Portland Hotel

My wife's office in Melbourne is located just up the street from the Portland Hotel. "So what" I hear you say..... Well the Portland Hotel also happens to be Melbourne's only brewpub. The brewpub falls under the James Squire brand and alongside selling the full range of James Squire beers also produces a small number of house beers. The picture to left is a meal I had at the pub. As part of their Oktoberfest celebrations they had a Marzen style beer aptly called 'Oktoberbrau' and a meal offer which consisted of sauerkraut and pork sausages on a bed of mash potato. It was pretty tasty but not entirely authentic - fennel seeds in the kraut?? WFT?

The standout beer for me was the 'Highwayman' which is described as trice hopped. It was nice, a deep red colour and served via proper real keg. Actually it wasn't a million miles away from the White Rabbit I touched upon a couple of weeks ago.

Enough from Melbourne now, I had a few other beers but don't want to harp on about the details. This weekend sees me house hunting. I'm sure I'll get a few beers in along the way.
http://www.portlandhotel.com.au/

McLaren Vale Ale

It was a warm day on Saturday and walking along the SouthBank of the Yarra is thirsty work. The Missus and I made a pitstop into a 'cafe' style establishment and I ordered a beer blindly (ie I just asked for a beer, I didn't even look at the menu). What I received was a fairly sophisticated looking bottle which proclaimed itself to be McClaren Vale Ale. For the international reader McClaren Vale is a famous wine producing region - which seem to have divulged into beer. The beer itself is a bastardisation of the Australian Sparkling Ale style with a strong bready malt focus rather than a hop focus. Actually very little hop character comes through. Anyhow here is the blurb;

VALE ALE IS A SOPHISTICATED AND COMPLEX AUSTRALIAN ALE WITH GREAT STRUCTURE AND BALANCE. IT OPENS WITH BRIGHT AROMAS OF HOPS COMBINED WITH CITRUS NOTES. THE PALATE PRESENTS A BOUQUET OF PRONOUNCED FRUIT FLAVOURS WITH NUTTY MALT AND BITTER HOPS FOLLOWING ON THE MID PALATE. THE FINISH IS QUITE DRY FOR A PALE ALE, PERFECT TO QUENCH A SUMMER’S THIRST. IT IS BREWED FROM THE FINEST MALT AND HOPS AND FERMENTED WITH TRADITIONAL ALE YEAST. IT IS NOT FILTERED OR CARBONATED BUT ALLOWED TO FINISH OFF ITS FERMENTATION IN THE BOTTLE WHICH ACHIEVES A SUBTLE CARBONATION THAT COMPLEMENTS THE ALE STYLE. IT FINISHES LIGHT ON THE PALATE AND LEAVES A REFRESHING FINISH AND LIGHT EFFERVESCENCE.
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BITTERING HOP: BREWERS GOLD (NEW ZEALAND) AROMA HOPS: SAAZ (NEW ZEALAND), CASCADE (UNITED STATES) MALTS: PALE ALE MALT, WHEAT MALT, CRYSTAL MALT (ALL AUSTRALIAN) ALCOHOL BY VOLUME: 4.5%

www.valeale.com.au

Harry's Pies

My trip to Melbourne on Friday started at the domestic terminal at Sydney airport. Having not had a chance to grab a bite at work during my lunch hour, I made my way towards Harry's Cafe de Wheels for a pie (pictured left). This particular delicacy (The Tiger pie) is a Sydney insitution. It consists of an Australian style meat pie with a generous portion of mash potatoes, mushy peas and gravy. Harry's Cafe de Wheels has been serving pies down by the Wooloomaloo wharf since 1938 and have started to branch out with new stores in a number of retail locations. My mate Jay's (who is a lightweight and spewed everywhere after a few beers around Clerkenwell) wife happens to be the NSW franchise manager and oversees the management of the domestic terminal store. She also happens to be my little mate Riley's mum, but that's another story!

After wolfing down the pie I hit up the terminals taphouse for a schooner of James Squire Amber Ale. I am pretty sure this is being brewed with a lager yeast now, and the beer is definitely not better for it. It was in proper real keg format though, so freshness and condition was guaranteed. I also managed to catchup on the latest edition of Chemistry in Australia whilst waiting for my plane and drinking my pseudo ale.

Overall Sydney domestic is leaps and bounds ahead of the soulless JDW infested ghettos that mark the UK airport scene. Sydney domestic offered a relaxed, fine dining, vinegar free start to my weekend break - just what I needed.

I'm back

I arrived safely home from Melbourne last night without having to drink a single 'pot'. I did manage to have some great beer and cider though. Plenty of proper real keg from some great breweries. I'll post about my adventures throughout the week, but for now take total blessed care.

Melbourne Bound

I'm off to Melbourne this afternoon for a city break. Having not been to Melbourne before I am looking forward to observing first hand the voluntary drinking of beers in small volume glasses (a 'pot' is only a half - the standard measure in Vic). If I were a complete beer geek or ticker I would be spending the weekend scooping out some of Australia's best microbrewed beers (of which all seem to come from Victoria), however I'm normal and as such, will be keeping beer geekery to an absolute minimum and doing regular touristy things. If I was a proper beer geek, I wouldn't be going to Melbourne this weekend anyway as the Australian Beer Festival is on in the Rocks.

A brief catchup of what I have been up to over the last couple of weeks when I haven't been entertaining tickers, trolls and religious freaks who seem so compelled to read my fictionous ramblings and comment with unsurpassed addiction and regularity.
Recently I supported my country Australia in the soccer match against The Netherlands. As soccer is a relatively boring game to watch (which wasn't helped by the 0-0 scoreline), I got on the piss and consumed my fair share of Victoria Bitter. I was partially sauced before the game as I had been drinking at The Captain Cook. Here I enjoyed a mix of Cooper's Pale Ale and Bluetounge Premium Lager. After the game we nicked over to trendy Surry Hills where we ended up at the Trilogy hotel. Here I got to sample some White Rabbit, a dark hop driven bitter from the Little Creatures offshoot in Healesville , Victoria. This beer is seriously good and worth having a session on if you can find it.

I also went to a wedding in Bowral last weekend where alongside catching up with mates I hadn't seen in five years, I also put away 7 or 8 litres of Hahn Premium Lager and got well and truly pissed. It was a good wedding.

BTW - please be entertained by the ticker commentary which is bound to happen. The more they comment, the more it supports the stereotype that they are sad fucks.