Aussie Exports: Nick Galton-Fenzi

January 29, 2025, by Jono Outred

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Aussie Exports: Nick Galton-Fenzi

Like many with a keen interest in beer, Nick Galton-Fenzi’s journey into the world of good beer started with bad beer. Namely, bad beer brewed on a homebrew kit. 

However, unlike many of us who cut our teeth with plastic fermenters and Coopers kits, Nick took that early experience and turned it into a globetrotting career that's seen him travelling across almost every continent, with plenty of lessons learned along the way. 

After transitioning out of a career in mining with a role in the environmental impact sector, Nick’s journey into the world of beer hasn’t necessarily been a conventional one, but his presence is now ingrained into Australian brewing, thanks in part to the time spent traversing the planet for all manner of beery exploits.

To date, his travels have seen him spend time at an exciting Colorado NOLO startup as well as one of the greats, Guinness. In total, Nick has now consulted and brewed in 23 countries and at 50 breweries.

While you might consider it a shame for Australia to lose such a well-travelled, experienced brewer from these shores, the good news is that Nick still calls Perth home; in fact, he spends much of his time bouncing between Perth-based brewers keen to tap his knowledge, as well as producing beer for the long-established Wild Bull Brewery in the Ferguson Valley. All of this is fitted in and around an endless slew of contracts that can see him spend anywhere from days to several months consulting on new products, brewery installs, and production for breweries elsewhere.

 

Since selling Beaten Track Brewery, Nick Galton-Fenzi's travels have taken him to 23 countries, including those in the Caribbean.

 

“I’m working on various projects for brewing and distilling here in WA as ‘Nick’s Ale House’,” he told The Crafty Pint. “My most recent collaboration was with Margaret River’s Felix Caspar Wines, producing their X3 Project: a grape ale made from 49 percent whole bunch pressed merlot and 51 percent malted barley from Mallokup Maltings.

“I subcontract for Flying Foam and am currently working at Ogden’s Brewery as well.”

As for international projects...

“My most recent project involved a packaging line upgrade for kegs and equipment at the Carib Brewery in St Kitts & Nevis, in the Eastern Caribbean, and I also had the opportunity to set up two brewing projects in the Cocos & Keeling Islands, and the Bosun Brewery on Christmas Island,” he says.

“I was recently appointed Product Development Manager for a USA-based company, Headfirst, producing ultra-low ABV malt barley beverages in Denver, Colorado. The product development has taken place in WA over the last four months, and there have been many WA brewers and sensory specialists involved in the assessment of the final version of the beer, which goes into production in April 2025 in the States.”

Nick spends much of his time in Perth at his own lab and research premise testing and trialling new products, as well as running quality control checks. At time of writing, Nick had a trial batch of the famed and scarce Coors Banquet in tank along with the latest batch of his traditionally-brewed specialty ESB.

 

Nick at the Great American Beer Festival in Colorado in 2023.

 

As you’d expect, it takes a few beers to move from garage brewer to global brewer and Nick can attest to putting in the hard yards since his first days brewing at Beaten Track Brewery in 2010. It took him five years to launch what was the only brewery in Kalgoorlie, a town in WA’s northeastern Goldfield’s region with a long history of gold mining and beer drinking.

That brewery developed something of a cult status in Perth’s beer scene throughout the 2010s, with Nick hand-delivering many of his wares in 500ml bottles to local, craft-centric bottleshops, where they would promptly sell out. Non-conventional styles and bright, handmade labels pulled punters in, but the quality and consistency of beers from the isolated microbrewery kept them wanting more.

In 2017, Nick sold the brewery to long-time employee, Mitch Dudarko, and set off on his international travels.

“Following the sale of Beaten Track Brewery, I was intending to head to the USA to take over the assets of a brewery in Nevada; however that didn’t eventuate,” he says. “I ended up living out of a car and driving from Idaho to Tennessee, working at many breweries along the way and meeting some knowledgeable people both in and around the brewing industry.

“One job led to another, and the work took me from the USA to Canada and then the UK and Europe.”

 

Nick's travels have taken him to breweries large, such as Guiness, and small, such as Wye Valley Brewery & Meadery in Wales, pictured here.

 

And that’s where Nick finds himself now, bouncing around the globe and sharing his knowledge on beer, while taking on board plenty of lessons to bring back to Australia ready to be shared with brewers closer to home. 

As any good brewer knows, to make good beer it helps to drink good beer, and Nick hasn’t shied away from embracing many of the beers along his journey – not just in pubs and bars, but through beer judging. Indeed, there won’t be many brewers who can claim to have tasted and critiqued such a spread of beers.

“I’ve had the opportunity to judge at some of the world's largest competitions in the USA, Africa, Brazil and Europe,” Nick explains. “A chance meeting with Kristine Latham from the American Brewers Association in 2010 gave the crew at Beaten Track an opportunity to travel to Denver for the 2012 Great American Beer Festival. That eventually led to an invitation to judge at the World Beer Cup and GABF.

“It’s helpful to hear what other judges' opinions are regarding the beer that is being assessed in front of you, as the judges come from varied backgrounds in the industry, not just technical brewers. I have had the opportunity to judge with industry authors and pioneers like John Palmer, Pete Slosberg, Chuck Hahn, Mitch Steele and Jamil Zainasheff.

 

Nick hasn't forgotten his homebrewing roots, despite all the travel, pictured here at the Southern Suburbs Homebrew Club annual meeting in 2022.

 

“I’ve learnt a lot from their wealth of knowledge and time in the industry.”

For most beer lovers, travel offers the opportunity to taste and experience beers from far off places, and while it's true that beer almost always tastes better fresh from the source, Nick has taken his passion for great beer across the planet to another level.

As for what drives him to keep on moving, it all boils down to the simple pleasure of the people who brew and enjoy good beer.

“I've made some lifelong friendships with many brewers and industry folk both here in WA and all around the world,” he says. “Craft beer patrons are interested in the products and process; it gives a common platform for striking up a conversation, meeting new people and chatting all things beer.”


You'll find other features in our Aussie Exports series here. If you know of – or are – an Australian working in beer anywhere in the world, we'd love to hear from you.

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