Australia: The Beers!

Posted on by
Reply

I know this blog entry is a little overdue — since my trip to Australia was 2019. haha. Oh well — What can I say … the beers in Australia were better than Thailand and Malaysia, for sure!

First, I visited three locations in Australia that were fantastic “beer-drinking” establishments … check it out on this link here. Those places alone made Australia a great stop.

As far as the beers themselves, there were a couple of outstanding ones … and then some ok ones. Typical for most places I’ve been.

However, let’s start before the beginning … we were flying from Kuala Lumpur to Cairns — this required a stop in Singapore — needed a little refreshment at the airport and was able to sample this IPA from Archipelago Brewery (Singapore Craft Brewery). A refreshing, excellent example of an IPA.

Next stop — Port Douglas. Right across from our “hotel” was this cool little pizza place — Rattle n’ Hum Bar and Grill. They had a very nice selection of beers on tap — plus the food was excellent! I had both the 4 Pines and the Wild Yak … decent beers.

Rattle n’ Hum Bar & Grill

The next day, we visited an excellent brewery in Port Douglas: Hemingway’s Brewery. Unfortunately, no tour — but a great stop! Awesome place right on the water. Sweet vibe, really good beers, and definitely worth a visit!

Hemingway’s Brewery

I picked up a couple more to try while in Port Douglas … The Kolsch was nice — The Furphy’s was ok!

Next stop was the Blue Mountains … we were a little bit boring here — same place twice for dinner (plus I added a couple of other beers I sampled on my own). The place we ate was called The Lookout – Echo Point. Of course, when you see the views, you see why we ate there. haha. The beer was ok to pretty good, the food (again) was excellent.

The Lookout – Echo Point

So, from my limited two-week experience, traipsing around the East Coast of Australia, I give the beers two thumbs up! Excellent selection, beautiful locales, and great food.

Beermentor

Beermentor’s Favorite Five!

Posted on by
2

These are my favorite five places to visit if you truly want that quintessential beer experience! I can honestly say that I’ve been around the world sampling, tasting, and visiting “beer” establishments — this is my refined list (since I haven’t gotten around to posting my top 100 … lol).

First, here are three criteria/reasons why these are my Favorite 5. First and foremost, it needs to be great beer. I’m not saying it needs to be your favorite or it has to fit in a particular category — nor does it have to be considered “Craft” or “trendy” or whatever. It needs to be great. Great tasting, technically well-done, without any faults or off-flavors. Second, the locale should enhance the pleasure of drinking the beer. There should be something about the place/history/experience that makes you think the beer wouldn’t taste any better than right where you are drinking it! Finally, it should be a place with some permanence/staying power — it shouldn’t be in danger of closing, it shouldn’t be a place you can’t visit without a special pass — it should be accessible to anyone and welcoming to all. This is a tough one — for instance, I was going to include “The Falling Rock Tap House” in Denver — it had been around for over 25 years, was a popular hangout for the After-Great American Beer Fest Crowd, and simply had fantastic beers. Unfortunately, it closed in June of 2021. Sad. Oh well — I will just have to be more careful with my Favorite Five!

One caveat — I’ve been to hundreds of places — but I haven’t been to all places — so my list is a little skewed by the fact that there may be a better place … I just haven’t been there yet. We’ll call this a “living list.”

Another caveat — I won’t list any Festivals here — Those, too, may not be there the next year — and sometimes it is difficult to obtain a ticket, etc. I’m trying to choose places that, while they may be difficult to visit, are accessible to anyone with some effort.

Ok, here we go! Working from #5 up #1 …

#5. Ye Old Mitre, London, England. A place that opened in 1546 and is still going strong probably will be around a while longer. Plus, it is owned by the Fuller Company (former owners of the Brewery, now they simply operate about 360+ pubs in the UK). With an excellent selection of beers on tap (folks in the UK call it “Real Ale”), a cool alleyway entrance and a comfortable atmosphere, it’s well worth a visit.

The Old Mitre, London.

#4. Staffelberg-Klause, Bad Staffelberg, Germany. This one is as far away from the city as The Old Mitre is close to one. haha. The Staffelberg-Klause is a small Bier-garten in Germany — near the city of Bamberg. You may, or may not, be familiar with Bamberg as the city of smoked beers (Schlenkerla). Here’s a map image (with the link here) of where the Bier-garten is located.

It takes a little work to get there — you can’t drive; you have to hike! However, the scenery in the area is stunning. Not only that, there are several Baroque-style Churches in the area, over 100 breweries/brewpubs, and … did I mention stunning views? Here are a few pictures:

The Bier-garten is right behind the small white church.

