Mornington brewery (MP Brew)

So as I said a few weeks back, we were in Mornington Peninsular, and had a great time enjoying the range of local beers on offer, but we managed to actually pop into the MP brewery, on the last day for a few beers and share pizzas and stories before heading in different directions. 

Beautiful sunshine, but the outside was in shade...

Is it a bar, is it a brewery? No it's a brewery bar! or Yes! It's a brewery & a bar! whatever answer you prefer...

So, after a wander around downtown Mornington, we hopped in the car to the industrial estate that is home to MP Brew. It is worth the drive as I always love to see the breweries and get a feel for them as it is a little window into the operation and their aim - is it a tiny brewery like Batch  Brewery (Inner West Sydney) that is deliberately small and community focused? Or is it like Little Creatures (Fremantle, WA) which was always aiming to get good beer onto the big stage. Well MP Brew seems to be half way - it is still a small operation, but with potential to expand and be more and more as its presence expands (you can start to slowly find MP in Sydney for example).    

The Witbier

The wifey loved the Witbier as it was a true Belgian style beer - light body, little to no head, with a fruity and spicy combination that makes it an easy beer to drink. Interestingly, the local breweries here seem to be quite traditional in the beers - i.e. if it is a traditional style beer, they breweries are true to the tradition; unlike Sydney-sider / Melburnian brewers who experiment with everything. The acid test for the wife when drinking beer is, "would you order it again or would you go for a coopers?" and the answer was she would happily order this again...

The Sorachi

So while MP were true on the witbier, they really experimented with the Sorachi, a "Japanese hopped Kolsch". So as you can see, this is a light bodied beer, with a short head that stayed. It seems a number of brewers around the world is experimenting with Sorachi Ace Hop, and I can see why, it seems to give it a lighter and more lemony flavour to a kolsch, but I can't help think they were trying to make it like a light saison with the sweet upfront and refreshing fruit smells unfront that dies of to a slightly bitter finish. While I enjoyed it, and thought it was interesting to try, I can't say I hugely too bothered about it as a beer. Don't get me wrong, I will happily drink it, and I really wanted to try it as it is a new hop for me, it's just I am not sure what they were really going for here with the beer style.

While we drank we eat many good pizzas, and talked about our long weekend away, and I have to say it was the perfect relaxed atmosphere for a group of friends to chat away, hassle free. Good wood fire oven pizzas and brewery bars seems to be a winning combination, while all these carbs may not be ideal for the ladies (it was only them that raised this point), it sure worked for me... 

Before we all departed, the non drivers had one more beer and it had to be the MP Pale to finish the weekend off - an American Pale Ale which is just a cracker, really easy drinking beer, fruit driven upfront with a solid head and just enough malt backing up the beer to make it a great balanced beer. I am a little over Pale Ales, as the aussie market is flooded with them, but when you have a great Pale, you remember why the market is full of them, as it is just a great beer style. I reckon MP Brews Pale is a beer that can 'do the cross over to mainstream' as it is so well balanced. Don't be shocked if you see this appearing more and more in your local...

Overall, a great brewery to hang out with friends, and definitely to have a few MP Pales over a pizza and laughs...