Cheers to Tassie craft brew
A narrow lane in the English city of York houses a fascinating collection of butcher shops and slaughterhouses. One of the most well-preserved medieval streets in the world, the shopfronts forming ‘The Shambles’ huddle closely around a low central channel. It was here, in the middle of the cobbled street, that butchers washed away their blood and offal. To this day, it is thought The Shambles takes its name from the Anglo- Saxon word ‘shammel’, referring to shelves that were used to display wares for sale.
Whilst English butcher shops dating to the 1350s have little relevance to modern-day Hobart, they go far in explaining the intriguing name of Shambles – one of the city’s most-loved craft breweries. “One of the first things I said when I walked into this place was, ‘Geez, it’s an absolute shambles’,” recalls co-owner and Head Brewer Cornel Ianculovici. “At the time I had no idea that this weird building full of ageing butchery equipment was exactly the place I’d been searching for. Hiding behind the orange lino, muddled floorplan and boarded up windows lay the inner-city opportunity of a lifetime.”
The son of Romanian immigrants, Cornel spent his early years in the quiet hamlet of New Norfolk before moving closer to Hobart for high school. “What was really formative for me was the establishment of a close friendship group,” recalls Cornel. “Our group of local mates has stayed together over the years and, looking back, we’ve been through a lot together. Some of my very favourite memories are of our camping trips, card games and shed parties. We came from various friendship groups in separate high schools, and then really hit it off when we all got together at college. Life back then was an endless cycle of rumpus room hangouts. By the time we all went to uni together we were inseparable.”
Cornel’s now business partner, Nick Blacklow, joined the group during its university years. “There was an instant connection,” says Cornel nodding. “Nick was a year behind us but he just fitted right in. It was as though he’d always been there.” The warm banter and mutual respect between these two mates is palpable. A couple of good guys who clearly have each other’s backs.
Nick and Cornel’s journey took the pair to the University of Tasmania and to fun-filled share houses. “I studied an Information Systems and Commerce degree,” explains Nick. “I filled it with accounting, commerce and economics subjects because that was what I was good at. I graduated with no real sense of what I wanted to do and found myself landing a job at a local institution, the Black Buffalo Hotel. I worked my way up to be Assistant Manager and that laid the groundwork for what became an international career in booze.”
Cornel’s story has striking similarities. “I enrolled in science because I’d loved both maths and science at school, not because I had a clear career path but because I just wanted to learn more. He pauses before laughing, “But I found maths at uni really boring and soon lost interest. Chemistry managed to hold my attention though, along with biochemistry. My very first job was what I would describe as a ‘bucket chemist’. I essentially got paid to mix sludge for a metallurgy company who were renting a lab at the uni.”
Whilst Nick’s finance talents were soon poached by international liquor giant Diageo, and later Brown-Forman, Cornel went on to pursue a career in teaching. “I ended up teaching for more than a decade and I think what I enjoyed most about it was breaking down the learning for others,” he says. “Teaching science became a case of ‘do what you like, do what you’re good at’, and I think I was better at explaining it than actually ‘doing’ it as an academic pursuit.”
Nick describes, “I’ve had a great time in finance roles connected to the liquor industry and they’ve taken me all over the world. But no matter where I’ve been living, I’ve always made it home to Tassie every year to join my mates on our annual pilgrimage to Maria Island.” He smiles, “To this day, it’s something we all make time for and it’s always a whole lot of fun. The boats may get a little bit bigger each year, but the characters remain the same.”
Cornel picks up the story. “If we trace the path back, I guess it began at uni. Like most students, we enjoyed a drink but we were always poor. None of us had proper jobs then.” He continues, “Some bright spark decided we should get into home brew, so off we went to grab a kit from the supermarket. You know, a plastic bucket, a can of syrup and a pack of out-of-date yeast. We were just students hoping for a few cheap beers. That year we all got each other home brew kits for our birthdays and we’d get together every month or so to clean out the second-hand bottles – we were always on a budget.”
Nick laughs, “Yeah, you can guess how it went. We’d often declare, ‘This is great beer, and so cheap too!” But to be fair, some of those beers actually weren’t too bad. I guess what we found out pretty quick too was that when we followed the instructions on the packet, things turned out a whole lot better.”
