Dermot O’Donnell celebrates 50 years in the brewing industry

With craft brewers these days garnering all the laurels for being creative, experimental, in short close to geniuses when it comes to designing beers, it’s easily forgotten that the much disparaged Big Brewers have only managed to stay big because their R&D folks too have come up with new beers which sync with consumers.

One such beer designer is Dermot O’Donnell, although he probably prefers the title brewer that he is by training.

Dermot has spent half a century in the brewing industry. He says he was fortunate enough to get a job in the 1960s working for a brewery and has since worked in all aspects of making beer, including research and marketing.

Melbourne born and bred, Dermot has brewed in Melbourne, Sydney and the UK, where he gained Master Brewer qualifications from the University of Birmingham and the Institute of Brewing and Distilling. He is also a Fellow of the IBD.

As he says, he returned to Melbourne and CUB in 1991 “for the footy, the golf and the world’s best beer.” Under Dermot’s leadership the CUB new product development team created Carlton Cold, Foster’s Light Ice, the iconic alcopop Sub Zero, Carlton Midstrength, and Carlton Sterling among others. Dermot also developed the brewing process for low carb beers such as Pure Blonde. He worked with the team at Cascade Brewery in Hobart to develop Cascade First Harvest and seasonal beers, including Summer Blonde, Springfest, Winter Warmer and Autumn Amber.

He is currently employed full time as International Master Brewer for Asahi Premium Beverages and has formulated and brewed the Cricketers Arms range of beers at the Laverton Brewery in Victoria.

That Dermot has worked for all the Big Brewers in Australia (except for Coopers) is at once testament to the rapid consolidation and globalisation of the industry, including its disruptive side-effects, and Dermot’s continuing relevance. His career shows that expertise and experience are closely related to age and staying power.

It’s no surprise that he is highly respected in Australia and Ashai was well-advised to honour Dermot with a big bash (termed luncheon) on 29 March in Melbourne. To mark the occasion, Dermot was presented with a framed list of all the beers he conceived. It was a huge and heavy thing.

Cheers to Dermot and may he come up with many more beers.