Latest news with #Wedgetail
West Australian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- West Australian
How Pete McDonald & Howie Croft at Wedgetail Brewing made Australia's best beer: a stunning dark lager
Tucked in a quiet corner down the back streets of Mandurah, no one would assume that Wedgetail Brewing is home to Australia's best beer. But it's official: One of Mandurah's best-kept secrets is officially home to the country's best beer — a dark lager that snagged the champion Australian beer trophy at the Australian International Beer Awards, the world's biggest annual beer competition, earlier this month. Pete McDonald and Howie Croft opened Wedgetail Brewing about 18 months ago and the taproom has quickly become a favourite among locals. But the recent success at the AIBAs proved what locals already knew: the beers Howie and Pete and producing are something special. It's a far cry from the shed on head brewer Howie's property, where the pair first began experimenting with homebrews. 'Our first beers were probably pretty ropey,' Pete laughed. 'Typically with home brewing, you start off with kits, a lot of the work is done for you, it's cheap alcohol at first, and then you start getting the hang of it, and with a lot of learning and reading, you realise there's a bit more to it.' The duo met while working in WA's north decades ago and decided to take the plunge and open the taproom after Howie was made redundant. The brewery's name comes from the Wedgetails the pair would encounter while flying choppers over the Pilbara. The winning beer in question, the dark lager, is something Howie says he's been working on for a decade. The dark lager is served looking as one would expect but the taste is a surprise. It has all the best tasting notes of a dark lager: coffee, malt, and chocolate. But it leaves the drinker with none of the worst elements, no overwhelming bitterness and none of that fullness that discourages a second pint. The dark lager didn't just take out the top gong at the AIBAs but also best independent beer and best dark lager. Surprisingly, though, the brewery's newly crowned 'best' beer isn't the founders' favourite. 'Mine is the IPA. I keep going back to that, it's an older style traditional IPA and that's maybe my roots, I suppose,' Pete said. 'Mine's the draught, it's quite refreshing,' Howie added. The venue is always busy and has been embraced by the community. 'This place wouldn't exist without them; we would have fallen flat on our face without that support,' Pete said. Currently, the only way to drink a beer outside of the taproom is to fill up a growler, but the pair recently invested in a canning machine and are hoping to begin selling their products in local bottleshops soon. 'We'll get our heads around that, and we'll be canning our own product directly,' Pete said. 'It'll be a lot more flexible, a lot more efficient and cheaper. So watch this space, we'll be coming out with cans too.' Wedgetail's hearty pub grub is also a standout, with young gun head chef Rhys Hura passionate about matching the quality of the beer to the food. There's a roaring oven producing delicious wood-fired pizzas and Rhys hopes his steak sandwich will make the finals in WA's best steak sandwich awards. 'I've taken all the aspects of what makes a good steak sanga and reinvented it as something that's different, but also quite modern,' he said. 'We chose Scotch fillets because with the fat content, it renders down and comes apart really easily. 'There's a green tomato relish, which I made to be like a normal tomato relish, but green tomatoes have less tartness and less acidity than red tomato does.' Rhys also uses the beer to flavour the food, with the darker beers going into the sauce on the ribs, the wheat beer in the fish finger batter and the barrel-aged beer being used to make ice cream. The pair hope to have more success at the upcoming Perth Royal Show and have entered the dark lager, the double red ale and the draught. 'So we're hoping that the product will perform again,' Pete laughed. Erskine's Boundary Island Brewery also earned a trophy for best traditional India pale ale with its The Deckie IPA, and King Road Brewing in Oldbury took home prizes for two of its King Road Short Stay Series beers: the American pale ale and NZ Cryo.
