This is part two of our fresh is best episode, once again, just a reminder that we recorded these interviews back in August last year at the Perth Craft Beer Festival.

Chris from Queensland’s Green Beacon Brewing [3:15] talks about cold transport and how they communicate their “store cold, fresh is best” message to both their customers and consumers. Brian and Julia from Artisan Brewing [6:28] tell us about starting their Artisan after being inspired by on a trip to Belgium. “Freshness is critical to everything we do,” Julia says and it’s why they are hesitant to package their beers right now because of the greater control over beer quality they have when it’s in kegs. For our third interview [10:58], we head over to Billabong Brewing, where brewer Dan says drinkers are more educated and that, along with the growing choice in beers and breweries, means brewers need to be on their game when it comes to high quality fresh beer. Dan is also the President of WABA (Western Australian Brewers Association) and touches on the importance of continuing to educate consumers and bars about how to properly handle beer. Rob, owner and brewer of Billabong Brewing, takes us through how they deliver their beers and floats the idea of a three-month date code for all beers. We also dive into the value of feedback from beer drinkers when it comes to calling out beers that are old and past their prime. Steve Russell from the very newly opened, though it wasn’t at the time of recording, Blasta Brewing [18:25] says it’s not just the freshest beers you’ll get if you drink local but you’re also supporting a local business. We close out the episode with Jared “Red” Proudfoot, co-founder of Adelaide’s Pirate Life Brewing  [19:52]. He discusses their decision to have their beers cold stored and transported wherever possible, the impact of good sales leading to a good turnover and a constant stream of free stock. Red also talks about the importance of customer feedback and, if you have a below average beer from a brewery, get in touch and let them know. We get on to date coding and Red’s preference for packaged-on over a best before date.

We wrap things up [27:22] with a discussion on what happens when you’re served an old beer, how difficult it is to send it back compared to when returning a wine and I ended up trotting out another food analogy.

Guests

Chris Borbas, business development manager of Green Beacon Brewing (Teneriffe, QLD)

Brian and Julia Fitzgerald, brewers and owners of Artisan Brewing (Denmark, WA)

Rob Murphy, head brewer and Dan Turley, brewer of Billabong Brewing (Myaree, WA)

Steve Russell, head brewer and co-founder of Blasta Brewing (Burswood, WA)

Jared “Red” Proudfoot, co-founder of Pirate Life Brewing (Adelaide, SA)

Contact  

Find us on Facebook at The Good Beer Project and on Instagram

Find Blainey on Instagram at The WA Beer Runner

Find Pia on as girlplusbeer across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and also on her blog

Music

“Keeping Stuff Together” by Lee Rosevere

From the Free Music Archive

CC BY

This episode is part one of two where we chat about the idea of fresh is best, once again we recorded these interviews back in August at the Perth Craft Beer Festival.

We start with Balter Brewing [2:21], a brewery that has exploded onto the scene since they launched in March 2016. We chat with Tim Fishwick about how they cold transport their beers across the country and why it’s important to them, especially as a relatively new brewery. Next we took the opportunity to speak to Miro Bellini [5:44], who is the brand ambassador for Brooklyn Brewery, about “fresh is best”, how it’s style specific and how they work to keep their beer fresh when export is a huge part of their business and then he leads us to the sexy topic of DO (dissolved oxygen). Dan Feist, who at the time of recording was the Brewery Manager for Feral Brewing* [12:55], talks about “fresh is best” and the Feral tagline, “treat like milk”. Off the back our DO chat with Miro, we ask Dan about dissolved oxygen and what it can mean to a beer, particularly when they are sending beer from WA and all around the country. We then spoke to Andrew Dean [18:89], brewer at Northbridge Brewing Co about the benefits of a brewpub when it comes to fresh beers and also how they try to ensure the quality of a CANimal. We should also note Andrew talks about their sister brewery, Whitfords Brewing, opening soon but of course, since these interviews were recorded back in August, Whitfords is well and truly open now! To finish this episode we chat to Jason Credaro [22:38], brewer and founder of Blue Mile Brewing, a brewpub under construction in Busselton. Jason talks about why “fresh is best” is vital and why after an initial period of packaging their beers, they stopped for a while to reassess.

