western australia – Page 2

March 9, 2012

Freo Urban Beer Hike

After a night in Perth, our Western Australian travels continued in nearby Fremantle. Known as “Freo” in Aussie-speak, the city played an important part in Australian craft beer history. With its walkabilty and number of craft beer establishments, Freo seemed ideal for an Urban Beer Hike.

We had planned on four stops on our Urban Beer Hike but the weather, temperatures approaching 100°F and humid, forced us to be cautious and eliminate the one outlying brewpub. The remaining three stops were all located in historic, central Fremantle. In the end, it was a stretch to call it a “hike,” though we did walk a mile each way from our accommodations.

Fittingly, our first stop was arguably the birthplace of the Australian craft beer movement, Sail & Anchor. Established in 1984, the brewpub’s corporate parents unfortunately decided to cease brewing in 2010. The house beers are now contract-brewed and Sail & Anchor has morphed into a beer bar.

We grabbed a high table by one of the big open windows. It afforded us not only a view of the bustling street action but we also got to enjoy what little breeze there was in the stifling air. While we waited for the arrival of Todd from beermen.tv, Merideth and I each enjoyed a pint of beer.

Merideth went with the refreshing Feral White, while I enjoyed my first draft Bridge Road/Nøgne Ø India Saison, one of my favorite beers of the trip. Once Todd arrived, we downed a few pints of Feral Hop Hog, another “Beer of the Trip” candidate, before moving on.

Our second stop was The Monk Brewery & Kitchen. The four-year old brewpub has won a number of Australian International Beer Awards and it is also well known for its USA Craft Beer Week. We didn’t have far to walk as the Monk was literally across the street from Sail & Anchor. Merideth, Todd and I survived the short crossing and grabbed a table near the bar.

Sample paddle at the Monk Brewery & Kitchen

At Monk, there was the familiar Wheat, Kölsch, Pale Ale, Porter lineup that we had seen throughout our Australian travels. But to this they added the Rauch, a smoked beer. I have to say that I really wasn’t in the mood for a smoked beer, but it was well-crafted. The runaway star for me was The Chief, a 75 IBU American-style IPA brewed with Cascade and Citra. It tasted like home!

We were having a grand time at Monk until Todd mistakenly asked our Canadian waitress whether she was an American. It was clearly time to move on.

The longest leg of the day was a five minute walk to our final stop: Little Creatures. Walking across the Esplanade, we could hear a din of noise coming from the former cannery buildings that house the brewery and restaurant. Little Creatures was clearly the place to be.

Enjoying an afternoon at Little Creatures

Todd, Merideth and I waded through the thick crowd inside and made our way out to the back patio along the Inner Harbour. Somewhat to our surprise, the three of us easily found seats to enjoy a few pints in the sunshine.

One of the joys of beer travel is drinking beers only available at the source. So when Little Creatures didn’t have any beers available besides their regular lineup, I was admittedly disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, Little Creatures regular beers are excellent. My beer of choice (all during our stay as we would go to Little Creatures every day during our time in Freo) was the Pilsner while Merideth favored the Bright Ale, an all Australian hopped brew.

Come for the beer, stay for the little pink cupcakes

One of the more charming aspects of the Australian beer scene was its family friendliness. This usually manifested itself with a small playground where the wee-ones could entertain themselves while mom and dad had a few beers.

While Todd, Merideth and I were enjoying our Little Creatures pints, we noticed a large number of rug rats scurrying about. Turns out, one of the wee-ones was having her birthday party. I’m not sure the birthday girl chose Little Creatures for her celebration but I got a little pink cupcake out of it, so it was fine with me.

The following day, despite it being warmer, we embarked on a six mile round trip walk to visit the one outlying brewery we chose to skip on the previous day’s Urban Beer Hike. Our walk took Merideth and I through Fremantle to the less than scenic docks of its port. But just beyond the docks, we found our oasis, Salt on the Beach, home of Blacksalt Brewery.

After the three mile walk in the searing heat we were quite parched. The house-brewed beer was a very welcome sight. There were two beers on, their Weisse and Vienna Lager. I drank the German-style Wheat and would have thought it quite good except for a odd tinge on the finish. Despite this, the beer was greatly appreciated.

We had completed the task that we began the day before, but I couldn’t help thinking that we had somewhat missed out on a really fun Urban Beer Hike. Before heading back to Fremantle, we took a quick wade in the water to cool off before the scorching walk back. Maybe next trip, we’ll have weather more suited for a beer hike.

View all the Fremantle images…

March 7, 2012March 7, 2012

Gnomesville

We awoke to the rhythmic chirping of a small bird on our porch. The sky was overcast and the ground damp; a somewhat melancholy send off from an area we had definitely fallen in love with. We were eager to hit the road, though, since our day’s agenda included adding two new breweries and visiting a place like “gnome” other.

