BREWERY FOCUS Iced T-bar dispense for two of Lion Nathan’s drive brands. Making their world a more sociable place A look at Lion Nathan in Australia “We inspected a Originally from New Zealand, Lion Nathan is now an pilot brewery Australian-based company with most profits deriving complete with a from its 42% of that beer market. Today it majors on glass fermenters so beer, wines, spirits and RTDs with ten breweries (four you can see where in Australia and six in New Zealand), a spirit packaging the yeast is, a ten- facility in Auckland, ten high-end wineries (even one in booth flavour-profile Oregon) and a chain of 40 liquor outlets in NZ. There is room with access to even a home-brew kit company. In total it has 2,800 supply beers between the two staff whose core purpose is to ’make their world a rows so that the more sociable place’. sample delivery cannot interfere with the profilers as well In New Zealand Lion has 65% By Roger Putman as banks of market share with the two major research breweries being Lion brewery in instruments.” roup Technical Director Bill Auckland (about to undergo a major staff offer support across the whole G Taylor who is also known to redevelopment) and Canterbury business. One of these is Peter Healy most readers as immediate Past brewery in Christchurch. On the at Castlemaine who we shall meet President of the Institute of Brewing South Island are Speights at later in this article and five are based and Distilling showed me around his Dunedin and boutique brewer Mac’s in Auckland. The department’s new corporate facility at Lidcombe with a brewery in Nelson and a expertise majors on beer but it has just west of Sydney beside the smaller craft brewery associated helped with propagation of wine Toohey’s Auburn plant. Bill with the Shed 22 restaurant in yeasts and efficiency improvements explained Lion Nathan had four Wellington. Thus with the restaurant at CBC, the spirits operation in major breweries in Australia – based James Squire Brewhouses in Auckland. It conducts leading edge Tooheys next door, Castlemaine Melbourne and Sydney and the Malt technology trials including the CSS Perkins up in Brisbane, South Shovel brewery in Sydney which we stabilisation system which has Australian Brewing Company in shall visit in a later issue, Lion recently moved from trial to routine Adelaide and Swan far away in Nathan caters for the main stream usage at Tooheys and a small cross Western Australia. We shall inspect customer yet nurtures the growing flow filtration unit at Brisbane. It has Tooheys and Castlemaine in more interest in craft beers. links with government and industry detail later in this article. Not long ago beers did not tend to bodies, partnerships with licenced cross Australian state boundaries producers (mainly InBev UK) and Table 1: Lion Nathan’s leading brands and much work has been carried out educationalists like ICBD in to unlock beers geographically to Edinburgh. Brand %ABV OG °P Colour BU provide a national core range of In detail, Brewing Development products supported by still popular Director Jeff Potter and his team of Tooheys Extra Dry 5.0 10.6 10 10 regional beers. Some of Lion experienced brewers deals with Tooheys New 4.6 10.5 10 17 Nathan’s leading brands are shown problem solving, flavour matching Hahn Premium Light 2.7 7.7 10 10 across sites, contingency planning, Hahn Premium 5.0 11.4 8 18 in Table 1. XXXX Gold 3.5 8.1 9 14 Bill’s Technical Group under new technologies and supporting XXXX Bitter 4.8 10.5 9.5 19 direct reports Peter David, Jeff breweries. Technical Best Practice Potter and Donald Nelson and their Director Donald Nelson looks after The BREWER & DISTILLER • Volume 2 • Issue 11 • November 2006 • www.ibd.org.uk 42 Around the Technical department The flavour profile booths… …which are serviced from the rear so that tasting is not disrupted by sample delivery. LEFT: A 50-litre model brewery… …with (ABOVE) glass fermenters so you can see where the yeast actually is. quality systems and standards, audits of plants and suppliers as well as legal compliance and regulatory issues. Technical Services Director Peter David with Peter David Condensing T bar dispense for L-N brands. introduced me to some of his his young team for four of them have from CSIRO, Louise Robinson came Technical been recruited in the last twelve from Waite Agricultural Research Services team. months. They are, of course, Institute, Alasdair Clem is newly From the left - competent in their roles now but qualified from Heriot Watt and Miles Barraclough; they will all go through the IBD Michael Oberdieck comes from Peter David; qualifications in a programme of Germany’s Black Forest where he Michael planned development and grow into