Working with a hangover is never fun, even if you’re a brewer. The effects of Urbanaut’s belated Christmas party at Sawmill the day before are apparent on the brew crew as they get stuck into their work one day in late January.
Head brewer and co-founder, Bruce Turner, main photo, shows me around the brewery and introduces me to the crew before heading to the office to make some production plans for the week. “I’m just the guy that does the bits in between these days. I’m all over the place, all around the place.”
They are brewing Newtown Hazy Pale Ale today, a simple recipe they brew a lot, so it’s a good one to go easy on given today’s mental capacity. Floyd is working, slow but steady, preparing the grain bill, then carrying the sacks of malt up the steps to the mash tun. He worked in the bar before being offered a job on the brew team. “I never thought I’d be a brewer to be honest, but I really, really enjoy it… It’s not so good lifting bags when you’re hungover though.” It doesn’t prevent him from joyfully striking poses every time he sees me photographing him.
Max, who has left the brewery since I visited, arrives to take over mashing in while Floyd moves on to cleaning tanks. Max also originally worked on the bar, then moved into packaging downstairs before joining the brew team. It’s hot work, with the mash tun up near the highest point of the building. It’s too windy today to have the big doors at the end of the building open but there’s a fan mounted above. “We’ve only just put that fan in. It was like Thursday last week… it’s a lifesaver. Why didn’t we do this years ago?” Before it would get up to 35 degrees up there.
Bruce comes around to check how things are going. “Might do some pretend brewing today, so I get in the photos. I better get my gumboots out of the locker.”
I spot brewery manager, Dave Huff, preparing beakers of beer from some of the fermenters and covering them with tin foil. Bruce explains it’s a simple test for diacetyl, a fault in beer. “We’ve been doing this for about three years. And as far as we’re aware, we haven’t had any beers out with diacetyl. And the useful thing is it points out who’s got different thresholds for [detecting] it. I’ve always actually been quite low at detecting it. In the UK [where Bruce learned to brew], quite a lot of beers have it as part of the flavour profile. In New Zealand, it’s unacceptable. I actually try not to do it now because I can put my team off… where I’m like, ‘I can’t get any’. Whereas Max can smell it, and say yeah, 100%. Dave and Floyd are also pretty good. So, I’m kind of like, I’ll let you do that.”
As I prepare to leave Floyd says: “I wish you came on a day where I wasn’t feeling so hungover”. Dave chips in, “I was just trying to hide. I wasn’t feeling photogenic… so sorry if it didn’t look like I was cooperating. Normally I’m a bit of a show pony.”
I say farewell and leave them hot and tired in Kingsland.