A DUDLEY Park brewer has used his craft recipes to take out six medals and a trophy from the Perth Royal Beer Show.
Three Rivers Craft Brewing founder Mark Rivers has been a home brewer for more than 20 years and has been an all-grain brewer for five years.
“I started brewing for fun and my friends always said ‘hey this is really good, you should brew more,” he said.
“Being an all-grain brewer means I get big sacks of grain and mill them myself and develop recipes on my own.
“It’s all about temperature control for the fermentation – in the competition the judges can tell if it was not done at the right temperature.”
Dr Rivers took out the James Squire Trophy for Champion Amateur Brewer, which is given to the best overall entrant and a gold medal for his English Nut Brown Ale.
“They award the gold medal through a points system so there’s no guarantee someone is going to get one every year.
“It’s really hard to get a gold so I’m really pleased.
This brings his total medal count for the Perth Royal Beer show to 10 and he has won six from the WA Brewing Awards.
Dr Rivers said craft beer was about getting drinkers to enjoy the taste and flavour of the brew.
“It’s about getting away from mass-produced, cheap lagers,” he said.
“You’re supposed to drink them sensibly and responsibly instead of just guzzling it.”
Dr Rivers’ career as an environmental consultant will link into his brewery when he eventually opens one as he plans to create a zero-waste business.
“I’m keen to stay in the Peel region because my science background was all based here,” he said.
“The name Three Rivers comes partly from my surname but also because of the Peel, Murray and Serpentine Rivers in the region.
“We’re working on getting a premises at the moment because I want to turn this into a larger-scale operation.”