They have the typical German-selection of beers — Pils, Weizen, or Kellerbier. Either one will be refreshing and the food is good too!

#3. In de Vrede Cafe, Vleteren, Belgium. Next up, a trip to have some of the most elusive beer in the world! Westvleteren 12! In fairness, a very (very) close approximation that is more readily available worldwide is the St Bernardus Abt 12. Also … a wonderful beer! But I digress. Back to “In de Vrede.” Translated, in de Vrede means “in Peace.” Or quiet, solitude; any number of phrases that you would associate with the Monks. The cafe is across from the brewery, but still out in the countryside. Closest city would be Poperinge (the Hop Capitol of Belgium).

The food is wonderful and you can drink all three of the Westvleteren Beers here … a bonus is the opportunity to purchase some as well! The area and the cafe all deserve your consideration for a visit … finally, it’s a pretty short drive to anywhere, all things considered. There are so many things to see, and do, in the area. Visit the Hop Museum, an active Hop Farm, other breweries … explore!

#2. Orval, Belgium.

To me, this is a very special place — Orval is, hands down, my favorite beer. I’ve visited the “Valley of Gold” at least three times. Each time is special. The first time there was late November. We stayed at a small hotel nearby in Florenville. You could have any beer you wanted, as long as it was Orval. A big one, too!

The next day, we lucked out and were able to join a tour group of French Students at the Brewery —

See my post on Trappist Thanksgiving for more details on this tour.

The third time I visited, I was with my best friend and my brothers … an awesome trip. By this time, in 2012, they had improved the whole “Orval Experience” with a wonderful museum … the tour of the grounds was tranquil. I even tasted the Spring Water used to make the beer!

Another trip to Orval in the Fall … wonderful.

We had the tour and retired just up the road to the local restaurant to reflect on the experience and to enjoy a wonderful glass of Orval. Consider it a must for yourself!

The only reason it’s not my #1 is you can’t drink the beer on the premises — However, you can buy a small case at the gift shop!

#1. Bräustüberl Weihenstephan, Freising, Germany. Here’s the place on the top of my list … a trip to the oldest brewery in the world — established in 1040 AD! Not only do they have the brewery here, they also have a University devoted to the study of beer. If you make your way into the Bräustüberl, you can drink your fill of the wonderful beers they have available. Plus enjoy some traditional Bavarian cuisine–I do recommend a reservation!

Well … there you go!! My favorite five! I hope you have the opportunity to visit one or two of these places and see if they make it into your top 5 as well!

Enjoy,

Beermentor

87. Deschutes Brewery and Public House, Bend, OR (#77)

Posted on by
Reply

I had decided (previously) to quit trying to accomplish All About Beer Magazine’s “Growler List: 125 best places in the world to have a beer” a couple of years ago [Now more than ever since the magazine no longer exists — an excellent article on that here]. However, being a Type A personality who enjoys task accomplishment, I just couldn’t put my incomplete list away. Haha. So, although there are even more challenges now in completing the list, I’m still slowly working through it.

As mentioned in a couple of previous posts, I have made some of my own substitutions for locations/activities that are either: 1) closed, 2) defunct, or 3) “experiential in nature.” So, by my reckoning, when I visited Deschutes Brewery in 2019, it was my 77th place on the list.

Since the Growler List was published in 2008, the original idea was that you would visit the Public House in Bend, Oregon. This is the original brewpub opened in 1988. What an awesome locale! As a family and employee-owned business, you can really feel the passion when you visit the place (and the funky vibe–see photo below of the men’s room mirror). The food is excellent, they typically have Pub-exclusive rotating taps (see pictures below), and plenty of room to enjoy yourself!

Deschutes have done a great job of growing their brewery and they built a beautiful state-of-the-art facility in 2012. We scheduled a tour and took the opportunity for an in-depth look.

It’s just an absolutely beautiful facility, the tour is very fun–you end up in the tasting room at the end (obvious). Great tour guides, great ideas, and well worth a visit–definitely deserved a place in the top 125!

Beermentor

My Home Brewery: Ziggy Brau!

Posted on by
2

After 20+ years of using a hodgepodge of brewing equipment — albeit it worked (mostly) well — I decided to invest in a new “brewery” for myself this year. Actually, I had a design in place for my brewery since 2002+ … here are a few drawings I’ve done through the years representing what I wanted. The first two images were my original design … some time later I did the next two drawings. The final drawing was a recent design for my brewery based upon all Blichmann equipment. I was trying to incorporate it with my existing Blichmann equipment — that’s the reason I didn’t just go with a Breweasy system.

