Beerfarm is an independent new world brewery located in the town of Metricup in Western Australia’s Margaret River wine region.
The Beerfarm brewery is literally on a beer farm—a 160-acre property that’s home to rolling green hills, native flora and several dozen Black Angus cattle, who subsist on grass and spent grain from the brewing process.
Beerfarm launched in 2015, taking over the farm’s old dairy and converting it into a modern brewery. The company’s brewing practices are steeped in the natural world. For instance, instead of chasing trends and exercising eco-inefficient brew practices, Beerfarm prioritises fresh produce and sustainable brewing methods.
Out Of Office Giveaway
Beerfarm don’t just engage in sustainable practices in order to have something to tweet about. The brewery is run by a team of bush-grizzled nature lovers who endeavour to promote connection with the natural environment at every available opportunity.
In an effort to spread the back-to-nature gospel, Beerfarm are giving away 16 adventure packages, each of which will send two individuals—in both WA and NSW—on some seriously outdoorsy activities. The comp is running until Wednesday 9th February and the prizes include kiteboarding, mountain biking, rock climbing, surf coaching, horseback riding, swimming with wild dolphins, and skydiving experiences.
Sustainability Is the Name of The Game
Beerfarm avoids many of the customs of the major breweries, whose core focus is commercial expansion, and instead devotes energy to land conservation and reducing its carbon footprint. Sustainability influences Beerfarm’s operational practices from the bottom-up, but it’s perhaps best expressed in their Save the Harvest campaign and Native Series.
Save the Harvest came about when Beerfarm sought to rescue unwanted fruit from Australian farmers. The brewers’ canny repurposing of ingredients gave rise to a number of unique special release beers, such as the Pineapple Sour, made with over-ripe fruit retrieved from far north Queensland, and the Strawberry Sour, a strawberry, lime and mint Berliner Weisse made from 1.5 tonnes of strawberries recovered during the strawberry contamination of 2018.
For its Native Series, Beerfarm partners with Indigenous organisations to produce beers using native Australian plants. These collaborations increase the brewers’ connectivity to land while also enhancing the public’s understanding of the cultural significance of these plants to Australia’s First Peoples.
Breweries churn through an enormous amount of water, most of which doesn’t end up in the tinnies of amber nectar savoured by the public. The industry average is around 4.7 litres of water per litre of beer. But, having identified excess water use as a key sustainability issue, Beerfarm has reduced its water consumption to 3.8 litres of water per litre of beer.
That mightn’t look like much on the page, but when you consider how many thousands of litres of beer are brewed every day, month in, month out, it’s a mammoth reduction. Not to mention the fact the brewery’s wastewater gets sent into land irrigation, which supports pasture growth on the 160-acre property (thus maintaining healthy and delicious grass for the Black Angus to graze on).
What About the Beer?
Beerfarm is intent on providing punters with a beer for all occasions, no matter the drinker’s gender, age or socioeconomic profile. Beerfarm produces beers for chilled-out sessions with friends; beers to be lovingly scrutinised by hop aficionados; and beers to satisfy thirst at barbecues, dinner parties and after a long day’s slog.
Beerfarm’s core range consists of seven beers, a cider and a milk stout. The new kid on the block is Royal Haze, a juicy hazy IPA that comes in at a mature 5.8% ABV. Among the core range, the brewers’ choice is the India Pale Lager, a 5.2% lager made using Pilsner malt and rolled rice alongside Magnum, Mosaic and Saaz hops. This curious grouping of ingredients makes for a fruity, hop-forward lager, as flavourful as it is smashable.
Beerfarm’s Asam Boi Gose was conceived in collaboration with Smith Street Taps, a craft beer hawker stall in Singapore’s Chinatown Complex. The Smith Street beer boffins suggested the Beerfarm team try mixing salted plums with their kettle-soured Berliner Weisse. The result was Asam Boi Gose, a super refreshing 4.5% sour that’s a desirable deep orange colour.
Beerfarm have you covered on all the classics, too. The 4.5% Pale is an everyday pale ale made with El Dorado hops from the US, which give it a clean and light base. The Beerfarm Lager is a classic German-style lager that doesn’t smell of anything other than satisfaction. At 4.4%, it’ll quench the thirst without knocking you over.
The same can be said of Beerfarm’s 3.5% Calm Ya Farm, a mid-strength Australian pale ale that’s gold in colour and low in bitterness. Though, courtesy of the fruity and spicy notes imparted by an entwinement of Galaxy and Topaz hops, the flavour of Calm Ya Farm is no less rewarding.
Beerfarm’s range. (Photo: Supplied)
Experimentation and Fun
Beerfarm’s core range is available at all times, but the company’s brew experimentation is never-ending. Over the years, a heck-load of gose, sours and Berliner Weisse have come out of the Margaret River brew shed, as well as a cider made from local Manjimup apples. Beerfarm beers can be found in the fridges of bottle-os and a growing number of bars and pubs in WA, New South Wales and Victoria.
The company’s investment in sustainability has never come at the cost of quality beer. In fact, Beerfarm’s ethos isn’t aggressively noble, but rooted in pragmatism and a genuine love of the land. All told, they’re just looking to have a good time making beer, stimulate good times for Beerfarm drinkers, and inspire others to leave the world in a better place.
