Fed Square Microbreweries Showcase

Gary — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:36:37 +0000

Yesterday, I went to the Microbreweries Showcase, held at Federation Square. With 17 breweries showing their product, there were plenty to try from. Here are my notes from the variety I tasted:

Brewery	Brew	Notes
Arctic Fox Brewery	Ice Cap Lager	Light flavour, with a slightly fruity aftertaste. Drinkable, but not particularly exciting.
Bridge Road Brewers	Dark Ale	A solid porter. Nice smoky flavour.
Buckley’s Beers	Pilz Lager	Very sweet. Easy to drink.
Buckley’s Beers	Original Ale	Sweet, light flavour.
Coldstream Brewery	Cider	Boring. Really unimpressive. Tasted like watered down apple juice.
Grand Ridge Brewery	Natural Blonde	A sweet wheat beer, with a hinte of orange. An excellent summer beer.
Holgate Brewhouse	White Ale	A clove flavour, reminded me of spiced wine.
	Big Red Pilsner	Brilliant, rich red colour. Boring flavour.
	Temptress Dark Ale	A rich porter, made with vanilla beans and Dutch cocoa. Could work even as a dessert beer.
Matilda Bay Brewing Co	Sebastian Reserve Dunkelweizen	Sweet and dark, with a hint of apple. Tasty.
Mildura Brewery	Mallee Bull	Brilliant colour, uninspiring flavour.
Mountain Goat Brewery	Fancy Pants Amber Ale	Similar to their Hightail Ale, but not quite as strong a flavour. Slighty sweet, slightly spiced. Smelled of celery, for some unknown reason.
Prickly Moses – Otway Estate	Summer Ale	Bleh. Reminds me of Carlton Draught.
Red Duck Brewery	Pale Ale	Light flavour. Nice summer beer.
Red Duck Brewery	Honey Porter	Light porter flavour, strong honey flavour. Nice, but similar to Beez Neez, I couldn’t drink much of it.
Southern Bay Brewing Co	Effen Premier Lager	A fairly standard lager. Good to drink, but nothing exciting.
Sweetwater Brewing Company	Golden Bitter	Tastes like it should have flavour, but has been watered down instead.
Temple Brewing Company	Saison	Good flavour, reminded me of Hoegaarden. A hint of cloves.
The 3 Ravens Brewing Co	Dark Smoke Beer	An excellent stout. Traditional, tasty.
2 Brothers Brewery	Growler	An American brown ale. Nice, but nothing special. Kind of a light porter.
Three Troupers	Pilsner	Light colour and flavour, like a Pilsner should be. Small bite in the aftertaste to keep things interesting.

All up, a good variety from some of Australia’s microbreweries. Particularly worth mentioning is Holgate’s Temptress Dark Ale, which is probably the best chocolate beer I’ve had. Buckley’s Beers also gets a second mention, for making my two favourite beers for the night, though the Original Ale just beats the Pilz Lager.

Gary Pendergast » beer

Fed Square Microbreweries Showcase