Tipples Beer Review #82 Brewery Visit to Bentspoke (Canberra, Australia)

Canberra, Australia’s capital city is much maligned, it’s a political town full of public servants, low slung buildings more at home in a business park than a city and the odd monument or too, I have to admit I quite like it though, I do a bit of travel for work, and I have to say the up and back in a day trip to Canberra is so much more relaxed than the Sydney trip, which is always hell, with delays, traffic and having to deal with people who live in Sydney.

Canberra is much easier, a quick flight from Melbourne (just under an hour) a fast get away from the airport, quick cab ride to the client’s office (everything is a 10 minute cab ride away in Canberra) a meeting and then enough time to pop into the brewery for lunch before jumping back on a plane, and home by 4.30pm – perfect.

But what brewery? – Bentspoke of course. Some history.....There used to only be one good craft beer in option in Canberra and it was brewpub called Wig and Pen, this place was legendary in craft beer circles, and yeah it was brilliant, but you could only get the beer in the pub.

Now that craft beer is a bigger thing there was a need for a real brewery in Canberra, and the head brewers from Wig and Pen started Bentspoke, which is much bigger and with national distribution (in cans too) but the beer is still excellent. Oh and there are a few others in the Canberra Beer scene now, but that’s another trip.

They have a lot of brews on tap, maybe 12 or so, there are a stainless tanks lined up behind the bar and the staff are keen to help, they are clearly used to dealing with craft beer virgins and there was a lot of ‘what do you normally drink?’ questions, My drinking companion got a pint of something, which looked good but when I ordered a tasting paddle I think they knew I came to play.

Now the paddle is odd, it’s a bicycle handle, and some heavy metal pieces wielded together, very heavy but easy to carry, although I wonder a) how they clean them? and b) where do they store something this big?

But we don’t care about the engineering of the beer delivery device we care about the beer. I can confirm that all four beers were very very good, they were:

Here we Joe Again – This is Joe Carb, which is a Sour beer brewed for GABS 2017, but then put in Shiraz barrels for a year – I loved the original, and with it barrel qualities I love it more now – if you like sours, find this.

Red Nut – is a Red IPA which is not a style that gets made enough, the ‘redness’ of the malt gives it a nice sweetness, with low carbonation and some fruity hops this was perfectly balanced.

Dick Tracey – the weakest of the brews today, it It’s a Belgian yeast brown ale, and I’m told it was a test beer and the first brews brewed at Bentspoke, as it had elements in it that ‘tested’ the constraints of the equipment – okay but I wouldn’t have again.

Larken’s Brown – This is a sweet porter infused with cinnamon, brewed originally for Easter – it did have nice chocolately characters, again low on carbonation which made it a very easier sipper.

So if you fine yourself in Canberra, pop into BentSpoke Brewery and grab a beer or four, you won’t regret it.
And as always check out Beer Saturday – Here: https://steemit.com/beersaturday/@detlev/summer-and-beer-tell-us-your-stroy-for-the-steemit-beersaturday-challenge-week-56