Given most punters' expectations of Phat Brew Club, their collab with Mallokup Malt, a small maltings just outside Capel, may seem rather strange. For a house built upon creativity, usually underwritten by a large chunk of the West Australian dairy industry’s lactose production, there’s an elegant purity about West Is Best. Indeed, the word that comes to mind as the glass empties is "honest".
They prove there’s more than loud colour and highly creative fizzy energy to their West Perth brewery via a simplicity of ingredients and expression. A light, bready malt base shows hints of biscuit and honey below a delightfully fine, creamy head – the kind of thing in which you’d want to souse your moustache, should you have one. If not, the retro notion of a hard day’s effort meeting a chilled liquid reward should be enough to give anyone a solid clue as to what’s in the glass. Continuing the local collaborative theme, Margaret River Hops’ Perle delivers firm, late bitterness for style, while the crisp finish further aides the slaking.
Then, as if to reassure fans, Phat offer Scrumpdi-dilumptious: a cookie dough, chocolate and hazelnut stout. First pass calls to mind crushed Bueno bars and Ferrero Rocher orbs floating in Frangelico – the kind of thing that one might find in the early hours at a share house, particularly if that share house happens to be owned by a Mr Wonka and his roommates are a clan of mischievous workers.
The choc-hazelnut experience soon opens to molten fudge brownie and baker’s chocolate dust across a creamy yet somehow balanced palate arc that’s misted by an incredibly fine choc bitterness.
Guy Southern
Published September 3, 2024 2024-09-03 00:00:00
