Nunatak Brewery.

Necessity is the mother of invention. With limitations on personal cargo allocation and alcohol rations, expeditioners since the earliest expeditions to Mawson have brewed beer at the station. Over time technology has changed the brewing process considerably. No longer is the brewer required to start from first principles. Successive brewers have enhanced the brewery so that bottle washing, filling capping and storage are now very efficient.

Bottling home brew, Biscoe Hut, Mawson 1959

An extract from the ANARE Club archive by Grahame Budd. about early brewing.
'I had brought the recipe from Heard Island, where in 1954 it had been known as ‘Azorella juice’. But my grateful patients at Mawson had produced the poster seen on the door, which celebrated its virtues and ended with the punch-line “Your doctor will tell you - it’s good for you!” The figures, left to right, are ionospherics physicist Ross Dunlop and senior meteorologist Ian Widdows, who earlier in the year had had a retrocaecal appendix removed while lying on one of the mess tables and (being a tall sort of chap) the sewing machine. My most popular medical decision of the year was when exploding homebrew bottles on a shelf in the kitchen had obliged me to declare a Public Health Emergency, requiring that the hazard be removed forthwith by emptying the bottles in an appropriate manner. Compliance, I’m happy to report, was 100%.'

Bottling Red Shed Plant Room - a team effort.

Home brewing is a popular activity and many commercial breweries now sell a variety of styles. Beer is made by taking the canned wort and adding it to a water and sugar mix at a controlled temperature to which powdered yeast is added. The yeast turns the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide gas is produced as a by product. Boutique beers are made up in 20 litre lots and the staple draught and larger are scaled up and made in 200 litre drums. The finished product is stored in tall bottles or in 10 litre kegs.

Storage shelves for filled bottles.

The brewery at Mawson is called the Nunatak Brewery. Essentially a home brew setup but scaled up for a winter population of 18 and in summer of around 30. Brewing is a team effort and one day a week a number of the brewing team gather in the Nunatak brewery located in the plant room under the mess in the red Shed. The pattern is generally brew one week then bottle the next. There are a number of 20 litre vats that are used for boutique beers such as Canadian Blonde, Pale Ale, Stout, Wheat Beer, Pilsener, Dark Ale, Sparkling Ale, Ciders, Indian Pale ale, Black and Tan, Ginger Beer and more. There are 2 x 200 litre vats that are used alternately for draft and lager.

Nanatak Brewery

Bottles to be washed

Bottle washing, the bain of every brewer, is made easier by an initial rinse when emptied at the Katabatic Bar on the first floor. The slushy when cleaning the bar during the day restocks the fridge and returns the empties to the brewery in the plant room located at the basement via the dumb waiter. The Dumb waiter operates between the bar on the first floor, the kitchen on the ground floor and the brewery in the basement.

Bottle washer

A locally fabricated bottle washer is used to clean 12 bottles at a time in a couple of minutes. Sugar is added to each bottle (I teaspoon) to gas the bear, the bottle is filled with brew that has reached the correct specific gravity during fermentation and capped by hand. 30 tall bottles are produced by the 20 litre vat and 280 tall bottles by the 200 litre vat. Once capped the bottles are left on the shelves for as long as possible to mature.