After doing some research and looking to see how my brewing process, plus my location, matched with an integrated brew system, I decided to go with the Brewtools B40 — their smallest (40L) integrated system. It looked like the right match for my location/process. Having cleared customs here in Canada it came nicely packaged to the house.

Brewtools B40 Pro Brewing System

My wife and I agreed that it should be set up in our basement shop — it is an electric kettle system. My major goal with this system, besides to brew great beers, was to reduce the amount of heavy lifting involved. I found lifting 40-50 lbs of near-boiling water was probably not in my best interest.

Before I could get my brewery up and running, I had to have a little work done. I had a 240V isolated circuit installed to plug into directly — 30A worked nicely — no popped fuses! Next, I searched around for a rolling table to use with it–one low enough to see into the kettle. After much searching the folks over at Okanagan Stainless were kind enough to build me a fantastic Stainless Steel table — perfect for my need! They do such awesome work!

Here’s a look at the table. You can see the swing-arm installed–I’ll show how that works in a follow-on photo.

As a side diversion (lol), I tried to 3d print a block-and-tackle pulley system to use with my swing-arm (see photo). Although it worked, I needed something a little smaller.

With my table and power ready, the final piece of the puzzle was venting the steam out of the “Brewery.” Fortunately, I had two extraneous vent pipes leading out of the house from the old furnace — I decided to attempt to use one of those in the process. I drew up my design and bought the pieces/parts to see if I could make it work.

We set up the system (here you can see the initial layout) and tried boiling some water to see if it would work — come to find out, the exhaust pipe was a cardboard tube. haha. That wasn’t going to work! So I replaced that with a standard exhaust pipe — still not a good seal — too much leaking. I needed another solution — back to the Okanagan Stainless guys! They built me a stainless steel exhaust system to use … here are a few photos of the installed product.

With everything in place, I was ready to test out the system! I ran through about 3 test batches (water only) to understand the best way to attach all the valves. I purchased a few extra valves, the steam hat, and the wort chiller to have a complete solution. Here’s how the system looks set up when I’m brewing a batch of beer …

Overall, I love my system — however, I’m having issues with my brewhouse efficiency — I’m hovering at around 60% for mash conversion — that’s after 4 full batches. Fortunately, the beers still finished in style and are tasting great, but I want an efficiency closer to 80%. Still more research to do. In one of my follow-on posts I’ll talk through my process (I just brewed a Trappist-style Dark Strong Ale) — maybe someone will have some ideas.

I already have a few “upgrades/enhancements” planned for the brewery to make it even easier and more efficient to use. Oh, here’s an updated picture of my steam exhaust … I wanted to show the finished product there as well!

Stand by for more from Ziggy Brau!

Beermentor

The Year of the Belgian-Styles

Posted on by
Reply

Ok, Just in case you were wondering, I’m still around. lol. I apologize for the long time between posts — I have absolutely no excuse — however, I have still been exploring the World of Beer during this time. This year, 2021, I’ve determined to focus on Belgian-style beers, with an emphasis on two categories: a) Trappist-style, and b) Lambics.

For this post I will stick to discussing the Trappist-styles, leaving Lambics for a follow-on.

The two ways I’ve been focusing on Trappist-styles are a) drinking them (haha) and, b) brewing them. I’ve already brewed a “Single/blond,” a Dubbel, a Tripel, and will be brewing a Dark Strong Ale tomorrow.

The Single/Blond Ale was a strange brew … it was hard to characterize it … the yeast I used had been cultured from an Achouffe strain (WLP550) [of course, that’s like saying I came from Europe even though my family has been in the USA since the 1700s] — so not a Trappist yeast. Originally, I wanted to clone the Poperinge Hommelbier … I put together my recipe and brewed it up — it is (characteristically) like the Trappist Single but the ABV is too high for that style … but too low for the Strong Ale category … Oh well! It tastes great. I love that yeast! I brewed it on the day my Grandson was born — so I named it after him (Keoni Blond) …

Before I brewed that one, I brewed “Sainte Dubbel” … this was my attempt at a Westmalle-clone. I used the WLP 530 yeast … definitely the right strain. I did have an uncontrolled temperature spike the first night, but everything came back under control … the flavor is very similar to the Westmalle Dubbel … however, it lacks that subtle oxidation character … it needs a little more time in the bottle, I think.

The next beer I brewed was the Drei Punkte … my Trappist Tripel … I went for another Westmalle-clone … maybe leaning a little towards the Chimay. I’m still trying to dial in my new brewing system … more about that in another post … so I didn’t hit my targets, but this is a nice Tripel. I used the WLP 550 yeast (I captured some from the Blond-brew). It is a very nice yeast … great flavor profile in both of these beers.

