Great Southern brewer claims major trophy and a swag of gongs at Great Southern brewer claims a swag of gongs

Denmark’s Boston Brewing Co has cleaned up at the 2021 Perth Royal Beer Awards, taking home several medals and a major trophy for best packaged amber-dark ale.

The brewery claimed a total of 11 medals — three gold, four silver and four bronze.

It was the Devilside Red IPA that stole the show, though, earning the top trophy for its category for the second year in a row.

Head brewer Luke Low said the awards showed them they were keeping up with a growing industry.

“It is really good for the region. We are trying to continually improve our process and make sure we are putting out good-quality beer,” he said.

“The beer industry in WA is growing year on year at a quick rate, so there are a lot of quality craft breweries out there.

“The competition is Australia-wide, with some big breweries involved, so it is a tough competition for smaller breweries like us who don’t have access to all the equipment and resources the big guys do.

“With the growth of craft beer at the moment, if you aren’t keeping up with improvements, you will probably get left behind or not be able to gain the same traction you have in the past.”

Mr Low described the major trophy winner as a beer with good overall balance and strong hops flavour.

“That beer is definitely a bit of a favourite but at 7.4 per cent you can’t have too many,” he said.

“It is everyone who is involved that makes it a good beer, not just what we do in the brew house — it’s the whole process.”

Gold medals went to the Devilslide Red IPA in the packaged amber ale-dark ale category and The Right Nut brown ale in the amber-dark ale draught category.

Silver was awarded to Boston’s Shark Eye brew in the porter-stout draught category, Afterglose in the packaged European-style category, Squeeze in the India pale ale draught category, and Great Southern IPA in the pale ale draught section. Boston Brewing also won a gold in packaging and design for Shark Eye.

Albany’s Wilson Brewing Company also won a bronze medal in the hybrid and speciality packaged category for its Akoya Dark Pearl Oyster Pale Ale.