Red Back was my favourite beer back in the late 80s and early 90s. I stopped drinking beer for well over two decades, so it was a while between drinks.

The America’s Cup defence was an amazing time in Fremantle in the late 80s as the 12 metre yachts fought for supremacy on the water and Fremantle was pumping. Fremantle was the place to be, it was going well in Western Australia. The Sail and Anchor Hotel in Fremantle was one of my favourite pubs not only in Fremantle but in Perth. Whilst they had a decent selection of beers available, Red Back was my choice of beer in the Sail and Anchor Hotel and well advertised at the time.

Red Back is a wheat beer, the flavours are creamy and pretty well defined. This was the first craft beer in Australia, Matilda Bay Brewing Company did a great job back then. These days it isn’t easy to find Redback beer at a liquor distributor, or what we call a bottle shop. Red Back has fallen out of favour with distributors and we are all worse off because of this. It is so hard to find in Perth, then I found Redback at my local bottleshop hidden in the corner, you walk in and ask for it and the staff have trouble finding it – go figure.