From homebrewing to award-winning beers, Zierholz keeps traditional German brewing alive in Canberra

When Zierholz Brewery closed its Fyshwick brewpub in 2020 due to COVID-19, Canberra lost one of its original brewpubs at the forefront of the microbrewery trend.

Despite the closure of the restaurant and pub, it was not the end for the local brewers who had been making German-style beer in Canberra since 2005.

Zierholz owner Christoph Zierholz retained the microbrewery in Fyshwick and still keeps German brewing traditions alive. Those traditions stem back to Christoph’s upbringing.

“My father was an accountant in Germany, and they migrated to Australia as a seachange with the idea of trying self-sufficiency, moving onto a 300-acre farm,” says Christoph.

“They weren’t fond of the local beers and did some homebrewing, and when I left home, their parting gift to me was a homebrew kit.”

Christoph dabbled in a little homebrewing for the benefits of cheap beer to fuel his university days but it never really clicked at that time.

“Homebrew kits are a little like microwave cooking – it’s very simple and you just end up washing a lot of bottles,” jokes Christoph.

It wasn’t until 2001 that a colleague of Christoph’s was going to a brewing demonstration by Colin Marshall, who was making a South German wheat beer, that things started falling into place.

“That was my father’s favourite type of beer, so I thought I’d go along. Colin covered the more technical aspects and lent me the kit and book and that’s where I got started.”

After producing an impressive Golden Ale and seeing a burgeoning talent, Colin convinced Christoph to join the Canberra homebrew club in 2001.

“There were lots of very clever inner city public servants. Richard Pass, the original brewer of the Wig and Pen was there. I met Richard Watkins, who now has Bentspoke. They had brother names for each other, no secret handshake but close,” Christoph laughs.

“Me being German and very efficient, I thought, all the other blokes go and run around the footy field for two hours so afterwards they can drink beer. In the homebrew club, you go straight to beer.”

With the support of the homebrew club, Christoph entered his beers in competitions, winning the local championship three times and the national championship a couple of times as an amateur, which gave him the confidence to brew beer on a larger scale.

While Zierholz has been through a number of iterations over the years, one thing remains consistent, and that’s Christoph’s commitment to his beer philosophy.

“My philosophy is for a nicely balanced beer that goes well with good food and conversation. I don’t want beer snobbery. It should be a simple thing with good ingredients and we’re lucky in Canberra that the main ingredient, the water, is very good.”

Christoph still brews Zierholz beers at the same location in Fyshwick, next door to the premises that previously housed his brewpub but has sold the pub fitout to Scott Masters, who has opened a BBQ restaurant called Smoke Masters.

Zierholz is still on tap at Smoke Masters, and is available at the Harmony Club and Tilley’s in Lyneham, and you’ll find Christoph manning a beer van in various locations around Canberra from Thursday to Sunday. The question of distribution raises some bigger concerns for Christoph.

“We’d love to do more partnerships where we make a house beer for a venue in Canberra, sit down with their team and design a beer together, have a bit of fun, the staff could see how it’s made, but we find that hard with the exclusive contracts that the venues are locked into. There is still a domination of the major beer distributors.”

Looking forward, Christoph is hopeful for future opportunities and says he still has a few more years in him.

“I really enjoyed the years we had at the brewpub, but it’s been 20 years of looking at a Fyshwick car park. I’d like to go somewhere where I could have a proper beer garden, which is a very German thing, and I’d like to have some space to grow and do the full-circle permaculture thing. A lot of the beer waste, like spent grain, is really good for soil improvement. We would need to find the right location but I would love to have a paddock to plate set up.”

The Zierholz van pops up around Canberra from Thursdays to Sundays. You can find where they’ll be by following them on Facebook and Instagram.