Schooners and Pots

A Sydney brewpub, where better to stay?

On my first visit to Australia in 2013, Vicky (who'd visited Oz before) and I stayed at Sydney's Macquarie Hotel, a fairly central old style Aussie hotel that had clearly seen better days. We thought we'd nicked an excellent deal for our stay, but as we struggled up a third winding staircase to a tiny odd shaped room in the roof we began to think twice. Jaded and jet-lagged we dumped our heavy suitcases, gasped for air in the heat and tramped quickly down to the bar. Herewith was the other reason we'd picked this spot, it doubled as a brewpub! Yes the offering was limited but it was tasty and cheap, a request for a pint of Paddo brought a hoppy pale ale, the alternatives were a Darlo which was a dark mild and Potts Porter. We settled down to a couple of pints or was it schooners? (See below!) and life took on a rosier glow. This then was the Sydney Brewery, initially called Schwarz Brewery after the founder, and, at that time, an oasis for decent beer in Australia's largest city. The other two breweries in town were the Lord Nelson, another brewpub which is still going strong, and an early incarnation of a James Squire brewpub known as the King Street Brewhouse, which was down on the wharf. Fast forward nine years and the Aussie craft beer season has changed dramatically.

Sydney Brewery has gone from strength to strength, selling the hotel and relocating half a K away they now brew a big range of modern beers and have expanded further afield with a brewery in the Hunter Valley wine region. In fact not only are there now around 800 breweries in Australia utilising some wonderful modern hop varieties but their creative brewers are coming up with imaginative concoctions such as 'Citrus and Rhubarb Custard Sour' and 'Smoked Chilli Black IPA.' This naming of beer is taken to new heights with the Boatrocker Brewers' 'Flux Capacitor' (something to do with time travel) and a pair of beers called 'That's not a Knife' and 'This is a Knife' both brewed by Alice Springs Brewery at 6.5% and 8.5%. Our Christmas beer selection (which we shared) was this powerful double IPA brewed in Brisbane - see the photo - it's not exactly a session beer. We had a tinnie of it but we might just be going down to the brewery bar at some point!

Last parkrun of 2022 was our second on a Pacific island. A few years ago we took a ferry to do the Clover Point parkrun on Vancouver Island off the Canadian coast. Here we drove over a bridge to Bribie Island which is host to the interestingly named SS Koopa Trail parkrun. In the first half of the twentieth century, before the bridge to the island was built, the passenger steamboat SS Koopa called in four days a week to Bribie Island. Trippers from Brisbane then spent a few hours pottering round the island. Meanwhile a goodly crowd of islanders would swarm up the gangplank into the ship's bar and enjoy a schooner or a pot. There were no licensed premises on the island in those days and SS Koopa's arrival was always awaited with eager anticipation. 

The SS Koopa in its heyday!

And here it is, the definitive guide to the beer measures in different Australian states. Or maybe not, the history of Aussie beer volumes is probably a book worth writing. Brewpubs in particular seem to come up with all sorts of alternative glass sizes. And whereas in the UK you'd generally expect to pay half the price of a pint for a half pint measure, here the smaller glasses work out to be more expensive on a pro-rata basis. Furthermore pints are not so popular in Australian pubs presumably because, in hot weather, beer warms up in the glass fairly fast; hence the universal sleeve for your stubbies and tinnies when you're drinking at the barbie!