New venue for South West Craft Beer Festival
The South West has become the mecca for craft beer in WA.
But it is still a long drive to get to the 20-odd breweries in the region. Wouldn’t it be convenient if there was an opportunity to have all the clever beer makers within reach at the one time?
The South West Craft Beer Festival has the answer.
In what is developing into one of Australia’s best brewing extravaganzas, the seventh instalment of the annual beer party will have a new date and venue.
The 2018 event will be held on Saturday March 3 at 3 Oceans Winery, Margaret River.
And it will feature around 20 breweries, including Australian International Beer Award winners, Perth Royal Beer Show champions and the teams behind many of your favourite brews.
Indeed, South West Craft Beer Festival attendees will be spoilt for choice with more than 100 beers and plenty of ciders to be available for the mammoth seven-hour session.
Tickets are $35 and come with a glass and four tokens to get samples – a brilliant way to start your beer adventure. You can purchase your tickets through this link.
So which breweries will be on show? Well, start taking notes to prepare your South West Craft Beer Festival stall stops for the day.
Three Rivers Brewing Co.
A big welcome back to quite possibly the most environmentally-minded brewery in WA. It is a true “franken-brewery” to use an industry term. The brewery only uses recovered and recycled equipment. The fermenters were once dairy tanks as are some of the brewing vessels, the grain mill is from a horse stud farm and the cool room was rescued from a butcher in Mount Barker.
Artisan Brewing.
Brian Fitzgerald was President of the WA Brewers Association, so he knows a thing or two about quality craft beer. He retired so that he could focus on his passion for brewing, particularly top-class Belgian Ales. Artisan was judged champion brewery at last year’s SWCBF with Triple Treating.
Black Kite Beverage Co.
This little beauty of a boutique operation prides itself in turning the best local fruit, roots and herbs into amazingly boozy drinks.
Black Brewing Co. Another of the Margaret River breweries, Black made its SWCBF debut in 2017. And the crew is back this year with its XPA, Saison and Bao Bao Milk Stout to delight the 2018 crowd.
The Cidery - Bridgetown.
The Cidery proudly partners with Newton Orchards, Manjimup, the South West’s largest apple orchardists, to source the amazing Pink Lady apple (from the home of Pink Lady) to hand-craft its artisanal ciders.
Blue Mile Brewery.
This operation, run by the Credaro family in Busselton, believes the true secret to brewing great beer is to use only fresh, local and raw ingredients. And why wouldn’t you when Australia farms the highest quality produce in the world?
Bootleg Brewery.
The old faithful is back again. You may say this is where south west craft beer began - back in 1994 when Tom Reynolds opened his doors to the region’s first operating brewery. Bootleg may be the oldest, but Reynold’s enthusiastic team of brewers pride themselves in hand-crafting brews with a bucket load of wisdom, passion and creativity.
Boston Brewery
Tyson Addy’s Boondie was judged the best beer of the 2016 SWCBF. And his Gose has been one of the most popular beers over summer. Made with Denmark’s finest and purest rainwater, which allows the quality of the raw materials, carefully selected, to speak for themselves.
Brewhouse, Margaret River.
The winner of the Perth Royal Beer Show champion beer in 2017 with Peter Coupan Barrel-Aged Stout. The Brewhouse’s philosophy is quite simple – they make beers how they were meant to be made! Using only four ingredients; hops, malt, water and yeast, they brew beers that are true to style.
Cheeky Monkey Brewery and Cidery.
Head brewer Ross Terlick came up with the best Lager in WA for 2017 and it will prove to be a popular brew at the 2018 SWCBF. Their Cheeky team is very passionate about what they do, and they strive to only serve the highest possible quality beers and ciders. No short cuts here.
Colonial Brewing Co.
Fresh from celebrating having three brews in the recent Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers of 2017. The India Pale Ale, Colonial Draught and Small Ale will again be among the most popular brews at the festival.
Cowaramup Brewing Co.
Brewer Jeremy Good had an easy method in choosing which beers to bring to SWCBF 2017. Just pack the lot. Fans can hope the team brings the Cowaramup Pilsener, Cowaramup Hefeweizen, Cowaramup Lightsign Summer Ale, Cowaramup Special Pale Ale, Cowaramup India Pale Ale and Cowaramup Porter this year.
Custard and Co.
Set in the middle of the apple growing country side, Custard and Co. are what you call a little different. They use whole local fruit to make their apple ciders and have unique combos that will blow away the crowd.
Eagle Bay Brewing Co.
Nick and Adrian d’Espeissis make their beers with fresh rainwater, malted barley, yeast and hops. Nothing else. No added preservatives or nasty stuff. So, you know they are good for you.
Runamuck Cider Co.
The family-owned and run business uses South West apples to produce a traditionally fermented all natural medium dry cider. For those of you with a sweeter palette Runamuk also produces a slightly more fruity version using only the apples natural sugar.
Rocky Ridge Brewing Co.
Everything put in Rocky Ridge beer; be it malt, hops, yeast or water, has been hand grown, harvested, dried, kilned, malted, filtered and finally brewed on site by the family.
Thorny Devil Brewery
A growing presence in the Peel district, Thorny Devil gave SWCBF attendees a preview of what to enjoy when it unveiled a scrumptious India Pale Ale at a recent gathering in Perth.
Margaret River Ale Co.
The unfiltered, naturally carbonated, malt beers are only made with pure quality ingredients, a passion for craftsmanship and an immense sense of local pride. All brews represent certain local characteristics of the Margaret River region, such as surfing, the great white, road trips and live music.
The Grove Experience Brewery
Real Ale is a traditional form of unpasteurized, living product, which undergoes secondary fermentation in a cask or bottle and it is a specialty of The Grove.
Jarrah Jack Brewery
A staple of Pemberton, Jarrah Jacks is back in the SWCBF family. The beers are skilfully brewed at the small batch brewery using only the finest natural ingredients and time honoured techniques.
3 Oceans Wine Co.
The venue hosts will be making sure those not so keen on hops are well and truly looked after and they are damn good at it too! This multi-award-winning beauty has been producing premium, flavoursome wines since 1979. The Margaret River region is renowned for producing some of the best vino in the world.