An hour and a half after leaving Margaret River, we passed through the small town of Dardanup and out to the Ferguson Valley. We were out in the country now — complete with herds of livestock lounging in pastures of tall brown grass. It was the perfect location for a place called the Moody Cow Brewery.

We arrived at opening time and made our way out to a table on the top level of the terraced deck. Moody Cow offered a taster paddle with five beers, including their award winning Grunta’s Original Ale and Zest, a low alcohol (3.2%) lemon and lime lager. The beers were all quite refreshing and more remarkably, sessionable (The Black Dog Pils was the highest ABV at 4.9%). The atmosphere was friendly and welcoming, just like you’d expect from a country brewery.

We chatted with the owner/brewer,Grant McClintock, who offered us a local’s perspective of our next stop: Gnomesville. We had first been told about Gnomesville by Rusty Creighton, a beer lover living in Perth who provided us with valuable information throughout our time in Western Australia. Rusty told us that if we were going to Moody Cow, we had to make a stop at Gnomesville, which was not far away. We weren’t exactly sure what Gnomesville was, but Grant gave us the scoop. So here it is:

Further down Ferguson Valley Road a roundabout had been built. This was exceedingly absurd to the locals, as traffic on this country road hardly necessitated it. As a protest, someone placed a garden gnome on the grassy area in the center. Well, gnomes apparently multiply like rabbits and soon there were loads of them. So many, in fact, that they outgrew the roundabout center and had to be moved to the side of the road.

We laughed at this, but still had no idea of the magnitude and draw of this Ferguson Valley attraction. Grant’s wife and children had placed their own family of gnomes in Gnomesville, which were unfortunately washed away in a flood. Of course they had to replace them. His wife is apparently very into Gnomesville, as are many other locals and visitors alike.

Now our interest was truly piqued and passing on a visit to Gnomesville was no longer an option. We just had to see what had everyone so captivated. We bid Grant good-bye and headed down the road to find this magical place.

As we approached the roundabout, I excitedly looked around, worried that we might miss it. When I saw it, I started laughing because there was no way we could have missed it! All I can say is “Wow!” It was the most insanely hysterical sight I have ever seen. It was also a tad frightening, but I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Chris and I saw a prime entrepreneurial opportunity in setting up a gnome gift shop, as surprisingly, there was none nearby. Not even someone selling them from the back of a pick-up truck. Otherwise we would have definitely paid an outrageous price for the privilege of placing our own gnome in the crowd. Chris did come up with the brilliant idea of establishing the Gnomesville Taphouse, the town’s first craft beer bar. Next time we visit, we’ll be better prepared. A big thanks goes out to Rusty for alerting us to this must-see attraction.

I seriously had difficulty tearing myself away from Gnomesville. I, too, had become enamored with the mystique that is Gnomesville. But the huge biting green flies were getting to be too much, so we decided to move on to our second brewery of the day: Old Coast Rd.

Driving down the deserted road off the highway, we missed the turn to the brewery. Chris and I realized our mistake (as we were getting further out into the bush) and eventually came upon the entrance. A spectacularly long driveway lined with olive trees led up to the large blue building sitting atop the hill. It had the standard open floor plan with a large deck, but we chose a table down on the lawn that spread out in front.

In addition to a cider, Old Coast Rd had three beers to try: a Wheat, Bitter, and Porter. Unfortunately they were out of their best selling beer, the Pils. They even had chilled beer towers, 4 or 2 ½ liters, so the beers could keep flowing at your table.

There was just the two of us, though, so we decided to pass. Of the three beers, the Wheat was our favorite. It had a wonderful banana nose and a nice cloudy golden color, a refreshing accompaniment to our snack of calamari and garlic bread.

Gnomesville was a hard act to follow but Old Coast Rd held its own. It was just what we needed before facing the big city: Perth.

View all the Gnomesville images…

March 4, 2012March 4, 2012

Completing Margaret River

Thanks to Augusta Margaret River Tourism for
the help and support on this portion of our trip.

During our first day in the Margaret River area, Merideth and I fell in love with its scenery, beer and food. We regretted having only one more day to experience the charm of the area. But, that is the life of the beer traveler. Western Australia had other regions to explore with more breweries to visit.

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse at the end of the continent

We were on the road relatively early, heading south from Margaret River towards Augusta. Our first stop day of the day was Cape Leeuwin at the southwest corner of the Australian continent. Where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet, Cape Leeuwin was often the first landfall for many European ships in the days of sail. Given its importance to seafaring, the main attraction of the cape was it’s lighthouse built in 1896.

