Joint venture brews success

Australia’s premier brewery and distillery have come together to do what they do best.

Pirate Life Brewing and Albany’s own Limeburners Distillery have launched a whisky barrel aged stout to add to their award-winning collections.

Limeburners was crowned 2019 Icons of World Whisky Australian Distiller of the Year and shows no signs of slowing down.

The founder of Great Southern Distilling Company and its flagship brand Limeburners Whisky, Cameron Syme, said the venture was exciting for the industry.

“I think it is a phenomenal thing for Pirate Life to do with us; these guys have been involved both globally and nationally at the forefront of brewing,” he said.

“From my point of view, it was about working with people that strive to do the very best and achieve the best.

“It was saying ‘if we take our best whisky barrels and give them to those guys, then let’s see what we come up with’.

“I also thought that it would be really good for the Australian market.”

The collaboration has been in the making since Syme visited the Adelaide brewery in 2016, when, after an instant connection with the brewers, he proposed that they create the barrel-aged beer.

Mr Syme said the distillery was already known internationally and the release was the first time the Limeburners brand had been co-branded with another company.

“It is a nice acknowledgement that the top brewers in the country want to work with us, and for them that a globally recognised distillery wants to work with them,” he said.

“The demand for this has already been nuts, and we are limited to only six cases in Albany and that’s it. I hope that it helps to brand the Amazing South Coast — our roots are here and we want to help expose the region.”

As for how it tastes, punters have been told to expect a silky oak barrel scent of fine malt whisky, vanilla, peat smoke, pine needles and chocolate-coated honeycomb.

This stout is the first of a series of speciality beers in Pirate Life’s Hindmarsh Collection and the brew will be an annual vintage running for three years until 2021.

Co-founder of Pirate Life Michael Cameron said launching the stout as the first beer in the Hindmarsh Collection was a great way to start the tradition of annual releases with Limeburners Whisky.

This year, the collaborators released 4900 bottles and hope to increase the number of products available with the second vintage.

The stout is launching in Perth today and will be available in Albany in the near future.