worked in a fruit distillery and is a Oberdieck; the leaders of the future. It is all Weihenstephan graduate. Alasdair about lifting capabilities and future In addition to the four new Clem; Jeff proofing the Lion operations. recruits, the final two members of Goodieson; Peter David started in the lab at the team have many years of Louise South Australian Brewing Company industry experience between them. Robinson and in 1984, he was IoB Centenary New Product brewer Jeff Goodieson Greg Organ. Scholar in 1989 and has been obtained his brewing qualifications Brewing Manager at both Tooheys from the University of Ballarat and RIGHT: Bill Taylor and South Australian Brewing. has worked in production roles in catches up with his Miles Barraclough joined recently South Australia before moving to Brewer & Distiller. The BREWER & DISTILLER • Volume 2 • Issue 11 • November 2006 • www.ibd.org.uk 43 BREWERY FOCUS Sydney in 2002. Last but by no well as banks of research some of the team have recently been means least Sensory scientist Dr instruments. Peter’s labs and those hosting information evenings in Greg Organ has many years of of the main plant are interlinked with regional Australia in association brewing flavour experience and possibilities of useful cross flow of with the Department of Primary oversees the sensory training for the ideas and information. Industries and the maltster Joe group in addition to developing There is no doubt that this White. The sessions were aimed at specialist analytical capability via a technical team is not only passionate ensuring access to the best recently acquired GC/MS about science and brewing but also information on producing quality We inspected a pilot brewery about spreading the knowledge and barley but included a beer and food- complete with a glass fermenters so appreciation of beer to the public. A matching dinner as an interactive you can see where the yeast is, a ten- number of the team are involved in way to give a brewers perspective of booth flavour-profile room with hosting beer dinners as part of what quality barley and malt brings access to supply beers between the festivals , beer judgings and food to the final product. Now that sounds two rows so that the sample delivery events throughout the year .Through like impacting their world at a cannot interfere with the profilers as a concept called Partners in Grain, sociable pace. I A closer look at Tooheys The brewery was founded in 1869 by two staunchly Catholic and Irish Republican brothers, John Thomas and James Matthew Toohey. Thus started an intense rivalry with English protestants Tooth’s Kent Brewery which became part of CUB in the 1980s and closed in 2004 to free up “In 1976, the tied hotel system was the inner-city real estate. outlawed by the John and James bought a Trade Practices small brewery in the Commission and Darling Harbour area of with some slick Sydney in 1869. advertising Tooheys was to gain the upper hand in market n 1873, Terry’s Albion share with a beer IBrewery on Elizabeth called Tooheys Street nearby was purchased Draught.” and the Tooheys set about expansion renaming it the Standard Brewery a couple of years later. Tooths had a stronger share of the central Sydney market while Tooheys was predominant in the more suburban western Sydney areas. But in 1976, the tied hotel system was outlawed by the ABOVE: View of the malt storage Trade Practices Commission facilities at Auburn. One of the and with some slick 4000hl ‘square’fermenters is on the advertising Tooheys was to left. The inset left, shows the shallow gain the upper hand in conical bottom. The BREWER & DISTILLER • Volume 2 • Issue 11 • November 2006 • www.ibd.org.uk 44 Brewing at Tooheys Malt is delivered in curtain sided trailers. The support bars and Brewhouse control panel. tarpaulin are stored after intake and the vehicle returns with a load of beer. General brewhouse view. The large diameter tube in the centre is the A mash vessel fitted with double hydrators – a common Australian external calandria housing shared between the two brew streams. facility to get the mash in faster. You do not see these very often. 1977 vintage 600hl per hour vertical Beneath the lauter tun showing the vast array of run off pipes. leaf beer filters. The BREWER & DISTILLER • Volume 2 • Issue 11 • November 2006 • www.ibd.org.uk 45 BREWERY FOCUS market share with a beer called The 14.1ha Auburn site has grown loading. There are two streams but Tooheys Draught. CUB bought over the years from a packaging only they share a single external Tooths Brewery in the mid 1980s plant in the 1950s to the more than 3 calandria and vapour recovery and today market shares in NSW are million hectolitre brewery today.