Category: Travel in Oceania

Apparently, it sometimes rains in Australia. After almost a week of glorious weather, we awoke Thursday morning to the threat of rain. But we wouldn’t let a little bad weather get in the way. Our plan was to visit some breweries south of Melbourne. After a farewell pot of beer with Ute and Wolfie, we hit the road.

We had already heard good things about our first destination, Red Hill Brewery. Mentioning their name to several Australians produced the same positive reaction. Thus, as the rain started to fall, we were eager to get to Red Hill South located on the Mornington Peninsula, about an hour from Melbourne. For a brewery out in the country, Red Hill was pretty easy to locate. Pulling into their car park, we took the large number of cars to be a good sign.

Finding a seat on their patio as the rain pelted down on the roof, we ordered a sample paddle and gazed at the food menu. Ogling the Stoemp Cakes (potato croquets) on a nearby table, I had a feeling this was going to be a good meal. However, I didn’t expect it to be the best meal of trip. Using ingredients sourced from the Mornington Peninsula when possible and their own garden, Red Hill would do just that. We started with the aforementioned Stoemp Cakes followed by Pork Belly with Mashed parsnips and Red Cabbage. Absolutely delicious.

The beer complimented the food very well. Three beers on the paddle are always on tap at Red Hill: Golden Ale, Wheat, and Scotch Ale. The last beer was their Christmas Ale, our first encounter with an Australian holiday beer. All four of these beers included hops from their own field, the only one on the Mornington Peninsula.

Despite the weather being of the holiday brew variety, the wheat was the star for me. A Bavarian-style Hefeweizen, the Wheat had a nice banana nose, though it was a bit under-carbonated for my tastes (which can be said for all the Hefeweizens I tried in Australia). The holiday beer was not forgotten. A Belgian-style Abbey Ale, we purchased the last 750ml bottle to bring home.

After our great lunch, it was time to head back towards Melbourne. A few days prior to our departure for this trip, I read on one of the beer forums that a new brewery opened south of Melbourne. Located in Black Rock, a small town on the coast, True South had only been open for a few weeks the day we visited.

My visions of tasting beers on a sun-splashed deck overlooking the ocean were dashed not only by the weather but also a holiday party had taken over the upper floor where the deck was located. Finding a seat outside downstairs, we ordered samples of the beers. No paddle this time; I don’t think they had arrived yet.

There were three Ales, Summer, Pale and Dark plus a Pilsner. There also was a low alcohol beer. All were a little light for our American craft beer trained palates. But for a brand new brewery, the beers were pretty good. I look forward to visiting True South on our next visit to Melbourne to see how they develop. Maybe then I’ll get to sit on the sunny deck overlooking the ocean.

Just a dozen or so miles up the road and probably easy to find if we knew where we were going was 2 Brothers Brewery. Located in an industrial park along a main road, we arrived just in time, not only to beat the heaviest rain of the day, but to also join the local post-work crowd for a beer.

First thing we noticed while we were enjoying our second paddle-free sampler; the conditioning tanks behind the bar had New York City nicknames. Turns out the brewing kit comes from Times Square. I assume from the Heartland brewpub that no longer brew on site.

2 Brothers had four beers to try, including two ‘firsts’ of the trip: a Brown Ale and a Märzen. (We also had our first cider, a Perry, but this isn’t cidergeek.com.) The Märzen was the star of the group with a nice malt backbone that one expects from the amber colored lager.

2 Brothers seemed like a cool place to hang out but unfortunately we needed to get back to Melbourne.

Like in the States, Thursday is the new Friday in Australia, too. We found this out when we went to the Local Taphouse in St. Kilda, a few kilometers south of Melbourne’s city center. The Local was packed with young professionals just off work. Luckily, we were able to squeeze into a spot at the bar.

