Community Beer - grow your own beer!

Grow your own beer...

So I have a good friend in Walthamstow, North London UK and he was telling me about a community project that he is part of- to grown your own beer - you grow the hops and then it is collected, brewed and then you are given beer back! Here is some info -

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/sep/11/how-to-produce-your-own-community-beer 

http://cultivatewf.org/walthamstow-beer-needs-you/ 

What an amazing idea, as it is community based and gets to the heart of local, good craft beer.

While obviously home brewing would be amazing, this is a great first step for many to get involved in!

So Sydney, who's up for reproducing this over here??

Bridge Road Brewery, Beechworth Victoria

So I hope everyones Easter was awesome, we had an amazing time in and around Beechworth in Victoria, home to great little vineyards, farms and gourmet foods and of course Bridge Road Brewery! 

This is a cracking brewhouse that pumps out a huge array of beers of high quality! The beers are categorised for people that may not be too familiar with craft beers, and the volume of weird and wonderful styles of beers being produced these days, making it a great way for people to say what they like in a beer and then being able to use the menu to pick something.

Thats a lot of beers, but did you notice the IPA - you can choose your own hop as well!! Awesome!

While the brewery did have a Weizen and a Saison, what was on offer was a large array of IPAs and Pale Ales - I get the feeling that the brewers were trying to say, "lets take pale ales / IPAs and have fun playing about with them" whereas places like Batch Brewery (NSW) is taking the opposite approach - lots of small batches of a huge amount of styles of beer, i.e. "lets try as many new styles of beers as possible". There is no right or wrong, better or worse, it is just interesting to see how brewers are developing their approach.     

Lots of staff, lots of seats, inside and out, lots of beer, a decent wine list and great pizzas. Yip sounds like it's a place that will succeed!

It was a cool night when we went, so we wandered in and hunkered down for a night of pizza and beer (although the wife did move onto a local wine). The pizzas were great, and helped make a great casual night out. 

As for the beers, the wifey enjoyed the Weizen, it was a big wheat style beer! With a big body on it which was great for a cool night. 

The Fat man, red suit, big sack was a classic American style beer - sweet to start with, light to medium body with refreshing malt finishes. If you an American living in Aus, this is the sort of beer you will miss when you head to your local. I think the closest style of beers would come from Matilda Bay, brewed in Port Melbourne.  

The new age pilsner was good. It's a pilsner, you happily drink it - it is just not going to be the most memorable beer in your life [but many times in life, that's the sort of beer you want!]

The Single hop IPA was the star, I had the galaxy which was excellent. It had this lovely citrus hoppy flavour upfront, medium to full bodied and a ever so slight malty / stone fruit bitterness aftertaste to remind you of what you just drank. Great beer (I tasted the Summer, which was also really nice, but maybe a bit too sweet for me - it starts a bit like a cider and then finishes like a malty IPA!)

Single hop IPA (Galaxy) in front, and the Weizen in the back...

New age pilsner.

The best beer name in the world.

While most people won't find their way to Beechworth (but you should; its a great place) there is a chance that your local bottlo will stock a Bridge Road Brewery beer. Based on our night here, I would recommend you give it a try - your more usual styles of Ale, but brewed slightly differently and made really well...

Murray's Fred IPA

Hi Fred, my name is Neil, I think we are going to be seeing a lot of each other...

EVERYONE, NEWS JUST IN, I think I have a new favourite IPA. I bought a long neck of this as a last minute addition in the bottlo and thank goodness I did!

What a beer! So what I love about it is that it is so moorish- i.e. there are a numbers of flavours to this beer but none are too strong so you keep wanting more and more... It's a great half way house between a strong IPA and a session beer - the light flavours, medium body and gentle finish offers an after taste of citrusy hops and light fruit flavours!

Beer and sport, thats a combination that works!

Golden Bavarian wheat beer style colour

I went to the bottle shop during the weekend and bought another long neck to confirm my views, as boldly claiming a new IPA champion is a big thing, and I have to say, it totally is the IPA King. Medium body, light sweet fruity upfront taste is balanced with a bitter finish to give the offset and balance the beer needs. I think the saison phase that Australia went through this summer has made brewers alter their IPAs - less about the "how much hops can i fit into a beer" to "how can I big up the fruity hops and offset it to give a balanced beer". 

Honestly guys and girls, demand this beer in your bottlo and in your local, it's a goody...