Saturday, May 7, 2016

A wee beer update!

I'll have some of that!
Nice little pub-crawl in Brisbane starting with Mr Edward's on Edward Street which is entirely devoted to Cooper's brews. Coopers is a long established Adelaide based family owned concern that has vigorously resisted all takeover bids. (Their products are available in bottle in the UK if you know where to look.) Coopers  have a wider range available on tap over here - this bar top depicts a tasty range - the best was the Vintage Ale 2016.


Not too far away we found the Embassy bar, an old, slightly jaded building that has reinvented itself as a craft beer bar and music venue. At the bar we spotted a British style hand pump - hooray! Most of the beer in Oz is in kegs, it might not be filtered or pasteurised but nevertheless it is in a pressurised container and even the best microbrewed craft beer can sometimes be cold and fizzy. Real Ale in the British sense is rarely found, part of this is that the tradition for cask conditioned beer never survived, in part due to the weather - beer here must be ice cold! However some of the more adventurous new-wave brewers will try their hand at British style real ale and a hand pump can occasionally be spotted tucked away at a corner of the bar in some of the craft beer pubs. Often this solitary pump dispenses nothing, but even when it does there never seems to be a pump clip attached. Whatever if I see one I will make sure I ask the question. And what we found at the Embassy Bar was a perfect pint of Double Dragon - amazing! Double Dragon, as Welsh beer drinkers know is a legendary ale from Felinfoel Brewery in South Wales. Here Bacchus Brewery of Brisbane had somehow managed to faithfully recreate this dark malty bitter - two pints were called for each as we watched the antics of the brave open mic singers.


The Trannie?
And finally to the Transcontinental Hotel, a fine traditional building. Tucked away among the skyscrapers are a surprising number of beautiful Queenslander style pubs that have survived and thrive - the archetypical one in Brisbane is the Breakfast Creek Hotel (see below). The Trans was fine for our purposes - we had excellent Pacific Ale from the Stone and Wood Brewery. Pacific Ale is a new style of beer originating down here - it's a light citrussy beer, neither too hoppy or too sweet and it is so moreish.

Here it is, AKA as the Brekkie, The Breakfast Creek Hotel. It's a bit out of town and not easy to walk to, but it's a must visit for all visitors to this part of down under.

Best Corn Flakes this side of Sydney!


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