| The Beer Seer |
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How did you get into serious beer? It goes back to the 1990s and my late teens. I was having lunch at the Tewantin Hotel on Queensland's Sunshine Coast with my parents. It had a really extensive beer menu for the time - about five beers! Among the XXXX was a beer called Canetoad. It was 7 per cent alcohol and Dad and I were amused by the name and the strength, so we tried it. You liked it and the rest is history ... I absolutely hated it! But it got me thinking that not all beer was meant to taste the same, so from then on I tried to look for new beers wherever I could. It wasn't so much of an obsession then, it was just I'd see something I hadn't tried and would give it a taste. If you'd told me 12 or 15 years ago I was going to be making a living out of beer I would've laughed at you. But gradually the obsession built up. Obsession? Passion probably sounds a bit better but when the first thing you do in the morning is think about beer, it's an obsession! But you also make a living from beer. That happened gradually. The Spotted Cow cellars in Toowoomba was my local bottle shop. It always had a great selection of beers and I got to know the staff from spending a lot of time there hunting out new brews. I also got to know the distributors and would annoy the reps, chasing new beers. Eventually, the Cow came to realise that I wasn't just annoying, I also knew quite a bit. So they asked me to start hosting tastings and in-store appearances. I got paid to do what I was doing anyway: going in and talking to people about beer!
And the title beer sommelier? In 2004, the guys from the National Festival of Beer found out what I was doing and got me to do a spot at the festival. In the program I was referred to as ‘Ian Watson, Beer Sommelier'. Then, when the Spotted Cow Hotel was renovated to include a European beer café, they asked me to work there which, to the best of my knowledge, made me Australia's first professional beer sommelier. Sommelier is a wine word. Why is the beer sommelier a new phenomenon? I don't know. In some ways it's blindingly obvious but in other ways the reasons are more elusive. I think it's that beer is a victim of its own success and the breadth of its appeal. It's taken for granted. Also, because of the success of the much-the-same lagers, people have generally had a greater variety of wine at their disposal than beer. With fewer styles of beer available there wasn't as much thought put into matching it up with food. But even matching wine with food is a relatively modern thing. With the growing popularity of beer and the wider variety becoming available, people are starting to discover how well beer and a huge range of foods go together. What are the differences between beer and wine sommeliers? None at all. When it comes to assisting the customers, collaborating with the kitchen, working with your stock and your menu, it's exactly the same as with wine. Your role is to help customers discover the world of beer and food, and increase their enjoyment of both. How do people respond to you matching beer and food? They can be sceptical but if you can give someone the right beer with the right food, a light goes on in their head. Often it's a beer they otherwise wouldn't have liked but when they get it with the food they go: "Yeah, now I see where this is coming from." What are your favourite matchings? My favourite beer and food matchings would have to be the ones with chocolate. At one dinner I had truffles made with Trois Pistoles and served it up with Trois Pistoles - that was fantastic. I always think of chocolate with dark beers like that but then one of my favourites was to match St Arnou's St Cloud - a Belgian white beer - with a lemon myrtle-scented white chocolate truffle in a dark chocolate case. It went brilliantly and it shocked a lot of people, and even surprised me. What are the big mistakes that restaurants make in terms of beer? Assuming that because a beer is a different brand, it's also a different beer - that's the biggest one. Assuming that if they've got a full strength, a mid-strength and a light beer, irrespective of what they are, then they've got the bases covered. And just not thinking about their beer. You don't have to have an extensive range to have a good beer menu - you can have a sound menu with a dozen beers all up, and your bases are covered. What's essential is a well-thought-out menu and a dozen beers between tap and bottle - that combo's going to please most people. Okay then, if you had to choose your desert island beers ... It would still be hard but [long pause] I'd take a Saison Dupont. I would also take a Rochefort Trappiste 10. You would want a few sessionals too, so I'd take Emerson's Pilsener and Redoak Honey Ale. Finally, I'd want the Coopers Stout, which is always very handy to have - especially as I'd hope there'd be some oysters on the island! |
From plumber to Australia's first professional beer sommelier. Ian Watson's living the dream as head brewer at Sunshine Coast Brewery, and beer 'n' food matching consultant du jour to restaurants across Australia. Matt Kirkegaard reports.
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