“Dazed and confused,” is how Scotty Hargrave describes his state of mind as he leaves Balter.
“It’s still so new in a way, it’ll take me a while to process. It’s been such an insane ten years; I definitely didn’t stop to slow down and smell the roses on the way through.”
As he looks back, however, the brewmaster says he’s feeling good and has no regrets about his time at the helm of all things Balter beer – or about deciding to leave the brewery he founded with Stirling Howland, Ant Macdonald and Sean Ronan alongside pro surfers Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Bede Durbidge and Josh Kerr.
“I’m just really grateful we got to do what we did,” he says.
Scotty’s departure comes as other long-term team members leave Balter too, their five-year sales contracts with CUB and Asahi having ended at the start of the year. The contract saw the original team remain in charge of day-to-day operations until January 1 this year and, while Scotty could have stayed on, he says the time felt right for several reasons.
“I’ve always been my own special kind of control freak, so it wouldn’t have been particularly easy for me to not be in the driver’s seat like I have been,” he says.
He also talks about an occasional sense of founders’ fatigue starting to creep in, and a desire to ensure he continued to feel passionate about coming into work each day.
“I’ve felt at times over the last year or two that I wasn’t as excited about stuff in the beer world as someone who is just entering it would be,” he says.
“That gives you an indication that you need a bit of a rest or to freshen up; I never want to not do my best."
Scotty’s departure falls just a month shy of ten years since he called CEO Ant Macdonald in 2015 to let him know that he wanted to be a part of Balter. Before that, Ant and the fellow founders had been engaged in something of a courtship of Scotty, who was highly-regarded as a brewer in Australia, having won plenty of awards as a homebrewer before going pro at Sunshine Coast Brewery.
He later joined Stone & Wood in September 2009 and played a key role in the brewery's rapid early rise before switching from a production to a brewpub role at Byron Bay Brewery, where he soon picked up a pair of trophies at the Australian International Beer Awards.
It's safe to say things have been nonstop since: a year later, the first kegs rolled out of Balter's Currumbin brewery. Led by XPA, the brewery’s popularity quickly surged nationally and they took home a string of major awards before, late in 2019, the founders sold the business to CUB.
In the years following the headline-grabbing sale, Scotty has embarked upon a travel schedule that’s regularly taken him overseas for hop selection, beer festivals, events and collabs. And, while he might have been able to continue as head brewer, he also knew he hadn’t prioritised rest.
“I’ve left with about six months of leave up my sleeve so that tells you I haven’t really taken enough time for myself in the last few years,” he says, reflecting on a comment he’d made to Ant about when he would know it was time to walk away.
“I used this surf analogy: I didn’t want the wave to break underneath me and not even know; I wanted to go out on top.”
Many of his collaborations have featured some of the most exciting American brewers, including but certainly not limited to Highland Park, Green Cheek, Cloudburst and Firestone Walker. At the heart of each collaboration, whether in the States or closer to home, is friendship.
“They’re my friends and I love all those folks,” Scotty says. “I’ve never done a collaboration with strangers. I’ve been so incredibly fortunate to make some beautiful friends out of this whole thing; I’ve met so many of these folks judging beer or at beer festivals or hop harvests.”
On announcing he was leaving Balter yesterday, Scotty was honoured by the volume of messages he received from brewers all over the world, with people reaching out from Europe and South America as well as the US.
Across his time at Balter, the topic du jour of any cross-border beer conversation has been their flagship XPA and the style more broadly, which American brewers in particular are eager to brew with him.
“That’s really gratifying that that little beer of mine from the garage has had an effect on folks in the US,” Scotty says. “But also, as a proud Aussie, it’s almost like we’re finally exporting back to those guys that we take the lead from all the time.”
Unsurprisingly, it’s the flagship XPA he’s most proud of, although Scotty is quick to point out how important each recipe has been to him – and to building the brewery and employing people.
“There are so many beers that have given our folks plenty of work to do and have been enjoyed by people all over the country,” he says.
“When people are happy drinking our little beers, you’ve got to be proud of the effect you have on people really.”
For the time being at least, one key change in the brewer’s life will be a stop to the many hours spent overseas, often away from his family.
“Balter allowed me to be a good example to my kids and showed them that dreams can actually happen,” he says, highlighting how important wife Nicole and his daughters have been to his success.
“If you put the hard work in and have the passion and the self-belief – that can come from your friends and family around you, but it’s also about believing in yourself – you can do anything.
“I don’t think there’s anything that really tops being a good example to your kids.”
To help fund Balter, Scotty and Nicole sold their house; he points to how many other families invested in the brewery's early days too. As such, the reality was that Balter always needed to grow, given how much people had put on the line.
“It had to fucking work,” he says.
“Balter has changed a lot of lives, not just mine and my family’s; the other investors and founders and all those longterm staff. We’ve seen a lot of benefit to a lot of people.”
As our conversation wraps up, he also reflects on the early days at Stone & Wood and a conversation he had with co-founder, brewer, and bon vivant, Brad Rodgers. They were brewing in the Byron Bay shed one day, just the two of them as it often was in the early days.
“He would ask what I wanted out of all this,” Scotty recalls. “I can still remember saying, ‘I’d like to leave my mark on Australian brewing.’
“I kind of think I got there, or we got there as a team.”
Having said that, while Scotty’s time at Balter is over, his time in beer isn’t. For now, he’s planning to spend time by the pool and beach, alongside some hours back in the garage, this time playing music rather than designing the XPA that's now found in just about every corner of the country.
“I’m slowly reacquainting myself with all my guitars,” he says. “Just playing around with no intention of unleashing myself on the public.”
Over the last few months, while contemplating a life post-Balter, he’s made sure not to jump straight into another professional brewing gig. He fears it would be risky for him, given how much he throws himself at projects. What's more, he's had a pretty good run up 'til now.
“I don’t have another brewery up my sleeve to go and start; I think that would be a bit greedy given how fortunate I’ve been,” he says.
“Who in their right mind would go back to the well? It’s going to take younger brewers with a lot of energy in their eyes to take us forward.”
That said, he's unlikely to be too far away from any stainless: he’s got plenty of mates who could use a hand.
“I’m not going to be able to keep myself away from the beer industry, I’ve got too many great friends to do that,” he says.
“There are a few people both here and overseas who want my help a bit so in a bit I might jump in.”
For now, however, the main beneficiaries of his time will be the pool at his Northern Rivers home and the nearby surf breaks he first became acquainted with soon after starting at Stone & Wood. It was back then he turned to Nicole to utter words he’s often repeated since: “Fucking hell, this is bullshit; beer got us here.”
“That became a war cry and a motto for Balter,” he says, “and I think a lot of us are very grateful that beer got us here.”
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 in 2018 and in 2024; 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
