Loads of Good Stuff at The Wheaty / Wheatsheaf Hotel
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There is so much new and exciting stuff in at The Wheaty right now. It is a very exciting time for the Adelaide craft beer lover. We are seeing a nice influx of beer from the USA and some new and interesting beer from our European friends too. The above is a small selection of what is available that picked up on my most recent visit. Mine includes goodies from Victory, Moylan’s, Schmalz and Amager. There are many more besides too. Far too many to list.
Keep checking the web site though. The bottled beer list should be going up on the site in pdf form in the very near future. You can find it on the bar now in dead tree form. Much easier to browse than the old folder. This is happening more regularly and I think it’s a great thing. It feels like there is something new on tap or in bottle every week. It sure is a great time to be a beer lover and it’s always a good time to be at The Wheaty for a beer. Get There!
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What to do when you have a week in Melbourne
Recently I was in Melbourne for a week of training for my day job. It’s nothing interesting so I shan’t trouble you with the details. I was staying right in the CBD so took the opportunity to enjoy the beer delights Melbourne had to offer. I ended up running out of steam at the end of the week but managed to get to some cool events and have some fun before a cold took over.
Day 1 I arrived in Melbourne late afternoon and checked into my hotel after a typical late flight and surviving the taxi ride from Tullamarine. It had been nealry a year since my last visit to Biero and I thiought it would be fairly quiet on a Monday so this was my first stop.
Quiet was an understatement. I was the only customer around when I arrived, it was very early in the evening. I was outnumbered by staff three to one so I didn’t have to wait at the bar. Biero had it’s Black Friday event the previous Friday so it was mostly stouts on tap. There was a few I hadn’t tried so decided that was the best place to start. I actually started with one I had tasted before but wanted to revisit. The Hargreave’s Hill Imperial Stout is a cracker and really easy drinking for something with such a high ABV. As a side note I didn’t make any notes about the beers on this trip so won’t be able to provide much in the way of tasting notes but this trip is more about the Melbourne experience anyway. Next up was one of the highlights of the trip, the Stubborn Russian from Bright Brewery. This was thick chewy and warming. Maybe not the best thing for early in the night but a really sensational beer. From here I moved to something a little lighter, Phin and Matt’s Extrordinary Ale by Southern Tier. This just seemed like a fairly standard APA to me and not really remarkable. I finished off the session with another pallet cleanser in Bruggen Blonde. Biero has a great range and there was a number of other beers I wanted to try but most of the were 9% plus and came in 750ml bottles. Not really an option when you are out by yourself. I prefer being at Biero on a Monday night as it gets a bit night clubby for me later in the week, or it did a year ago when I was there previously.
From Biero I decided to check out a little bar I had heard good things about but had never made it to. Penny Blue is one of those classic down a lane running off a lane running off a backstreet in Melbourne places. The difference to most others is that Penny Blue has great beer. The wine selection looked pretty good at a glance too but I wasn’t there for the wine this night. As you would expect, for a Monday night, it was quiet with a couple of small groups scattered about the place. Penny Blue has a real lounge relaxed feel and I felt really comfortable there. It’s the kind of place you expect to find the cool people but it pulls it off without being at all pretentious. If a beer geek from Adelaide drinking by himself can feel comfortable there surely anyone can. The bar man I spoke to was knowledgable, wanted to talk about the beers and was keen to make reccomendations. I started the session here with the Harvest Ale from Red Hill. This beer is starting to get a little old not but it’s still tasting great. Penny Blue obviously look after their stock. It was one win after another here with the Kooinda Full Nelson Black IPA next. I finally found it in small bottles so treated myself to one. Another great beer amongst the recent trend to blackify traditional pale styles, (see everybodies black IPAs and black Saisons from Doctor’s Orders and Bridge Road). Luckily there was another beer geek around. I wanted to try the Moylan’s Hopsicle but 750ml of 9.2% Imperial IPA wasn’t going to happen at the end of the night. The barman, I’m sorry I forget your name, organised us and we split a bottle. If you haven’t tried it yet make sure you do some time soon when it gets back into stock. That wrapped up the night for me. Not a huge night but I had big things planned for the next two nights so it was probably a wise decision.
Tuesday after a day of death by powerpoint I couldn’t to get out and get to the pub fast enough. Tuesday was to be a/the big one. I had managed to be in town for the Mikkeller tap takeover at the Local Taphouse in St Kilda. This means 20 different Mikkeller beers on tap at once. Looking at the lineup there was 14 or 15 I hadn’t had before and Mikkeller is one of my favourite brewers so to say I was looking forward to this event would be a mamoth undestatement. I almost sprinted to Southern Cross Station and onto a Sandringham line train bound for Balaclava station. A tram could have gotten me closer but this looked like the fastest way to get there. Once off the peak hour train packed with people who merely served to annoy and couldn’t possibly understand the momentous event ahead of me it was a left turn on Carlisle Street and straight to the Local. I did turn my head as I passed the bottleshop but decided I would head in there for takeaways later. This proved to be a bad decision but we shall cover that later.
