# Wa Brewery Tour Suggestions



## gjhansford (13/10/10)

The wife and I will be in Perth and surrounding areas for a week in early November - staying on after a conference. Arriving Wednesday Nov 3 and staying in Perth until Saturday ... then off to where ever until we fly back east the following Saturday.

Any thoughts and suggestions ... breweries, restaurants, places to visit etc ...

ghhb


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## Jez (13/10/10)

ghhb said:


> The wife and I will be in Perth and surrounding areas for a week in early November - staying on after a conference. Arriving Wednesday Nov 3 and staying in Perth until Saturday ... then off to where ever until we fly back east the following Saturday.
> 
> Any thoughts and suggestions ... breweries, restaurants, places to visit etc ...
> 
> ghhb




I enjoyed my visit to Feral Brewing which is just outside Perth - http://www.feralbrewing.com.au/home.html

If you can get down to Little Creatures in Fremantle you should do so. Great venue & great beers which taste even better from the source. 

Jez


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## thanme (13/10/10)

Fremantle and the Swan Valley would be your best bets for sure.


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## Lecterfan (13/10/10)

I'm not sure what "surrounding areas" constitutes, but if you have a week....the Bootleg Brewery in Margaret River was the final nail in the coffin of my bourbon drinking career (I haven't been there for 5 years so am not sure of it's quality etc now). It had a good atmosphere, decent food, and great beer. There was another smaller one near there as well...I preferred the overall setup of the smaller one, but preferred the beer from Bootleg.


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## whitegoose (13/10/10)

The Swan Valley has Feral, Mash, Duckstein, Elmars and Ironbark all close enough to the city to be a day trip, or you could stay out there. I'd definitely recommend it out there.

In the city you're best off looking to Freo which has Little Creatures (a Perth institution), Black Salt, the Monk...

But if you want to get out of the city, try the Margaret River area - about 3.5 hours south. It has more breweries than you can poke a stick at (including some of our best) and is definitely recommended.


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## matr (13/10/10)

Definitely Swan Valley. There's Elmars, Duckstein, Feral & Mash. You could do this tour.. Link I rekon you could get the numbers together by asking on here.

There is also a multitude of micros down south (within 3.5hrs drive) Colonial, Bootleg, Cowaramup, Bush Shack, etc etc

Swan (Before Lion Nathan took over) did tours but not sure if they do any more. You would have to ring and ask. 

Cheers, Mat.

Edit: Yeah what he said ^


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## eamonnfoley (13/10/10)

matr said:


> Definitely Swan Valley. There's Elmars, Duckstein, Feral & Mash. You could do this tour.. Link I rekon you could get the numbers together by asking on here.
> 
> There is also a multitude of micros down south (within 3.5hrs drive) Colonial, Bootleg, Cowaramup, Bush Shack, etc etc
> 
> ...



Speaking of Swan - are there any old recipes around for their pale ales and stouts?


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## outbreak (13/10/10)

Swan did a pale ale?! I would also like to have a recipe! For nostalgic reasons.


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## dogs01 (13/10/10)

If you do the Swan Valley you MUST visit Ironbark. Best of the 5. Their woodfired pizza's are fantastic as well as great beers.
MATR forgot to mention them previously


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## eamonnfoley (13/10/10)

outbreak said:


> Swan did a pale ale?! I would also like to have a recipe! For nostalgic reasons.



I've seen historical pictures of pubs etc advertising the different beers. There is even a picture in Michael Jackson's World Guide to Beer (1977 Version).

I reckon the brewery should still have their archives.


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## kocken42 (13/10/10)

I've always thought a 2 day brewery tour from Perth to Margs would be top notch.

Start off in the Swan Valley and do 2 or 3 of the breweries, then head down south. 

- Old Coast Road Brewery - near Harvey
- Occy's Brewery - Busselton
- Bush Shack - Dunsborough area

Stay in the area over-night.

Next day:

- Colonial, Bootleg, Cowaramup, Duckstein - North Margs area
- Head back up to Perth
- Get the breweries you missed in the Swan Valley or head to Freo.


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## outbreak (13/10/10)

The Sail and Anchor is worth a visit.


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## matr (14/10/10)

dogs01 said:


> If you do the Swan Valley you MUST visit Ironbark. Best of the 5. Their woodfired pizza's are fantastic as well as great beers.
> MATR forgot to mention them previously



Didn't know they existed!! Woops how bad is that!!


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## sinkas (14/10/10)

bush shack, are you stoned?


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## kocken42 (14/10/10)

sinkas said:


> bush shack, are you stoned?


 
hahaha, I've actually never been, and refuse to go on what I've heard about their 'beer'.


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## rude (14/10/10)

Please do tell what are their beers like whats wrong witth them I have never tried them


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## kocken42 (14/10/10)

I think it's the fact that they make their money by claiming to be a 'unique' brewery because they sell 'beers' (flavoured alcoholic drinks) which are infused with certain flavours. 