Perth Now
3 days ago
- Business
- Perth Now
Soaring high: how Wedgetail made Australia's best beer
Tucked in a quiet corner down the back streets of Mandurah, no one would assume that Wedgetail Brewing is home to Australia's best beer. But it's official: One of Mandurah's best-kept secrets is officially home to the country's best beer — a dark lager that snagged the champion Australian beer trophy at the Australian International Beer Awards, the world's biggest annual beer competition, earlier this month. Pete McDonald and Howie Croft opened Wedgetail Brewing about 18 months ago and the taproom has quickly become a favourite among locals. But the recent success at the AIBAs proved what locals already knew: the beers Howie and Pete and producing are something special. It's a far cry from the shed on head brewer Howie's property, where the pair first began experimenting with homebrews. 'Our first beers were probably pretty ropey,' Pete laughed. 'Typically with home brewing, you start off with kits, a lot of the work is done for you, it's cheap alcohol at first, and then you start getting the hang of it, and with a lot of learning and reading, you realise there's a bit more to it.' Pete (left) and Howie mulling over a dark lager. Credit: Nicole Spicer The duo met while working in WA's north decades ago and decided to take the plunge and open the taproom after Howie was made redundant. The brewery's name comes from the Wedgetails the pair would encounter while flying choppers over the Pilbara. The winning beer in question, the dark lager, is something Howie says he's been working on for a decade. The dark lager is served looking as one would expect but the taste is a surprise. It has all the best tasting notes of a dark lager: coffee, malt, and chocolate. But it leaves the drinker with none of the worst elements, no overwhelming bitterness and none of that fullness that discourages a second pint. The dark lager didn't just take out the top gong at the AIBAs but also best independent beer and best dark lager. Surprisingly, though, the brewery's newly crowned 'best' beer isn't the founders' favourite. 'Mine is the IPA. I keep going back to that, it's an older style traditional IPA and that's maybe my roots, I suppose,' Pete said. 'Mine's the draught, it's quite refreshing,' Howie added. The venue is always busy and has been embraced by the community. 'This place wouldn't exist without them; we would have fallen flat on our face without that support,' Pete said. Currently, the only way to drink a beer outside of the taproom is to fill up a growler, but the pair recently invested in a canning machine and are hoping to begin selling their products in local bottleshops soon. The AIBA awards take pride of place in the taproom. Credit: Nicole Spicer 'We'll get our heads around that, and we'll be canning our own product directly,' Pete said. 'It'll be a lot more flexible, a lot more efficient and cheaper. So watch this space, we'll be coming out with cans too.' Wedgetail's hearty pub grub is also a standout, with young gun head chef Rhys Hura passionate about matching the quality of the beer to the food. There's a roaring oven producing delicious wood-fired pizzas and Rhys hopes his steak sandwich will make the finals in WA's best steak sandwich awards. 'I've taken all the aspects of what makes a good steak sanga and reinvented it as something that's different, but also quite modern,' he said. 'We chose Scotch fillets because with the fat content, it renders down and comes apart really easily. 'There's a green tomato relish, which I made to be like a normal tomato relish, but green tomatoes have less tartness and less acidity than red tomato does.' Rhys also uses the beer to flavour the food, with the darker beers going into the sauce on the ribs, the wheat beer in the fish finger batter and the barrel-aged beer being used to make ice cream. The pair hope to have more success at the upcoming Perth Royal Show and have entered the dark lager, the double red ale and the draught. 'So we're hoping that the product will perform again,' Pete laughed. Erskine's Boundary Island Brewery also earned a trophy for best traditional India pale ale with its The Deckie IPA, and King Road Brewing in Oldbury took home prizes for two of its King Road Short Stay Series beers: the American pale ale and NZ Cryo.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Defense officials advocate for diverse target-tracking architecture
Amid reports that the White House may scrap the Air Force's plans to replace its fleet of air moving target indicator aircraft, defense officials in recent weeks have emphasized the key role the platform plays in the Defense Department's broader target-tracking architecture. The Pentagon in recent years has been exploring options for shifting some moving target indicator, or MTI, missions traditionally performed by aircraft to satellites. The Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office have been leading studies and launching prototypes to consider the viability and value of space-based options. As those demonstrations get off the ground, the Air Force is on a parallel path to replace the aircraft currently used to track air-moving targets — its aging E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System — with the more capable, Boeing-built E-7 Wedgetail. The E-7 has been viewed as a near-term bridge to whatever future architecture the department develops, and the service's plan is to buy the first two Wedgetail prototypes as soon as 2028. But as the White House and the Pentagon finalize a budget plan for fiscal 2026, President Donald Trump's administration is reportedly considering canceling the E-7 buy, according to Aviation Week. The Air Force wouldn't confirm the report, but a spokesperson told Defense News the service is 'continuing to work with OSD on the E-7A Wedgetail program throughout the development of the FY26 budget request.' In recent testimony and at events through the Washington, D.C., region, defense officials have emphasized the importance of an air moving target indicator capability that includes both air and space assets — especially as Space Force and NRO analysis is ongoing. Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs and requirements, said Thursday that while the space-based demonstrations haven't yet delivered clear data to inform program decisions, early indicators support a mixed architecture. 'We think there are kind of synergies of having both flavors of this capability right now, but we're really waiting for some just hard engineering data to understand what we can see from space, and how good is that going to be,' Bratton said during a virtual Mitchell Institute event. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told House appropriators May 6 that while satellites can provide key sensing capabilities, they're not ready to take over the full AMTI mission. As a result, aircraft like the E-7 Wedgetail and E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System are still needed. In a May 13 hearing, U.S. Northern Command Commander Gen. Gregory Guillot told the Senate Armed Services Committee the department needs a layered approach to tracking advanced threats that includes everything from undersea sensors to detect enemy submarines, standoff weapons, aircraft and satellites. 'I think it's a seabed-to-space approach,' Guillot said. Tracking ground and air moving targets will play a key role in what Guillot called the 'domain awareness layer' of a future Golden Dome capability — an advanced missile defense and defeat architecture championed by Trump. The Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office have been working closely on the MTI studies and have been largely tight-lipped about what satellites and other prototypes have been launched to demonstrate the space-based capability. NRO director Chris Scolese has acknowledged in the past that his agency launched some GMTI prototype satellites, and Guillot noted in the hearing this week there are 'a number of' AMTI prototypes on orbit today. The service expects to have an operational space-based MTI capability by the early 2030s. Bratton declined to offer more details on the AMTI demonstrations but said the results of all of the analysis will help answer key questions like, 'How good is this capability from space?' and 'How is it compatible with existing AMTI capabilities that the Navy and the Air Force fly?' Former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told Defense News there are looming technical challenges surrounding the switch to satellites for MTI missions. Those include questions around power systems and whether a satellite sensor can penetrate cloud cover, he said. The satellites would also need to be more survivable and able to withstand an attack. A fully space-based MTI architecture is likely years away, Kendall said, and those systems would not be ready in time to retire the E-3 without risking a capability gap. 'We're trying to get a lot of that functionality into space, but that's going to take a while, and there's some technical challenges with that,' Kendall said, adding that the Wedgetail has been a crucial component of the Air Force's near-term planning. 'There's a pretty high sense of urgency about getting [the E-7] fielded,' he said.
