Perth's new breweries update

News of council planning hold ups dog the new 'Northbridge Brewing Company', as revised plans tried to sidestep disabled access laws by renaming an upstairs trading area. Clearview Investments Group, who were given the green light on planning in January, have a hit a stumbling block by omitting an elevator fromplans, providing disabled access to a top floor alfresco area (they basically changed the name from a 'skydeck al fresco function room' to the 'skydeck al fresco area'), hence falling foul of Western Australia's disability laws. A bit of cost cutting that will surely have to go back to the drawing board. Hopefully there won't be any cost cutting when it comes to the brews, as former Old Swan brewer and local brewing identity Hugh Dunn oversees operations.

And as speculated in this blog back in October last year, Why has Chuck Hahn been spending so much time in Perth? Well, I'm simply putting two and two together, but Chuck recently intimated in a chat with UK beer writer Roger Protz that Perth was on the radar for a James Squire Brewhouse. If you have visited the Sydney incarnation at King St Wharf, then you know that the format works particularly well on the water - and this is where the other part of the maths comes in. Back in June 08 Perth City Council approved plans for an enviromentally friendly timber built micro-brewery, function room, restaurant & supper club, as part of the newly redeveloped parkland at Point Fraser, close to Heirisson Island and the Burswood casino complex. On the banks of the Swan River, the new site is hoped to be open some time later this year or early 2010 - and i'll bet my bottom dollar that the 'James Squire' signs will be hanging over the door!