Support Your Local Brewery Adelaide
When was the last time you visited one of the local breweries? There are a few to chose from located in and around our fair city. Whilst they don’t all have their own venues there are some that do and they serve some very good beer. The only way to get more good beer out to the public is to support the people that make and serve it. Who can you have more of an impact on than the small local breweries.
East of the city or in the Hills then go for a visit to the Lobethal Bierhaus. On top of some amazing beer, try the double hopped IPA, they have their own restaurant with really great food. If you are a brewing geek the hardware is even on display for you to swoon over while enjoying a pint. In the central or West of the city then head down to Brewboys. Thursday through Sunday you will find Simon down there serving his beer and quite often a band playing. Brewboys also have a ton of special events through the year and there is certain to be one that appeals to you. If you are down South then why not visit McLaren Vale Beer Company or Goodiesons, both located in McLaren Vale. You can even go a little further down to the beach and stop in for an Ale overlooking the now flowing Murray River at Steam Exchange. If you are in the North of the city head out to the Barossa on the weekend and have a taste at Barossa Brewing Company in Grenock.
All this is right on your door step Adelaide. Take advantage of it this weekend and have some great craft beer. Get There!
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Vale Ale in the News
A new article is up today in the mainstream media bout McLaren Vale Brewing Company. This one is in the Advertiser and on the Adelaide Now web site. It’s a nice piece about the company in general and what is happening with them in the future. These guys have got the marketing right and are doing all the right things with it.
The good news for beer lovers is that their brewery goes in real soon which should allow them to increase their range and volume of beer. Head brewer Jeff Wright hinted about plans for some new beers that sound great. We are just going to have to wait until the new brewery is commissioned and producing before we get to try them. They also have big plans for beer dinners and many other events down at the Salopian Inn to be hosted by their excellent chef Billy Doht and Head Brewer Jeff Wright. Their next dinner is on 9 March. I’m not sure if there are any tickets left but check their web site or give the Salopian a call. Keep an eye out as they have plans for more dinners in the near future.
If you really want to keep up with everything that is going on down there follow @__jeffwright, @mvbeer, @salopianinn and of course @hereforthehops on twitter.
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Vale Ale Video
This has been making the rounds and has been up on many sites already but it’s a good bit of marketing so I decided to add it here too.
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Sea and Vines Festival with Vale Ale
Sea and Vines with Vale Ale
The good people at The Salopian Inn and McLaren Vale Beer company are putting on a function for the Sea and Vines Festival. Sounds like it’s going to be a great event too. Fresh local seafood cooked with local produce and some Vale Ale in one of the dishes. My mouth is watering already. I’m not familiar with the DJ but if they play music that suits the vibe of the Salopian it should be fantastic. If I’m not in some far flung corner of the country with my day job, a distinct and disappointing possibility, I am going to be there.
I really like what these guys are doing. They are getting out there and marketing craft beer really well and drawing people in by serving it in ways that will appeal to the non beer geek. On top of that they are making and serving really good beer. I can’t wait to see what they have in store when they get their own brewery up and running.
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Lunch at The Salopian Inn
I hadn’t had the McLaren Vale Ale for a long time so I though what better way to remedy that than to head to the source. So off to The Salopian Inn for lunch, beer and wine we went. I have mentioned this before in this article but this is an expansion of that with more detail. I was really looking forward to this as I had always had great meals at The Salopian in the past and had heard good things about the Vale Ale. The previous time I had tried I wasn’t really impressed but suspected it may have just been poorly looked after. The McLaren Vale Beer Company has recently purchased The Salopian Inn and it sounds like a great idea to me.
I started lunch with a glass of the house ale. It was much better than the last time I had tried it. It is a great gold colour with a slight haze from being naturally conditioned. The aroma is a light citrus with some spiciness. They list the beer as an Australia Pale Ale but it has a little more hop character than most people would expect from what they think of as an Australian Pale. This is a good thing though. They have used American aroma/flavour hops to give a great aroma without going too far and turning it into a hop bomb that may scare away some people. On tasting the beer has a good malt backbone with a medium light body. Very easy drinking so you could put away a few of these without it becoming cloying. The bitterness is well balanced with the malt helping the drinkabiity of the beer. The real feature is the hop flavour though. Apparent without being over the top and not too subtle so it can still be easily detected and enjoyed. Like the aroma they have found a good balance between giving you some hop flavour and bitterness and not turned it into a West Coast IPA. I do like a West Coast IPA but this isn’t supposed to be that type of beer. I could certainly have a few of these, I did, and would order it regularly at any bar.