A couple of bottles seem low in carbonation, but the rest are a nice, big thick head. This is obviously a low carbonation one … haha.

Besides brewing these Trappist-styles, I’ve been able to find bottles from Chimay, Westmalle, Rochefort, and Orval. Also, the St Bernardus Abt 12 and few other Abbey beers. As my beers mature, I’ve been doing some side-by-side comparisons. Additionally, I’ve captured the dregs from a few Orval bottles (my favorite beer). I’m using these in two different ways. First, I captured some of the wort from the Keoni Blond and pitched the Orval yeast into secondary … definitely getting that Brett character … needs to mature a little more, but a really tasty beer. Also, my next beer (after my Quadrupel) will be my attempt at an Orval clone (hence the Label for “Liquid Valor.”) I haven’t designed my Quad label yet.

Here’s a shout out to Stan Hieronymous — his book “brew like a MONK” is a great reference guide when I’m trying to build my recipes, choose yeast, additional ingredients and what processes to follow. Thanks, Stan!

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor

3 Places in 3 Days … 3/125 Places to Drink Beer Before you Die!

Posted on by
2

Still following All About Beer Magazine’s “Growler List” 125 best places in the world to have a beer.

I found myself in Sydney, Australia and Auckland, New Zealand … as such I was able to hit 3 of the places in 3 days on the list!

It’s kind of funny … the order I visited these places is their numerical order on the list! They were #53, Lord Nelson’s Brewery and Hotel, #89, Iceberg’s on Bondi Beach, and #98, The Shakespeare Brewery. Let’s start in order.

#53: Lord Nelson’s

This is the oldest pub brewery in Australia along with the oldest licensed hotel. It is in the heart of the historic district and a great location to visit. They have an excellent selection of their own beers–and the bonus was you could do a tasting flight!

I thought the Three Sheets was an excellent Pale Ale.I also recommend the Anileation … the Stout. I had high hopes for the Nelson’s Blood, a porter, but it was just a little off. Everything else was really good.

To include the food.

This was an excellent stop; great atmosphere, very nice beer, and good food … what more do you want in your combination? Definitely deserves a spot on the 125.

#89 – Iceberg’s on Bondi Beach.

Ok, check out this location first and you’ll see why it is on the list.

The building closest to the ocean over there is Icebergs.Here’s a panoramic shot of the beach with Icebergs again on the right.Walking up to Icebergs you get a great view of the pool and the ocean.Looking back to the beach you can see the folks in the water … surfing. This beach is the birthplace of surfing in Australia.

We found a great seat at the bar inside and ordered some lunch and a couple of beers. The beer menu was not extensive, but so what.

This Little Creatures Pale Ale hit the spot and the service was excellent. Very nice folks and the food was very tasty.

I can see why this place is on the list … well worth a stop …

(Here’s a detour for you … we also took the ferry over to Manly Wharf (check my post about MTB’ing on my other blog). The ferry was $15 AUD there and back. It provided excellent views of the opera house on the way there.

After the ride, I enjoyed a nice Corona (haha).

Then we went back to the Wharf and had an excellent meal at the Bavarian Restaurant while watching the sunset. Here’s a couple of shots … I would say that this location rivaled Lord Nelson’s for setting, ambiance, and beer. You never know where the best beer place is gonna pop up!

Ok, finally, #98 — The Shakespeare Brewery and Hotel.

We landed in Auckland, checked into our hotel, and walked over to this place. The Boutique Hotel has been there over 120 years … the bar … i don’t know.

The brewery is the oldest brew pub in New Zealand. They are making really good beers AND they serve them in flights … bonus!

Perusing the menu, I noticed I could also have The Gentleman, a Stout, in the bottle. It was a lovely beer and made the end of our visit to this iconic location memorable.

I can definitely recommend this place too and agree with it being on the list if simply for the fact it is the first brew pub in NZ.

Although moving along what some might consider slowly (I’ve been working on this list for 10 years now), I feel like visiting on average 7+ places a year is pretty good! I’ve completed visits to 74 of the 125 (see my modifications) … only 51 to go … at 7 a year that means I should be finished in the next 7 years! A worthy goal.

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor

Malaysia: The (lack of) Beers.

Posted on by
2

This won’t be a long post. Although I was in Malaysia for all of six days, I feel that there’s definitely a shortage of good beer places. Considering the fact that I was bird-watching (e.g., in the woods) for three days, maybe my observations are a little skewed. I did ask at a couple of places for what looked like a good beer … they were out. Basically, they enjoy their lagers … and not good ones. Well… Carlsberg is ok.

