Birthday candles for Red Hill
It might be Red Hill’s birthday but it is Australian drinkers who are sharing the presents.
And the celebration will go on for a few more months as the Victorian brewery marks its 10th year in operation.
To recognise the achievement the team has launched Project Red, which will feature 10 red beers in a special series.
The first, The Bloody Plums, is a Farmhouse Saison hitting 7.5 per cent. Plums from the tree on the Red Hill farm have been used in the brew.
The Bloody Plums will also feature a colourful label produced by local artist Nick Kallincos, who will work on the other beers in the series.
Red Hill have distributed The Bloody Plums, which has a recommended price of $5.50 a bottle.
The brewery will also soon hit its 1000th batch, which will be celebrated with a special beer.
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Perth’s Inglewood Hotel is taking some lucky drinkers around the world this weekend.
The long-standing pub is conducting an Autumn Beer Fest with 70 brews from a range of countries up for sampling during a special session on Saturday.
UK’s Brewdog, Abita from the US, our friends from across the ditch, Monteith’s, German great Weihenstephan and locals such as Feral and Nail will have beers on show.
But the minds as well as the tongues can be satisfied with Stephen Blaine, ambassador for Little Creatures, providing training classes.
Tickets are available from the Inglewood Hotel.
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American canning company, Cask Brewing Systems, is making strong in-roads into a new style of packaging for local beer makers.
Colonial Brewing (Margaret River, Western Australia), Green Beacon Brewing (Tenerife, Queensland) and Six String Brewing (Erina, New South Wales) and Pirate Life Brewing (Adelaide, Australia) have all recently started canning on Cask’s equipment.
“The outdoor lifestyle here is a massive part of why we went with cans,” says Colonial’s Justin Fox. “There are so many occasions where you can’t enjoy a bottled beer outdoors. It’s not an issue with canned craft beer.”
Green Beacon’s Andrew Sydes likes the improved portability and freshness keeping, along with the retro charm cans offer. “It brings you back to the days when you first drank beer,” he says. “But now it’s really good beer in that can.”
Cans are also good business for craft brewers. In 2014 sales of US canned sixpacks were up 97% compared to 14% growth of bottles.
“Canned craft beer is the hottest craft beer package in North America,” says Cask founder Peter Love. “Someday that will be the case in Australia. We just placed our first machines in several European countries and the response to canned craft beer there has been huge.”
“Packaged beer is a large part of sales in Australia,” Love adds. “Our canning machines give small brewers an affordable way to package their beer. And it allows them to put their beer in a package that’s portable, infinitely recyclable
and gives their precious beer the ultimate protection from light and oxygen.”
Cask Brewing Systems invented the canned craft beer concept. In 2002 Cask sold its first tabletop machine (it filled two cans at once and seamed one can at a time) to Oskar Blues Brewery & Pub in Colorado. The first US microbrewer to can its own beer, the tiny brewpub became a fast-growing success, growing from 700 barrels/year to 149,000 barrels/year in 12 years. Today over 300 of America’s 3000-plus craft brewers now can all or some of their beers.
Cask’s machines are especially affordable and compact, requiring as little as 16 square feet of space. They also provide an extremely low level of dissolved oxygen (15-20 parts per billion) that extends the shelf life and protects the flavor profile of the canned beer.
