The Johnsons' Journal

This weekend we wandered over to Fitzroy, one of Melbourne’s inner suburbs, to visit the Rose Street Craft Market and have lunch at the Little Creatures Dining Hall.

Little Creatures Dining Hall

Little Creatures is a craft brewery in Western Australia. We had tried a couple of their beers over the past few months so we decided to pop in to the Dining Hall they setup in Melbourne to see what else they had on tap for a leisurely afternoon.

Just want I was looking for

They had a few of their own beers and a cider they make on tap as well as a dark ale from another local brewery, “White Rabbit”.

Little Creatures and White Rabbit beers on tap

They also had some local wines, and other of their favorite beers from around Oz and a couple from Europe in  “stubbies” which is what they call bottles.

And a good selection of beers in stubbies

One thing that we’ve found nice about bars and pubs in Australia is that they usually serve beer in two sizes pints (imperial) and pots. Pots are about half the size of a pint which makes it easier to sample a couple beers or just get a pre-dinner drink without committing yourself to something you might not like. This is great for me since I love to try something new where ever we go. Unfortunately beers in Oz are much more hit and miss that what we found in the US.

The Craft Brew Industry is quite a few years behind that in the US and many of the beers we’ve tried are lacking imagination and more so lacking flavor. You can often taste what the style they’re going for in a beer, but it just usually feels like they held back a bit. Coming from the US where craft brews are only able to make a name for themselves by going over the top in flavor, most beers here tend to taste a bit watery. I attribute this to the fact that as in the US the most highly consumed beers are pilsners and light lagers and the craft breweries are probably trying to operate on the fringe of this market.

We have found a few beers that really have stood out as good quality while hunting around. One of our favorites is a Pilsner we found while touring wineries in the Yarra Valley, recommended by a sommelier of all people. Its called Red Angus, its got a great crisp but full flavor and we can find it in our local bottle shop, which is a plus.

Red Angus Pilsner

Other favorites include the Pale Ale from Little Creatures and the Dark Ale from White Rabbit. The Pale Ale has got a nice amount of hops and a nice rounded flavor. It reminds me of a nice Sierra Nevada from home. The Dark ale is not quite a porter but is smooth with a good touch of roasted malts to give it a nice color and hint of smokiness.

I think the best beer that I’ve had in Australia, and dare I say, the best IPA I’ve had… was in the tasting set we had from the Red Oak brew pub in Sydney. The flavor was fantastic, a nice punch of hops, but an incredible balance of flavors from the malts. This wasn’t the hoppy overload you’ll get from west coast style IPA’s, but a true to style balance of high malt and alcohol content, a good blend of hops to give it a bite and awesome finish that keeps going well after you swallow. Unfortunately they don’t distribute many of their beers, and I’ve only been able to find an organic pale ale in the bottle shop which disappointed with a very sour yeasty aftertaste as if they open fermented or used a too much Belgian style yeast. Like I said very hit and miss.

My favorite Aussies brew so far (Second from right)

One thing that has been certainly missing from our travels around Oz is the one thing most Americans would think of as Aussie beer, Fosters! Turns out that Fosters makes up less than 1% of sales in Australia, even though it is one of the top 10 worldwide selling beers. I think that 1% is only sold to tourists. 🙂 Along that thought, we also haven’t seen any Outback Steakhouses. Where am I going to get a bloomin’ onion!