Eddie 'Mash Tun' McWhirter, roving reporter for 'Bottles, Barrels & Burps' magazine, (Bringing you all that's best in Craft Brewing since 2010!) managed to secure an interview with the elusive brewer Alan Knight which was published in their January 2011 issue and we are indebted to them for allowing us to reproduce it here.
Mc. Alan, thanks for taking the time to...
K. Is this going to take long?
Mc. No, but our readers would like to hear a bit about you.
K. Can we drink BEER while we do this?
Mc. We already are.
K. Oh....(Unintelligible)
Mc. So now you are from Britain originally is that right?
K. Yes. Brighton to be precise. Now there's a fine town. Brilliant place to grow up. Mind you, I still left.
Mc. Why was that?
K. I don't really want to go into it. There was folk singing involved.
Mc. Oh dear, yes, perhaps we'd best skip past that. So did you work as a brewer in the UK?
K. No. Not professionally, that came later. But I learned to make home brew when my student grant style finances failed to keep pace with my fervent desire to process as much cask conditioned ale through my alimentary canal as humanly possible whilst still being able to afford to live somewhere that had a roof on it.
Mc. You couldn't afford to drink beer...
K. That's what I just said.
Mc. Sorry, you tend to be excessively florid in your speech.
K. I know. I do it to be irritating.
Mc. I see...Now in 1987 you moved to Canada...
K. I did indeed. And that's really where it all started. Back then Canada had some of the worst beer I'd ever thought possible.
Mc. Just Molsons and Labatts right?
K. Exactly. Just two huge breweries making an endless lineup of insipid girly lagers and pretending they were drinkable. It was a nightmare. Don't get me wrong, I loved living in Toronto but the beer...Well, it was just foul. So there was nothing for it but try and remember what I already knew and then take it from there. I got a fermenter and a couple of stainless pots, found a home brew shop that sold grain and...
Mc. You got into full grain mash brewing?
K. Oh yes. Extract brewing just didn't give the right results. And it was just as well that I did because it was at that point that the Upper Canada Brewing Company started up and I went and applied for a job. The moment I mentioned that I had done real grain brewing they hired me on the spot.
Mc. Wow, it was that easy eh?
K. That easy. The industry was so new that anyone who even seemed a bit keen got hired.
Mc. And you were how old at that point?
K. Twenty seven.
Mc. What had you been doing before that?
K. Mainly being a complete waste of space rat bag if I'm honest. Drama training sets you up pretty well for that. But I'd been working in a record shop for a while.
Mc. So what did you do at Upper Canada?
K. Learning how stuff worked mainly. I wanted to get straight into the Brew House or filtration but the place was a union shop so I had to wait my turn. It was quite sad really. The bloody union ended up being the death of the place. If the keen chaps can't get ahead then they leave and all you have left is the time servers who don't really CARE.
Mc. And you left?
K. Yes, after two and a half years. That however is when I really learned to brew. I got a job as assistant at the Amsterdam Brewpub working with Joel Manning.
Mc. Ah, I've heard of him.
K. I should hope so too. He's one of the greats. He still brews in Toronto at the Mill Street Brewery. He taught me to brew properly and how to make breweries do stuff they were not even designed to do. A very clever chap. I always think it's important for brewers to acknowledge the person who taught them. So I'm doing that right here. Joel Manning was my mentor in brewing and I'm very glad of that.
Mc. So how long were you at the Amsterdam?
K. Just over a year. They wanted to cut my hours back during the slow months and I couldn't afford that so I went solo as a consultant. The thing was, at that time there were a couple of companies selling brewpub equipment to bars. But the training they gave wasn't that good so a lot of these places started to get into difficulties and stopped brewing. I'd keep an eye out for those that needed help and then go in with a deal for them. I'd do the brewing, supply all the ingredients etc and then sell them the beer when it was ready. They just paid their excise and that was it.
Mc. Good system!
K. It got better. These systems were just designed to do extract brewing. I ended up being able to afford to build my own mash/lauter tun system and switched to using that in each pub. That meant I halved my costs and doubled the quality of the beer. It got to the pointy where I was leaving the house each morning with the keys to seven breweries in my pocket. Ah....
Mc. What's the matter?
K. My beer seems to have evaporated. I need more. MORE I TELL YOU!
Mc. Me too.
K. There we go, try that. It's my latest IPA.
Mc. Yum....(Slurping noises..) Now I believe it was around then that you did your BJCP exam?
K. Oh yes...I was just getting to that. The American Homebrewers Association were running the programme, funded by the homebrew suppliers industry. You just had to get in touch with their local rep, and luckily there was one in Toronto, and sit the exam.
Mc. What was the studying like?
K. Oh terrible. Just terrible. Tasting sessions in craft brewery bars, blind tastings with import stuff, trips to Europe to visit places like Munich, it was very arduous. I'm kidding. It was fantastic.
Mc. And you got your judging certificate?
K. I did. I got my certified level first and got my recognised level within a year. I got to judge in some amazing competitions in Canada and the US.
Mc. Have you done much judging recently?
K. Not for a while. I got a bit outspoken a few years ago and refused to give Monteith's Radler a score. Then I said it tasted like industrial floor polish. They never asked me back.
Mc. Hey ho....
K. Exactly.
Mc. So, you came to New Zealand....when?
K. 1993. It was sheer luck. I happened to mention to a malting company rep one day that I really wanted to go to New Zealand. He remembered that and a few months later, at a brewing conference in Vancouver, he met a brewing consultant who told him of the problems they were having getting a brewer for a place in Westport. He put us in touch and I had a work permit in ten days.
Mc. Blimey.... Westport?
K. Yes, I know. Strange place to end up, but it was a great brewery. Still is for that matter though it's changed names since. It used to be called Miners. The day I went for the job interview was sunny and warm. I thought it was going to be like that a lot of the time.
Mc. And was it?
K. No.
Mc. So where after that?
K. In 1995 I went to Hamilton to brew for the Kahikatea brewery, followed by a consulting job on Norfolk Island and then on to Waiheke. The original owners of the vineyard had bought a system with no clear idea of what to do with it. They asked me to come and take a look. I liked the brewery and I loved the island. I've been here ever since.
Mc. But you did some work in Australia too didn't you?
K. Yes, I was backwards and forwards over there quite a bit about ten years ago. Their craft brewing was a bit slow to get started but I can't believe how good it's got recently.
Mc. So that brings us up to date. Lets talk a bit about your approach to brewing.
K. Wait. My beer evaporated again. Looks like yours is about to as well. Drink up and we'll try the Porter next.
Mc. Righto.
K. OK then, approach to brewing. Well, like a lot of brewers over the years I got fascinated by the idea of amazingly over the top beers when I first started. I wanted to see how far I could push the thing. See how many different ingredients I could pack into a brew etc. Then, after a while I got far more into a minimalist approach. One type of malt one hop variety. Keep it absolutely simple and see just how much depth of flavour you can get from the smallest possible variables. I think that is a far greater challenge.
Mc. What's the weirdest thing you've ever brewed?
K. Chocolate is tricky, but quite good. I once brewed a kumera stout that worked well..
Mc. As in sweet potatoes?
K. Yes, they come out very nicely. Breakfast cereals are worth trying especially oats, but rice is rubbish. Chestnuts work well but honey and maple syrup don't. And I have never tried that old recipe with the whole cooked chicken and don't really fancy trying.
Mc. Finally, can we talk for a moment about your love of Single Malt Whisky?
K. Hell yes! We'd better drink some while we do though....
Mc. Fine by me.
K. We'll start off with a Speyside and see where we go from there.
