I Should Have Been Working But Chose Beer Instead

I was out picking up some equipment and parts for the gym yesterday and realised that I was quite close to a brewery that I'd recently read about. I told myself that it was work hours and that I shouldn't be thinking about beer but couldn't get the thought out of my head. So, after convincing myself that I would be managing my time effectively by getting a beer tasting in while close to the brewery, I headed on over to Brownstone Brewery to try out their selection of craft beers.

_{It looks somewhat like a brewery}

Wandering in to the brewery, I realised that I was the only person there. I suppose it was 1pm on a Monday, so I shouldn't have been surprised. The first thing that I noticed was that this place served a lot of beers in addition to the beers that they brewed on site. Should this be concerning? They also had a tonne of pre-mixed spirits behind the bar. That's quite odd for a brewery I think. At least they clearly brewed on site:

Brownstone have this to say about their brewery:

We’re the little brewery that can! Thanks to maestro brewer Steve ‘Hendo’ Henderson our 500 litre Micro Brewery pumps out a pretty spectacular drop… and it’s only available on site.
_Source

Spectacular drop eh? Just one drop? Regardless, I'm not taking their claims of spectacularness as gospel. I'll be the judge of just how spectacular their single drop of beer is!

A Paddle a Day Keeps the Mazzle... tipsy?

I've become quite fond of the paddle since my last visit to a brewery. So I immediately requested one from the bar tender. He gave me a quick run down of the beers on offer; and as it turns out Brownstone are very fond of the Pilsner variety of beer.

This brewery isn't very well known at all. And is located in quite an out of the way location in the far distant suburbs of Melbourne. The brewery is also only 2 years old so I'm thinking that these factors are why it isn't very well known or even have any ratings on the usual beer review sites. It also could have something to do with the fact that their beers are only available at the brewery itself rather than distributed to local retailers.

The brewery has a mixed bag of reviews on Tripadvisor however most of the negative ones are about the food available rather than the quality of the beer. So this gave me some confidence as to what I was about to experience with my paddle of craft beers.

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On to the Paddle!

My paddle consisted of 4 beers. They were all quite unique however it's obvious that the brewer is quite fond of citrus flavours. I'll give each beer a little review below.

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Little Brew Peep - Pilsner

I’m not too familiar with Pilsner so was eager to give this beer a try to expand my knowledge a little.

The aroma was of hops and sweet malts. The beer had a well balanced carbonation. What surprised me was the extremely bitter flavour at the start however the bitterness tapered off to light malts and hoppy aftertaste.

This was a pleasant beer after I got passed the bitterness at the first sip.

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The Skipper - Summer Ale - Pilsner

And here we have another Pilsner which is obviously what the brewers enjoy. It's a mid-strength beer which isn’t something I’d normally drink. The beer has a pleasant aroma of citrus hops and a subtle sweetness which follows through to palate. The beer isn't strong on carbonation but it works well with this style of beer. This is a very refreshing beer and easy to drink. It definitely resembles what you'd expect in a Summer Ale.

My only criticism of this beer is that the tasting notes say to expect tropical fruit and pine but I got neither of these aromas or flavours.

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Rusty Sailor – IPA

This IPA brings hops and a mild sweetness in the aroma which seems consistent with the other beers on this paddle. What’s really weird is that I tasted soap in this beer. Could they have failed to rinse a glass properly?

This is quite a hoppy and bitter IPA which would be fine if it was a good beer. Sadly I didn’t really enjoy this one. There was something off in the aroma and the level of bitterness wasn’t matched well with the other flavours of the beer.

And the soap... what the hell?

The tasting notes talk about tropical fruits and onion notes. I got none of that. Although I did pick up some citrus notes... mixed with the soap.

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Hoppy Ending – Pale Ale

Last on the list is the pale ale which apparently is brewed in the American style, which I am very fond of.

There are definite citrus notes in the aroma of this ale along with a subtle bitterness. Flavours of hops shine through with the citrus flavours on the palate quite nicely. The carbonation is low to moderate but that could be a result of the beer being last in line on the paddle.

I'm heavily biased towards pale ales when tasting beers. It really is my favourite style of beer. Thankfully, this is a decent pale which I enjoyed thoroughly after the soapy beer before this one.

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Summary

Overall, I'm not thoroughly impressed with this brewery. It's a shame given that it's reasonably local to me and I enjoy supporting my local breweries. I'd say that the soap beer is the one that put me off the most. However their pale ale is definitely worth a try, along with the summer ale. Both are good quality beers.

Finally, this review is for the weekly #BeerSaturday competition. You can read more about this competition on the last winners announcement post (I may have come in second last week!). If you enjoy beer, I encourage you to participate in this fantastic competition, it gets bigger and bigger every week!

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The Beer Data

Beer	Type	Origin	ABV	Rating
Little Brew Peep	Pilsner	Doveton, VIC	4.6%	3.0
The Skipper	Summer Ale	Doveton, VIc	3.7%	3.5
Rusty Sailor	IPA	Doveton, Vic	5.8%	2.5
Hoppy Ending	Pale Ale	Doveton, Vic	5.1%	3.5

_{All ratings are out of 5}