Once inside and upstairs I found some local beer geeks I had previously only met online, beer people are good people, and grabbed my first paddle of tasters. I’m not even going to begin to try to list all of the beers or talk about them specifically as there was just too many and frankly it’s all a bit of a blur. The Taphouse is a great venue and has so much good beer. The staff are pretty good, are very enthusiastic and friendly. The place has a great vibe and it’s easy to get spome conversation going with complete strangers when it’s a collection of beer people. Beer people want to discuss what they are dinrking and their thoughts on different beers. We all like to compare notes, I find it particularly intersteing when someone has a polar oposite view on a beer that I either love or hate. After a couple of tasting paddles I noticed it was getting close to 2000, the closing time of the bottleshop, so I thought I best head down and pick up some stuff I can’t find in Adelaide. This is a bad idea when you are already well into a session at the Taphouse, I think they may count on this. I spent far more money than I should of. Though I picked up plenty of good beer and the money certainly wans’t wasted I’m not sure my better half was happy with the credit card bill.
After making my way through all the tastings it was the moment of truth. After tasting all of those beers what do you actually go back to for drinking and not just tasting. For me it was the Simcoe IPA and Ten. While I really liked the Black there is a limit to how much 17% Imperial Stout I can drink and IPA is my default position. After a few more beers and much excellent conversation I realised. A) It was getting late. B) I had a reasonably early start back in training the next day. C) I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch time. D) I was quite drunk. E) I was doing it all again the next night. So I bid farewell to my new beer geek friends and made for the station. I picked up some terrible junk food on the way back to the hotel and collapsed with my half eaten burger onto the hotel bed.
Wednesday was spent in training cursing Tuesday me but as the day wore on I started to come good. By the time I was done with work for the day I was running out the door and heading for the pub onice again. This time I was off to North Melbourne to visit the Courthouse Hotel. Renowned as a good beer venue that is getting better all the time it was my first visit. Once again my timing was exceptional as the Courthouse had on a Crafty Pint sponsored beer food and wine matching dinner. With each course we were to be served an accompanying beer and wine to compare and contrast. First things first though. I hit the bar and was soon joined by the local Melbourne members of the Australian Beer Writers Guild. We snuck in as many beers as we could before being called upstairs for dinner. I managed to squeeze in a couple of previously untatsed, by me, 3 Ravens beers that I quite enjoyed.
The dinner was exceptional. Initially I was a bit dissapointed as I got sat with a bunch of people I didn’t know and was looking forward to a conversation with some of the local beer geeks. I quickly pulled myself out of that funk and got chatting with some locals who were all fairly new to good beer. These were people who had the Courthouse as their local saw a poster for the dinner and decided to give it a go. It’s a good thing to see. I think these were the only people at the event not closely related to someone at the pub or Crafty Pint who was putting the event on. All of the courses were great though I thought the pasta course which was one piece of tortellini on a spoon was kind of odd. I didn’t need more food overall but I felt I couldn’t really get a real sense for the dish never mind contrast two drinks to it with only one piece of pasta. The pick of the courses because of the match was the cheese with the Westmalle Tripel. These went together so well I would have been happy if served nothing else. The pork dish was also excellent but the match of the cheese and the Westmalle was truly excellent.
Once dinner was over it was back to the bar and a few of the higher ABV and weirder beers that were on offer. Unspurprisingly people start to care less about prices at this time of night and bottles of Brew Dog Tokyo were ordered. Festivities, for me at least, were cut short only by the imminent arrival of the last tram back into the city. This meant it was time to leave the Courthouse. It’s a great pub that you wouldn’t pick for what it is from the outside. It camouflages it’s self well with it’s suburban pub look and Carlton Draught sign above the door. If you are in North Melbourne I reccomend a look.
Thursday wasn’t a pretty thing. After three fairly drinkie nights in a row Melbourne had taken it’s toll on me. After making it through the days training session I decided a walk around the streets of Melbourne would be a good idea. There was a big tasting on a Purvis Cellars I would have liked to make it to but I was a bit rundown at this point and it was at their Surrey Hills outlet which seemed a fair way from the CBD. In the end my night was a wander about the city and a couple of local craft beers and Young and Jacksons. In the end this was a good decision after a fairly full week of beer drinking.
