Australia is to get its first ever dedicated sour beer brewery, after two of WA’s top brewers finalised plans to move into a joint facility. The decision of Nail and Feral to form Brewcorp and share a new 50 hectolitre brewery in Bayswater means Feral’s existing brewery in the Swan Valley will eventually be used to produce nothing but sour and wild ales and other funky Belgian styles. The remainder of Feral’s range will be switched over the course of the year to the shared facility, which will also allow Nail to ramp up its output significantly and supply its award-winning Ale and Stout to a wider audience.

“The vast majority of beers – 80 per cent – produced [at the existing Feral site] will be for our sour beer program,” says Brendan Varis, of Feral. “We need to be brewing beers now to sell in 18 months or two years time. It’s a different mentality for a brewer to make beers that take that long, rather than thinking three weeks ahead. It’s a pretty significant capital investment as we’ll have a dedicated filler for our sour bottles and dedicated tanks [to prevent contamination of other beers with the wild bacteria]. And if sour beer doesn’t catch on then I’m a pretty thirsty fella!”

More info:

http://craftypint.com/news/post/nailed-on-funk/