Snapshot – a post of (mostly) photos –
for a quick look at the recent Baby Mammoth and Rocky Ridge Brewing collaboration dinner featuring their Inglorious Chutney beer
22 February 2018
Blasta Brewing and their 20hec kit will be opening their doors on Thursday and among the beers will be something brand new to celebrate!
Steve and Kate Russell’s idea for a brewpub came from a love of good food and drink. “My homebrewing passion escalated a little bit,” Steve said with a laugh when I first spoke to him back in July last year.
Blasta Brewing will open their doors this Thursday 1st March, you can find them in Burswood, not far from the new Optus Stadium, at 84/88 Goodwood Parade.
The name Blasta comes from Scottish Gaelic, meaning “delicious” and Steve, who is originally from Scotland, says this is more than just a name, it is their guiding principle, to “only brew Blasta beers.”
The logo is a geometric unicorn which links to Steve’s engineering background and his Scottish heritage as the unicorn is Scotland’s national animal; true story, Google it! Folklore stories of the unicorn include one where a snake poisons a watering hole but a unicorn uses its horn to purify the water for everyone to be able to drink it again. It’s this transformation of water for all to enjoy that Steve felt resonated with brewing.
Steve and Kate have been living in Perth for ten years and always within the Burswood area. They have seen the suburb change significantly over the years and know there is more urban development on the way. They hope Blasta Brewing will be a positive addition to the local community. Their location on Goodwin Parade, just over 100 metres from the train station, and will have a capacity of more than 350 people.
Steve has been gypsy brewing at a couple of different breweries, depending on schedules and availability, and released their first commercial beer in May last year called Myway Grapefruit IPA, brewed using local grapefruit. The first venue to pour a Blasta beer was The Balmoral in Victoria Park and the keg sold out in less than three hours. Myway Grapefruit IPA went on to be awarded a silver medal at the Perth Royal Beer Awards in June.
Since then they’ve been busy not only building their brewery, bar and restaurant but also getting out to beer festivals across Perth, such as Perth Craft Beer Festival and Mane Liquor’s Winter Beer Celebration, to introduce themselves.
In early November they were granted their liquor licence and in January their brewery arrived in Perth.
The brewery is a 20 hectolitre kit that Steve helped to design, his brewing and engineering knowledge leading, perhaps inevitably, to him making a few tweaks.
The coffee shop side of the venue is already up and running, open from 6:30am daily. The booze side, the rest of the brewpub, will have its grand opening on 1st March and will be celebrated with the release of a brand new beer. Doors open at 11am, from 5 -7pm there will be a private event, after which it will re-open to the public.
So many new beers and not one, not two but THREE new breweries!
There is a lot of stuff happening in WA’s craft beer scene that it’s genuinely hard to keep up with all the new beer releases and WA really is kicking ass when it comes to craft beer and so I thought I’d try and make a regular feature out of all the new beery goodness our state has to offer.
The girl+beer Facebook page has a list of upcoming beer events that you might find worth subscribing to!
The local masters of collaborations, Eagle Bay Brewing teamed up with Dunsbourgh’s newest restaurant, Yarri Restaurant and Bar, to create a beer exclusively for them called “The Traveller”. It is an American wheat ale brewed with all Australian wheat, barley and botanicals and American hops. Head brewer Nick d’Espeissis says it took a little trial and error to get the botanicals right, “the Geraldton Wax adds kind of a kaffir lime taste, while the indigenous saltbush makes the beer really moreish. You can’t stop at just one.”
“The botanicals used in the process are WA indigenous saltbush and Geraldton Wax – a native shrub with needle-like leaves rich in aromatic oils. Both foraged ingredients are used in Yarri’s cooking, adding a great complement between food and drink.”
Photo Credit: Eagle Bay Brewing
Not content with just one special beer, Eagle Bay has also released a barrel-aged version of their ESB. Once a core range beer, meaning it was available all year round, their ESB was bumped off its full-time status last year. For those who shed a tear at its demise, perhaps this barrel-aged version will help with the pain. After using Whipper Snapper whiskey barrels to age their Black Vanilla last year, a mighty collaboration brew of a coconut and vanilla imperial stout, Eagle Bay didn’t just leave those barrels empty and so in went some ESB and three months later, we have this brew!
From the looks of the Eagle Bay Brewing Instagram story, the EBBC brewers have been playing around in the brewhouse with some hazelnuts to make their next Brewers Series release.
If you’re heading to the South West Craft Beer Festival next Saturday you can look forward to a bunch of special beers including this one from Eagle Bay, the Original Lazy Boy, a 7.0 percent ABV American wheat.
Another WThe West Leederville brewpub has released their new summer ale, called Age of Aquarius, it is 5.0 percent ABV. Named after the star sign that the brew falls under, it’s an American wheat beer with well known Australian hop varieties, Astra and Galaxy.
