Chris Shanahan: Zierholz to open Canberra beer café

Behind the papered-over windows at 225 Kembla Street, Fyshwick, Christoph Zierholz is fitting out a beer café, due to open in May.

Christoph began brewing at this site two years ago and now has Zierholz beers on tap at about eighteen outlets in and around Canberra – including University House, Debacle Bar at Braddon and Grazing at Gundaroo.

With Jan Gundlach of Flavours he’s developing a beer-compatible menu. This is likely to include food cooked with beer, courses designed to match particular brews, degustation menus, served with small samples of several brews, and carefully selected local produce. There’ll even be a selection of local wines.

Christoph says he’ll start with nine beer taps but intends to expand this to twelve or more later. And while the focus will be on the Zierholz beers brewed in sight of the café, he’s keen to feature guest beers from other craft operators.

So that customers can taste through the whole range of beers, Zierholz says he’ll offer a ‘paddle’ – a wooden try with a handle, and little holes bored in to accommodate perhaps a dozen shot glasses. ‘The paddle encourages people to trial different beers’, says Christoph.

And there’ll be brewery tours every second Saturday.