Beers are being brewed at the former Feral brewpub in the Swan Valley for the first time in more than two years as the new owners' plans take shape.
Late last year, we announced Feral co-founder Al Carragher (above left) was part of the new ownership team planning to turn the iconic venue shuttered by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners into the Baskerville Tavern. And now they've brewed the first beers to bear the Slumdog Brewing name.
A dry-hopped Pils and a hazy pale ale hit taps at the Great Northern Hotel, Al's pub in Melbourne, earlier this month. And completing the connection between the new and old operations is the man behind them: Will Irving (above right) was the right hand man of Feral's other founder, Brendan Varis, up until the sale and remained with Feral until 2020.
The first two beers were brewed at Edith Cowan University, however, as Will completed maintenance work on the kit upon which he helped create and brew some of Australia's most trailblazing beers. But last week he was back on the tools at the venue that played a significant role in changing the course of beer in this country, putting 5,000 litres of beer into tanks.
"Slumdog was my brother's nickname that goes back years," Al says, "and it just goes well with Baskerville.
"It had always been in the back of my mind that the pub could be a stepping stone to a brewery when the right opportunity came."
He says Will has been given "fairly free rein" over the beers that will bear the Slumdog name, with the choice of a hazy at the start a reflection of the current beer landscape, and the other debut release coming about as he's "always been a fan of a pilsner".
When the venue opens, the intention is to dedicate seven of the 27 taps to Slumdog beers with the remainder featuring a mixture of other WA craft breweries and Swan Draught. And once they're fully up and running in the brewhouse, Slumdog beers may appear in the Perth and Melbourne markets too.
As for Will's return to the Valley, it's been focused on recommissioning a brewhouse that had sat unused since 2020; liquid had been left in some of the vessels which meant there was much that needed replacing, with Covid-related delays only turning it into a more drawn-out process.
By the time we caught up at the Great Northern in early May, however, it was ready to roll: "If I wasn't here, I could be making beer," Will said then.
"I'm glad Al got [the brewpub]," he added. "I cut my teeth there and have a soft spot for it."
Beyond the debut beers, Will's eyeing up an XPA, a rockmelon sour, an "old school brown ale", and a mid-strength among others. His plan is to continue brewing with Slumdog until FOUND – a long-term project he's working on with another Feral alumni, Steve Finney – takes shape in Perth, while training a new brewer to take over.
As for Al, he says: "The future depends on how it goes. We've got 11 acres there so expansion could definitely happen."
Once the Baskerville Tavern opens, you'll be able to try Slumdog beers at 152 Haddrill Road, Baskerville.
James Smith launched The Crafty Pint in 2010, two years after moving to Australia from the UK. He was taken to Mountain Goat within weeks of landing in Melbourne, joined their indoor cricket team, and is still navigating the rabbit hole that is craft beer to this day.
The beers that turned you on to good beer:
- Watching pints of McEwan's 80 Shilling settle when visiting family in Edinburgh.
- Pints of flat Bass from the jug at the Cap & Stocking in Kegworth.
- A first Paulaner Hefeweizen when working in Munich in 1998: “This smells of bananas!”
- Castle Rock Harvest Pale – how could a 3.8 percent ABV beer be so good? (It turns out it was an early example of the three Cs – Cascade, Centennial and Columbus – in an English bitter).
- Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA poured through hops at the Sunset Grill in Cambridge, MA, in the company of a man who turned out to be the Beer Nut (while we were both covering a double murder case at the time).
- Ordering a Mountain Goat Hightail on my first day as an Aussie resident as it was local and I’d never heard of it; “A dark Australian beer; well I never…”
- Murray’s Icon 2IPA at Beer DeLuxe Fed Square, recommended by a guy I’d not long known who's now the main man at Fixation, served by Mik Halse, now head of sales at Hawkers. How could an Australian beer smell as good as that?!?
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
- Any really good, fresh and balanced West Coast style IPA. Punchy hop aromatics are the most obvious way to capture someone's attention and these IPAs, done well, present the key components in beer (if you're sticking to just water, malt, hops and yeast) in harmony yet with the volume turned up.
- Saison Dupont. Arguably a selfish choice here as I bloody love the broad saison style and dearly hope it will finally take hold in Australia one day. Given a choice, I'd probably crack one enlivened with Brettanomyces like Molly Rose Matilde for myself but, when it comes to turning on someone new, you've got to go with the classic.
- Rodenbach Caractère Rouge. Because if you don't enjoy or can't appreciate this beer, I'll never win you over. And because Filip, the fruit and wood specialist at Rodenbach that designed it, is a beautiful human.
The last beer you enjoyed:
Fixation IPA at The Incubator.
Three things that represent you:
- The Soft Bulletin by The Flaming Lips
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- Golden Plains
NB All articles written by James in the first eight years of the site appear as By Crafty Pint. Today, that's used for collaborative efforts by the wider team.
