I'm Loving These Paddles - and The Local Taphouse

My business has been giving me a fair amount of grief lately. So when my friend invited me out for some mid-week beers this week, I jumped at the chance and suggested we try out a little bar in St Kilda, Melbourne called The Local Taphouse. I also needed something to write about for this week's #BeerSaturday as well so I couldn't really go wrong, other than the hangover that I had to deal with the following day.

I wanted to try this bar after discovering it while searching for breweries in the St Kilda area. This bar isn't a brewery but they stock an amazing selection of craft beers, with a huge number of them available on tap. Even better, this bar won the people's choice award for best pub in Melbourne in 2017.

The tap beer list is extensive, with a selection of local, broader Australia and international craft beers. I jumped at the chance to try some beers from the USA as I've never had craft beer from there before.

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So What's on My Paddle?

I decided very quickly to focus on ales for this paddle and chose a selection of pale ales,
IPAs and a weisse beer. I was quite pleased with this selection and excited to try some more IPAs which have quickly become one of my favourite beer varieties.

Social Beast - Pale Ale - Brewmanity (Vic)

This is a light and fruity pale ale. The tasting notes say that there are citrus and pineapple flavours in this beer which I detected both in the aroma and the flavour of this beer. The beer is low in both hops and bitterness, and focuses more on the fruits which is quite pleasant and not overpowering.

It's definitely an enjoyable beer that I would have again.

Acid Drop - Berliner Weisse - The Grifter Brewing Co. (NSW)

This beer is described as being light with a pleasant tartness. The beer has quite a fruity and hoppy aroma with some bitterness following through. I found the beer to be trending towards the sour side, with quite high tartness and hops.

I still haven't developed a taste for sour beers, so can't say that I'm a huge fan of this one. I'll keep trying them though as I can see that this beer was well made, just not for me yet.

Hop Stomper - IPA - Stomping Ground Brewing (Vic)

This is easily one of my favourites from this paddle. Aroma of citrus, hops and more with lovely hoppy, citrusy flavours that are balanced well with a mild bitterness. This is a very drinkable beer. I almost wish my entire paddle consisted of this beer alone.

Fred IPA - IPA - Murray's Craft Brewing Co. (NSW)

This IPA is described as having big flavours of hops, citrus, pineapple and pine notes. I definitely discovered the hops, citrus and pineapple in both the aroma and the flavour. Tasting pineapple in beer is truly strange. But I didn't get any of the pine notes.

This IPA isn't strong on the bitterness, I think the malty sweetness and pineapple really offsets the bitterness.

This is an excellent beer. Which surprised me as my first experience of Murray's Brewing Co. a while ago wasn't positive. It's not the best of the bunch of beers but is definitely one to have again.

Oskar Blues IPA - IPA - Oskar Blues (USA)

This beer was my first experience of a beer from the US craft beer scene, and it is quite a solid IPA. The beer was brewed with malt barley and red wheat along with a wide variety of hops. The beer has a lovely malt aroma with some subtle citrus notes. The mild to strong bitterness is well balanced with the flavours of malts and hops. This is quite a complex beer but is very well structured and incredibly enjoyable.

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Bonus Beer Round!

I couldn't stop at just the paddle on this night. My mate and I were chatting away happily and before long, we ran out of beer and needed more. I decided to try the last IPA on the list.

Vengeful Spirit IPA - IPA with fruit - Sone Brewing Co. (USA)

Wow. This IPA is very different. This is a hoppy, fruity beer with a pleasant bitterness to back it all up. It has tropical fruits on the nose along with strong notes of hops and sweet malts. The fruity aromas transfer well through to the palate but are balanced out beautifully by the strong flavours of hops and bitterness. It isn't an overly sweet beer, which could easily be assumed after reading the tasting notes.

This beer is complex, powerful (at 7.3% alcohol content) and extremely enjoyable.

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Well that was quite the beer tasting event. We ended up drinking until closing time, which is a rare occurrence for me. But what a fantastic selection of beers this was. I don't think I've ever had so many quality beers in one drinking session. If you're ever in Melbourne, I highly recommend stopping by for a beer or 5 at The Local Taphouse in St Kilda.

The Beer Data

Beer	Type	Origin	ABV	Rating
Social Beast	Pale Ale	VIC	4.5%	4
Acid Drop	Berliner Weisse	NSW	4.2%	3.5
Hop Stomper	IPA	Vic	5.9%	4.5
Fred IPA	IPA	NSW	5.6%	4.0
Oskar Blues IPA	IPA	6.4%	4.5
Vengeful Spirit IPA	IPA	USA	7.3%	4.5

_{All ratings are out of 5}

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