When the Western Australian Brewer’s Association (WABA) made its long-talked-about WA Craft Beer Showcase a reality in November last year, it seemed that Kevin Costner’s limited wisdom had finally born fruit. âBuild it and they will come,’ he once suggested in Field Of Dreams, and come to the showcase they did; albeit in smaller numbers than WABA had perhaps hoped for. Still, it was great to see WA’s craft brewing community bravely planting its flag and reclaiming the âbeer festival’ idea from dollar-driven operators who have run a number of blatantly ill-conceived, woefully mismanaged âinternational beer’ events in Perth in recent years.
Would the South West Craft Beer Festival smack of such opportunism? Would craft beer be the victor or victim in an environment where appreciation might lose out to inebriation? Would the people come to a beer event at a winery in the heart of the Margaret River region?
Thankfully, the answers – if Saturday’s session was an indication of the festival as a whole – were resoundingly positive (that is, in order: âno’, âvictory for craft beer –hurrah!’ and âwow, where did all these punters come from?’). The beers flowed as smoothly as the event seemed to; the live music was an accompaniment to, rather than a distraction from, the action at the brewery tents; and an impressive crowd was determined to enjoy itself, despite the multi-seasonal, Melbourne-like weather (ie sun/clouds/showers, rinse and repeat).
On arrival at the 3 Oceans Palandri Estate, festivities initially seemed a little subdued – despite an abundance of vehicles in the car park. Closer inspection revealed the largely deserted stalls observed from outside the gate to be food outlets, and a short walk to one end of the winery building showed that the festival was indeed in full swing. Long tables and bench seats – Oktoberfest-style – had been well and truly filled by the early-birds; those who weren’t seated were milling about in front of the all-important, L-shaped arrangement of brewery stalls; and the live music was already making conversation difficult. Then again, we were there for the beer.
The presence of the South West’s craft brewing âbig guns’ – Bootleg, Colonial, Cowaramup and Duckstein – ensured that a first-class brew was never far away, but it was encouraging to find quality offerings at most stalls. Relative newcomers the Margaret River Ale Company impressed with its vibrantly aromatic American-style Pale Ale, a brew that’s dry-hopped, cask-conditioned and made exclusively for draught sales at Settler’s Tavern (also in Margaret River). Donnybrook’s recently established Real River Company also set tongues wagging with its Custard Scrumpy Cider, although this writer’s lack of affection for alcohol’s hippest tipple meant that popular opinion was cast aside in favour of additional beery research.
Casting aside its Germanic influences, the Duckstein Brewery pulled a surprise by tapping The Wolf Pale Ale, an American-style IPA that packed a resonant citrus – particularly grapefruit – punch and bracing bitterness. The inclusion of a limited release brew was a welcome change of pace, as well as being one of the day’s refreshing highlights. Meanwhile, the guys from Colonial were on a surefire winner when they served oysters as an accompaniment to their award-winning Kolsch, while Jeremy Good couldn’t lose pouring samples of the Champion Lager from the 2011 Australian International Beer Awards – his Cowaramup Pilsner.
Pouring beers
Another recent trophy winner could be sampled just metres away, with Bootleg Brewery’s tap line-up featuring the Sou’ West Wheat (Champion Wheat Beer at the 2011 AIBAs), Raging Bull and Wils Pils. As a couple of Margaret-River-craft-beer originals, the Bull and Pils deserved our respect and attention; and as one of the region’s craft-brewing pioneers, Bootleg’s head brewer Michael Brooks probably deserved our thanks. For him, the inaugural South West Craft Beer Festival had been a long time coming.
âWhen I started at Bootleg, in 1998, I worked with a guy called Craig Cumming, who went to Colonial in the early 2000’s and who’s actually running [3 Oceans] Palandri here now,â Brooks explained on the day. âWe’d talked about a beer festival of some proportion down here at least 12 years ago, and about a year-and-a-half back I rang Craig and we talked about it [again].â
Brooks’ passion for mountain bikes also put him in touch with Jason Dover from Buzz Marketing, organisers of the South West’s hugely successful Cape To Cape MTB four-day race since 2008. A meeting with Cumming and a number of local brewers convinced Brooks that a festival could work at the 3 Oceans Palandri site, so he contacted Dover and Buzz began to work its event management and marketing magic. As Brooks recalled: âI rang Jason after that meeting and said, âmate, it’s real now, we’re going to do it’, and he just grabbed it and ran [with it].â
Better than expected attendance figures on Saturday certainly demonstrated the value of Buzz’s involvement in the event, and, as Brooks enthused, the success of the Cape To Cape points to an even brighter future.
âIn 2008 it was 80 people; in 2009 there were 200 of us [racing]; the next year was 400; last year was 800 and capped,â he said. âThen SBS did a documentary on [the event] and said it’s the premier, multi-day mountain bike race in Australia. Buzz’s vision for this [festival] is to get it up there [to that level].
âI’d like to see it open up to West Australian craft breweries,â Brooks added. âI’m not one for drawing a boundary at Mandurah or anything like that. It’s up to the other [local] breweries as well, but, personally, I’d like to see Nail, Feral, Mash and all those boys doing their thing here as well.â
We’ll drink to that!
When it comes to beer, Anthony Williams does pretty much anything you can think of: beer writer, beer rep, beer dinner host, beer drinker. He’s the man behind WA’s BEERtasters events and the west coast’s BrewDog and Mikkeller man. And, as of today, he’s one of The Crafty Pint’s contributors. Cheers, Ant!
