12:00a.m. 7th August 2008

| By Toby Walker

Beer lovers from across the Coast can now brew their own beer, cider and ginger beer at Olly and Rod Olsen's Brew 4 U on Sugar Road Maroochydore. Photo: Jason Dougherty/177333

It's been hard to escape the dire predictions of surging interest rates and fuel prices in 2008 but the latest warning has crept into one of Australia’s most popular refuges from such economic horror stories – the pub.

Reports from Melbourne last month warned the twice-yearly increase in excise tax would soon push the price of a Victorian pot of beer up from about $3.80 to $4. It’s a cost hike that strikes in the place so many go to seek sanctuary from the near-constant stream of economic woe filling their newspapers and airwaves.

Nonetheless, it appears beer drinkers are continuing to satisfy their tastes, rather than their accountants, with industry figures revealing sales of the more expensive and largely imported brands grew 18% per cent in the past year – growth almost four times that of well-known local beers.

The other boom, and one sure to keep the bean counters smiling, has been the surge in popularity of home brewing.

> What's your favourite beer? Is home brew better than the commercially-produced stuff? HAVE YOUR SAY.

Formerly the denizen of the backyard shed where crotchety old men tinkered alone and woke their neighbours with the explosions that often plague amateur chemistry, home brewing has returned to the house, put on a new shirt and brought with it a younger attitude.

Micro-breweries offering the cost-wary consumer hundreds of styles of cheap beer have been popping up all over the country – most recently on the Sunshine Coast in Maroochydore.

Opening Bru4U had been a two-year dream of couple Rod and Olly Olsen when they decided to relocate to the Coast from Brisbane.

Rod’s working background may be in IT but it was the inner beer enthusiast who fell in love with the brew-your-own concept when some mates took him to a micro-brewery for “10 or 15 quiet beers” on his birthday a few years ago.

Opening Bru4U on Sugar Road in May, the couple have been spreading the word about their new shopfront where beer lovers can select from more than 200 beers while watching the weekend footy.

Customers who come in can choose the beer they want to brew from a list of over 200 varieties, styled on popular brand-name beers such as Tooheys or Heineken (the Corona-styled Mexicana is the most popular).

“We’re not saying (Mexicana) is Corona. We’re saying you might like this if you like Corona. So it draws a correlation but by no means is it the same beer,” Rod said.

Those new to the personalised micro-brewing concept are taken through the brewing process by staff and, when it is complete, the brew is transferred to a fermenting keg to be placed in a temperature-controlled room.

The brew takes two to four weeks to ferment, depending on the beer, before the end result – beer enough to fill the minimum order of roughly six cartons of 330ml bottles, is then filtered and bottled.

With a six-carton batch of domestic-styled Bru4U beer costing $130, Rod said the obvious saving was a near constant talking point among customers.

“Almost every single customer who comes in invariably complains about being stitched up at the bottle shop for $50 for a carton of imported beer or $40 for the local stuff,” he said.

“It is a social outing for many of them on a Saturday afternoon, too. They come in and brew or bottle, watch the footy we have on and even have a couple of beers while they’re doing that.

“But around 90% per cent of them come here to save money.”

“It’s not unusual for guys to drink a carton of beer a week these days so if you’re drinking that then there’s maybe $1000 bucks a year you can save. I don’t know about you but that’s my car insurance and rego.

“Every day we just see more and more new faces which is fantastic.”

A former homebrewer himself, Rod said he gave the pastime away because he could not afford the time required and was becoming disheartened by the quality of his concoctions.

“It requires a lot of work and if you do just a couple of little things wrong then you can either spoil your whole batch or have the explosions, it’s just not a reliable outcome every time.”

The simple-to-follow “six-easy-steps” of creating your own preservative-free drop within the confines of the micro-brewery reignited that passion.

“A lot of people have had home brew experiences so that’s what they consider us to be whereas we’re actually a commercial micro-brewery with all the proper equipment,” he said.

Rod and Olly don’t just stop at the amber stuff, either.

A Suncoast Cider is also an option for those with a fruitier palate, while the alcoholic Suncoast Ginger Beer is a truly local drop, taking ginger sourced from Buderim Ginger. To learn more, about how Bru4U works visit online at www.bru4usuncoast.com.au