Now I have tried to get to this brewery before - in fact I wrote about it here but that was ultimately unsuccessful as they were fully booked when we got there. So this time, in a much sunnier November down here in Melbourne I made a booking, hooked up spotify for the stereo, put down the roof and headed to Lancefield, a pleasant 1.20 drive my house in Melbourne.
First stop on this trip is always Melbourne Airport, it's a boring freeway to the airport, and it markes the end of the city to the North, unsurprisingly there are not many houses north of here (which you would know if you ever flew into Melbourne from the North (and let's face it almost everything is North of Melbourne.) the cool part about this there is a carpark at the end of the runway where you can get a drink, so junkfood and watch the planes take off.
And yes for those playing at home, that is my car - a ND Mazda MX-5, and yes it's great fun especially on the twisty bits, which the road between the airport here and Lancefield is so we set off, stopping a feel times for more glamour shots of the car.
And this place is so cool we stopped here again
But all that driving is rewarded when we get to the brewery, which, really isn't that busy. I should mention it's a Monday, but it's also a pseudo holiday. You see Tuesday is Melbourne Cup Day which we Melbourians get a holiday for (yes I know a holiday for a Horse Race is dumb, but so are most of reasons we get public holidays) As this is always the first Tuesday in November, it only makes sense to take another day off and have a 4 day weekend.
So enough of making you jealous of our holidays and my car on to the beer. So the Last Watering Hole as the name of the brewery, which isn't great, as a Pub name it works but as a brewery not so much, but what's in a name, let's chat beer.
We ordered up our first round.
At the front is "Swamp Rat Dark lager' Now I should mentione here that there is something with the naming of their beers. There is a place outside of Lancefield called Lancefield swamp, in that swamp they have found fossils that are about 40-80,000 years old and they are of Mega Fauna, that is giant mammals that use to roam Australia, including the Swamp Rat (thought to be about 10 times bigger than current rats, which is a distributing thought and a really bad name for a beer) but the beer itself was a pretty standard, but also very well made, malt forward dark lager. It was maybe more brown than true dark and I would have liked it just a hint roastier but still pretty good.
Big Roo Pale Ale is in the rear. Technically a Kangaroo is a still living Megafauna specifies. The beer, takes the pale quite literally. It was very refreshing but forgettable
So onto some food, and the burger was pretty darn good.
Which brings us to Round 2
I had been aiming for the IPA as I figured, they now how to make beer it's just the styles are a little boring, but alas I was told 'we have stopped making the IPA for now.' Which I don't think is a great sign in them being more adventurous, and those more interesting to me.
So I choose the Marzen which was called Howling Beast and it was probably the pick of the beers. again pretty standard but with a nice little hint of Belgium in the yeast
And then the Four beer the ominous 'Draught' which is a sign that there a fair few people who walk in a want a 'pot of Draught' meaning Carlton Draught the biggest selling macro lager in pubs in Victoria. So this beer is exactly as you would expect, better than Carlton Draught, but still pretty dull - I would have prefered an IPA - Oh Well.
And I'll leave you with another shot of the car, because although the beer wasn't mind blowingly exciting, it was still worth heading out there, because I got to drive there, and importantly I also got to drive back - all in top-down, wind in your hair, sun on your face joy. Thanks little red car.
I love this car and I have an outfit to match the color. Can I borrow it for a ride.
Haha that is what I call a good road trip!
In my post this week, I take issue with the branding/naming of a couple beers too. I get that they are brewers and not marketers/branding experts but come on! !BEER is a slightly different combination of the same 4 (5?6?7?) ingredients and the ONLY things that set them apart is marketing (and maybe a clean brewing process).
Many brewers either think they are more clever than they are or are discounting the notion that a beer should sound a bit more refreshing than a swamp or a rat!
When Hive hits $10 and it is time to schedule our global beer tours to blog and beer with each other in person, I need to schedule a week or 2 in Oz!
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The name of the first beer threw me into amazement. Ahh, the producers are funny to add rat to their products name.
But, I love the color.