But before our lighthouse tour, we decided to check out the two oceans a couple of hundred yards apart. Walking down to the Southern Ocean along a rock strewn trail, I must have stepped on a small snake. Merideth had to wait a minute or so for the writhing reptile to slither under a rock. Relating the story to our lighthouse tour guide later, he remarked that the snake was highly venomous. Oops!

As we climbed the 176 steps to the top, we learned the history and workings of the lighthouse, plus some of the local lore. At the top, we were treated to an amazing panoramic view of both oceans and the surrounding countryside. Several hundred yards offshore, we could even see where the two oceans met, a surge of whitewater marking waves from each ocean colliding. At least on this day, it looked like the Indian Ocean was winning.

One of the hidden geographical features of the Margaret River region is several caves. Driving north back on the aptly named Caves Rd., we passed both Jewel and Lake Caves on the way to Mammoth Cave. We chose Mammoth as its self-guided tour fit better into our hectic schedule.

Discovered around 1850 but not mapped until 1895, Mammoth lived up to its name. Walking the 500 meter length, we passed through a number of massive chambers, all adorned with rock formations hanging from the ceiling or projecting from the cave floor. The most impressive of these was the Mammoth Shawl, with it’s red/orange ribbons.

With our outdoor and underground activities done for the day, it was time our first beer stop of the day, Colonial Brewing back in Margaret River.

Colonial was another modern, open brewpub with a beery touch, including chandeliers made out of growlers. We set up shop outside in a shady spot with a gorgeous view of the surrounding countryside to sample the Colonial brews.

Colonial had five beers in their paddle. Merideth picked up the first beer and asked, “Which beer is this…?” Colonial’s big contribution to the beer world is that they have solved the age-old ‘which beer is this’ problem in a sample flight of beers. Each tasting glass was labeled with the beer style, plus there were short tasting notes on the back.

Colonial’s lineup was solid from front, a Kölsch to back, a Porter. True to form, Merideth picked the delightful, clean Kölsch as her beer of the paddle. It was another hot and humid day in southwestern Australia and the brew lived up to its description as a refreshing summer beer.

Equally predictable as Merideth, I chose the India Pale Ale as my favorite. Hopped aggressively like I prefer, the IPA still had a lightish body that paired almost as well as the Kölsch with the weather. And the tasting notes also had my new favorite phrase, “forest floor of hops.” I’m going to start using it as soon as I figure out what it means.

After a short stop at Millers Ice Cream to sample some “Cow to Cone” goodness, we were headed back to Wilyabrup for our next brewery. Set on 74 acres next to a lake, Bootleg Brewery opened its doors in 1994. As one of the original craft breweries in Western Australia, Bootleg has won many awards for its brews.

There were seven beers on Bootleg’s paddle and three were in contention for my ‘best of’ award. The Hefe was a wonderful banana bomb, quenching on the hot day. Settler’s Pale Ale was brewed in the American style with lots of citrusy hops. But in the end, the runaway winner was Wild Ginger Wheat. Kind of how I like my IPAs, the brew was aggressively ‘gingered.’ As the brewery says, “If you’re not a HOPHEAD… You’re a GINGER NUT!”

We had one more brewery to complete the Margaret River portion of our journey. Duckstein Brewery in Wilyabrup was the poshest of the posh breweries we visited on the whole trip. We have been to over 700 breweries now and Duckstein was the first with a reflecting pool complete with a heroic-looking horse statue. The only thing that deterred from the amazing setting was the low water level of the water feature.

Merideth and I had a great sense of satisfaction as we relaxed on the deck sampling Duckstein’s German-style beers. We had had a busy two-day schedule and were now at the last stop. Everything on our agenda had been completed.

Continuing the trend of excellent German-style beers on the trip, the Pils and Hefeweiss were both excellent. The nutty, roasty Dunkel, a first for us in Australia, was my favorite of this sample paddle. However, the highlight beer was an American-style IPA that we got to preview. Not released until the following day, Shannon, the brewer, was gracious enough to pour us a sample. What a wonderous hop bomb!

Leaving Duckstein, we were done with Margaret River. The next day, Merideth and I would head back north to Perth and new Western Australia beer adventures. We hope to get back to Margaret River sooner, rather than later.

View all the Margaret River images…

March 1, 2012March 4, 2012

Falling in Love with Margaret River

Thanks to Augusta Margaret River Tourism for
the help and support on this portion of our trip.

The four days in Victoria were only a warmup for the main event of the trip, our first visit to Western Australia. We focused our visit to Australia’s largest state on the area around Perth, but our first destination was Margaret River in the southwest corner of the continent. Long known as one of Australia’s most famous wine regions, Margaret River is also home to a large concentration of breweries.