For my appetiser I had the suckling pig with wasabi apple crackling which was as good as it sounded on their menu. It matched with the Vale Ale really well too. The bitterness of the beer cut through the fat of the pork and cracking. The hop flavours were a great contrast to the flavour of the meat. This is a good combination and recommend trying it WHEN you get down to The Salopian.
For the main course I switched to wine. My partner was drinking wine and had picked a nice bottle so I thought I should indulge. For my main I had the ragu which was excellent. The ragu with the creamy sauce was fantastic and very enjoyable with a McLaren Vale shiraz. We had some duck fat potato chips to go along with it. Pretty decadent but you only live once. There is something very special about potato fired in duck fat. We skipped over dessert after the excellent starter and main. The dessert did sound really good and we came close to splitting one.
After eating we went back to the bar and I decided to get another beer in before we headed off. It’s a great spot to sit around and relax. I got my camera out and snapped some shots of the beer and the venue while we were at the bar. You can see my photos here. You can see all my beer photos here.
The whole time the staff were really amazing and took their time to talk to us and answer any questions we had about the food or the beer. All the staff seemed really keen and cared about what they were doing. I can’t say enough about our experience there and all of the food and drink we had. They are doing an amazing job there and really deserve your custom. If you don’t have a trip planned you should start planning.
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Quick Trip Report McLaren Vale
The day started at Foggo Wines, a small winery a friend had told us about. Great wine and a super friendly wine maker at the cellar door. These guys actually do open ferments in barrels which is enough to scare any brewer but the wine is great. From there we made a quick stop into Shottesbrooke. A very nice place with some good wine. We picked up a couple of bottles but didn’t have a lot of time here. Staff were very friendly but not as knowledgeable as those we spoke to at other wineries.
Then it was time for the lunch. I had been looking forward to lunch at The Salopian Inn with some McLaren Vale Ale and it didn’t disappoint. The service was great, food and wine were great and the beer was really top notch. Everyone was really friendly and helpful and one of the waiters spent some time talking to me about the beer and brewing including the new brewery they have coming. I got a message from the @mvbeer guys on Twitter to ask for someone when I was there but I didn’t want to come across as some tool with a blog so I just enjoyed the long lunch we had there. I will go into more detail about the The Salopian Inn and McLaren Vale Ale in another post soon. In brief, everything was great and you should go.
After lunch, at about 1600, we thought we would try and sneak in one more winery for the day. I had seen a sign on a winery called Ekhidna that sad they made beer so I thought I would check it out. I have to say I was a bit dubious with the incorrectly spelt name but you you never know if you don’t give it a try. All fears were allayed as soon as we walked in. The wine maker and one other staff member were there and they were the most friendly, outgoing and enthusiastic people without being over the top. You just get a real enthusiasm for what they do from them. The beer is an extract beer being brewed on a very small scale. A fairly standard English Pale Ale. Well made but nothing to write home about. They want to ramp up the brewing in future but have only just opened the cellar door and they have a restaurant coming so it’s not the priority at the moment. The wines were great and the wine maker took a lot of time to talk to us and explain different parts of their wine making process. They have a Shiraz/Riesling which, while not my cup of tea, was very interesting. The many different Shiraz we tried were fantastic. These guys may be really small but they are doing great things. You really should go out of your way to check them out when you are in the area.
That was the end of the tasting and, fortunately for me, the end of the driving. We headed out from our accommodation to find some drinks and dinner. We thought we would have a drink at a couple of places then find somewhere to eat. That plan went out of the window when the first place we walked into was The Barn. It has a great lounge area to have a few drinks before dinner with this huge open fire style methylated spirits powered heater. They have around sixty beers in the bottle and an extensive wine collection. The restaurant is down stairs in two flights including the basement where we ate. The menu looked good and the drink selection was great so we decided we didn’t need to go any further. I tried the Goodieson pilsener and pale ale there. Both well made and very drinkable beers. I will write more about these later. Dinner was fantastic. I had a fantastic piece of steak cooked perfectly. I can highly recommend the sirloin if you make a visit.
By the time we finished dinner we were quite drunk and very tired. We stumbled back to our room with intention of opening a bottle we had picked up during the day. We both fell asleep within a minute of being in the room. Sunday was uneventful as we had breakfast then hit the road. Whilst not terribly hungover we weren’t really in peak wine tasting shape either. We had a great time and can’t see how you wouldn’t if you head down for a trip. Get There!
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