If you insist on complete and utter Australian provenance you can rely on Coopers: its perennial Sparkling Ale, Pale Ale and Best Extra Stout are made with all-local barley and hops and the unique house yeast has never been out of the country since its birth more than a century ago.

But as the perception of what’s true-blue changes, beer drinkers increasingly enjoy not-so-traditional drops made with imported malts, yeast and hops. Here some examples in favourite beer categories.

LAGERS

Knappstein Reserve Lager (5.6 per cent) is viewed by many as the nation’s top bottom-fermented beer. Tropical fruits meet wine in the aroma and mouth-coating lager, largely from NZ-grown Nelson Sauvin hops and perhaps as lingering echoes of the former wine store which houses Enterprise Brewery in South Australia.

Red Paw (5 per cent), on tap at The Old Brewery, Perth is a malt-driven, long-matured Vienna lager with a reddish colour, toasty undertones and outstanding soft, elegant palate.

Old Coast Road Pilsener (5.5 per cent) has been a long-term project at Andrew Harris’s Myalup brewery. An extremely lively pour leaves a glass-lacing head smelling slightly grassy and hop influence carries through to the citrus-edged, almost tart, fruity taste. Satisfactorily dry at the end, it could be a touch more bitter – but suits the Aussie taste.

ALES

Feral Hop Hog IPA (5.8 per cent), reigning champion ale throughout the land, may be typical of American-hopped style - aromatic, piney and aggressively bitter - but is an undeniable triumph of Australian brewing.

Brewboys GTS pale ale ( 5.3 per cent) beat the boys’ neighbour’s iconic Coopers Pale Ale to the Champion Ale award in last year’s Adelaide Royal Show. With its Australian Galaxy hop floral fragrance, firm fruity and dry body and citrus piquancy in an amply bitter finish, it’s among the best of the new Aussie pales.

WHEAT BEERS

Feral White (4.8 per cent) is made with 50-50 barley and wheat in authentic Belgian style, which includes additions of coriander and toasted orange peel giving the unfiltered, cloudy wheat ale refreshing citrus and spice.

Old Coast Road Acres of Wheat (4.4 PER CENT) hefeweizen – that is Bavarian-style cloudy wheat ale - is sweet, creamy, refreshing drop with a hint of cloves and underlying sharpness, more characteristic of Belgian wheat beer. Brewer Andrew Harris hunted out pictures of famous historic tractors for the labels on the bottled wheat beer, available from the brewery-restaurant at Myalup.

SEASONAL SPECIALTY

Bootleg Wild Ginger (4.7 per cent), a wheat beer brought back by customer demand, has replaced another sunshine beer, Summer Raspberry Ale, which was so popular that the batch didn’t stretch to the new year at the Margaret River brewery bar.

QUICK ONES

Beertasters starts its “Wunderbeer!” 2012 season at Mt Lawley’s Five Bar with a patriotic Great Aussie Craft Beer-B-Q next Wednesday, February l. Seven of Australia’s latest craft beers will be paired with gourmet dishes created with local produce by Five chef Jamie. It starts at 6.30pm. Bookings at $60 per seat on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Elmar’s in The Valley has put its summer special on tap – a German-style Kolsch. This hybrid beer – an “ale” cool-fermented like lager – is spruiked as being ideal for hot-weather drinking because the malt fruitiness is suppressed.

BEER OF THE WEEK

KOOINDA BELGIAN WITBIER (5.5 PER CENT)

After an acclaimed success with pale ale, the Victorian craft brewers branched out to more exotic beers last year, including this yeast-driven, coriander-orange-peel spiced witbier. It pours hazy and orange-tinged, smells spicy and citrusy with banana hints and seduces the tastebuds with piquant, tingling fruit and  honey-ish flavours in a complex but refreshing sunny quaff.

Written by Vic Crossland

from Fresh, The West Australian, 26th January