With a little knowledge under his belt, Cornel became intrigued by a chat with his now mother-in-law. “She used to home brew and described the process she’d followed. She’d use an old copper tub, the kind people used to heat water and wash clothes in. She’d used local hops and even had some 30-year-old freeze-dried hops still stashed in the freezer. I had my first introduction to powdered malt extracts and steeping whole grains too. Before long, my partner (now wife) and I borrowed her gear and gathered some ingredients.” Cornel recalls, “Our first attempt was way too bitter, but had great flavour. I remember thinking, ‘Holy shit, this is way better than my old home brew.’ I’d developed an itch for it.”
Cornel’s newfound passion saw him embark on a wild brewing journey. “One of my mates, Chuggy, shared my growing interest, so we started brewing together. We’d always be reading books and websites trying to deep dive into the science behind it. It was the science that really got me excited.” He continues, “It wasn’t long before we felt confident that we could make a decent quality brew at home that was almost as good as commercial beer.”
“Back at uni, and we’re talking the late ‘90s, Tassie was ruled by Cascade and Boags,” explains Nick. “If you were from the south, you were a Cascade drinker, and if you were from the north, it was Boags. There was no allegiance relating to flavour because it all tasted the same. It was just pure parochialism. Every pub had the same few beers on tap. If you managed to stumble across something that was an independent craft beer, or even an ale, it was a real treat.” Nick smiles as he recalls, “I remember just how much different flavours and different styles of beer caught our attention.”
“A few years later Moo Brew was the first craft brewery to kick things off in Tassie,” continues Nick. “In a way, it was like they were sticking a finger up to the two large companies who had dominated the local beer scene for so long. David Walsh opened Tassie’s eyes to a whole new world and I really do take my hat off to him for that.” He grins, “Not to mention everything else he’s done for this state. Like a lot of small businesses here, we have a lot to thank him for.”
“I’d really discovered a love for the science of brewing by this point,” recalls Cornel. “Chuggy and I had spent three or four years cobbling more and more gear together and had set up a small brewery in his shed at home. We handmade a lot of the equipment we needed, including converting a fridge into a fermentation chamber. Our equipment was a bit dinky, but the flavours were getting better and better – to the point where our mates were keen to throw in for some ingredients in exchange for a few drinks.” Lowering his voice a little, he whispers, “We eventually convinced our wives to let us buy a custom-designed stainless steel nano-brewery to brew beer ‘for life’. I remember saying, ‘Just think of how much money we’ll save! We’ll never have to buy beer again!’”
A turning point arrived in 2014 when Cornel shared a taste of his brew with a mate who ran a local Hobart pub. “The pub owners loved what we were doing and we quickly got swept into a discussion about setting up a micro-brewery on site. Whilst that didn’t end up eventuating, what it did do was give me the confidence to start working on a business plan. I was still teaching at the time. Could I actually step away and make a decent living out of brewing?”
“My wife, Anahita, was amazingly supportive,” nods Cornel. “She’d witnessed my growing brewing obsession unfold and was super excited when the opportunity arose to consider a career change. Her one caveat was that she wanted the business plan to be thorough. If our entire nest egg was going to be put on the line, the figures needed to stack up. I’ll always be grateful for her support and encouragement.”
Cornel knew his answer lay buried within some serious planning and research. “I set about developing a blueprint. In the back of my mind I knew that it had to be a brew pub, not just a production brewery. Those were my favourite places to visit interstate, and I knew that they were way more financially viable. I wanted it to be located in central Hobart and the figures told me it needed to be at least a 1000L brewhouse.” He continues, “With the basics in hand I then turned to the one person I knew could provide me with the market knowledge and inside industry perspective I needed. Nick.”
Familiar with the global liquor market, and with access to invaluable data, Nick provided clarity and confidence to Cornel’s thinking. “I got excited straight away. The plan certainly stacked up and I could see the opportunity that Tassie presented too,” says Nick. “Of course we’ve tweaked a lot of things along the way, but I was keen to be involved from day one. The next step was finding some other investors so we could get things off the ground.”
