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, beer dinners, free bottle shop tastings, expansion plans, constantly rotating beer taps, beer festivals … 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 beery news that our state has to offer.

The girl+beer Facebook page has a list of upcoming beer events that you might find worth subscribing to!

Cheeky Monkey

The last Southern Wailer, their limited release series, was an American West Coast style IPA called Hop Flinger. Juicy and unapologetically hop forward, the beer is going to make its way into the permanent line up and will be available soon in 6 x 375ml cans.

The next Southern Wailer release is scheduled for mid December and, fitting for the hot summer weather, it’s a lager designed to drink easy and satisfy thirsty mouths – Summer Smash Lager. It’s a single malt and single hop beer and both are Australian – pilsner for the malt and summer for the hops. It will be available on tap in selected venues and in 4 x 500ml cans at your favourite craft beer loving bottle shop. Keep an eye on the Cheeky Monkey Facebook page for updates.

Thorny Devil

A crowd funding campaign is currently underway by the Mandurah brewery to fund a new tank and to commission their new bottling line. Thorny Devil have paid the deposits when they say bank loan approval went from ‘yay’ to ‘nay’ and so here kicked off a crowd funding campaign.

You can read more about the campaign and contribute here.

Blue Mile Brewing

Busselton’s Blue Mile have a new beer out that is only available on tap called Lambic Pale Ale. Jason Credaro, head brewer, inoculated a pale ale with lactobacillus and pediococcus (both types of bacteria) and brettanomyces (a wild yeast strain) before leaving it in barrels for 18 months. I suspect this beer will be a tough one to find but well worth trying if you do see it, the sourness is pretty mellow and makes the whole beer pretty refreshing.

Eagle Bay Brewing

Summer is coming and that means that Eagle Bay’s seasonal Summer Ale is also coming!

Style wise it’s an Australian style pale ale and featuring a trio of Aussie hop – Galaxy, Southern Cross and Vic Secret – and will be available from December to March.

Eagle Bay Summer Ale will be available from the brewery from 5 December with an official launch on 7 December at The Balmoral in Vic Park. The event kicks off at 4pm and head brewer Nick will be there to chat all things Eagle Bay. Eagle Bay will be taking over the taps and it will be $9 pints and $5 middies all night!

If you’re down south then head direct to the brewery on the 9th for their Brewers Series Session where you can go into the brewhouse with the brewers to learn all about the Summer Ale. Cold beers + good eats + good times. Tickets just $35 and available from the brewery website.

Bootleg Brewery

Bootleg Brewery head brewer Ryan “Pizey” Nilsson-Linne tells me that they’re bringing back two limited releases soon – Boss Taurus, an Imperial Dark Ale aged in whiskey barrels first released last year in collaboration with Cellarbrations Carlisle and the Luna Lager. Keep an eye out for Boss Taurus at Cellarbrations Carlisle and the Luna Lager will only be available on tap at the brewery.

Monk Craft Brewery Kitchen

Freo’s Monk Craft Brewery Kitchen just released a triple collaboration with Cellarbrations Superstore and Artisan Brewing called Tripel Treating, a Belgian tripel brewed for WA Beer Week. Only a small amount was made so if you missed their WA Beer Week event, keep an eye out for some bottles available at Cellarbrations Superstore only and just one keg will be on tap at the Monk sometime soon. Watch their Facebook for details.

Monk have two more limited release beers coming out soon – a summer seasonal which head brewer Mal says will be “a take on the Monastic Enkel/Patersbier tradition”.

According to Wiki, the Patersbier style comes from the Trappist breweries where it is only available at the monastery and is for the monks to drink so usually is a lower strength version of one of their regular beers.

Monk also will be collaborating with Inn8 Brewers to create a Gose but don’t expect it to be a straightforward Gose, Mal hints they’ll be experimenting a bit with this one!

What is a Gose? A very pale beer made with 60% wheat that uses coriander and salt, the style originates in Goslar, Germany after which the beer style is named.

Mash Brewing

Since Mash are celebrating their tenth birthday this year they’re releasing a special beer to commemorate the occasion, suitably called ‘The Tenth’.

