Husband-and-wife team Matt Moore and Gemma Sampson have long dreamt of starting a microbrewery, an ambition that ultimately sent Moore back to university to learn how to brew. A lengthy two years after their plans were finalised, the 80-seat venue is now complete. Enter Bright Tank Brewing Co in East Perth, a brewery that focuses as much on its food as the beer it brews.

“We didn’t want to open just another brewery with pizzas, burgers and chips,” says Moore, a certified cicerone (beer sommelier) and Bright Tank’s head brewer. “We want to show that beer can be paired with adventurous food. It’s huge in Belgium, they live by it and write whole menus by it.”

Bright Tank’s opening range of core beers includes a kolsch, pale ale, brown ale, and a regular and “session” IPA. Its saison has already been offered at Petition Beer Corner.

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The venue’s share-plate food menu has been designed to match its beer offering with a fortnightly seven-course “beergustation” dinner taking things up a notch.

“The way we interviewed our chef [Jake Gledhill] was I took him to seven beers and said, ‘See you next week, you’re cooking me dinner’”, says Moore. “He came back with seven meals that paired wonderfully.”

Sharing dishes include charred Fremantle octopus with potatoes, saltbush and pickled samphire; and dry-aged rump cap with bone marrow, confit shallot, desert lime and warrigal greens. Bar snacks include popcorn with maple caramel and sourdough bread baked using spent grain from the brewery. Native ingredients are a common theme – the saison, for example, is brewed using lemon myrtle. While the cooking sits at the more ambitious end of the local brewpub food spectrum, Moore is determined to keep the vibe casual.

“I don’t want people to feel like they need to dress up to come in,” he says. “They can come in their thongs and shirt, it’s still a brewery.”

This article was updated on August 23, 2018.

Bright Tank Brewing Co
100 Brown Street, East Perth
0400 251 722

Hours
Wed 4pm–10pm
Thu 12pm–10pm
Fri & Sat 12pm–12am
Sun 10am–10pm

brighttankbrewing.com.au