FOUND. Subiaco launches today into a warm Perth summer. The second brewpub venue for the Western Australian team has seen them reshape the former Golden West site in inner-city Subi into a modern Australian, 350-capacity, pavilion-style pub with on-site brewing and a smart hospitality offering.
As he prepared to welcome guests for the first time, FOUND. founder Steve Finney told The Crafty Pint: “This is all about WA. It’s always been about bringing that regional brewpub experience into the middle of town. After a day at work or sitting on the computer, hopefully people can come down here and feel like they’re on holiday.
“We asked the team to send in two photos of what WA meant to them and we picked out the colours and tones from all of those photos. We ended up with a couple of hundred colour swabs, and then dialled it back to where the Resident range of beer decals are now.”
He adds: “It’s been a major transformation over the past six months.
“Outside there’s Donnybrook stone, the patio is made from WA Karri wood, rust oxide on the bar references the North West, there’s Blackbutt finishings,”
The welcoming result projects Frank Lloyd-Wright’s Della Walker House design themes through a very West Australian lens: clean, open, and with considered tactile details that look beyond the usual. The patio’s newly installed extended skillion roof is already providing respite from the oncoming dry heat.
Of the 24 Found taps – one of WA’s largest offerings – Steve (pictured above right with co-FOUND.er Will Irving) is most excited about a new, cross-pollinated beer style, the experimental intention of which harks back to his days alongside fellow founder and head brewer Will Irving at Feral.
“This is the future,” he says. “A 5.8 percent cerveza dry-hopped like an IPA. It’s an invented style that’s made for WA.
“At the moment there’s a Cali cerveza and a West Coast cerveza: one’s 4.2 percent and the other is 5.8 percent.”
A slow pour pilsner is a quiet hero, served in retro dimpled glassware, and stamped with a similarly throwback Hahn Ice-style logo. Takeaway growler fills are available, and, at the time of writing, a 650ml bottle-filler is imminent. January will see the flagship Super, a hazy pale, arrive in cans too.
Amid the renovations, the launch proved to be a moment of reflection for head brewer Will.
“FOUND. Subi is our home base now,” he says. “Obviously, we wanted the Perth Girls School to be the first, but we’ve just done our plan in reverse. And Subiaco is having a resurgence now, and it’s awesome to be part of it.
“We’re introducing a bunch of people to craft beer here, just like we are in Byford.
“Byford has been fantastic, though. We have the most amazing community down there, and I just got a message from one of the locals that was so heartfelt, thanking us for what we’ve done for the community, and watching us grow.
“The funny thing is that he’d be here at opening night but he’s committed to the quiz night in Byford!”
Steve adds: “Working in reverse has meant FOUND. Lab was always going to be about experimentation. In Byford, we’re still introducing pale ale to people but also Cali cervezas, and a 9.8 percent ABV West Coast pilsner.”
This seems to get to the brewery’s ethos: versatile offering – same thinking, different postcodes.
It’s a sensibility shared in the kitchen. With a background in London’s dining scene and, more recently stints Long Chim Perth and Phat Brew Club, head chef Ian Macintosh balances Instagrammable morsels – Ox Tail Donut, anyone? – with nostalgic Dagwood dogs and a pizza program featuring half-week-long fermented, over-sized New York-style bases. There’s also a double cheeseburger for those in the mood for a classic.
Beyond FOUND.’s beers, the spirits list reaches beyond the norm, as does a 70-bottle wine list, 13 of them available by the glass, which confidently wanders through regions including Burgundy and Champagne and rivals most wine bars.
They might have intended to start their mission in another part of Perth but, with the East Perth opportunity lost – at least for now, nobody will be complaining about the other opportunities they’ve found.
You can check out our chat with Steve and Will, recorded at Subiaco when it was a work in progress, on The Crafty Pint Podcast – listen to Episode 007 here.
About the author: Guy drinks and writes about beer, goes for a run most mornings and makes his own chilli hot sauce. Find out more on Goodtimes Craft Beer via Facebook and Instagram.
For me, beer writing is about sharing experience with others, most of which is as much about what happens around the glass as what’s in it. It’s why I started a blog in 2014 after years of drinking beer and through quite literally bumping into founder James Smith at Good Beer Week began writing for The Crafty Pint. Many amazing friendships have developed from the love of water, malt, hops, yeast, adjuncts and hype!
The beer(s) or moment(s) that turned you on to good beer
Early 90s experience with Dogbolter and bottles of Delirium Tremens at the Sail and Anchor proved that there was more to beer than the cheap stuff I was drinking. A few years later, Chimay Blue once again teased before Little Creatures Pale Ale and Feral Hop Hog set the course for beer with flavour and nuance.
Favourite beer styles
Balance and drinking context are key but a short list includes Brett saisons, super fresh West Coast IPAs, well constructed BA sours, BA imperial stouts and fresh India pale lagers.
You've got three beers to turn someone else on to good beer; what are they and why?
Depending on the beer and circumstance, bitterness and acidity are the hurdles to overcome.
- Right now, Eagle Bay’s IPL is a great modern expression of technique and approachability. The hop presence arrives in soft mango and lime with enough bitterness but it’s the tight carbonation and refreshingly super dry finish that seals the deal.
- Boston Brewing’s Afterglose: Raspberry gose brings a near-perfect fruit / salt / acidity balance to a vibrantly coloured beer. It’s a real talking point which can lead to conversation about the history of beer styles, acidity on the palate or just: "Do you want another one?"
- Any fresh Czech-style pilsner. This has to be fresh in order to pick up the grassy noble hop characters and zippy bitterness on the slightly more biscuity malt body. While familiar to many, a really fresh expression is great starting point for a massive world of beer.
Tell us about a standout beer moment
A favourite beer memory involves spending an afternoon sitting under the dripping eaves of a café in the 5th Arrondissement watching Parisians run in and out of a bakery with fresh baguettes while I drank large goblets of Duvel as the winter rain soaked the tiny cobblestoned square. So much about beer is context!