Past brewers joined the present Mash brewing team to create the beer which is a bit of a style mash up. Mash’s sales and marketing all round nice guy Scott describes it as “a freestyle Belgian golden / red / IPA”. The beer will be launched at their Tenth Anniversary Party at The Queens on 6 December.

Upcoming Events

Here’s a quick look at beery events coming up! You can also subscribe to the events page on Facebook to stay up to date.

// 25 November // Feral Brewing Tusk Day at selected venues

// 1 December // Tis the Saison at The Dutch Trading Co

// 6 December // Mash Brewing Tenth Anniversary Party at The Queens

// 7 December // Eagle Bay Tap Takeover and Summer Ale launch at The Balmoral

// 9 December // Eagle Bay Brewing Brewers Series Session + Summer Ale at Eagle Bay Brewing

// 12 December // Beer Club – Session Ale at Northbridge Brewing Co

For those lazy weekend mornings when you just want to stay in bed and catch up on a little reading – Weekend Reading is a weekly (ahem, usually) post with the articles I’ve enjoyed in the past seven days.

Forbes | Eat Your Beer: Why A San Francisco Startup Is Making Granola Bars From Spent Brewing Grains

I am aware of lots of breweries who don’t let their spent grains to go waste and instead provide it for farmers to feed cattle. I love this article’s focus on the small company Regrained who are using spent grain from breweries to make granola bars.

We believe we should all be able to have our beer…and eat it too.

From the ReGrained website

If this kind of thing puts a big smile on your face, pop into Monk Craft Brewery Kitchen in Fremantle where head chef Mitch Mitchell is always putting their breweries spent grain to good use, most prominently in the form of his spent grain sourdough.

12045552_1012072992148019_4492144075903793053_o — Beer Bread // Photo from Monk Craft Brewery Kitchen Facebook page

Draft Magazine | Renegade Brewing Co. owner Brian O’Connell talks beer festivals, drinking local and what it means to be a renegade

What I love about breweries and the stories behind why they opened is that I have never heard someone say, “I opened a brewery to make a pot of cash”. Brian’s story is just a fun, passion filled and wonderful as any other story I have heard. I particularly like the recollection of the day he realised he had to give it a shot.

I cancelled the meetings I was supposed to go to, rented a car and drove three hours out to the Delaware coast and spent the day at the Dogfish Head Brewery.

His approach to beer festivals is also of interest, not that we are reaching the same kind of numbers that the US are but being one brewery amongst a field of them begs the question as to how valuable they are for the breweries themselves, maybe is more than one way to get exposure?

Australian Brews News | Bridge Roads sets up authenticity campaign

A really interesting media release from Bridge Roads Brewers (VIC) to introduce new symbols to appear on their packaging and communications. There is this on-going debate as to whether the term “craft beer” is relevant, the can of worms really opens up when you start asking what the term means, how it should (if it should) be defined. This approach from Bridge Roads embraces the word “craft” and gives the drinker an idea of what it means. Maybe it even encourages questions from the drinker, like questions on owns others beers you like, do some breweries brew off site and, most importantly what does that mean?

The team at Bridge Road Brewers are proud of what they do and the beer they make. The symbols were developed by the team, asking themselves; what is it that makes us different? And what do I expect from the craft beer I drink?

Wall Street Journal | Line Them Up: ‘Crafty’ Expats Stir Up the Vietnamese Beer Scene

As always I really enjoy reading about the craft beer scene in other countries outside of Australia and the US, this article on Vietnam’s emerging craft beer scene, what is driving it and its growth potential is super interesting.

BrewDog | DIY Dog

This is pretty epic. Scottish craft brewery BrewDog, known for excellent beer, making a lot of noise and stuffing a beer bottle into a taxidermy squirrel, have just released their entire back catalogue of beer recipes and story along with a guide to home brewing. Like I said, epic. Even if you don’t home brew, this is a great document to download and get all beer geeky on.

Tag: Monk Craft Brewery Kitchen

WA Beer News #4