Two busy healthcare professionals decided to turn a backyard brewery into a business. In partnership with Hostplus, we find out how – and why.
By day, Robin Brown and Brad Schultz help save lives. By night, they make speciality beers in the backyard of Brown’s home in Brighton, Victoria.
Brown is a cardiothoracic surgeon (chest, heart and lungs). Schultz is a perfusionist (the person responsible for running the heart–lung bypass machine during an operation). They are behind the cheekily named, Black Heart Brewery, a small-volume boutique brewery in Victoria.
According to the pair, the two industries have convenient similarities.
“Surgery revolves around cleanliness, sterility and attention to detail,” says Brown. “The same is required for brewing. Elimination of infection is crucial in brewing as any contamination will spoil the brew. Attention to detail is also very important. As there are many steps in brewing, differences in very small amounts in temperature and pH etcetera, make a lot of difference to the final product.”
Schultz says the tools he uses in his role at the hospital aren’t so different from those in the brewery.
“At the hospital it's all pumps, tubing, gases and blood,” he says. “At the brewery it's all pumps, tubing, gases and beer. The day everything arrived at the brewery it was like all my Christmases came at once – pumps, hoses, bottling line, keg washer, filler and lots and lots of shiny stainless steel.”
So how does a doctor become a brewer? For Brown, it started back when he was a child.
“My father used to brew illegally under the house, in the days before Gough Whitlam legalised home brewing,” he says. After a stint in the UK developed his love for English ales, Brown returned to Australia with the intention of replicating them. “Good beers weren’t commercially available in Australia at the time,” he says. “Once I became proficient, I began to enter amateur brewing competitions.”
Brown’s efforts were rewarded. He won a handful of awards and is a two-time Champion Victorian Brewer. Having convinced Schultz to join him in his backyard venture, Brown decided to go commercial.
“We are a complete two-man show for the entire business,” says Brown. Finding time is the tricky part. “We generally have one brew day per week that’s compatible for both of us. So during this day we try to achieve as much as we can.”
This includes everything from brewing and packaging, to marketing and deliveries.
But despite their busy schedules (between surgery and brewing the duo only have a one-day weekend), the brewers say following their passion has paid off.
“There are too many people in all professions who have no significant interests outside their occupations,” says Brown. “Which means when they eventually get to retirement they have no interests to occupy them. We’ve had a multitude of difficulties and anxieties in the setting up of this business, but I have no regrets. We’ve settled into a nice spot where we have both our other occupations, but also an enjoyable business on the side.”
Schultz says the brewery also makes for a conveniently enjoyable distraction. “Our day jobs can be very stressful at times,” he says. “The day at the brewery goes a long way to relieving some of that stress. That's not to say that the brewery itself hasn't been without its stressful moments, but being in the brewery has given back so much more over the years. Sometimes the best decisions in life are made over a beer or two.”
This article is presented in partnership with Hostplus, superannuation you can take with you throughout your career.
