Daves brewery tour

So I was really lucky this year, for my birthday I was given tickets to Daves Inner West Brewery Tour - Hipsters and Hops.

You meet at Central Station and Dave is there to sign you in and Ben is in the van ready to drive you around the inner west. 

Dave and Ben are really nice, friendly and have incredible knowledge on the craft beer scene. They made me realise how little I knew about craft beer, which is actually exciting as their love of it all makes me want to know more.

We were a group of 8 - me and the wife, a group of 3 (2 brothers and sister), a couple and a girl from the US of A. The American girl knew her craft beers, and one of the girls was a micro biologist so knew in the ins and outs of making beer and the rest of us just liked beer which made it for a fun dynamic.

We started in Young Henrys where we had an in depth 'walk and talk' around the brewery and the techniques used by the team and got the privilage to sample a fair few of their beers - one thing I noticed is that this isn't your usual tiny pour. The sizes are good sized in every venue. The 'Newtowner' is just a great session beer and is almost a good enough reason just to come to Newtown for. 

Having a chat at Young Henrys

After there, we headed to the Henson for some food and to share a few jugs of Stone and Wood Pacific Ale. The food portions were massive and really tasty. We then had the privilege of been driven to Batch Brewery (I think the inner west light rail should get a stop outside of this place as it isn't the easiest place to get too). I like Batch (East Village Hotel in Balmain often have their beers) as they produce big American style Ales and I think their American Black Ale was my favourite beer of the day. I tried their summer farmhouse ale and I am starting to get a bit of a taste to Saison beer. The slightly bitter finish with the upfront typical summer ale floral tastes and light body gives it a really odd but nice and refreshing taste.

The Black Ale is brewed in an IPA style but with more malty hops through it. While I am not too much of a fan of malty beers, I liked the balance that Batch have produced - the upfront malty taste is nice while there is a sweetness to the beer to take the edge of the malty bittery finish that you normally find with malty beers. 

The owner is so American that he wears his cap backwards.

I thought the photo was in focus, maybe my focus was starting to blur!

Afterwards we met the guys behind Willy the Boatman but as they don't have a licence to brew / serve we couldn't try their beers. We were given one of their golden ales to take home and it was awesome, a bit like a James Squire in that it has a lot of flavour though it but more medium bodied and less hops through it - so we will be back to chat to these guys (they are really funny) and try more of their stuff once they have a licence. If you are in or around Marrickville, you have to pop into see these guys. 

We finished the trip in the Rocks Brewery. I think when you go to all these smaller, more local style breweries, the Rocks looks more like a mass scale production... Anyway, we had fun drinking the Hangman, the ISA and the Belgian Ale (a real crowd pleaser in our group) and chatting. Both the wife and I ranked the Belgian Ale as the top beer of the Rocks and a few in the group thought it was their favourite beer of the day.

Overall, this was a great day chatting to Ben and Dave and our group, meeting brewers, owners, craft beer nuts and the like. I have to say, if you like beer, this is a great day out. 

There are plenty of more photos here - https://www.facebook.com/davesbrewerytours