![\"Ripple](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/a3becc7052e041f0af07d3b810e7f8e58caaf872.jpg\")
Camera IconRipple Brewing – Joel Nash and Matt Crockett. Credit: Dan MacBride<\/p>\nWA\u2019s booming craft beer scene has flexed its muscles with a local pale ale crowned the best drop in the country.<\/p>\n
Top honours at the Perth Royal Food Awards went to King Road Brewing Co, whose pale ale was named Champion Beer after judges sifted through hundreds of entries from across Australia.<\/p>\n
The Oldbury brewery \u2014 whose beer can be bought directly or through various liquor retailers \u2014 also scooped best packaged pale ale and best packaged IPA, capping a dominant showing at one of the industry\u2019s most respected competitions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning Champion Beer is an incredible result for our team,\u201d head brewer Steve Wearing said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of care goes into every batch we produce, so to have our pale ale recognised like this is hugely rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
The awards, decided through strict blind judging, drew 482 entries, with dozens of gold medals handed out across a stacked field of lagers, IPAs, stouts and emerging alcohol-free brews.<\/p>\n
And it was WA brewers leading the charge.<\/p>\n
Campus Brewing picked up three trophies, while CBCo Brewing, Lucky Bay Brewing and Rocky Ridge Brewing Company all claimed multiple wins.<\/p>\n
Camera IconRipple Brewing – Joel Nash and Matt Crockett. Credit: Dan MacBride<\/p>\n
Rocky Ridge was also crowned Champion Large Brewery, with Campus Brewing taking out Champion Medium and Lucky Bay named Champion Small Brewery.<\/p>\n
The competition also highlighted a major shift in drinking habits \u2014 with alcohol-free beer surging in popularity.<\/p>\n
A new trophy category was introduced this year, won by Boston Brewing Company for its Little Wren non-alcoholic raspberry sour.<\/p>\n
Industry figures show zero-alcohol beer sales in Australia have more than doubled since 2020 and now account for about 10 per cent of the market.<\/p>\n
Chief judge Dan Feist said the standard was high.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe standard this year was incredibly strong across both traditional and experimental styles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With more than 120 breweries operating across WA \u2014 out of more than 600 nationwide \u2014 the State is fast cementing itself as a craft beer powerhouse.<\/p>\n
Winners | Special Trophies<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc6 Champion Beer | Pale Ale, King Road Brewing Co (Oldbury, WA)<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc6 Champion Large Brewery | Rocky Ridge Brewing Company (Jindong, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Champion Medium Brewery | Campus Brewing (Canning Vale, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Champion Small Brewery | Lucky Bay Brewing (Esperance, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best New Exhibitor | Ripple Brewing (Beaconsfield, WA)<\/p>\n
Winners | Trophies <\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc6 Best Lager Packaged | West Coast Pilsner, Eagle Bay Brewing Co (Eagle Bay, WA)<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc6 Best Lager Draught | Darth Lager, Phat Brew Club (Success, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best Pale Ale Packaged | Pale Ale, King Road Brewing Co (Oldbury, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best Pale Ale Draught | Shit Show Supervisor V2, Rocky Ridge Brewing Company (Jindong, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best India Pale Ale Packaged | IPA, King Road Brewing Co (Oldbury, WA)<\/p>\n
\ud83c\udfc6 Best India Pale Ale Draught | IIPA, Cheeky Monkey Brewing Co. (Broadwater, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best Amber \u2013 Dark Ale Packaged | Prom Queen Barleywine Style Ale, Campus Brewing (Canning Vale, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best Amber \u2013 Dark Ale Draught | Prom Queen Barleywine Style Ale, Campus Brewing (Canning Vale, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best Porter \u2013 Stout Packaged | Clout Stout C5 2024, Nail Brewing Australia (Applecross, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best Porter \u2013 Stout Draught | Shelter Export Stout, Shelter Brewing Co (Busselton, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best European Style Beer Packaged | Kolsch, Margaret River Beer Co (Margaret River, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best European Style Beer Draught | Saint Isidore Saison, Homestead Brewing (Caversham, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best Hybrid and Specialty Beer Packaged | Barley Chardonay, Lucky Bay Brewing (Esperance, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best Hybrid and Specialty Beer Draught | Quke Slam, CBCo Brewing (Bramley, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best Low Alcohol Beer Packaged | Small Ale, CBCo Brewing (Bramley, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best Alcohol-Free Beer Packaged | Little Wren Non-Alcoholic Raspberry Sour, Boston Brewing Company (Denmark, WA) \ud83c\udfc6 Best Low Alcohol Beer Draught | Half Mast Mid, Indian Ocean Brewing Co (Mindarie, WA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WA\u2019s booming craft beer scene has flexed its muscles with a local pale ale crowned the best drop…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[252,251,335,464],"class_list":{"0":"post-3739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-perth","8":"tag-drink","9":"tag-food","10":"tag-perth","11":"tag-wa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}