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Lessons From A Decade Building A Brewery
“This country has been crippled in the way politicians handle affairs … Well, someone needs to step up at some point and have the courage to recognise that we are now at a breaking point.”
Anyone paying attention to craft beer in Australia over the past decade will be aware of two things. One, that Hawkers have consistently put out some of the best beers of any brewery in the country over that period. And, two, that founder and outgoing CEO Mazen Hajjar is one of the sharpest and most outspoken commentators on the industry.
Both were among the reasons we invited him to be a guest on the podcast: Hawkers turn ten this month while the beer and hospitality worlds are experiencing existential threats from multiple directions. Since we extended that invite late last year, he’s found himself in the eye of the news too after merging his brewery with White Bay in Sydney to form Social Drinks Group.
The move provided more ammunition for what was always going to be a fascinating, wide-ranging, and occasionally fiery chat – one in which we addressed the issue of excise tax and a lack of support from the Federal Government just days before it blew up again on the back of the latest bi-annual tax hike and accompanying comments and directives from the Treasurer and ACCC* respectively.
The latter part of the interview is where Mazen really builds up a head of steam, taking on not just excise tax but other hot topics, including the abandonment of indie brewers by the homebrand-hawking retail duopoly, tap contracts, the inequities of the country’s various container deposit schemes, and the lack of support for local producers from the government.
He also expresses hope for the future, however, even as he acknowledges that much of the industry is at breaking point, while reflecting on his decade at the helm of Hawkers, lessons he brought with him from his home country of Lebanon, and educating drinkers through experimentation.
He also takes us inside the merger with White Bay – how it came about, evolved, and is their attempt to carve out a future in a much-changed landscape – while sharing his experience of going through voluntary administration, as well as his intentions for the future as he takes more of a back seat in the business.
Prior to joining Mazen, there’s a longer-than-usual intro as Will and James discuss the fallout from the most recent rise in excise tax, its coverage in the media, how the calls for change seem to be coming from more quarters and getting ever louder in this election year, and how consumers can get involved in the Independent Brewers Association's Save Indie Beer campaign.
Steve “Hendo” Henderson, of Rockstar Brewer Academy, is back with more tips on brewing efficiently, and we look ahead to the reopening of Tiny Mountain in Townsville after the brewery was bought from Lion by a Queensland-based hospo group.
Start of segments:
- 22:27 – Mazen Hajjar Part 1
- 50:00 – Rockstar Brewer Academy
- 55:34 – Mazen Hajjar Part 2
You can watch or listen to the episode here or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and other podcast platforms. Please like and subscribe – and if you are enjoying the show, feel free to rate and review it too.
To find out more about supporting the show or otherwise partnering with The Crafty Pint, contact craig@craftypint.com.
*NB Since this episode was recorded, a spokesperson for the ACCC told The Crafty Pint that the Federal Government had written to them asking that it "monitor statements made by retailers and wholesalers about the indexation of the excise and about any resulting price increases in the cost of alcohol."
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