I've been given a bottle of their 'red-creamy soda beer' and their 'passion-fruit beer' which were more like alcopops than beer. 

They do make actual beer according to their website, but I don't think they pride themselves on the production of it.

I think it's great marketing...how do you get more people to drink beer? make it taste as little like beer as possible.

Sure, it's a little gimmicky, but it's different (for the region) and probably get's a lot of interest from a different target market (females in particular).

Sorry for the drag off-topic.


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## gjhansford (15/10/10)

Thanks everyone for your suggestions ... will start planning the trip over the weekend! Will definately be staying out of Perth for a few days ... Margaret River area for sure ... has anyone done the Beer Nuts tour recently? Looks interesting but does it include a closer look at the breweries and chats with the brewers ... or is it just a try and buy tour?

ghhb


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## mfeighan (15/10/10)

yeah bushshack is fail, i went there and it tasted like REAL BAD homebrew,
colonial, bootleg, duckstein are decent though


sinkas said:


> bush shack, are you stoned?


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## gjhansford (17/11/10)

Well ... we're back from our WA trip and visits to almost all breweries and a couple of decent pubs. The pick on the lot was as follows:

*Sail and Anchor - Fremantle.* Spend the best part of a whole day there on a Sunday during the Freo Festival with all these buskers outside for atmosphere. Great range of beers due to their Novembeer promotion.

*Duckstein - Margaret River.* Swish is the word ... with the best Germal lagers and pils to wash down great German food. Had my first real Alt Beer ... now I know what the rave is all about! Also had a chat here to the brewer.

*Feral - Swan Valley.* Last afternoon spent here. After a few days down Margaret River in the cold and damp it was great sitting on the terrace in the warmth of the afternoon and being cooled down with ... dare I say it ... undomesticated yet sophisticated ... brews and the Freo Doctor after about 2:30pm. What a range of unusual yet tasty brews. The pick for me was Fantapants - a 7.4% Belgian Ale, described as "offensively bitter (like most redheads!) but begins slightly sweet, with an aroma of passionfruit and pineapple. The finish is full-bodied with a hint of biscuity malt." The Boris - a Russian Imperial Stout at 11.5% was also an experience!

The disapointment of the trip was Little Creatures. Forget it ... just a lousy and expensive restaurant now.

Now it's back to the micro setup with a few ideas to try over the next few brew days. What have I learnt? Experiment with the hops and move to fermenting in stainless steel!

:icon_cheers: 
ghhb


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## matr (18/11/10)

I went to the Duckstein last week. It was awesome. Great food Great beer great place. It does look a bit too upmarket though as it's coupled with a winery.

Also went to Bootleg and was disappointed. Has the beer tasting rack. Didn't rate any of them. Bitterness seemed to be very harsh in most. Food was very average for the price. Wish I went back to Duckstein. 

It's a shame you didn't like LC's. I thought the food there was great and the beer even better. If it was the price that put you off I can't comment coz work paid for it!!

Cheers, Mat.


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## Hatchy (18/11/10)

We're just outside Margaret River on our honeymoon at the moment. We went to coweramup & colonial on Monday & were massively impressed with their setups but a bit disappointed with their beers. There wasn't anything wrong with them, they just weren't very exciting. Bootleg was awesome! Top beers & one of the best hamburgers I've ever had. Luckily for me I like making friends with strangers & started having a chat with a bloke in a bottle shop on Monday night because he was wearing a bootleg shirt. Turns out he's the head brewer so I scored a tour of the brewery & some samples from the fermenters. I'm having a settlers pale ale as I type this. I thought I liked going over the top with galaxy. I've got nothing on the bootleg guys.

It sounds like something must've changed at bush shack. Their beers are awesome. I didn't try any alcopops but had all six of their beers in a tasting tray, went back for seconds of most of them & grabbed some take away of everything they had bottled. They did say that they used to use extract which may be why some of their beers used to be rubbish. I'm not sure how long Dan & his wife (didn't catch her name) have had it but maybe the standard wasn't as high under the previous owners. Apparently they're one of 2 breweries in the world that brews a 100% wheat beer. I told Dan that I'll give it a go at some point because from what I've read it's impossible & can't be done. He said that's what everyone tells him & to email him if I have any problems. I've got some bottles of their beer that I'm taking back home for mates. If they dislike them as much as blokes previously in this thread then I'm giving up beer.

Going to duckstein tomorrow to see what they spent the $6m on & then to Perth for feral, mash, gage rd & possibly little creatures. Will be going to the sail & anchor at some point.


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## eamonnfoley (18/11/10)

Mash is great at the moment - they have a brilliant black IPA on


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## Hatchy (18/11/10)

foles said:


> Mash is great at the moment - they have a brilliant black IPA on



I saw mention of a black IPA on here somewhere. That was the point where we (I) decided we're going there.


