Wheatbelt Lager to be launched at the 2023 Wagin Woolorama

Woolorama's sponsorship co-ordinator Carmen Keed listened carefully to the requests of beer drinking locals and conveyed their ideals to Eagle Bay Brewing Company's head brewer Keegan Steinbacher.

The consensus was for an easy-drinking, crowd-pleasing malt-driven lager.

Mr Steinbacher came up with a brew and went one step further to acknowledge that beer doesn't exist without farmers - he involved local farmer Clayton South and his team who run their east Wagin property.

In 2021 the Eagle Bay team visited the property during harvest to see the grain coming off and watched as 1.2 tonnes of barley was selected for Wagin's special beer.

The Perth based brewer said it had given them a better understanding of where their grain comes from and the people behind it.

He was also keen to establish a relationship where they could trace the malt process from the farm all the way to the brewhouse, enabling them to bring a paddock to pint experience to the Wheatbelt.

"As a brewery, owned and operated by a third-generation farming family, we've always had a huge respect for sustainable agri- culture," Mr Steinbacher said.

"Our exploration in sourcing local ingredients and establishing local relationships is particularly important to us."

He said many people were excited about the hop varieties used in a beer but Western Australian doesn't have a commercial hop industry

"It would be lovely if we did but we have all this barley but it is ignored.

Taking the project to the next stage they sent the South's 1.2t of barley to a custom maltster in New South Wales - at this point in time WA has no small batch maltsters - in what he said was a difficult and expensive process.

The end result was a heavily roasted malt he described as having 'big cake and biscuity flavours'.

Combined with Australia's Pride of Ringwood hops (typically used in Coopers Pale Ale) they produced 60 cubes of crowd-pleasing malt-driven lager.

It was to be launched at the 2022 Woolorama but none was wasted when it didn't happen.

Locals quietly and unofficially gave it a local launch at Wagin's Palace Hotel where it received the thumbs up.

"It has 3.2 percent alcohol and we have kept the beer simple, so it can be enjoyed by everyone," Mr Steinbacher said.

"It is a clean, easy drinking lager that's best shared with mates."

One year on and another Woolorama commemorative lager is brewing with 60 cubes destined for the official launch on Friday, March 10 and the beer will again carry special 50th year labels.

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Mr Steinbacher said once the Woolorama was over the beer would go into Eagle Bay Brewing's core range - under the new name of Wheatbelt lager and stand next to their most popular and permanent 4.6pc alcohol Kolsch beer.

"We couldn't think of a better platform to launch the lager than Wagin Woolorama," he said.

"Our craft partnership with the event means we will be able to not only share our new lager, but the story behind it, face to face with everyone from the region."

The people at Eagle Bay Brewing Company have greatly expanded their experience and knowledge of how barley makes it way from paddock to pint.

Despite the rigours and expense of trying small batch malting, they are looking forward to a bright new future once the nearly completed Capel-based Mallokup Malt is operating.

This has been a four-year venture which is now awaiting final commissioning of the boiler before the first barley will be malted in coming weeks.

The new small-batch custom malthouse has been initiated by Scott Butson, who has a background as a brewer and in information technology and is equally passionate about connection to primary producers and eliminating the food miles in beer production.

He is confident his business will be welcomed by the State's craft brewers who may now find a local alternative when producing some craft beers requiring imported malt from places like Germany, the UK and Canada.