Telegraph
14-03-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Britain's rearmament choices put us between a rock and a hard place
Well, it happened. The Government has wisely increased the defence budget, however modestly, by raiding another department. It's a start. But the real agony of decision-making in military spending is now about to be felt. Over the past forty years, see-sawing acquisitions policy has cost the MoD and the country dearly. From go-it-alone self-sufficiency to off-the-shelf equipment buys, projects have come and gone, and kit that was supposed to be affordable ended up costing multiple factors more. With the seismic shift in American foreign policy and the seeming return of muscled mercantilism, Britain no longer has the wiggle room for miscalculation in defence acquisitions. Already, scare stories are circulating in Europe that the US government has a 'kill switch' to disable the American-made F-35 stealth fighter in service with its allies including the UK. The reality is more nuanced, but the fact remains that some control is ceded with foreign-sourced weapons. The simple fact is that a medium-sized power cannot have it all in terms of military capabilities. Some technologies, such as nuclear and cyber, are vital for preserving operational sovereignty while others have to be acquired from abroad in partnership or else off the shelf. The trick is in getting the balance right. Success in the past has been mixed. Even selecting existing or foreign-designed platforms has been no guarantee of savings and efficiencies. The much maligned Ajax armoured combat vehicle has become the poster child for defence acquisition mismanagement. When new requirements get shoved into development down the track, costs inevitably rise, and slowing programmes to save money only means more spent in the longer term. The new Wedgetail early warning aircraft has been in service with Australia and other nations for years, but entry into the RAF has faced lengthy delays due to subcontractor difficulties and conversion issues. Crucially, many cost overruns and operational delays in defence have been caused by lack of investment in support infrastructure at bases and facilities. The Royal Navy has struggled to keep even a modest number of frigates, destroyers, and submarines available for patrol due to maintenance issues and lack of crews (the latter down to persistent recruitment and retention woes). The two new aircraft carriers have been a mixed blessing as there are still insufficient aircraft on their decks nor enough escort vessels to protect them. The army's new Boxer armoured personnel carrier – a German vehicle manufactured in the UK – will hopefully benefit from the lessons of the Ajax debacle and might serve as a successful example of off-the-shelf tech built here. Britain's next-generation Tempest fighter, now under development as the Global Combat Air Programme, could become a model of international cooperation avoiding the workshare bun-fight witnessed on the Tornado and Eurofighter programmes of yore. But will the Government have deep enough pockets to maintain cutting edge aerospace development on these shores sufficient for a 6th generation fighter jet? And can the ever-ballooning costs of the Trident nuclear deterrent be tamed? This is just a taste of what Lord Robertson and his team have been dealing with in their preparation of the Strategic Defence Review, commissioned when Labour took power last July and due this Spring. Lord Robertson, as a former defence secretary and Nato secretary, is no stranger to these discussions and is the author of the well-regarded 1998 SDR. But with SDRs, changing circumstances and fickle fortune can make mayflies look long-lived in comparison. The Review will determine the roles, capabilities, and reforms required by the MoD to meet likely threats and challenges in the medium term. Yet, according to its official remit, the review is directed to present recommendations that are 'deliverable and affordable within the resources available to Defence within the trajectory to 2.5 per cent.' Given the current state of affairs, fulfilling that will be a tall order indeed and hopefully won't end up merely offering the MoD a Procrustean solution. Reconstituting Britain's shrunken defence industrial base will take years, time that the country does not have to acquire a sufficient conventional deterrent force. Sophisticated weapons systems also take years to enter service. What remains of the UK defence industry is small, much having been sold off or swallowed up by foreign players. The UK will have to husband what remains and choose which technologies to invest in. The rapidly changing face of modern warfare means the country needs to step-up in terms of drones, missiles and missile defence, AI and cyber. This is without considering the fact that even the basic building blocks of manpower and munitions have been allowed to atrophy. Whatever route we go down, those in charge of Britain's defence are in for a world of pain.
