Based in Mt Kuring-gai in Sydney’s north, Colin aka “Goblin” has been brewing his Pale, Strong, and Dark Ales along with the occasional Bitter since 2006.
I met up with Colin on his weekly brew day in the Goblin Cave to help brew the latest batch of Dark Ale, with a rich malt taste and a nice bitterness from Fuggles hops, this dark amber ale is a good substitute for when you don’t want to go the full stout.
All the grain used is crushed on site, so as Colin made sure that all the brew equipment was ready I took over filling the hopper on the crusher, getting a head full of the rich aromas of freshly milled grain.
With the water ready for mashing, out came the big paddle and it was time to stir, think of porridge, really thick porridge, and you’ll be close to the consistency. It gets better as you add more water and everything gets soaked becoming more like thick soup. So with the upper body getting a workout, Colin made sure the temps were right by juggling the hot and the cold taps and the mash was left to sit for a while.
Colin has brought Happy Goblin to a comfortable level, whereby he only needs to brew once a week. This keeps the customers in beer and Colin only needs to be at the brewery 2 days a week, this also allows him to indulge in his other passion of rock climbing, as well as sharing the brewing equipment with Ekim Brewing.
Currently making 250L batches, equipment is slowly being sourced to bring that up to 600L allowing Colin to brew even less frequently.
You won’t find Happy Goblin’s beers in pubs, but you will find them in bottle shops (check the web site for stockists) and at Paddy’s hop harvest festival and Warners at the Bay Beer Fest.
With the mash complete, it was time to hook up the pump and send the goodness to the wort boiler, batch sparging as we went. That done, the wort boiling and the Fuggles hops added, it was time for a late lunch - so off to the local take away for some Colin burgers and chips (yes, the shop does call them Colin burgers and they are awesome). Settling down for lunch Colin made the big mistake saying “I hope it doesn’t boil over”, and with the next bite of lunch sure enough she starts to come over the top. Luckily it was only a small amount and it was quickly cleaned up but it was enough to keep us on edge through the rest of the meal.
With lunch over and the wort drained it was on to the un-glamorous side of brewing, cleaning out the grain. 55kgs of dried grain doesn’t look much but when it’s been soaked it not only weighs heaps more but takes up a lot more room, added to the fact you have to scoop it out from the bottom of the mash tun and it’s still steaming hot. Fun fun fun, but its part of the process and someone has to do it. All the spent grain goes to stock feed, in this case pigs.
With my time at Happy Goblin running out there was just time to get a few tips for those thinking of starting a Micro brewery. They are: start home brewing and nail your intended beers first (great beers will promote themselves). Try to be financially secure – if you go in owing bucket loads of money there is too much pressure to compromise. Decide on your size – going over 30 000L a year takes you out of the micro brewery excise rebate. And most of all remember beer may be a way of life but it should not be your whole life.
My thanks to Colin for allowing me to help on the brew, but for your time and patience as well.
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