Which Local did we like better? I would have to say the Sydney location… and for only one reason. When we were in Sydney, everything was new. At that time, we hadn’t been to any breweries besides Paddy’s. But at the St. Kilda location, the beer selection was a bit of a disappointment for me. We had already tried many of the Aussie beer selections they had on tap. If we had gone to St. Kilda first, I am sure I would have liked that one better. I was able to try one new beer that was very nice; Brass Monkey Stout from Sail and Anchor Brewery in Fremantle.

This ended our Melbourne portion of the trip. Melbourne might be Australia’s second city, but as craft beer goes, they might be second to none.

 

After three great days in Victoria’s High Country, it was time to move on. Our next destination was the capital of Victoria, Melbourne. There we would part with Ute and Wolfie who were flying home to Germany the next day. We had heard that Australia’s second largest city had a better beer culture than Sydney and it was time to find out for ourselves.

Our first stop was Three Ravens Brewing Co. in the northeast Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. With Merideth diligently navigating, we successfully negotiated the congested city streets and found the brewery in a industrial park. Stooping to get under the partially raised warehouse door, I searched around for my contact, Marcus. The Three Ravens brewer, Marcus graciously took time out of his busy schedule to fit into ours.

Three Ravens began as a lunchtime homebrewing hobby for several guys at an engineering firm and eventually blossomed into a full fledged production brewery. In business for six years, Three Ravens has a wall full of brewery awards to mark their success.

Beginning with the now ubiquitous Wheat beer, in this case a Wit, we were treated to seven brews that constituted the most solid lineup of beers we had tried to date in Australia.

The highlights for us were the Golden Ale, 55, an American-style Pale Ale, USB (Über Special Bitter) and Dark, a Rauchbier.

I never expected to try a smoked beer on our trip to Australia. Our group that split on the world famous Schlenkerla in Bamberg (the other three against me) agreed that Dark had the right amount smoke to please all of us. Very satisfied with with our introduction to Melbourne beer, we left Marcus to continue on with his day while we headed to the city centre.

Central Melbourne was hot and humid this Wednesday afternoon. Abuzz with all manner of people, tourists wandered about while Melbourn-ites scurried to and from work. Finding our hotel, we had just enough time to check email and get organized before it was time head to our next brewery. Catching a tram to the eastern suburb of Richmond, we were on our way to Mountain Goat Brewery.

Wednesday was one of the two days, the other being Friday, that Mountain Goat’s tasting room is open. Opening the heavy door, we walked into the tasting room (a large warehouse space) to be confronted by a what looked like an office holiday party. But it was no ordinary office holiday party, it was a costume party with a multi-cultural theme. No one told me to bring a costume to Australia!

After the initial shock subsided, we ordered a taster set and found a seat on the fringes of the party. We tried to guess which country people represented as we sampled the beer.

There were four beers in our sample tray but I will focus on two. The first was Steam Ale. This brew was the reverse of what we know as a California Common. Instead of being Lager fermented at Ale temperatures, Goat’s Steam is an Ale fermented at Lager temperatures. A very nice beer.

Then there was Randy, the Steam Ale passed through their version of a Randall. The only other time we have seen such a device was at Trinity in Colorado Springs. Sitting proudly on the bar, Goat’s Randall was  much more impressive. Most  impressive was the giant wrench uses to unscrew the top. Filled with Riwaka hops, a New Zealand variety of Saaz lineage, the nice Steam Ale was transformed into maybe the beer of the trip. As a hophead, to have little hop floaty bits suspended in my brew was a dream come true.

I could have spent all night at the Goat drinking Randy and trying to figure out the country the woman with the duck bill was portraying. But I had forgotten Scrabble and we had to meet back up with Ute and Wolfie and some of their friends. Meeting up with them at the Fitzroy Pinnacle, we would spend the evening drinking Goat’s Steam Ale. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a Randall.

Postscript: Down the street from the Goat Brewery is the Royston. A dive-ish bar that has Aussie craft beer on tap, it looked like a cool place to hang out. Unfortunately, there tap system was on the fritz during our visit. Our next time in Melbourne, we will be definitely going back to the Goat, and hopefully everything will be operational at the Royston.