feature
When did you first decide you
wanted to make craft beer for a
living?
About four years ago my fiancé was
trying to decide what he wanted to
do as a career and when I asked him,
‘if you could do anything in the whole
world without any restrictions, what
would it be?’, he said he wanted to be
a brewer because we had got quite
into trying new beers. Now, I couldn’t
imagine doing anything else with my
life.
What is the secret to making the
perfect craft beer (without giving
too much away)?
To make beer you have to use malted
grains, hops, water and yeast. It’s that
simple! You just have to get creative
and decide what hops is going to best
complement the grain you are using
and yeast has a huge part to do with
the flavour outcome.
What is your signature recipe? How
long has it taken to perfect this?
I have a few! Our choc mint milk stout
is made with lactose and fresh mint and
has an awesome fresh-burst after taste.
Our red frog beer has a pilsner base
and is made with red frog lollies. It’s got
lactic acid in it so it’s a bit sour and we
Chelsea’s fiancé Mitch
currently works at
Toowoomba Homebrewers
while Chelsea writes a blog
called Beer’s a Craft, enters
‘beertography’ competitions
and loves creating other
products including lip balms,
beard oils and soap out of
beer and hops.
Chelsea and Mitch are due to
get married in April next year
and the whole wedding is
beer themed.
also have a vanilla bean porter, which
is really creamy. It doesn’t take long
to perfect a beer if you get the recipe
relatively right the first time.
I usually love to experiment with crazy
flavours. My fiancé is really good at
sticking to styles of beer and making
them his own. He has designed a really
nice pale ale that’s a bit citrus-y to be
our start up beer for the brewery.
Do you have any favourite brews
beside your own?
My favourite brewery would have to
be BrewCult. All of their beers are
awesome and unique. They make
a vinegar beer sometimes, which is
awesome. I was privileged enough to
go and brew with Hendo (the owner) in
the brewery at the start of this year.
Describe your dream brewery.
Big, open, relaxed. I would love to have
a commercial sized brewery one day.
My very supportive and handsome
fiancé has studied Brewing Science and
Technology so we will be opening and
running the business together. I would
love to brew but we also really needed
someone on the business side of things
and this is where my USQ degree skills
come in.
By studying business, I will be able
to save a lot of money and fully
understand the business side of
operations by using my newly learned
accounting, mar