Beer Gage Roads & Jeremy Sambrooks Rapid Fire IPA

If WA brewers have a habit of produce repeat winners at the annual Australian International Beer Awards, it would seem that the state's home brewers aren't too dissimilar. At the 2012 and 2013 Perth Royal Beer Show, Jeremy Sambrooks - avid home brewer and occasional contributor to this and other beer media - took out titles in the amateur brewing championships and then added the Battle of the Brew title at a competition to brew US-inspired IPAs held at Freo's Sail & Anchor. His prize for the last of these was to brew the winning beer at Gage Roads. That beer is the Rapid Fire IPA, a heavily-hopped (naturally) take on the style that hits hard with heaps of punchy, predominantly citrus, pine and sherbet hop aromas but has enough malt sweetness to keep the associated bitterness in balance. Full-flavoured yet seriously drinkable, it's a credit to Jeremy and to the brewing team that scaled it from home brew setup to commercial brewery.