The three hour drive from Perth airport to the Margaret River region was pretty much a straight shot. As someone joked to us, “It’s a left, then a right…” All the breweries in the area close in the early evening so our late afternoon arrival only afforded us time for one stop, Cowaramup Brewing. [Get ready because names with ‘up’ are going to come fast and furious. It means ‘place of’]

Cowaramup Brewing was a good introduction to what would be a defining feature of most of the region’s breweries. The impressive and modern brewpub was open (literally) to an expansive outdoor seating area with an incredible vista of the surrounding Western Australian countryside. Not even the giant biting flies with the huge green eyes could ruin the moment, though. Despite the painful bite, the flies are one of the few creatures in Australia that can’t kill you.

Merideth and I grabbed a seat to enjoy the view and warm summer weather. After a long drive, the sample paddle was a very welcome sight indeed. There were five beers to try, ranging from a Pilsner and Hefeweizen on the lighter side to a Porter on the dark end of the spectrum.

The Special Pale Ale, an English-style Extra Special Bitter with English hops, could have been the beer of the paddle. However, the almost 90 degree temperatures screamed for the excellent award winning Pilsner (Champion Lager at the 2011 Australian International Beer Awards) or the wonderful Hefeweizen. Cowaramup was a great introduction to the Margaret River beer scene.

With only two days to visit the seven remaining breweries, plus do other tourist stuff, we needed to get busy on Wednesday morning. Luckily, the Grove Vineyard in Wilyabrup, with it’s 9am opening time, was a perfect starting point for the busy beer traveler. A winery and distillery, the Grove Vineyard recently added beer to their repertoire.

Not a surprise, we were the first customers of the day when we arrived a little after 9am. There was only one beer available, the House Ale, an American-style Pale Ale. Hopped with Citra and Nelson Sauvin, the brew was well-balanced with a big malt backbone. The Grove Vineyard only had one beer, but Merideth and I both enjoyed it.

Bush Shack Brewery in Yallingup was the odd ball of the Margaret River breweries. Truth in its name, Bush Shack was, compared to the other area breweries, a shack in the bush, complete with warning signs about snakes. I don’t mean this in a bad way. Bush Shack’s laid back surroundings and atmosphere were much more what we are used and drawn to, except for the snake part.

Prior to our visit, Merideth had picked up one of their rack cards at our hotel that listed their beers. Frankly, we were a bit worried. A chili beer, a lemon lager, a strawberry beer; these all raised red flags in our minds. But we couldn’t have been more wrong.

Starting with the Strawberry Blonde, Merideth and I were quite impressed by the selection of brews. My previous experience with strawberry beers leaned towards sweet, heavy-handed brews that might have well been strawberry soda. Bush Shack’s version had a dry, subtle strawberry flavor that beautifully complimented the base Pale Ale. And it was a slam dunk with the hot and humid weather. Same could be said for the Twisted Lemon Lager. All eight beers were solid and flavorful, well, except maybe the Chili Beer. But, admittedly, that’s just my crusade against my least favorite flavoring in beer.

Thanks go out to the friendly crew at Bush Shack for making us feel so welcome!

A short drive up the road was Eagle Bay Brewing in Eagle Bay. Of the Margaret River breweries, Eagle Bay had the most stunning setting. Set on a gentle rise, the brewpub overlooked rolling hills and cows roaming through tree-studded fields. From our vantage point at our table, we could even see Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse in the distance.

Brewer Nick d’Espeissis, whose family land we were now standing upon, brewed one of the best lineup of beers of the trip. The first three, a Kölsch, Pilsner and Vienna Lager were the most impressive. Merideth really appreciated the light and refreshing Kölsch while my thirst was quenched by the crisp Pilsner. The Pale Ale was also excellent, showcasing Nick’s experience brewing in the Pacific Northwest.

Lunch was equally delicious. We got the sense that in order to keep up with the posh wineries, pouring good beer just wasn’t enough. The brewpubs had to have a food menu to match, which of course delighted us to no end. Merideth and I both ordered pizza. I’m big sucker for pizza with fresh greens on top and the peppery rocket, what we call arugula, was a perfect accompaniment for the spicy sausage.

Thanks to Margarita and Nick for taking time to chat with us and for their excellent hospitality!

We finished our incredible first full day in Margaret River by soaking in the Indian Ocean for the very first time. The shimmering, turquoise blue waters made Merideth gasp on first sight. Used to the cold Pacific Ocean on California’s coast, we thoroughly enjoyed standing in the Indian Ocean’s warm waters. After such a fantastic first day in Margaret River, we went to bed dreaming of what the next day might bring…

View all the Margaret River images…