Sleeping with the enemy?

[antiphile]

Maybe someone wants to turn their hobby into a career in Sydney at the Malt Shovel Brewery.

[Beeblebrox]

Very interesting.

Not my cup of tea, both because it's the "craft brew" arm of a megaswill multinational, and because I'm happy in my current role of housekeeper, homebrewer, carer, gardener, dog walker etc.

 

If I'm not mistaken, The Malt Shovel (in its original incarnation) was the first brewery in Australia, run by James Squire, and his open vat fermentation was partially responsible for the death of Benelong; who drowned in a beer vat. I can think of better ways to go, but there are certainly plenty of worse ways too!

 

Interesting to see Lion taking a different tack now; trying to recruit craft brewers, rather than just take over their breweries on a philosophical level I can see how this could grate, but from a rational perspective, the outlay and ongoing costs of running a microbrewery could be prohibitive, and are not conducive to having a work/life, family balance, so it would be appealing to those who see supporting their family as overriding any philosophical objections.

 

Remember some of the rich nerds of today were hippies back in the 60's & 70's.

 

It'd also be a good way to get some experience and qualifications; learning enough to run a successful brewery before saying thank you and taking your knowledge with you to run your own competing business; though of course I'm sure the lawyers would have confidentiality clauses all over the contract when you sign up.