Burnley Brewing head brewer Michael Stanzel vows to make 52 beers in 52 weeks
This ambitious Melbourne brewer learnt the craft in his mate’s garage at 15. He won three-home brewing comps by 18, studied traditional German brewing methods and now plans to make a new beer every week, for the next year.
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Michael Stanzel’s first encounter with brewing beer came at age 15 in his mate’s garage.
He was too scared to experiment with home-brew at his parents’ house, in fear they’d get mad about his clever means to get alcohol underage.
Ironically he was allowed brew and drink a backyard-beer, but couldn’t walk into a bottle shop and legally buy a slab.
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“For Christmas that year I made dad’s favourite beer, a Pilsner,” he says.
“Dad asked: ‘Where’d you get this?’ and when I told him I’d made it, he said ‘bring it here, we’re going to make this at home.’”
Much to his mum’s displeasure of having the laundry smelling of beer, Michael practised the craft until he won a home-brew competition at 16.
He couldn’t accept the prize, due to his age, so sent his dad up in his name.
The next year he won again at age 17, and by 18 he had three titles under his belt.
After a Europe trip with his then-girlfriend and now wife Chloe Hoiberg, Michael moved to Germany to study a Brewer and Maltster apprenticeship at Ferdinand-von-Steinbeis-Schule Ulm.
The exclusive course was only available to permanent residents and fortunately, with Michael’s parents German heritage, he was able to apply for a German passport and snare a spot in the course.
“In my school there was only one other foreigner and 58 other German kids,” he said.
“So I had to do maths, physics, chemistry, ethics, social sciences, German and economics — all in a different language,”
“My German was pretty basic when I went over there. I’d go home after class and study the periodic table and work out what I’d been taught that day.”
Michael completed his three-year course in two and went on to make beer under his own label.
With Germany’s strict brewing purity regulations, Michael found another loophole to create a beer that would let his character and personality shine through. Instead of creating a traditional German beer, he made a ‘beer like’ creation with strawberry and coffee notes.
While Michael and Chloe were happy living abroad, they were swayed back when Michael was offered the head brewer role at Burnley Brewing in 2017.
“We’re always trying something new. Today I am making an orange and pine beer, made with orange peel and pine needles. It has a zesty aroma and subtle pine flavour.”
“An idea can come from anything, whether that’s reading a Harry Potter novel about him trying treacle pie and thinking — how can I make that into a beer? Or walking down the street and smelling lavender,” he says.
“Every time I smell or see something, it’s a new challenge.”
To feed Michael’s creative juices, the brewery is on a mission to make 52 beers in 52 weeks. So far he’s made 13 different varieties. “I’m going at a pretty OK pace … it gets the creative juices flowing and is a break in routine,” he says.
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