Rocks Brewing Co.

Last night I caught up with friends of mine who are holidaying from the UK. The plan was to meet up at The Australian Hotel in The Rocks, and as usual I was early so managed to get a schooner of Little Creatures Pale Ale and a schooner of Scharer's Lager in before my friends managed to find the pub. Neither of these beers were that good. It seems that little Creatures has tamed down a lot over the last couple of years and is now tastes like Toohey's New with some Galaxy hop flavour. The Scharer's lager tasted tart and sour, and was probably infected. The Australian was pumping and we couldn't get a table so we headed around to a relatively new craft beer venue at The Harts Pub, which is also home to the Rocks Brewing Co. As my friends only had a couple of hours it was never going to be a massive piss up, but more of a social meal and a chat. First of all I would like to say that the pub is massively expensive. Pints are between $9.60 and $12 which translates to between £6 and £7.50 per pint. Meals are around $20 which is about £12 so not too bad.
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I started with a pint of Rocks Brewing Co. Governor Ale (4.4% abv) which is described as an American Blond Ale, and ordered the Brewers Burger for dinner. The beer was excellent and was the perfect summer beverage on the hottest and most humid day in December so far. Cool and refreshing with hints of stonefruit aroma most likely from NZ based hops. I had finished my pint before our meals arrived and I was drinking slow, so after a quick complain to see what the holdup was I was provided with a half of something else which was equally as nice. My burger arrived shortly after and I was content as it was one of the best burgers I have had in quite some time.
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Anyway this probably doesn't interest most of you, but as I don't get out for a few beers very often anymore I think it was worth noting. Also, I will try and get back to The Harts at some other pint in the future for more adventures with true craft proper real keg.

New Dig's

I'm now completely settled in my new apartment. It's snazzy and close to town. I like it. All I need now is a 40+ inch LED TV and my life will be almost complete. Oh, I also need to sort out some Internet so I can post more frequently but it's hardly a priority like the TV is. The downside is that I don't have any room to put my all grain rig together so I will be putting up with cans of goop and fresh wort kits for a little while longer, but hey at least the weather is nice here.

I have slowly started exploring the local area and have sussed out how expensive beer is in Sydney. A Schooner (425 ml) of Little Creatures Bright Ale which is a golden style summer ale in proper real keg form is $6.50 which is pretty expensive in comparison to UK prices. This is at my new local the Kirribilli Hotel which is a bit of a "too cool for school" venue so a premium is also added, but it's still a bit rich. On Sunday I wandered over the bridge (the Sydney Harbour Bridge that is) with the missus and had a look around the rocks. I bought a nice new pair of RM Williams boots and gawked at people like the intrepid tourist that I am. Plenty of proper real keg to be had in the pubs about this part of town with old favourites such as the Lord Nelson and Lowenbrau still going strong. I managed to pop into the Australian Hotel later in the afternoon for a pint of Scharer's Lager. This unfiltered Bavarian style lager is brewed in Picton and sold on tap only in The Australian Hotel in the Rocks and the King George IV in Picton. It has varied in quality since the brewery changed hands a couple of years ago and my schooner was laced with DMS. The beer literally tasted like cooked corn. Not one to be wasteful I finished it off without complaint and headed home to finish reading the paper over a bottle of Warsteiner and Sunday afternoon television. Next time I will stick with the Little Creatures Pale Ale, but still it's only beer.