It’s always sad to hear about a brewery closure, more especially when it’s the Sail & Anchor hotel in Fremantle, where the whole craft beer revival kicked off 26 years ago. While no official announcement has yet been made, Good Living was informed recently that the in-house brewery will be wound down and closed within weeks.

It appears that owners Australian Leisure and Hospitality group – a joint venture between Woolworths and the Mathieson family – simply aren’t interested in being brewers and want to concentrate on running their portfolio of 270 hotels, including 17 in Western Australia.

In the medium-term, the brewing equipment will stay in place while the Sail & Anchor’s house beers, including Fremantle Pilsener, Sail & Anchor IPA and Brass Monkey Stout, will be produced elsewhere. Somewhat paradoxically, a new low-carb brand Sail & Anchor Dry Dock – produced by WA brewer Gage Roads, which is 25 per cent-owned by Woolworths - was rolled out recently across Woolies’ considerable chain of bottle-shops.

In many ways, Woolworths has followed a similar path to Carlton & United Breweries who previously owned ALH and briefly dabbled with a stable of brew-pubs which, in the early 2000s, included the Sail & Anchor, Gunn Island Brew Bar and 3 Degrees in Melbourne, and Oxford 152 in Brisbane. Soon, none of this quartet will have survived as a brew-pub.

Of course, there’s a certain emotional attachment to the “Sail” where the first so-called “boutique beer” flowed back in mid-1984. The pub was then part of the Matilda Bay Brewing Company started by Phil Sexton and partners, and some basic brewing equipment was installed while they were building a more substantial plant in nearby Nedlands.

As Sexton tells it, the original Matilda Bay crew wasn’t having much luck convincing publicans to commit to buying their beer, so they bought their own pub. The Freemasons Hotel – as it was called – was in liquidation and was about the only pub they could afford at the time.

Anchor Ale was the first beer brewed at the Sail & Anchor and Sexton recalls that it was “a dark, copper-coloured, traditional ale”. By the time the 1987 America’s Cup challenge was held off Fremantle, the Matilda Bay Brewing Company was well and truly up and running and the “Sail” was a brilliantly successful shop-front for this country’s first boutique brewer.

By 1990, Matilda Bay had been acquired by CUB, along with their handful of hotels in the west, including the Sail & Anchor. The reputation of the house beers was still strong throughout the 1990s, particularly under the brewing team of Peter Nolin and Bill Hoedemaker who, significantly, left to start up the Gage Roads Brewing Company.

By then the Sail had largely been eclipsed as Fremantle’s  premium beer venue by Little Creatures Brewing, who set up shop in a large hangar across the way. Wood-fired pizzas and edgy new beers drew the crowds and the Sail started to look decidedly dated. In 2005, the ALH group changed hands and the Woolworths-Mathieson family consortium became the long-running brew-pub’s new owners.

When I last visited Fremantle a couple of years ago, the contrast between the two craft beer venues couldn’t have been more stark. Little Creatures was packed to the gunwales and as I ordered a pale ale the barman told me I might have to wait upwards of an hour for a pizza order. So I drank my beer and wandered over to the Sail where a dozen or so punters were scattered around the bar; my beer and food order arrived quickly enough but the whole experience was less than memorable.

It’s possible things may change but for now the Sail & Anchor brewery has been dry-docked.

*******

Based near Ballina, the Northern River Brewing Company was another to cease brewing around 12 months ago, despite winning awards for the likes of their stout and pale ale. While the brewing equipment has since been sold, owners Kevin and Andrea Rowland are currently offering their beer brands for sale, including recipes and customer database. Inquiries: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it