Team beers to shine at Perth Craft Beer Festival

There is a fair bit of teamwork going into one of WA's most popular beer events.

Not only are the organisers of the Perth Craft Beer Festival doing some heavy lifting to get the three-day brews odyssey ready for its opening in two weeks, they have also been wielding the mash paddle to partner with some of the exhibitors.

While some beer feasts either invite collaborations between breweries or entice them to make one-off unique tasters, the PCBF crew have done more than just encourage their exhibitors in that direction – they have literally had a hand in the special releases that will be offer to the attendees.

The sixth annual Perth Craft Beer Festival will run at the old Ice Cream Factory in Northbridge from August 16-18.

And a growing band of breweries have marked the series by luring members of Bar Pop management, the company behind the extravaganza, help make a new fresh beer.

It is just another enticement for an event that is bucking the trend of many similar festivals around the country that aren’t as appealing in the maturing craft beer market as they were just a few years ago.

Breweries such as Feral and 3 Ravens are among the producers involved in the eight special event beers – but we won’t spoil the fun of the steady announcement of the others in the range over the next fortnight.

However, as festival co-founder Chris Bausor told The Sip this week the festival beers will also live on after time is called on service on the Sunday.

“Last year we did a couple of collaborative brews and it something we wanted to expand,” Bausor said.

“It is a different model to the GABS-specific beers in Melbourne in that our festival brews aren’t totally unique. The idea is that we picked some breweries that were interested in collaborating with us and then we came up with a concept together.

“We looked at the idea of combining beers that are currently on trend and interesting and what types of beers are of significance to the origin of that particular brewery.

“Then we let the designers go nuts with the look of the cans. We will then put those eight beers in venues that are supportive of craft beer such as Freo Doctor, Cellarbrations Carlisle and Mane Liquor after the festival.”

The event is guaranteed to be bigger in 2019 as organisers have been given permission to close part of Lake Street so the festival can spill beyond the Ice Cream Factory site fence.

The 2019 brewery line-up is arguably the best in the festival’s history.

Founders, New Belgium and Goose Island represent the overseas contingent, 4 Pines, Balter, Boatrocker, Coopers, Green Beacon and Hawkers are travelling west from interstate while local outfits from Artisan in Denmark to Mandurah’s Thorny Devil are flying the WA flag. And there are plenty of others in between.

While pleased with this year’s list, Bausor promised an even more impressive billing in the future.

“We’re looking at recruiting some more international labels and have had good contact with breweries from Eastern Europe,” Bausor said.

The festival is still restricted in the crowd sizes it can have over the four sessions and such has been the support for PCBF in recent years that there has already been a healthy rate of ticket sales in recent weeks.

More than 16,000 got a taste of the event last year.

To guarantee your attendance and to check out what’s on offer from August 16 click this link.