BeerMason member Brad Creasy puts his liver on the line at the WA Craft Beer Showcase! Thanks for this wrap up of the showcase Brad - keep an eye on the postman - some beery love is heading your way...

Hello BeerMasons,

Firstly, nice redo of the website, its looking good.

On the night of Saturday the 26th of November myself and two of my mates went along to the first WA Craft Beer Showcase (the first of what I hope is many more to come). The list of Breweries involved are as follows:

Old Coast Road Brewery
Mash Brewing Co
Last Drop Brewing Company
The Monk Brewery & Kitchen
Nail Brewing
Billabong Brewing
Eagle Bay Brewing
Brew 42
Little Creatures Brewing Co.
Ironbark Brewery
James Squire
Indian Ocean Brewing Co.
The Old Brewery
Moody Cow Brewery
BlackSalt Brewing
Colonial Brewing Co.
Matso's Broome Brewery
Occy's Brewery
Cowaramup Brewing Co.
 
(A couple of the above breweries were at the Friday session but not the Saturday night one)
 
Also, besides the breweries there were also members of the BEERtaster  and Grain Cru teams on hand to chat and encourage people to explore more good beer.
 
The Grain Cru are a Beer Club (kinda like a Wine Club) the operate out of the Cellarbrations store in Carlisle, in Western Australia and the BEERtasters organise tasting nights at the Defectors Bar, upstairs @ The Flying Scotsman here in Perth and also beer and food matching nights at 5 Bar which are both on Beaufort street in Mount Lawley.
 
Upon Entry we received a complementary tasting glass and 6 tasting tokens with which to sample the delicious range of beers on offer and since I wasn't taking note and can't remember everything I will point out the notables the stuck out too me.
 
The first brewery stall we stopped at was the Old Coast Road Brewery who had two beers on tap for tasting a Porter aged in Oak Barrels and something else (A Pilsener I think) of which we only ended up trying the Porter as directed by the delightful lady who was taking care of the taps. It had plenty of flavour with chocolate and coffee notes and a nice smokeyness from the oak.
 
Next we moved on to the Nail Brewing stall next door (Yes, we decided to start on one side and make our way down) to try their famous Nail Ale. Unfortunately the Nail brewery is currently in the middle of a relocation and therefore they only had the one beer for tasting so we couldn't try their Oatmeal Stout which I have tried before and recommend to anyone able to get it on tap.
 
After that we stopped by the Old Brewery (formally the Swan Brewery) and tried their Mount Bay Brown Ale. I've become a bit of a fan of Brown Ales since becoming a member of the BeerMasons and enjoyed this Northern English style Brown Ale with its sweet, malty aroma and nutty and caramel notes.
 
The Little Creatures was doing something a little bit different having bought along a hand pump to serve their newest Small Batch offering, the “Big Dipper” Double IPA. I've only hand beer from a hand pump twice before, one a dark ale and the other a IPA, and have found it a good way to bring out the flavours in a beer and enjoy something a little bit different from the norm. It definitely worked for the Dipper with all three of us agreeing that the crew at Little Creatures had winner in their latest creation.
 
We also tried some of the usual suspects such as Matso Brewing's (semi?) famous Mango Beer and the Monk Breweries Mild Ale, a midstrength beer has claimed a Gold Medal at Australian International Beer Awards 2011 and they say is better than the Little Creatures Rogers Midstrength.
 
The last beer that I tried was of a style that I had never encountered before, a Vienna Style larger brewed by one of the South West's newest breweries Eagle Bay Brewing. A medium bodied beer with a slight malt sweetness balanced with bitterness, this is a beer I took an immediate liking too and will be on the look out for other similar beers (Perhaps you could help out here BeerMasons *winkwink*)
 
All in all it was a good night and everyone involved in making it happen seemed very enthusiastic, hopefully they were encouraged enough to continue with it in the years to come.