In the sunny front room of the Zierholz Premium Brewery in Fyshwick, entrepreneur and ANU alumnus, Christoph Zierholz, is explaining how science led him to brew up a slightly unusual career path for himself.

“I was born and brought up in Germany,” he says. “I was almost 15 when we came out here. It was a big change and very exciting.”

When it came time for university, Zierholz wanted to explore his broad scientific interests through his degree: “I wanted to do a general science degree because I had a more general interest in science, and I thought it would set me up to do more things which, in effect, it has.”

“I enjoyed university much more than school, because universities are where you learn to learn, as opposed to learning things.”

Zierholz completed his Bachelor of Science (Resource and Environmental Management) before doing his Honours and a Masters at CSIRO, specialising in soil science.

“Soil science is a real applied science and very hands-on. I spent my initial career advising farmers on building dams, situating windbreaks, stuff like that. I genuinely had a really varied job, it was quite good.”

In 2001, a colleague invited Zierholz to go the brew shop in Kambah with the lure there would be a traditional German wheat beer demonstration.

“My dad had complained for 15 years that he couldn't get a good German wheat beer in Australia so I thought maybe I could surprise him with a case of authentic German beer.”

When he was at the demonstration, he realised there was a lot more to brewing than pour-and-stir homebrew kit he had dabbled with as a poor student.

“I got mad keen, like I do with all my hobbies. I totally immersed myself and found every resource,” he says.

“I ended up doing double batches every week for the next three or four years. I kept meticulous notes and found out afterwards I brewed about 7000 litres of beer in my garage! I didn’t drink it all though,” he laughs.

His brewing skills eventually drew the attention of the owner of a local microbrewery who wanted to produce Zierholz’s beer. Keen to know how beer was produced on a larger scale, Zierholz provided his recipe and asked if he could watch the brewer make it.

“What he was doing on a commercial scale wasn’t too different to what I do in my garage; it was just a bit more automated.”

Zierholz began researching what it would take to open a commercial brewery before eventually deciding it was time for a career change.

“I started the company Zierholz in 2005. We started selling in July 2006 as a wholesaler and then decided to open the Fyshwick restaurant to get more people through and to let the brand grow naturally.”

Today, Canberra’s traditional German beer drought is well and truly over. Zierholz has expanded to two locations, with his beer available on tap across the Canberra region.

Even though Zierholz is more likely to spend his day in a bar than a laboratory, he still draws on his scientific background regularly.

“I still use science pretty much every day. I was fortunate enough that part of my scientific career was giving talks to landholders, I had to explain things in a way people could appreciate it.

“It’s the same with brewing. I can talk about it and make it seem really complicated; talking about the details of each enzyme and whatever else, but it's much more enjoyable to talk about it at that everyday level. That way everyone walks away with a good feeling and has retained some new knowledge.”