You can tell that I was drinking them … But for sure, they are lagers. So … if traveling to Malaysia, I wouldn’t make it a destination for craft beer drinking.

Beer Mentor

Thailand: The Beers.

Posted on by
1

Sorry for the delay in posts … I’m finding that the WiFi in Thailand was better overall than Malaysia, Australia, and New Zealand (so far). Let’s hope that New Zealand access gets better!

I will say that, overall, the Thai beer options are way better than Cambodia or Laos. See my previous post for that. There were a decent amount of imports available at the local stores and they were not especially expensive. We bought a few here at the Mini Big C. I’m not sure if the Big C is mini or if the Big is mini which would make it a normal C. Either way, they had beers.

Here is the first beer I had in Thailand (in Chiang Rai) … it was also the last beer I had in Thailand! This was an excellent vollbier … I had a few of those during our month in Thailand.

It was nice that it came with the correct glass!My final beer … Yes, it’s a mini-glass, but not from the Mini-C.

We tried to hit a few craft beer places in Chiang Mai but our timing was off a couple of times. They seemed to be closed each time we rode our bikes by them. However, each western-style restaurant we tried seemed to have at least one decent beer.

This burger joint had the “Brew Dog” … nice.This was a Mexican place … Heineken. It was good too.

If we ate at a Thai place, and they had beer, it was usually Leo or Tiger (lagers) or something similar.

Here are a couple of pics of the beers I was able to pick up at the store. One Radner and the biggest can of Hefeweizen (outside of a keg) that I’ve ever seen!!

Yep, you can get Budweiser here in Thailand!

This Radler had a nice flavor … but I wouldn’t buy more than one.Yes, you can get Leo beer in the store.Here it is! The monster can!This photo shows you the size … I think it was at least 750 ml!A pop top for those who like it old school. It was quite tasty … I wish I had had the proper glass with which to drink!

All in all a decent beer drinking experience in Thailand. However, I found that my go to drink for dinner was these 2-for-1 mojitos! 5 dollars for two … yes please! We even presented the restaurant with an “award” for “Best Mojitos in Thailand!”

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor

Cambodia/Laos … The Beers.

Posted on by
Reply

This will be a pretty short post — we traveled to a few places in these two countries. We took a boat ride up the Mekong from Vietnam to Cambodia stopping in Phnom Penh. Then we drove from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, stayed there a few days, and then flew to Luang Prabang in Laos. We traveled by boat from there (on the Upper Mekong) to Thailand. During this whole time, I actually only saw a few local beers.

In Cambodia, it was “Angkor.” I think I had one called “Cambodia Beer” too.

Both your typical warm-weather lagers … they were refreshing, but very limited. In Laos, it was even worse … just “Beerlao.”

However, you could get “dark” or “light” … both lagers. Oh well. I tried to get other beers, but they were usually out of the imports.

Oh, I forgot — we did try a local brew — it was Rice Whiskey … here’s the “Still.” The dog must have been at the alcohol.

However, after drinking it, I could swear this “lion” statue looked like a monkey. Haha.

Actually, it was very clean and crisp — and had a good kick!

Lol. On to Thailand!

Beer Mentor

Craft “Bia” (beer) … Vietnam.

Posted on by
Reply

We had an opportunity to tour from the North of Vietnam down to the South … In my previous post I shared all the different beers we had an opportunity to sample. From my 20 days of observation (very limited, I know) I came to this conclusion: Craft is alive and well in Vietnam. I wouldn’t call it American-style craft, but Viet Nam-style.

For instance, when we were in Hanoi, I didn’t see many “craft beer” places; however, they did serve “fresh” beer (see previous post). This is “craft” in my mind … small batches, serving the style the people enjoy, as fresh as possible–all very reasonably priced as well.

I didn’t see “craft” in the smaller cities (Hue, Hoi An, Sapa, etc), but we did see it in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). In Saigon I saw several craft beer / breweries on Google maps. I sampled beers from “Heart of Darkness” and visited Gammel Bier. They were both well-crafted. The place I really enjoyed was Pasteur Street Brewing.

It was near our Hotel (across the street). It wasn’t completely obvious how to get there, but the sign pointed to the alley … once in the alley it was easy to find the tap room.

We joined the other ex-pats/Europeans upstairs … there weren’t any Vietnamese (except for the servers). The beer was excellent (and so was the music).

It was kind of strange hearing Vietnam War protest songs while there but I guess it works for them. The food was excellent as well. Overall I would rate this place very highly and would recommend it as a locale for anyone visiting Saigon and looking for great beer.

Enjoy!

Beer Mentor