Feral Brewing Co.

For this week’s brewery, we go back over to Western Australia for easily the largest and most main-stream brewery I’ve written about so far: Feral Brewing.

My aim with this blog is to mainly focus on the smaller and maybe less well-known breweries of Australia, but I will occasionally throw in a larger brewery that I also happen to love. 

It is also my intent to try as much as possible to focus on certified independent breweries.  As such, I was a bit conflicted about writing up Feral.  However, I have eventually arrived at the conclusion that, while I will absolutely prioritise the independent beer makers of Australia, and they will make up the vast majority of the posts you read here, I will not completely excise brewers of delicious beverages who have been bought out by larger companies from my beer-consciousness.

So with all of that philosophical debate aside, on to the beer!  You’d probably know Feral from their Hop Hog IPA, Sly Fox Summer Ale, or Karma Citra India Black Ale that are all widely available.  Personally, my first exposure to Feral was via their Fanta Pants Imperial Red Ale that I happened upon in a Sydney craft beer bar several years back.  Fanta Pants has since evolved into Red Nut in the Feral seasonal beer list, but it’s still one of the best beers I’ve ever had.

The brewery itself is located in the Swan Valley, only about half an hour outside of the Perth CBD.  But when you pull into the gravel red dirt carpark, it feels like you could easily be hundreds of kilometres away from anything resembling a city.  Most of the large-scale brewing Feral does these days is based back in Perth.  So the brewpub appears to be basically used for test driving new recipes.  You can still get all of your Feral favourites there, but you can also get some limited releases that literally can’t be found anywhere else.

My personal favourites that I’ve been lucky enough to sample here are Tusk IIPA, I Am Froot American IPA, Prickle Rick (PRICKLE RICK!!) Prickly Pear Sour, and recently the Dirty Biggie Oaked IPA.  The IPA’s are big in hoppiness and flavour and absolutely right up my alley.  The Tusk only comes around in limited releases so consider yourself lucky if you get your hands one of them. 

I think the Dirty Biggie in particular (the oaked version of Feral’s Biggie Juice NEIPA) might be the pick of the lot.  It has an oaky hint of sweetness that compliments the tartness and hoppiness of the base NEIPA fantastically.

Other than those listed above that I personally enjoy, they’ve also got a huge variety of beers and styles that rotate through the taps of the brewpub from a yuzu-fruit infused pilsner to a coffee pale ale to a barrel-aged barley wine to a mango IPA.  Every time I’ve been to Feral there’s always been something interesting, and usually more than a little funky on offer.

My favourite part about the brewpub though, is that because they always have something creative on the go, you can be guaranteed a tasting tray that’s got something you’ll definitely like and something to have a bit of a punt on.  You won’t always like everything, but it’s always worth giving the new experimental stuff a crack.

The brewpub itself is in the middle of Swan Valley farmland with a large bar inside and a good-sized outdoor seating verandah-type area out the back.  It’s almost got a country pub kind of vibe to it outside.  It’s just a really really pleasant place to sit and sample some beer.

It’s well worth a stop for lunch too as the food is a great accompaniment to the beverage sampling.  My personal favourite on the food front is the lamb flatbreads, but it’s pretty hard to go wrong with anything on the menu.

So in summary, if you find yourself over in Perth, or even better in the Swan Valley, I highly recommend a stop by.  I always make time to make it out to Feral Brewing whenever I’m out west.  I don’t always like all of the beers on offer, but I’m never sorry I’ve given them a crack.