Ale and hearty
by
Andrew Lees
For a state of dedicated beer lovers, few of us brew our own. But
Mark Hopps, Coordinator, Transnational Quality Projects, is a true
brewmeister and his creations have a microbiologist's seal of approval.
Hopps has been brewing for five years, in styles ranging from bitters to pilsners and hefeweizens. A love of cooking first attracted him to the process of beermaking, and the lure of creating beers with “more flavour” than the mass produced product sealed the deal. Now he has half tonne deliveries of malt directly to his home, a move that raised a few female eyebrows.
“Our brewing group sometimes do bulk orders because the ingredients are hard to get,” Hopps said. “I had a half tonne of malt delivered about a month ago and that raised the eyebrows of my girlfriend a little bit. She was asking 'whose is this?' and 'when are they coming to get it?'.”
Hopps is a beer artisan rather than a beer guzzler. “I don't drink a lot myself,” he said. “It's not a case of making cheap beer; it's all about making a quality product with good flavour.”
Hopps has regular meetings with a small group of fellow brewers including professional beermakers and a microbiologist.
“There's a group of about ten of us who meet every six weeks. There's friendly competition; sometimes we'll set a certain style of beer and everyone has to come back with a sample. We'll then have blind tastings and everyone will judge,” he said.
“We're fortunate enough to have a couple of professional brewers who come along. There's a microbiologist from Adelaide University who comes along as well, and if we have questions about malt or hops they can generally help us out.”
But it's not all beer and skittles. Hopps recalled an incident involving faulty taps, a dark ale and a roof. “Sometimes I'll attach a connection to a keg and I'll forget to turn the tap off. I've sprayed dark beer all over a white roof before. My partner didn't mind too much because I had to clean it up.”
So now that he's an established beer connoisseur, which pub brew would Hopps most like to emulate?
“Little Creatures Pale Ale is my favourite Australian beer. In terms of imports, I really like the beers from a certain brewery in the north of England called Black Sheep.”
So it looks like the Cooper's brothers could have some quality competition in the near future. With a name like Hopps the marketing opportunities are endless.