GABS Brewer: Dereck Hales from Bad Shepherd Brewing

What sort of beer are you making for GABS?
Baltic Porter.

What’s it called?
Bad Shepherd Brew Crew Baltic Porter by Bigsi (The Marketer).

Where did the inspiration come from?
Bad Shepherd brews beers in a sub series called The Brew Crew where our employees get to make their own beer (with help from our brewers of course). In this case our marketing guy Bigsi wanted to make a beer with liquorice. He’s crazy about liquorice! We thought the best fitting style was a Baltic Porter with some liquorice support. So we brewed it with star anise in the boil and will be adding black Sambuca to the beer after it’s completed its fermentation.

What’s the weirdest ingredient you’ve ever added to a beer?
Well our Double Chocolate Hazelnut Brown had hazelnuts, cocoa, Crème de Cacao and Frangelico so that was pretty fun. I suppose I’ve had more fun on the homebrewing front though. I once made a 9.7 per cent Coffee Raspberry Brown Ale that I soured with brett and lacto for 12 months. Then I aged it for two months with bourbon soaked oak chips. It’s four years after I packaged it now and it’s something spectacular! I’ve only got three bottles left so I’m guarding them with my life!

GABS drinking preference – tasting paddles or a full glass?
Full glass. I don’t get a lot out of tasting a million beers but I can appreciate the fun of it. Ah, I suppose I’ll get sucked in and do the paddles too. I’ll be too excited by all the beers. So, um, yeah – tasting paddles!

The Great Australasian Beer Spectapular is on May 19-21 at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton, Victoria, May 27 at Sydney Showground Olympic Park, NSW and June 16-17 at ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane, Auckland.