Cheers! Corrigin Farm Improvement Group launch 40th anniversary beer from community crop

It was all smiles at the highly anticipated launch of the Corrigin Farm Improvement Group’s 40th anniversary beer last week.
As the sun set, farmers from the Wheatbelt community got the first taste of the home-grown beer, brewed from the grower group’s very own Spartacus barley.
It was not only a way to mark the impressive milestone, but to bring something positive to the community after the devastating Shackleton-Corrigin bushfire devastated the community in February.
CFIG executive officer Veronika Crouch said the beer — named Firestorm — was something the community could call their own and it was exciting to see it come to fruition.
“It’s exciting,” she said.
“We’ve had a lot of input from our committee and our members, some have donated inputs, whether that’s seed, chemicals, doing fire breaks throughout the year and various sponsors over the last two seasons have also contributed to trials on this crop as well.
“The group and members really have the chance to own the beer and celebrate something we’ve grown and now we’re getting to drink the result.
“And it tastes really nice.”
With a poll held to choose the name from a selection of suggestions from CFIG committee members, the community selected Firestorm.
Using 300kg of barley harvested from their community crop, CFIG teamed up with Esperance’s Lucky Bay Brewery, who then brewed 1100L and designed the label.
The graphic features the same wheat from CFIG’s logo, with one stalk yellow and one green, mirroring the grower group’s colours, with a third stem in an orange-red hue, with the three stems rising from flames to represent the February blaze.
“I think it’s a nice way to bring something positive out of the fire,” Mrs Crouch said.
The “easy-drinking” beer was launched at the Corrigin Town Hall after the grower group’s Annual General Meeting and Farming After Fire workshop and will be on tap at the Corrigin Hotel.
However, Mrs Crouch said the four kegs “wouldn’t last long” and those keen on a drop could also purchase cartons from the hotel, with the remaining cartons with CFIG, which would take donations for them.
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