Careers can be a windy thing. You start in one position, drift into another, realise you hate what you’re doing and decide it's time to jump and find a new path that suits you better.
Or, sometimes, as has been the case for Max Bowering, you realise there’s a job out there that’s perfect for you. For Uraidla's head brewer, it wasn’t long into his time pouring beers at the Gilbert St Hotel that he knew the craft beer he was serving was the kind of career in which he wanted to stay.
He loved selling and talking beer so wondered if he should try and become a sales rep, but the more he found out about craft beer, the more he wanted to make it.
“I just became craft beer obsessed and got the brewing bug,” he says. “So I went head first into brewing from there.”
His career plunge really took off while Max was overseas for a holiday that lasted around a year but was meant to include a fair bit more exploring.
“I was over in Canada during a ski season when COVID happened,” Max says. “So I had a lot of downtime where I was just thinking what the hell was I going to do when I got back to Australia.
“From there, getting into brewing was always the goal, so it’s worked out pretty well.”
Indeed, after studying TAFE SA’s long-running brewing course, Max has quickly risen up the ranks at Uraidla Brewery, going from trainee under original head brewer Oscar Matthews to head brewer in a little over three years.
“I did the TAFE course and got the job here while studying as a trainee brewer and worked my way up,” he says.
Last month, the 24-year-old stepped up into to the new under the guidance of Owen Lyons, who’s winding down his time in the beer industry. As for what Max loves about the industry, he says it's the many hats he wears each day, with the tiny brewery team in the small town all working closely on every aspect of the beer.
“I get to do basically everything,” he says. “It’s a small team so we share a bit of everything and it’s label design, brewing, packaging, and sometimes I’m even on the road delivering. It’s not a tunnel vision job, I get to put my fingerprints on every aspect of it.”
As a brewer in the heart of the Adelaide Hills, when it comes to drinks that excite, Max is quick to point to how well some winemakers have moved in a new direction. Sure, the liquid matters and has to be good, but he stresses how newer winemakers have gone for a funkier, more playful look which he thinks craft breweries could learn from.
“Being in the Adelaide Hills there’s a lot of wineries where the branding is really appealing,” he says.
“It just catches my eye and it is the kind of stuff I’d love to be seen drinking.”
When it comes to beer, it’s something Max sees as being more prevalent overseas, citing the likes of Beak Brewery in the UK with their colourful but simple labels, or DEYA Brewing, whose beer cans look hand-drawn.
“It has a similar vibe to that newer generation of winemakers,” Max says.
“It’s just very appealing to look at and is what piques my interest. If it’s piquing my interest then I’m sure it’s piquing other young people’s interest."
Fresh from taking the reins at Urailda, we invited Max to join us for our ongoing series focusing on beer's younger generation. So here's Max and he Slays Beer.
Max Bowering
What’s your role in beer?
I am the head brewer at Uraidla Brewery.
What first got you into craft beer?
Although I have memories of my dad home brewing before I could even walk, I didn’t really get into craft beer until I got my first job in hospitality. In 2018 I decided I was sick of being a pizza delivery driver and decided to apply for a job at the pub across the road from the BMX store I would always hang around at.
That pub was the Gilbert St Hotel and within my first week of working, there was a Garage Project tap takeover. I didn’t realise beer could taste like that, more importantly, I didn’t realise that each beer could have its own personality through branding and artwork. It was from that moment I was hooked.
What do you most enjoy about the beer world?
I just love creating a product from scratch that has its own identity. All the way from label design, beer name, recipe, process and capturing that with photography and a write-up.
There is always something new. I like how quickly everything moves, once we put out a new limited release it’s like cool what’s next. As a consumer it’s so good to always have something new and in trend to try and also have the option to fall back to an old faithful core range, we are spoiled for choice.
Much has been said about craft beer’s core audience getting older – are your mates drinking craft beer? If not, what are they drinking?
The majority of my mates are open to craft beer but it is definitely not their drink of choice. The majority are drinking wine or RTDs.
What do they think of your career in beer?
They think it’s pretty cool, especially when my fridge has plenty of low fills for them.
What’s your favourite way to engage with breweries and discover what’s happening in beer?
If ever I’m visiting anywhere outside of Adelaide I will always pop in to a few taprooms and see what’s up.
To discover what’s happening in beer, Instagram is usually a nice way to keep up with what’s going on and keep on trend. Podcasts, YouTube and The Crafty Pint are also great ;)
How do you think the beer industry could appeal to a broader, or younger, audience?
It’s not so much to do with the liquid that is being produced. Branding and aesthetics is what will get the beer into a broader or younger audience's hands and as long as the liquid inside the can happens to taste good they will buy more.
Who is doing it well? And what do you think the craft beer industry could do better or differently?
From the outside looking in, it seems like quite a few wineries and bars are doing well to appeal to a broader and younger audience. Dope labels and cool venues draw people in, if the wine is good then you’ve got yourself some returning customers.
I have also been noticing a few breweries in the UK that have some really trendy branding that definitely appeals to younger audiences. Take Deya and Beak for example, you don’t see anything like that around Australia.
In Australia, I think Range is doing a fantastic job at this. Their branding just makes you want to drink a few hazy IPAs and go party.
You can read other entries in the Slays Beer series here.
Know a Gen Z-er in the beer industry you'd like to nominate for the series? Drop us a line!
Will Ziebell is a history graduate who knows more about The Wire than he does about beer. He was awarded the AIBA Best Media trophy for 2018; HBO have told him to please send his fan mail elsewhere. He can be found on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer:
Spending time living in the UK (and backpacking across Europe) when I was 21 certainly gave me a better understanding of the beer and different styles of the world. But I'd say it was a holiday to the High Country a little while later when lunch and a tasting paddle at Bridge Road Brewers created an obsession with Australian breweries and locally made beer.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
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Boatrocker's Miss Pinky: It's a raspberry-packed Berliner Weisse that neither looks or tastes the way many people conceive of beer.
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Bad Shepherd Hazelnut Brown: A luscious mix of chocolate and hazelnut that can appeal to the sweet tooth within us all.
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Stone & Wood Pacific Ale: As the father of my oldest friend once said to me: "It's the perfect refreshing pint that smells like they've loaded it with the God's herb."
The last beer you enjoyed:
Garage Project's DFA while sitting at the bar at Miss Moses as the sounds of The Rolling Stone drifting in the background.
Three things that represent you:
- Bruce Springsteen
- Ken Burns
- The State Library of Victoria
