The brewery on the seafront

A SPECTACULAR location, a great idea, a brilliant beer. Little Creatures has since the turn of the century been driving forward the craft beer movement in Australia. It was a handful of friends who got together at the end of the 1990s to make a dream come true. There was Howard, with a background in beer marketing; Phil, a brewer and winemaker; Janis, also a winemaker; and Nick, with knowledge of the catering trade and finance. Inspired by trips to the north-western USA and its vibrant beer culture, the idea took shape of also brewing a beer with a distinctively individual taste outside the Australian mainstream. It had to be hoppy and unpasteurised. They had been particularly impressed by the American hop varieties Cascade and Chinook, and by the Pale Ale beer category.

In west-coast Australia, they aimed to free the brewing process from the factory walls, render the art of brewing transparent. The idea was to make the brewery an integral constituent of a community. In Fremantle they found the ideal property. The location was directly next to the fishing harbour and marina. This was where they translated the idea of their own brewery into corporate reality, supported by the Lion Group, one of Australia’s two leading brewery conglomerates, which took a 20%-stake right from the start. They called their brewery “Little Creatures”, an affectionate nickname for the yeast cells that transform a brew into a beer. At the end of 2000, at the height of Australia’s summer, they were serving their guests the first Little Creatures Pale Ale.

At its facility in the fishing port of Fremantle, the brewery uses Krones technology throughout its entire operations. All the kit has been integrated in a beer hall with a restaurant. Because the beer is so popular, a second brewery is going into operation in 2013, this time on the southeast coast, 3,400 kilometres away.
‘Born to brew pale ale’
The Little Creatures Brewery has room for 500-600 guests. In the “beer garden” you sit directly at the seafront looking at a replica of a 16th-century Dutch sailing ship. You can also make yourself comfortable in the renovated warehouse behind, at its bar or one of the many tables, watch the pizza baker ply his trade or the cooks in the open-plan kitchen, listen to the music. The barman doesn’t have to worry about the tap running dry: behind him are a total of four 40- and 70-hectolitre tanks, reserved exclusively for the restaurant. There are wonderful beers on tap! The Little Creatures Pale Ale in first place, of course, of which the founders say “the brewery was born to brew pale ale”. The ale boasts 40 bittering units, blended with fresh cone hops from Victoria and Tasmania, and Cascade and Chinook varieties from America, balanced with special malts and Australian Pale Malt – free of additives and preservatives and unpasteurised.

Or the Bright Ale, a “hybrid ale”, light and filtered with a somewhat lower hop bitterness of 24 bittering units, a compromise between designed to fit in with Australians’ taste for lager and the way Little Creatures likes to brew its ales. But Little Creatures also brews a classical European-type pilsner, featuring Saazer, New Zealand Pazifica and Tasmanian Helga hops. The fourth of the standard beers is “Rogers”, which has a flavour all its own, with caramel malt, a slightly lemony hint of hops and a pleasant bittery note, light (with just 3.8 % abv), and very cloudy, with 40 EBC units. Six times a year, specialty beers are brewed, like Bock, Spicy Christmas Beer, or Belgian Beer, each of them in a 400-hL batch. <Nike news