After gathering a group of supportive shareholders, Cornel and Nick were poised to create Hobart’s newest craft brewery. “Funding it turned out to be the easy part,” laughs Cornel. “I spent all of 2015 hunting for the perfect location. I didn’t think it would be too hard… but oh boy, I was wrong. I couldn’t tell you how many properties I looked at, but it was a lot. We had a couple of deals fall through, which created a whole lot of heartache. It was stressful as I really felt the pressure of getting things right for the shareholders. I almost got to the point of giving up.”
“Of course, while this was going on, we were also ordering equipment,” chimes in Nick. “Not having run a brewery before, Cornel had to plan it all from scratch and work out exactly what he needed. I had some industry contacts of course, but we are really grateful to the brewers in Tassie who were generous with their knowledge and experience. They were really enthusiastic and helpful, and that made the entire process much easier. I know the fact that Cornel had other professional brewers telling him how great his beer was also helped maintain his determination.”
Cornel had become the bane of every commercial real estate agent in Hobart. “They all knew what I was looking for,” he nods. “A big open space – a disused warehouse would be ideal – nice and central, with capacity for not just a brewery, but a venue as well. Finally, I stumbled across something that wasn’t even on the market. It was one of those ‘in the right place at the right time’ situations.”
Mundy’s Meats owned the property at 222 Elizabeth Street. Generational butchers of local prominence, patriarch Rex Mundy had retired and his son John was running the butchery along with sister Katrina. One whole floor of the property was sitting vacant. “The first time I saw what was hidden behind those boarded up windows, I was blown away,” recalls Cornel. “It was such a weird layout, a maze of rooms that didn’t seem to make any sense. I struggled to see how it could work at first. It was also full of… stuff. From butchery equipment to old car parts, everything you could imagine. It was a total shambles, some kind of weird hoarders’ paradise!”
Besides generous cool rooms and storage, what the property did have in droves was space and character. “I couldn’t see it myself initially. But my architect mate, Nathan, who’d been inspecting real estate with me all along, was straight onto it. ‘This is it,’ he said instantly. ‘It’s perfect. The front section can easily serve as a pub and the brewery will effectively be a hidden secret, something for customers to discover out the back.’ I took a little convincing as I’d always had one huge open space in my mind. In hindsight, I’m so glad I trusted his vision.”
From the very start, conversations with the Mundy’s proved fruitful. “They’ve been supportive since day one and the best landlords we could ever hope for,” enthuses Cornel. “When your landlord calls in to visit and rolls up their sleeves to pitch in, you know you’ve found something special. They’re just genuinely good folks who’ve loved being part of our growth. In fact, a lot of our success comes down to being connected to good people.”
The ensuing renovation was sparse but smart. “Nathan’s plans were spot on,” describes Cornel. “We had very little money to work with beyond the brewery equipment, and I was initially quite hesitant when he started talking about besser bricks for the bar. But I trusted him to do his thing and the resulting outcome not only took out an architectural award but proved both cost effective and extremely functional.”
Cornel’s business plan had always included a focus on variety. “It was going to be the brewery where the beers changed all the time,” he says, shaking his head. “I wanted something different on tap each week and that was going to be one of our points of difference. Well, as it turns out, that’s totally impractical. I worked out I just couldn’t sustain the continual production of so many new beers, and definitely not if I wanted them to be high quality.”
With the brewing equipment finally installed, Cornel set himself a goal of four different beers for the grand opening of Shambles. “I wanted a dark beer, a malty amber, a super hoppy IPA and a pale,” he explains. “Once we started working through the commissioning process, the guy explained to me that the first five or six batches anyone ever makes just go down the drain. They’re just to make sure everything is working properly.” Cornel continues, “Well, that just wasn’t going to work for me, I simply couldn’t afford to throw out anything. I didn’t see any reason I couldn’t make it work.”
“Mistakes sometimes create the best beers,” admits Cornel. “We were working carefully through the process and I was learning about all the new equipment. But there were several problems we encountered while brewing the first batch, and it didn’t turn out to be the beer I was trying to make, but it was actually really good. It turned into our Summer Ale and has gone on to become one of our best-selling brews.”
Despite the odd mistake, Cornel remains passionate about the science behind his beers. “The science will always come first for me,” he explains. “I’m always focused on that and quality. I quickly worked out that I can’t rush the process or skimp on quality if I want to create great beer. It’s what saw us shift from my original goal of nothing ever being the same, to us offering a core range that is complimented by lots of seasonal releases. That really helped me get the balance right.”
