Little creatures of love
The thirst for microbrewed beers in sunny Australia is growing and growing, none more so than for Little Creatures. Andrew Catchpole visited it
Good beer, shame about the name, what about calling it Dead Croc?” So quipped one Aussie wag upon his first taste of Little Creatures Pale Ale. For those readers who have yet to have the pleasure, it’s a great brew, packed with flavour, coming out of funky Freemantle in Western Australia.
It’s been cooking up a frenzy of interest in a state saturated with a bird-brained best seller called Emu. It’s taken just six short years since the launch of Little Creatures microbrewery for it to establish itself as the coolest, and easily one of the best craft brewers Down Under. And, as the wag hinted, the brewery inhabits a rather left-field site in an old America’s Cup boat hanger that went on to host an abattoir and then a crocodile farm.
Today the dead meat and deadly crocs are long gone. In their place stands a swish microbrewery wrapped around a modern bar and chilled out Mediterranean-inspired canteen. Tanned bodies quaff beer and munch on salads, grills and pizzas while the tangled pipes and polished tanks gleam, gurgle and steam around them.
As a pommie visitor, and one fresh in from two weeks in the bug-infested sauna of the northern outback, this artsy warehouse resembled an oasis in heaven.
The first clue that Little Creatures is much more than a glorified beachside shack pumping out beer is in the name. The six founding partners lifted their brewery name from a favourite Talking Heads song. The ‘little creatures of love’ lyrics also suggests the yeast cells that work th.....
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By Andrew Catchpole
Section : Spotlight
Page number : 46
