The Margaret River region has long been one of the best destinations for beer lovers and now ten of the region's brewers have launched Beer Trails to make visitors' experiences even better.
The venture led by the South West Brewers Alliance (SWBA) features suggested trails – one focused on the bays, one the caves region – as well as videos and articles highlighting what each of the participating breweries has to offer.
Among those driving the project is Kelly-Ann Bunney, marketing manager at Margaret River Beer Co, who told The Crafty Pint beer tourism is one of SWBA's key areas of focus, with inspiration drawn from trails in other regional areas, from the Bend Ale Trail in Oregon to the Inner West Sydney Ale Trail we covered a few weeks ago.
"We have a committee I sit on with a few reps from other breweries and we were tasked with coming up with ways to promote the industry as a whole in the region rather than doing our own individual things," she says. "And that's how this came about: how can we bring more people to visit more breweries when they're down here – as people do visit here regularly – doing a self-drive tour with stops at multiple breweries.
"We've seen others doing it successfully and thought it was something simple that we could do without too much budget."
The new trails have been launched in partnership with the Margaret River Busselton Tourism Association (MRBTA), whose website hosts a wide array of information and videos on the region's breweries. Visitors to any of the participating breweries will be able to pick up printed maps in each venue, while the committee is exploring ways to further engage tourists once they're armed with a map.
Kelly says one of the main factors behind the creation of the trails was to update and add to beer-related content on the MRBTA website to raise awareness of beer in a region known worldwide for its wine.
The Brewers Alliance launched in 2021 with four key areas of focus: sustainability; education; developing export markets; and tourism. To date, they've worked with the local South West Regional TAFE to establish a brewing traineeship as well as setting up a number of collaborative fundraising brews that have supported a range of community projects.
Funding from the City of Busselton enabled them to conduct a two-day video/photo shoot covering all ten breweries, which created the imagery and video content for the campaign found on this page.
The size of the region and distance between some of the breweries led the committee to opt for two trails (as we did with our most recent Crafty Crawls guide to the area): the tranquil bays to the north-west, and the ancient caves to the south.
"We want to raise awareness around the different offering each of us has," Kelly says, pointing out that south-west brewers offer visitors the chance to hit golf balls into a dam, shoot kids down a slip and slide, gaze out at the ocean, or chill in the bush.
She says the strong sense of community between the region's brewers has fed into the project too.
"There's a big story around collaboration with SWBA, and that's a big part of it."
In a media release announcing the launch of the trails (see below), SWBA chair Keith Warrick added: “The beer trails put the craft beer destination marketing narrative on the map and showcase how truly diverse our region is.”
The South West Beer Trails focus on the breweries between Busselton and Margaret River: Beerfarm, Bootleg, CBCo, Cowaramup Brewing Co, Cheeky Monkey, Eagle Bay, Margaret River Beer Co (pictured at top of article), Rocky Ridge, Shelter, and Wild Hop (pictured below).
The official launch of the trails takes place at Rocky Ridge's TapHouse in Busselton from 5.30pm on October 24. You can find out more about the region's brewers here.
Media Release: South West Brewers Alliance Launch Beer Trails Loaded with Local Brews & Epic Views
For a proper beer hunting adventure in the Margaret River Region, look no further than the new Bay Trail and Cave Trail. Covering 10 local breweries from Busselton down to Margaret River, the trails are designed to be a guide map for the best craft beer and seasonal eats in the area.
The Cave Trail takes you through local farmland and towering karri trees between Wilyabrup and Margaret River for an introduction to the region’s inland charm and variety of handcrafted brews, accompanied by dishes loaded with local produce.
While The Bay Trail delivers a taste of coastal brews, as you cruise alongside scenic coastline between Busselton and Yallinyup for refreshing beers and tasty bites featuring plenty of farm-to-plate veg.
Salty hair and sandy feet are always welcome, as are the kids, with plenty of family-friendly attractions including slippery slides, playgrounds and pirate ships.
While the little kids play, big kids can kick back with beer paddles overflowing with unique beers. From crispy Aussie lagers that make for the perfect fridge-filler, to adventurous American-style IPAs, fruity sours and stouts, there’s something for everyone.
Each brewery in the region offers something a little different, but shares similar values around sustainability, community and collaboration. Every brewery on the trail has been working together under the South West Brewers Alliance (SWBA), a non-profit initiative, since 2021.
“Our South West craft brewers use premium ingredients from WA farmers to create a unique paddock to pint experience”. SBWA Chair, Keith Warrick, explains.
“The beer trails put the craft beer destination marketing narrative on the map and showcase how truly diverse our region is.”
Both beer trails include info on optional experiences like behind-the-scenes brewery tours, spectacular dinners and live music. Brewery partners are Beerfarm, Bootleg, CBCo, Cowaramup Brewing Co, Cheeky Monkey, Eagle Bay Brewing Co, Margaret River Beer Co, Rocky Ridge Brewing Co, Shelter Brewing Co, Wild Hop Brewing Co.
For more details around The Cave Trail and The Bay Trail head here.
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.
