Gold Coast business owners aim for Sobah future for non-drinkers

A GOLD Coast start-up is making waves in the non-alcoholic beverage market with its unique indigenous drinks. They’re aimed at punters who want to drink beer, just without any alcohol, or nasty hangovers.

Lozen and Clinton Schultz with their creation Sobah, a non-alcoholic beer. Picture: Jerad Williams

HAVE you ever walked into a pub and asked for a non-alcoholic beer and been looked at like you’re crazy?

“For crying out loud this is a pub! Why would we stock that?” the bartender might have said.

Well the Gold Coasters behind indigenous non-alcoholic beer brand Sobah want to change that scenario.

Clinton Schultz, 38, first conceived of the idea of an indigenous non-alcoholic craft beer shortly after quitting drinking four years.

He missed the taste of beer but, when out with mates, was left with soft drinks or soda water as drinks options.

“I was getting frustrated. I could not find any option for people who wanted an adult drink but did not want the alcohol,” he said. So, Mr Schultz, a trained clinical psychologist, decided to start making non-alcoholic beer at home.

After trial and error, including the discovery of a yeast strain that does not consume maltose (therefore reducing the amount of ethanol), he settled on a recipe.

He approached the team at Pickled Pig Brewery, based in Tweed Heads South, who were initially sceptical.

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“They said it would not take but they gave it a go, and now we are one of their biggest customers,” Mr Schultz, who is of the Gamilaroi people, said.

They started brewing 200 litre batches last year, and that has now increased to 2000 litre batches.

Mr Schultz, together with wife Lozen, 37, who works full time in the business, initially started selling the beer from their food truck.

It was a hit with customers, and in October last year, they started selling cartons of the beer, as well as supplying cafes, restaurants and bottleshops.

“Every single person who tries it has the same reaction: it tastes like beer,” he said.

“And there is a simple reason why: it is beer, just without the alcohol.

“This way you can sit with your mates and have a beer. And they will be none the wiser that there isn’t any alcohol.”

However, there have been challenges.

The pair have invested $150,000 of their own money into the product. There are no investors, and the pair won’t consider bringing any on board at this stage as they want the business to remain indigenous owned.

While they have been successful with getting the beer in cafes and restaurants, bottleshops have been harder to crack, particularly in Queensland.

“People keep asking where can I buy your beer? But many bottleshops won’t stock it. So the answer is to ask the bottleshop to stock it,” Mrs Schultz said.

They initially sold it through their website, sobah.com.au, but that was canned because the beer is ‘live’, that is, not pasteurised, and therefore a perishable product.

However, a number of establishments have embraced Sobah.

Last Night On Earth in Southport will have Sobah products on tap when it opens.

It is also sold at the Inky Squid seafood restaurant at Terranora.

Sobah currently has 15 stockists in northern NSW and three on the Gold Coast.

Their goal for Sobah is to launch an associated not-for-profit charity, and feed funds from Sobah into the organisation, which will provide holistic drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs.

Sobah will be at FGS Ngullingi ya Wahlu (Us with You) Aboriginal arts markets, 20 Railway St, Southport, until April 16.