This trip was not planned particularly around any of these events. This just seems to be what happens in Melbourne. There is always some kind of beer event going on. Just head over for a visit I’m sure you will find something to do in the local beer scene. Make sure you look around when you are going over and give the venues I have mentioned here a go and tell me about others you find.
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Mikkeller 1000 IBU on tap at The Wheaty / Wheatsheaf Hotel
THis Friday, 12/8/2011, from 1700 The Mikkeller 1000 IBU will be on tap at The Wheaty. This beer is a bit of a gimmick but it’s still bloody good and it is something you really should try. While it’s not really 1000 IBU it is still really bitter, really hoppy and, not surprisingly, really tasty.
There is plenty of other good stuff on tap at the moment too. So come on down to The Wheaty this Friday and enjoy the 1000 IBU and something else too. Get There!
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Beer Geek Brunch on tap at The Wheaty / Wheatsheaf Hotel
We have been waiting for this one for a while but it is happening tomorrow. The tweet came out this morning that Mikkeller Beer Geek Brunch is going on tap at The Wheaty tomorrow, 27 March, from 1400. This is short notice and they don’t normally put on beers like this on a Sunday afternoon but this is one that is really worth going out of your way for. I have had this beer from a bottle a few times and it is as good as you have heard it is. They call it a coffee Imperial oatmeal stout. The coffe they use is from coffee beans eaten digested and returned as droppings by a civet. This may sound unappealing but it really is one of the best beers you are going to try.
There is only one keg of this beer in Australia and it’s at The Wheaty. It will start pouring at 1400 and I doubt it will make it through the day. Every self respecting beer geek in Adelaide will be there getting as much of it as they can before the keg runs dry. You really should Get There!
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Wheaty Mikkeller Nogne-0 BrewDog Wheatsheaf Hotel
If you have been waiting for an excuse to get down to the Wheaty there are some pretty good reasons to get down there right now. There are a whole bunch of new kegs and bottles in that you really should try. These are amazing beers that haven’t been seen in Australia before never mind Adelaide. Many of them are likely one toe batches that you won’t see again.
From Brewdog we have the Hardcore IPA on tap. Currently it is going through the hoppinator filled with a mystery hop. I originally thought the hoppinator was filled with fuggles then switched to Goldings, I’m not sure what it is but have been informed that it isn’t Goldings. Also from BrewDog in caollaboration With Mikkeller there is the I Hardcore You IPA on tap. This is a big 9.5% IPA for the real beer geeks. It’s big hoppy and boozy. It won’t be everyones cup of tea but it is an amazing beer.
There are a bunch of other Mikkeller bottles and kegs coming up too. The only keg of Beer Geek Brunch in Australia is making it’s way to the Wheaty too. Also in the very interesting column are a couple of beers with some Brett added. Both the It’s Alive and US Alive sound like really interesting beers and both are coming to a tap soon. I couldn’t wait so have a bottle of US Alive sitting in my fridge and calling out my name right now.
Last but certainly not least are some beers from Nogne 0. I often find their beer a little sweet for my pallet but it is always flavoursome and interesting. I have picked up a bottle of their Two Pilots Double IPA that I am very keen to drink. In addition to this there are a bunch of other beers from Nogne 0 fresh in the fridge with my and your name on them.
Simply put, there has never been a better time to get to the Wheaty and drink some amazing beers. Get down there and drink some great beer.
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Mikkeller Brettanomyces
Mikkeller have done a new series of beers to highlight the difference changing yeast can make. There are five versions of the same beer fermented with different yeasts. This has been done with American Ale, Belgian Ale, Heffewiezen, Lager and Brettanomyces. This is a really cool idea and certainly comes from a homebrewer way of doing things. What I really want to talk about is the Brettanomyces beer though.
This beer is made with 100% brettanomyces. Brettanomyces is a type of yeast not used by most brewers. It ferments a lot slower than normal brewers yeast(Saccharomyces cerevisiae) and can produce some very odd and sour flavours. Most brewers would consider it’s presence in their beer to be an infection as it can be present as a wild yeast. Wine makers are even more scared of Brett as it can work it’s way into a barrel and be impossible to remove. Brettanomyces will also eat more of the sugars than traditional brewing yeasts are able to so can really dry out a beer.
Brettanomyces is found mostly in Belgian ales but is now starting to be used by a number of breweries around the world. It can add amazing complex flavours like those found in the Mikkeller. Beers produced with brettanomyces can be quite a challenge for people not used to sour beer flavours. However, it is very rewarding if you give it a go. The Mikkeller is a beer with amazing complex flavours but is still approachable. It’s not quite up there with a Cantillon Gueze but it is a lot more approachable. If you would like a great introduction to the world of amazing and interesting sour beers give it a go. You can pick it up at the Wheaty or from a number of online stores.
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