If you drink this beer, then you too can punch a shark. Insensitive? Too soon? Co-host of Australian TV’s “Sunrise” morning program Samantha Armytage didn’t think so. In fact, she thought it was a fitting slogan for Mick Fanning’s new beer company, Balter Brewery.
Mick, Joel Parkinson, Josh Kerr, and Bede Durbidge joined forces to enter the brewing business. After months of preparation (we caught up with Bede last year) it appears the boys will be opening in the next couple months. Mick and Parko appeared for an interview with salty Samantha Armytage and the rest of the “Sunrise” gang to discuss what’s to come.
If anyone deserves a beer after the year they’ve endured, it’s Mick Fanning, an austere reporter kicks off the segment with the head-bobbing piano from Macklemore’s “Downtown” in the background.
We learn that this is a passion project of the lifetime mates, something like surfing, something they care about but will also turn a profit for them. We also find out that the boys are heavily involved – from pooling their money to tasting the beer to even cleaning up the joint. Their official job titles?
Joel – Chief Tasting Officer
Mick – Head Cleaner
“I don’t think you have to be too qualified to be a janitor,” Mick says. “But yeah, I’m just cleaning up his mess.”
In addition to discussing the beer and the business, the “Sunrise” team was obliged to ask about Mick’s well-being after his rocky year. But they kept it open-ended and broad, passing over the nitty-gritty details of narrowly losing the World Title to Adriano de Souza, splitting from his wife Karissa Dalton, and of course, the shark incident.
“I’m going good,” Mick said. “Last year was really tough. But look, you’ve gotta keep living. You gotta keep going on. I’m lucky I get to come into a place like this with a lot of good friends and talk trash a lot of the time, really, which is fun.”
