The Zythologist

You don’t have to go to university to start a brewery. But if you wanted to start making beer for a living, it’s hard to think of a better field to study than chemical engineering. After all, while craft beer is a creative industry, if you want to transform malt, water, hops and yeast into beer, then an understanding of the chemical process behind it all is certainly going to help.

The Zythologist is the work of not one, but three chemical engineers and although their beers first appeared in 2021, the story can be traced back a little further. In 2018, a trio of Monash University students, Shiv Tandon, Gina Pacheco Arredondo and Daniel Rojas Sanchez, started BrewLab: a student-run brewery designed to give students hands-on experience making beer.

What a way to learn it was too. Armed with just a small Braumeister and many, many fermentation vessels, the three students set about brewing every style under the sun. And although making beer together began as a university passion, as many brewers will tell you, making beer is the kind of thing that quickly gets under your skin.

As such, while BrewLab was built for students, when it came time for the three founding students to move on, they weren’t ready to stop making beer. So, at the start of 2021, The Zythologist was born: a professional brewing company still guided by a passion to bring beer and science together.

Since that debut, their range has been impressively diverse: they might be guided by scientific enquiry, but they’re creative too. Their tagline of “brewed by science” saw them start off with an imperial stout only to follow it with an alcohol-free pale that featured lemon myrtle and old man's saltbush.

Sure, unusual ingredients aren’t uncommon in modern brewing but The Zythlogist's approach is always about using them to not only create flavours but also something more precise. That lemon myrtle and saltbush, for example, was picked to recreate some of the warmth that booze brings to beer that can be lacking in the alcohol-free space.

The Elemental core range of beers draw on the periodic table, while their limited releases are inspired by scientific phenomena, such as Refraction which shines a light on beer through multiple brewing traditions at once.

After spending their first years brewing on the stainless of others, they’re set to put down roots in the second half of 2023. The brewery was still under construction at the time of writing but, once up and running, is located a short stroll from Oakleigh train station.

It means The Zythologist have ended up close to where their story began, with Monash University a short drive away and the brewers planning to continue the close collaboration with their alma mater and seeing further opportunity to teach BrewLab students.

Who knows, maybe one day more students will end up graduating and start brewing at their ten-hectolitre brewery. Even if they don’t, they will have the chance to learn the practical side of brewing and the science of beer.

University and beer have long been somewhat synonymous with one another; now, with the arrival of The Zythologist, they’re more closely entwined than ever before.

Name
The Zythologist
Address

84 Carlisle Crescent
Hughesdale
VIC 3166

Phone
0470 626 593
Open Hours

Venue opening second half of 2023

This is a directory listing. To find out more, head here

The Zythologist Regulars

The Zythologist Rubidium

Published April 4, 2023
Like many of The Zythologist’s beers, there’s a lesson at the heart of Rubidium. Here the focus is on taxonomy and the science of classifying life on earth, with this Elemental core range beer focused on the rosaceae family. It’s a wonderful family too, including the likes of rose, raspberry and blackberries, with those berries all part of the rubus genus – hence the name. The beer itself is a raspberry and rose pastry sour that pours pale pink with a soft, creamy mouthfeel. There’s a… Read more
Style
Raspberry & Rose Pastry Sour
ABV
5.6%

The Zythologist Citronium

The Zythologist team are brewers led by science, which presumably comes in handy here as it takes a lot of knowledge and precision to get an alcohol-free beer right. Without the booze, it's easy to end up with a missing element, be that flavour, aroma or body. In the case of Citronium, the use of lemon myrtle and old man saltbush help replace the warming, flavoursome touch alcohol can provide. On top of that, the former adds a fresh lemon character which in turn is joined by a splash of fresh orange… Read more
Style
Alcohol-Free Pale Ale
ABV
<0.5%

The Zythologist Specials

The Zythologist Tidal Wave

Published July 28, 2022
Tides are inherently linked to the gravitational pull between the ocean and the moon but The Zythologist’s Tidal Wave shows off another important reality: that pineapple and coconut make a formidable combination. The beer was designed to showcase the flavours created when the two are united and uses El Dorado and Sabro hops (along with the actual fruits) in doing so. The result is a somewhat juicy IPA with a bit of tang that immediately brings to mind a piña colada. That said, a stretch of America’s… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
6.8%

The Zythologist For The Love Of Pils

Published July 7, 2022
The Zythologist’s beers typically give the brewers the opportunity to impart a scientific lesson, but For The Love Of Pils is no typical beer. The fundraising lager was made when brewery co-founder Shiv Tandom’s beloved cat, Pils – named after one of Shiv’s favourite styles – was hit by a car and partially paralysed while out on one of her many adventures. It was an accident that resulted in an expensive procedure so, to help other cats receive the same level of treatment, 50 percent of… Read more
Style
Pilsner
ABV
4.5%