Blainey and Pia close out the episode chatting between ourselves with an analogy of beer to food that perhaps gets a little stretched at times but hopefully makes sense in context and we ask each other how we go about trying to make sure we buy fresh beer.

Guests

A HUGE thanks to all our guests who took time out of a very busy beer festival to talk to us. Festivals are super crazy busy events so we greatly appreciate their time and effort!

Tim Fishwick, Head of Business Development for Balter Brewing (Currumbin, QLD)

Miro Bellini, Brand Ambassador for Brooklyn Brewery (Brooklyn, New York)

Dan Feist, former Brewery Manager for BrewCorp/Feral Brewing (Bassendean, WA)

Andrew Dean, Brewer at Northbridge Brewing Co (Northbridge, WA)

Jason Credaro, brewer and founder of Blue Mile Brewing (Busselton, WA)

Contact  

Find us on Facebook at The Good Beer Project and on Instagram

Find Blainey on Instagram at The WA Beer Runner

Find Pia on as girlplusbeer across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and, irregularly on, Snapchat and also on her blog

Music

“Keeping Stuff Together” by Lee Rosevere

From the Free Music Archive

CC BY

For episode two, Blainey and Pia ask the question what is good beer during last years Perth Craft Beer Festival. We, once again, acknowledge how late our first few episodes are in finally launching but we’re still excited and hope you are too!

First up we spoke to Steve Russell, head brewer and co-founder of Blasta Brewing, an (at the time of recording) upcoming brewpub in Burswood [2:10]. Blasta has now opened their doors! Steve comes from an award-winning homebrewing background. [4:09] Next we chat with Brian and Julia Fitzgerald [4:45] from Artisan Brewing and then Chris from Queensland’s Green Beacon Brewing [6:18] introduces himself and tells us a little about the brewery and their six expansions from their original brewpub to their new production facility. [8:45] We start to discuss the idea of what good beer is and chat through the idea of craft beer not necessarily being just the crazy and massively flavoured beers and (very) briefly touch on the definition of “craft beer”. [13:04] We are joined by Rob and Dan from Billabong Brewing who both come with a wealth of brewing experience. Dan tackles the “what is good beer?” question first and then we dive a little deeper and ask “so how do you make a good beer?” [15:12] and [16:09] “what ISN’T a good beer?” and their answer is mostly about cleanliness. Our final (scheduled) chat is our shortest [17:58] with “Red” from Pirate Life Brewing with a succinct and spot-on idea of what a good beer is.

We finish the episode [18:58] with some of our own thoughts on the topic. Pia's possibly mispronounces the legendary Orval [21:08] and then we bring on a surprised Andy Scade, brewer of the Bevy microbrewery at The Camfield, to throw his two-cents in which leads to chat about beer and mood pairing!

Guests

Steve Russell, head brewer and co-founder of Blasta Brewing (Burswood, WA)

Brian and Julia Fitzgerald, brewers and owners of Artisan Brewing (Denmark, WA)

Chris Borbas, business development manager of Green Beacon Brewing (Teneriffe, QLD)

Rob Murphy, head brewer and Dan Turley, brewer of Billabong Brewing (Myaree, WA)

Jared “Red” Proudfoot, co-founder of Pirate Life Brewing (Adelaide, SA)

Andrew Scade, brewer of Bevy Brewing (Perth, WA)

Contact  

Find us on Facebook at The Good Beer Project and on Instagram

Find Blainey on Instagram at The WA Beer Runner

Find Pia on as girlplusbeer across Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat (though she’s not good at using Snapchat) and also on her blog

Music

“Keeping Stuff Together” by Lee Rosevere

From the Free Music Archive

CC BY