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## sinkas (18/11/10)

I dont think gage roads will accept visitors,

funnily enouhg they just started brewing some drinkable beer, so maybe many things have changed

also it Novembeer, so a stop at the Sail and Anchor in Fremantle is a good idea,


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## dogs01 (18/11/10)

matr said:


> Definitely Swan Valley. There's Elmars, Duckstein, Feral & Mash. You could do this tour.. Link I rekon you could get the numbers together by asking on here.
> 
> There is also a multitude of micros down south (within 3.5hrs drive) Colonial, Bootleg, Cowaramup, Bush Shack, etc etc
> 
> ...




You neglected to mention Ironbark brewery in the Swan Valley


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## matr (18/11/10)

dogs01 said:


> If you do the Swan Valley you MUST visit Ironbark. Best of the 5. Their woodfired pizza's are fantastic as well as great beers.
> MATR forgot to mention them previously






dogs01 said:


> You neglected to mention Ironbark brewery in the Swan Valley



No need to rub it in. I heard you the first time...


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## Hatchy (18/11/10)

I'm at duckstein now, not the sort of beers that I've enjoyed or brewed previously but I reckon I'll be brewing a dunkel some time soon. I'm loving the duckstein dunkel. How did I get talked into driving today?


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## Hatchy (19/11/10)

There's another one here. Occy's isn't on the Margaret River tourist map so was a bit tough to find. They have some good beers but because I had to drive I didn't get a chance to give them a thorough going over.

We went back to Cowaramup yesterday to get steins & got to have a chat with the brewer/owner. The bloke is a champ! He seemed stoked to have home brewers there wanting to talk to him about beer.

If any of the Perth blokes haven't been down this way for a brewery tour I'd heartily recommend that you get down here. If you want to impress the missus then I can't speak highly enough of the forest rise eco retreat.

We're off to Perth today, I can't wait for feral!


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## keifer33 (19/11/10)

Sounds like your getting around Hatchy. Was only just down last weekend but was so rushed I hardly got a chance to visit many breweries. Will mark Cowaramup down for next time.


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## jayse (19/11/10)

Sounding like a great time Hatchy how about posting some pictures, not the honeymoon home vids the brewery visit ones


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## Hatchy (19/11/10)

I can do that once I have proper interwebs. I'm posting on my phone at the moment so can't upload photos. I'm hoping to get some beers back to Adelaide so you'll probably get to taste some of the goodies when I get back.


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## jayse (19/11/10)

That would be grand, cheers.


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## Hatchy (19/11/10)

We're at feral now. The good people at mastercard are paying the bill once again. I wish that card had someone elses name on it.

Edit: drinking this hop hog I'd swear that I've got Kieren & Philip sitting at this table with me. Hopefully they bottle some of this so I can bring some back for the hop addicts.


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## HeavyNova (19/11/10)

Hatchy said:


> We're at feral now. The good people at mastercard are paying the bill once again. I wish that card had someone elses name on it.
> 
> Edit: drinking this hop hog I'd swear that I've got Kieren & Philip sitting at this table with me. Hopefully they bottle some of this so I can bring some back for the hop addicts.



Sounds like you're have a good time Hatchy!

What would be your guess to the hops in the Hop Hog? I've embarked on a mission to produce a similar beer at home and when asking the question about hops for this beer there were quite a few different hops on my list at the end of the disscussion.

I'm about to bottle my first iteration of the 'Hop Hog Clone' brew this weekend. Looking forward to seeing how it turned out.


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## Hatchy (20/11/10)

I reckon they use all of them. Had a few more hop hogs at the sail & anchor last night & my sweat smells like hops this morning.


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## sinkas (20/11/10)

Thats revolting,

What other beers were pouring there last night?


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## Hatchy (20/11/10)

I had a nail ale & a nail stout I reckon & some stuff I can't pronounce let alone spell. There was a bloke at the bar ordering a vb when I was at the bar at some point. I told the bar tenders that they should give him a beer to go with his vb. In hindsight that was pretty rude but I thought it was hilarious at the time. I had a look at the virgin website earlier & apparently 5L of beer on a plane is ok. That's pretty much exactly what I have in my back pack.


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## Hatchy (23/11/10)

jayse said:


> Sounding like a great time Hatchy how about posting some pictures, not the honeymoon home vids the brewery visit ones



I was about to post some photos here but for some reason they're all too big to upload, stupid new camera! I'll fix that tomorrow when I'm (hopefully) sober (maybe).

The good people at virgin seemed more than happy with me bringing stacks of beer home on the plane so you'll almost certainly get to taste some of the goods. I reckon we managed to squeeze 6 t shirts, 7 glasses, 20 stubbies, 6 stubby holders & a 2L growler into the luggage somehow. I'll see how I go with photos tomorrow, bedtime now.

I believe I saw something about Febeeruary at the sail & anchor. I wonder if there's likely to be cheap flights.


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