barefoot
Ginger Beer
I’m going somewhere I haven’t gone in a long time…..Ginger Beers….specifically alcoholic Ginger Beers. Good Ginger Beers a few and far between. I often find that I get home with a new six-pack from my local, I get them cold, lovingly pour it into a glass only to be let down and disappointed by them. They often don’t hold up to expectations, they promise a lot and then leave a bad taste...
Mildura Brewery
I like Australian-isms, I really do. I have a tendency to use sayings, most of them inappropriate, call people by names, and use a lot of rhyming slang for things. I was even trying to bring back the word “cobber” there for a while….till I heard KRudd use it whilst being interviewed. But it was this that made me stop a few years ago and notice the beers from Mildura Brewery, one of their reg...
Blue Sky Brewery Packaged and Keg Beers
It’s funny how sometimes you over look things that are in your own backyard. I’m a bit of a shocker for it really. I can tell you that I’ve visited some of the great cities of the world, marvelled at the Sistine Chapel, spent time on the canals of Venice, and lived out of a mates flat in London. But I’ve never been to Ayers Rock, I’ve never been to Broome, I’m yet to see some of the most magnifice...
Sail and Anchor
You know it’s funny, when I go to a wine tasting I always try to take someone along with me. I want to see what the average person on the street thinks of a wine. I might think they are fantastic wines, but I’m a cork dork, while my mate might say they are average at best and that the $10bottle we had last night was better. I think it’s about ageing, they think it’s about drink now and so on, it’...
Estrella Damm Inedit
I have gazed into the bubbly foam beer head of my scrying bowl, which is more of a pint glass than a bowl, and beheld the future of beer. Estrella Damm Inedit is this future of beer. In fact this is probably what Beer Lovers of the world have their erotic dreams about. Made in conjunction with the Food Lovers undisputed centrefold, Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame, this is a superb beer that really n...
Hurrah..Back to School
You may not know this, but I write this column from home, surrounded by our children and mountains of cardboard boxes of wine and beer that the Minister for War and Finance says that “I must simply stop buying”. And it’s been kind of hard to write over the last few weeks with the kids running around , wanting you to play with them, stop fights, clean up paint off the walls, bury dead fish and do t...
Stone and Wood Brewery
BYRON BAY…famous for its beaches, the laid back lifestyle and their HUUUGEE Blues Fest…which has become more of a rock fest, but that’s beside the point. But if the stuff from Stone & Wood is anything to go by, it should be equally well known for its beers. Back in 2008, 3 guys set up Stone & Wood Brewing, leaving their corporate worlds behind and settling into a life of making...
Winemakers crafting beers
I don’t mind a beer or three, and nor do a lot of the winemakers I have met. So much so that it’s not uncommon now days to see a winemakers name on the side of a bottle of beer. The Debortoli name is on the side of the William Bull beers. In fact their beers are so good that their Limited Release Pale Ale took out the top gong at the Royal Queensland Food and Wine show. Interestingly a lot of wine...
Breakfast Beers?
I was at Champagne Breakfast function recently and was looked down on for ordering a beer. I’ve never claimed to be fashionable , and often consider myself to be somewhat outside of normal social traditions. But I can’t work out for the life of me why it is that beer at breakfast is seen as unacceptable when Champers, some spirits (Gin for example), or cocktails (Bloody Marys) are? When I started...
Beer Types
My how things have changed. I remember when I first started sneaking into the back bar at the Centenary Hotel for a beer. Those days it was pretty easy, it was VB, XXXX or Gold on tap. It made it a little easier to not get busted. Gone are the days of only having XXXX Bitter or Gold on tap, these days you ask for a beer menu. And, the beer-toff in me, think it’s for the better, especially if you t...