Craft beer: Newstead Brewing, Green Beacon, Burleigh Brewing, Balter, and Stone & Wood. Queensland Business Monthly

WORLD champion surfers Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson are the latest to join the latest beer revolution, as part of a new wave of brewing in southeast Queensland and northern NSW.

Balter Brewery at Currumbinn. Joel Parkinson testing some beers. Picture: Jerad Williams

MAINSTREAM brewing industry types looking at national beer consumption trends might well be crying in their lagers, ales and pilsners.

While Australia has a reputation in some quarters as a nation of beer guzzlers, its consumption has fallen more than 15 per cent over the past decade, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The beer manufacturing industry has clocked up record low revenue growth of just 0.2 per cent since 2011, and it’s expected to be in negative figures over the next five years, a recent report by analysts IBISWorld says.

It’s enough to leave a big brewery exec feeling flatter than a stale schooner. But that would be a glass half-empty view, with a new breed of brewers who reckon things are looking pretty damn good – and they aren’t wearing the proverbial “beer goggles”.

While overall beer consumption is declining, craft beer sales are booming as consumers eschew mainstream brews in favour of the superior flavours, body, purity and “handmade” quality of boutique drops.

Australia’s craft beer industry has been growing at 9.5 per cent annually since 2011, with forecast growth of 6.4 per cent over the next five years, according to IBISWorld.

Craft beer connoisseurs are now swigging down about $380 million worth of the stuff each year.

It’s a drop in the barrel in the overall $4.3 billion beer market, but it’s a trend that has seen big brewers Lion Nathan, CUB and Asahi buy or launch their own craft beer labels such as James Squire and Little Creatures to compete with the rapid rise of micro-breweries.

Punters at Newstead Brewing enjoying craft beer.

From about 20 breweries five years ago, Australia now boasts about 350.

Craft beer bars and brewpubs are popping up everywhere, driven by demand from increasingly discerning drinkers who couldn’t give a XXXX about mainstream beer.

Southeast Queensland and northern NSW has become a craft beer hotspot in recent years, with breweries like Newstead Brewing and Green Beacon opening in Brisbane; Burleigh Brewing, Balter, and Fortitude Brewing on the Gold Coast, and Stone & Wood and the Pickled Pig in the Byron/Tweed area.

Another micro-brewery, Black Hops, will soon open in the Miami industrial area’s hip cafe precinct. Burleigh Brewing will next month celebrate its 10th anniversary and recently moved into a new headquarters, triple its original size.

The brewery was started by Hawaiian brewer Brennan Fielding and his wife Peta, a Bond University-educated former corporate lawyer who now chairs the Craft Brewing Industry Association of Australia.

Burleigh Brewing boss Peta Fielding. Pic by Luke Marsden.

“I think people are travelling more and that’s opened their eyes up to other styles of beer available overseas,’’ Fielding says, explaining part of the reason for the craft beer boom.

“They’re also starting to really, genuinely care about who makes the stuff they eat and drink. They want to know where it’s made and the philosophy behind it. We’ve seen the same thing in the proliferation of farmer’s markets – people want to get their eggs from the egg guy and so on.

“Beer is the oldest drink in the world and was probably becoming a bit daggy. The craft beer revolution has made it kind of hip and groovy.’’

From the early days when they couldn’t give away a free sample to rusted-on Fourex, Tooheys and VB drinkers, the Fieldings now employ 30 full-time staff in their new, multi-million dollar brewhouse in the Burleigh industrial estate.

Peta says the business has grown at “double and triple digits” every year, and the original range of three beers has expanded to eight. But despite increased capacity and new state-of-the-art equipment, Fielding says Burleigh Brewing does not want to lose its locally-made “craft” image by getting too big.

“For us, it’s more about quality than quantity,’’ she says. “The vast majority of our business is in southeast Queensland. We don’t export, because the last thing we’d want is to not be able to supply a bar down the road. We’re really kind of doing it for the locals.’’

The locals – not to mention the profiles and social media reach of its celebrity owners – are also driving the early success of Balter Brewing, located in another southern Gold Coast industrial estate, at Currumbin.

Balter, owned by former world champion surfers Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson, and fellow Gold Coast surf stars Bede Durbidge and Josh Kerr, opened three months ago and quickly attracted an enthusiastic crowd to weekend sessions in its uber-cool warehouse-style brewhouse. Last week, it’s first release of packaged beer, the flagship XPA (Extra Pale Ale), sold out in 24 hours.

Inside Balter brewery at Currumbin. Head Brewer Scott Hargrave, Stirling Howland and Joel Parkinson. Picture: Jerad Williams

Balter co-founder Stirling Howland, a former marketing manager with surfwear company Billabong, says Durbidge had long wanted to start a brewery on his native North Stradbroke Island but that wasn’t feasible.

During a contest lay-day in Hawaii, he and the other three surfers hatched plans for Balter in his local suburb. US-based Kerr already had some experience in the industry, as a co-owner of San Diego micro-brewery Saint Archer, sold last year to the giant MillerCoors group.

Balter means “to dance artlessly without particular skill or grace, but usually with enjoyment” – but there was nothing artless or unskilful about the way the owners set about establishing the business.

As well as building a stylish premises, they poached Stone & Wood head brewer Scott Hargrave to make their beer. A one-time Canberra concreter and award-winning home brewer, Hargrave is acknowledged as one of Australia’s best craft beer makers.

“We had the star power of our owners and a beautiful building but it all would have just been a bunch of fluff without a great head brewer,’’ Howland tells QBM over an XPA at the Balter bar.

“The boys (Fanning, Parkinson, Durbidge and Kerr) like to say they are just cheerleaders for Scotty and the good beer movement.’’

Stone & Wood was started in Byron Bay in the midst of the GFC by former CUB executives Ross Jurisich, Jamie Cook and Brad Rogers.

“We chucked in really good-paying jobs and sold or mortgaged everything we had to have a crack,’’ Jurisich says in an interview over a pale ale or two at the trendy new Loose Moose craft beer bar in Broadbeach. For the first three years, it was like a murder scene – there was red (ink) everywhere.’’

Today, Jurisich says, Stone & Wood is enjoying 100 per cent year-on-year growth and is Australia’s No.2 independent brewer, behind Coopers. It employs 90 staff at its two breweries at Byron Bay and Murwillumbah.

“The large breweries control 90 to 95 per cent of the market but with that domination comes a lack of creativity. Sooner or later, consumers start to demand flavour,’’ Jurisich says of the rise of craft beers.

“The big guys have been slow to react and that’s allowed the little guys like us to swoop in under the radar and get a foothold. A very, very small foothold, but a foothold nonetheless.’’

Jurisich says Stone & Wood has been approached by the major brewers but has no plans to sell.

“We didn’t get into it for the money and we really like what we do,’’ he says. “For us, it’s as much a hobby as it is a job. We’re just lucky that our hobby puts food on the table.’’

Not to mention a good beer.

This article first appeared in the July edition of Queensland Business Monthly.