The public get the chance to sample single-batch beers in three sessions over the two days: Friday 4pm-10pm, Saturday 11am-4pm and 5pm-10pm. The WA Brewers Association event will be held at Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre, near the WA Art Museum.

More than half of the State’s craft breweries are taking part, serving tasters on tap with staff on hand to explain the brews.

They include: The South-West’s Brew 42, Colonial Brewing, Cowaramup brewery, Eagle Bay Brewing, Occy’s of Busselton and Old Coast Road Brewery; Matso’s Broome Brewery from the distant north; Indian Ocean Brewing, Mindarie; Last Drop of Armadale and Canning Vale; Mash Brewing and Ironbark of the Swan Valley; Fremantle’s Little Creatures, The Monk and Black Salt breweries; Billabong of Myaree; and Perth’s Nail Brewing.

As well as input from the Beertasters group of enthusiasts and the Generous Squire tavern and soon-to-be brewhouse, packaged beer will be on sale to take away.

Most of the breweries do lagers. Cowaramup Pilsener, from the five-year-old family-owned microbrewery north of Margaret River, currently reigns as Australian International Beer Awards champion lager. The Old Brewery’s latest draught is Red Paw, a Vienna lager with a reddish tinge emphasising rich, toasted malt flavour and noble hop aroma. Meticulous standards of lager also come from Last Drop, not only the State’s oldest operating craft brewery but the only one using an open fermenter.

Wheat beer has become a popular summer choice: Old Coast Brewery at Myalup has a piquant cloudy wheat ale, and Black Salt, which brews German-style beers adjacent to Port Beach, arguably peaks with its dunkelweizen, a dark, unfiltered  wheat beer with a rich, mildly vanilla, nutty-sweet palate.

Ales in the showcase are headed by the US-hopped Aussie icon Little Creatures Pale Ale - but its Rogers’ Beer, a perfectly balanced and tasty mid-strength amber-brown ale, shouldn’t be missed, either. Among lesser-known ales to taste are Colonial’s light German-style Kolsch and Old Coast Road Harris Bitter, a 3.7 per cent English “real ale”. A fresh batch of Nail Ale, a pioneer of latter-day Australian pale ale, regularly wins awards and will be served at the show.

Among more off-beat tasters are Billabong’s gluten-free offerings, which allow coeliacs to enjoy beer.

* Tickets to the WA Craft Beer Showcase cost $30 and include entry, a memento acrylic taster glass and five free 100ml serves. Tickets available from all participating breweries, online at www.craftbeer.com.au or at the entrance.

BEER OF THE WEEK

BILLABONG NELSON SAUVIN ALE (5.1 per cent)

A golden, easy-drinking beer light enough on the palate to suit lager lovers as well as ale buffs; even wine drinkers could find something to admire in the distinctive touch of New Zealand’s Nelson Sauvin hops among the flavours derived from US ale yeast, pale and Munich malts and dry-hopped tropical fruit aroma. The bitterness level, 32-units, is ample in a “crisp, clean” finish.

QUICK ONES

Beertasters will present selections of Christmas-oriented brews on two Thursdays, December 8 and 15.  Both sessions, which include food and informed discussion as well as beer, start at 6.30pm upstairs at The Flying Scotsman, Mt Lawley, Bookings on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

A shipping container due in Fremantle this weekend (SUBS: Nov26) from Germany has new kegs for 10 WA craft breweries.  The joint  consignment “shows good unity and is a good sign for the industry”, said John Stallwood, whose Nail Brewing has the biggest order of 279 kegs. Other breweries will take between 10 and 72 kegs.

Crown Ambassador Reserve, the annual limited-release vintage, has finally arrived in the shops. The 10.2 per cent super-lager, packaged in numbered 750ml champagne bottles and presentation boxes, is priced about $90. It will mature and evolve for a decade if cellared upright in a cool, dry place.

Written by Vic Crossland

From Fresh, The West Australian

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