Top of the Shambles list is the American IPA (India Pale Ale – beer speak for a very hoppy pale ale), an intense combination of five different hops with a lingering bitterness. Cornel’s famous Summer Ale, a refreshing drop bursting with citrusy flavours, slips quickly into second place. Session IPA, a lower alcohol option ideal for a lazy summer session rounds out the Shambles top three. “I’ll always remember my first IPA,” says Cornel, “The first sip blew my head off and I instantly wanted to know how to make one. It’s a style I always look for when visiting a new pub or brewery.”
Shambles creates between six to ten new brews each year. “They’re seasonal, limited releases and tend to move very quickly,” he explains. Nodding in agreement, Nick adds, “People still love new. They’re always after that rare thing, something special. And it’s so good that Cornel can continue experimenting too, there’s huge personal reward in that.”
The Shambles brand represents a winning combination of quirk and quality. Look closely and you’ll find references to Cornel’s scientific mind, lashings of creativity, cheeky humour and a moody dash of Tasmanian-ness. “Knotty (Andrew Knott) – one of our close mates who does our graphic design and much of our writing – has really nailed us,” says Cornel. “There’s a fair serve of chaos in how we work too, and that certainly comes across.”
It might be beer first at Shambles, but the locals quickly saw opportunity for a whole lot more in the venue’s enclosed beer garden. “I didn’t have a dream to open a bar or an event space, I had a dream to brew great beer,” says Cornel. “The brewery will always come first, but locals started asking if they could hire the space. So we now host a whole range of events. It’s a pretty cool space right alongside the brewery and welcomes everything from quiz nights, parties and weddings, to boutique markets and product launches.”
The strength of this Tassie partnership isn’t hard to spot. “I definitely couldn’t have done this alone,” says Cornel firmly. “Whilst I was here brewing,having Nick working remotely actually worked in our favour. He wasn’t buried in the day-to-day like I was. It meant I could bounce things off him and he could provide an objective opinion. That certainly gave me confidence in the moments I was questioning myself – and there have been manyalong the way. His penchant for facts and numbers, along with industry knowledge, has simply been invaluable.”
“One thing we did learn in this process was that it’s best not to ask your group of mates to suggest names for your business,” grins Nick. “We had all sorts of rubbish come back. There were a few half-decent options on the table, some paying homage to the building’s butchery past too, but as soon as Knotty suggested ‘Shambles’ it was an easy decision. It fitted us perfectly on so many different levels.”
Traditionally a no man’s land between Hobart’s city centre and the bustling North Hobart restaurant strip, in recent years the area has drawn together a collection of character-filled bars and boutiques. “I doubt we could have afforded to create this in Sydney,” reflects Nick. “We were lucky in one way to enter the craft brew market when we did, just when it was really taking off in Tassie. The locals have supported us all the way too, it’s not lost on us that we see the same friendly faces here at the bar.”
“The half a dozen blocks that separate the city centre from North Hobart were once enough to cause Tasmanians to jump in a taxi. It was a dead zone,” grins Nick. “A great bunch of businesses have filled that space now and it’s helped everyone.”
Quirkiness is all part of the Shambles vibe. “We discovered multiple taxidermy deer heads stashed around the building when we moved in,” describes Cornel. “Understandable when you stop and think that butchers might be into hunting. There’s one mounted on a wall out the back for history’s sake and we’ve had some fun playing on the deer theme here and there. It gave rise to some artwork that new customers often puzzle over. I won’t give the fun away; come in for a drink and see if you can make the connection!”
“We don’t take ourselves too seriously and there’s nothing elitist about our brand,” finishes Nick. “The best part of the whole thing is drawing people in here to share a beer and to witness them enjoying some great new flavours. Our regulars will often order their favourite first, but are then keen to try the latest drop. I always order a paddle when visiting any new brewery so I can try a range of styles and that’s exactly what I’d encourage anyone to do here. Settle in and enjoy some fantastic Tassie craft beers. You’re always welcome.”
Peruse the brews at www.shamblesbrewery.com.au, Instagram and Facebook.
