A Night at the Taphouse Sydney
Another post from the road. Headed into the Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst after work to have a couple of beers. It ended up being more than a couple as I found some great beers on tap. I was even lucky enough to find a Mikkeller on tap. I thought I was going to miss out on that as they were launching at the Wheaty back in Adelaide while I was there.
The evening started with a local that I haven’t had before. The Murrays Grand Cru was a fantastic example of a Belgian Tripel. Though not completely authentic to stye it has a lot of great Belgian qualities. It has wonderful malt qualities and the bitterness level is just right. Be careful wit this one as it is scarily easy to drink for such a large beer. After that I moved on to a Mikkeller Stateside IPA. I have had this beer from bottle before but it’s much better and has a great fresh hop flavour and aroma. The bitterness is assertive but well balanced and not over the top. Try this beer if you get the chance. Onto another local next in the form of Five Islands Rust Amber. Without being amazing it was a very drinkable and I really enjoyed my pint. Great toffee like malt flavours with a good bitterness and some nice hop flavours. Next up was the Murrays Dark Knight Porter. This was a good beer with some nice chocolate flavours. However, I found this beer to sweet for my taste. Perhaps if it had been matched wit the right food it would have worked better for me but it was just too sweet for me. From there out I stuck with the Mikkeller Stateside IPA, I don’t remember how many though.
After all that beer I also managed to sneak in their 3 beef burger which is marinated in Schlkerla. It’s a great burger and helps to soak up some of the booze.
This is a really good pub with some great staff that know something about beer and seem to care. Gets thumbs up for food, beer, service and ambience from me.
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Harts Pub Sydney
I’m in Sydney in Support of my day job so I’m taking the opportunity to hit some of the local beer establishments. I got into town dropped my bag at the hotel and headed out. My trip for the evening took me to Harts Pub in the Rocks. This is a reasonably new venue. I think it has been open for only a few weeks.
It was very quiet on the evening I was there but I ran into a fellow home brewer and had a good discussion about our trips through the USA drinking beer and a little about making it. I started out with their tasting paddle so I could get through a few beers. My paddle included the Potters Kolsch, Rocks Brewing Sail and Mermaid Bitter, Rocks Brewing 1809 Pale Ale and Rocks Brewing Cribb’s Porter.
The Pale was the pick for me but that is not really surprising given my preference for hoppy beers. It’s far from being over the top but it does have a nice hit of American style hops. Well balanced and very drinkable. The Kolsch was good example of the style. Without being sensational it was a nice easy drinking beer with a hint of the Kolsch flavour to it. Not as sweet as I was expecting but I think that is a good thing. The bitter was pretty close to a tradition English style and a good beer. Could have used a bit more fruity fermentation character for my tastes. The porter was a well made and well balanced English style porter. It was good without anything about it really standing out.
From the ported I move onto a half of Paddy’s Pilsner. This was drinkable but not very exciting. It had a nice bitterness but lacked the strong malt backbone and enough of the floral hops that I would expect of the style. Not a bad beer but not exciting. From there I grabbed a pint of the Pale and a burger. Both were great and worked really wel together. The burger came out a little sweet tasting for my liking but it was nothing a little salt didn’t fix. The size of the meal was huge. I made an effort at finishing it but couldn’t get there.
If you are in Sydney Harts is definitely worth a visit.
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Here For The Hops on the road
My day job takes me to Sydney next week. I fly out Sunday afternoon and fly back the following Sunday. I will find some time to hit some beer venues whilst I am there. Given I am going to miss the Emerson Pilsner and Mikkeller tap launch at the Wheaty I will bring some reports of Sydney venues.
On the cards for the trip are Harts in the Rocks, The Local Tap House in Darlinghurst and Red Oak as a minimum. Hopefully I can hit some other venues too. I am staying out of the city which makes things a little more difficult but I believe the public transport is pretty good where I am staying. Any public transport is good compared to the basic hub and spoke setup that is the Adelaide system.
If there is anyone from Sydney that wants to catch up for a beer let me know. I’m always keen to meet more beer geeks. If anyone has suggestions of venues I would love to hear them too. I know I will be at Harts in the Rocks on Sunday evening so I will see you there if you can make it.
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