Jarrah Jacks brewery is located in the timber town of Pemberton, 330 clicks southwest of Perth. The brewery-café is perched on a grassy knoll flanked with grape vines and offers a variety of small batch ales crafted on site.
Photo by Cam Stevens
The beers are inspired by the history of the region – The Lumberjack and Swinging Axe ales pay homage to Pemberton’s timber industry whilst the Marron Poachers Ale and Snake Choppers Ale are literal (and tasty) enough.
One particular offering from the brewery sparked our interest: Arthur’s Hop Ale. According to Jarrah Jacks “Arthur Bunn was a pioneer of the Australian Hop industry by supplying Pemberton grown hops to the Swan Brewery in the early to mid-1900s”.
We needed to know more and took straight to the history books.
Arthur Bunn circa 1960s – Sourced from: State Library of WA
It was actually JJ Bunn who pulled up stumps as a Victorian dredging engineer to try his luck cultivating hops on a commercial scale in Pemberton, the year was 1929.
Bunn managed to wangle a deal with the Swan Brewery to purchase his hops and even though the depression forced the Department of Agriculture to cut promised funding for his dream venture, Bunn harvested his first crop of golden cluster hops in 1931. Bunn continued to perfect his cultivating of the water-hungry plants and soared to 12 acres of production by 1938.
‘Waterfall Hops Farm’ 1966 Sourced from: State Library of WA
JJ handed over his hop empire to the trusting hands of his son, Arthur William Bunn in 1950, two years before he died. It is from this year until the early 1970’s that the son of hops made a real name for himself.
Arthur planted new gardens sheltered from the wind, implemented an automated hop picking system and most importantly he tackled head-on the hop industry’s most costly problem: the lack of water supply. He did this with the assistance of the Swan Brewery by constructing the picturesque Lake Beedelup to irrigate his now 70 acres of hops yielding over 50,000kg of cones annually.
Lake Beedelup © Neal Pritchard Photography
The Swan Brewery continued to purchase hops from Pemberton until the late 1970’s when it moved from its riverside location to the Perth suburb of Canning Vale. The new brewery’s upgraded equipment required hop pellets rather than whole cones forcing the Brewery to stop purchasing Arthur’s hops in 1978.
And so the story goes, the hop industry in Pemberton met its demise and besides Lake Beedelup, the only other residual sign of the town’s hop history is the cleansing ale at Jarrah Jacks Brewery. So how does it taste?
Arthur’s Hop Ale, contrary to its hoppy history, is not overly hopped but prides itself a light ale. Light in colour, light in flavour and light in alcohol percentage at only 2.9%. It has a golden straw colour and pours lively with a foamy head that dissipates quickly. The aroma is subtle and the palate crisp and refreshing with hints of lightly toasted wheat, crushed white grape skins and faint hop bitterness.
This beer is all about soaking up everything that Pemberton has to offer and giving a big old cheers to our mate Arthur.
Special mention to The Hopshed Farm, Peerabeelup WA who in 2003, planted hops sourced from remnant plants growing near Pemberton and who have documented extensively the history of hops in WA.
Article by Cam Stevens @camerachameleon