmentally conscious brewing that appealed to Sierra Nevada.
âEven though Carrie is relatively new to the craft brewing world she has a strong quest for knowledge, and exhibits great passion for both the art and science of craft,â says Steve Grossman.
âHer interest in sustainability and the desire to learn about Sierra Nevada’s practices in this arena, and her goal to adapt protocol and methodologies to her own brewery work was a strong factor in our decision to select Carrie for the Young Brewer’s program. We have all confidence that Carrie will continue her rapid development in her career as a Brewer and are very pleased that she will be joining us for this program.â
âI’m so excited,â she says of the impending trip to the US. âIt’s one of the breweries that I’ve always wanted to see. They’re doing things that no one else is doing.
“I just want to get behind the scenes and see what they do on a day-to-day basis.â
Good Beer Week festival director James Smith added: âThere was a fantastic field of applicants, of which a handful really stood out. In the end, we whittled the list down to three, with Carrie securing the deciding vote from Sierra Nevada. Now we look forward to her reporting back later in the year.â
The Good Beer Week 2014 festival programme will be launched on March 12. Look out for details of the second Good Beer Showcase in Melbourne that will act as the program launch – coming soon.
