The Lip - WA flavour in Sydney awards
Long-time beer drinker and The Sip editor Ross Lewis casts his eye over the kegs from here and abroad.
Gold medals were hard to win at the recent Sydney Royal Beer Show.
Only seven of the gongs were handed out during recent judging and three were collected by WA brewers, continuing their outstanding results for 2014.
Mash Brewing’s Amber Ale, Russell, part of their crew’s Illustrator series, was awarded champion draught beer after collecting the major prize in the Amber and Dark Ales category.
And Bassendean-based Nail Brewing collected two gold medals for their Hughe Dunn Brown Ale in the bottled Stouts and Porters class and their Brockwell Brewedwell Red Ale in the bottled Amber and Dark Ales section.
Mash has quickly emerged under head brewer Charlie Hodgson as one of the best craft beer producers in the country.
In May the Swan Valley operation won best beer at the Australian International Beer Awards for its American India Pale Ale, Copy Cat.
The drink was also well received at the Sydney Show, picking up a silver medal in the draught Pale/Golden Ale categoty.
Mash was also rewarded with a silver medal for its Rye Porter.
Nail also left town with a bronze medal for their Golden Ale and Nail Stout while also collecting silver for its rich and limited Clout Stout.
The team at Nail have been so overwhelmed by the response to Brockwell Brewedwell that they have decided to add it to their core range.
Nail already won gold for the Hughe Dunn at the AIBA function and the Royal Adelaide beer show in July, adding to the stack of trophies claimed over the past five years.
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They’ve given us some great brews from a wine region. Now the McLaren Vale Beer Company is branching into another type of alcoholic beverage.
After manufacturing some great craft beer with the Pale Ale and India Pale Ale, the brewery has now introduced Vale Cider.
The brew is a cloudy, traditional-style cider made in collaboration with McLaren Vale’s Chapel Hill Winery.
Head Brewer Jeff Wright has elected to use a combination of locally grown apples to create a crisp yet full flavour.
“We’ve used Pink Ladies, Granny Smiths, Golden Delicious and Fuji fruit, all from the surrounding Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula regions,” Jeff said.
“We wanted to create an apple cider that actually tastes like apples – it might sound obvious, but there are a lot of options on the market that don’t properly show that characteristic!
“Working with Bryn Richards from Chapel Hill Winery during the cider’s development has been an excellent process and the end product certainly benefits from having the input of a winemaker alongside our expert craft brewing team.”