*I will soon be working for this brewery
Named after one of Hamish and Mel’s beautiful dogs, Ace, this pale ale uses wet hops – these are whole hop cones picked straight from the bine and, without delay, put into the brew. Because hops can only be harvested once a year in Australia, this beer is available in limited quantities. It’s an American style pale ale so brewers notes tell us to expect citrus, tropical fruit, pine and resin with a little caramel backbone to support lots and lots of hops.
Rocky Ridge teamed up with Northbridge restaurant and super beer geeks, Baby Mammoth to create a chutney inspired beer called Inglorious Chutney. My first thoughts on this were hesitant, chutneys are massively spiced and thick and I was cautious of what this would mean when it comes to beer but these guys knocked it out the park.
It was served at last weeks collaboration dinner to celebrate the beer and it’s a surprisingly delicate beer. It drinks somewhere between a saison and a Belgian witbier. Ginger, turmeric and coriander all went into the mash to make this beer. On brew day, for inspiration, Baby Mammoth head chef and co-owner Ryan Lambson took some bobotie, a South African dish, along and Hamish joked, “I spent the whole day eating!”
In a pretty big tease, the beer served up was actually a sneak peek. The rest is currently ageing in barrels, four different ones to be exact – Shiraz, Pinot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon. They have also added apricots, nectarines, ginger and turmeric to the barrels where it will referment. The plan is to then present this beer in champagne bottles. Whether they bottle as individual barrels or blend them together, well Hamish says “that’s down to the barrel Gods at the moment.”
This NEIPA collaboration with epic beer retailers, Cape Cellars and Cellarbrations Carlisle, was first brewed in last July but it’s coming back on Saturday 3 March. At 9.0 percent ABV, this beer is big, it’s juicy and it will only be around for a very short time. I’d bet you’ll see it at the South West Craft Beer Festival, if not, keep an eye out on the Rocky Ridge Brewing Facebook page for where you can find it.
Whitfords Brewing has jumped on the NEIPA train with Juice Willis*, bringing together two things I love – hops and Bruce Willis. It was brewed at Whitfords Brewing and will be served there and at sister brewery, Northbridge Brewing.
It’s low in bitterness, very easy drinking and the 5.8 percent ABV is hidden extremely well. Tropical and stone fruit juiciness from El Dorado, Citra and Galaxy hops and some flaked oats in the malt bill helps with a silky mouthfeel.
*I was invited to attend Northbridge Brewing Beer Club for the launch of this beer
A New Zealand pale ale released a couple of weeks ago, available on tap.
Yup, Innate Brewers have three beers all coming soon. Head brewer Joel Nash has been very, very busy! They’ve had the team from iconic Fremantle pub, The Sail & Anchor, in the brewery for a collaboration brew. They also got a delivery of fresh wet Nugget hops from local growers Preston Valley Hops. Their autumn seasonal is going to be a Red IPA called Renegade with 48 IBU using Simcoe and Amarillo hops, it will be launched at Caboose in Mt Lawley on 1 March.
Unless you’ve been detoxing off social media recently, you’ll know that Colonial Brewing has released their summer seasonal. They have opted to go with the simple “sour” label which is probably because it doesn’t completely fit into the Berliner Weisse or Gose category. To me, it drinks like a hybrid of the two. Approachable and well-balanced sourness, there’s some stone fruit – peach and nectarine – character and finishes with a rounded briny flavour.
*I was invited to the Perth launch of this beer, I was also given a 6 pack to sample, and have been invited to the upcoming launch at Colonial Brewing Margaret River
After seeing the tinnies being released in their home state of Victoria, Melbourne’s Stomping Ground has now delivered cans of their Gipps St Pale Ale, PRIDElweiss and Watermelon Smash to Perth.
You may have tried the Gipps St Pale Ale a few months ago during Movember when it appeared on tap at venues around Perth to support the Movember Foundation.
Heroes and Villains launched their first beer at Dutch Trading Co a few days ago. Based at Oakover Grounds in the Swan Valley, the brewery tagline is ‘Beer of the New Age’ and so the first beer is appropriately called BOTNA. It’s brewed with Fortnight, the Bintani proprietary blend of five different hops.
Blasta Brewing will be opening next week in Burswood after contract brewing for a while. The coffee shop part of the venue is already open so feel free to drop in for a caffeine hit and then from the 1st March, you’ll be able to enjoy a beer.
The brewery is founded by brewer Steve Russell, along with his wife Kate, and they released Blasta’s first commercial beer last May, their Myway Grapefruit IPA.
The name Blasta comes from Scottish Gaelic and means “delicious” and Steve, who is originally from Scotland, says their guiding principle, therefore, will be to “only brew Blasta beers”. The logo is a geometric unicorn which also links to Steve’s Scottish heritage as the unicorn is Scotland’s national animal, true story, Google it!
It won’t be a surprise to anyone to hear that The Camfield, the massive venue in Burswood near the new stadium, recently opened their doors just a few days ago. Not only does this beer have six bars and covers 8,000 square metres, it has its own microbrewery called Bevy. The head brewer is Andy Scade, ex-Little Creatures and all round nice guy.
