Beers, Cocktails and Warming my Soul in Brisvegas

Welcome back, if you read my first post “Introducing my Mistress” you will hopefully remember that I wrote about one of my favorite Sydney locations, Batch Brewery in Marrickville. Better than the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge combined, more peaceful and pleasant to spend the afternoon than the Zoo or the Botanic Gardens, and with greater potential to cause dizziness (in a good way) than any adrenaline inducing high power speed boat ride around the harbor. If you didn’t read that first post, you can click the image above, if you want, or not. There is no spoilers, there is no connection or flow, there is no real reason to do so. Except… if you feel, as I do, abso-lubba-dubb-dubb love a meticulously crafted, transdimensionally flavored and vibrantly boozey beer, in which case you should check it out. The post has closed and been paid out, I have nothing to gain by you reading it, only the joy of sharing my love for all things hoppsy, malty and frothy.

During my recent voyages to the positively balmy Brisbane, I am happy to report that I have found a wonderful brewery, a fantastic bottle shop and an excellent cocktail bar, that I would love to share with you, so that if you are ever in Brisbanetown you too can find these wonderful and delicious beverages, without taking a gamble and hoping you are not betrayed by Google reviews. You will have my word to rely on, and my word is as good as Ether when it comes to beer, gin, vodka, rum, coffee and food.

http://time.com/4124321/jon-snow-game-of-thrones-season-6/

Those of us in the southern most states of the relatively recently discovered great southern landmass - Australia, are in the deepest depths of winter 🌧 🌧 , it was a long late Summer, and we all know what that means….

🌑A long night and a dark winter.🌪

So long and so dark that Whitewalkers😱😱 are threatening to cross the Southern Ocean and Bass Straight from Antarctica and Tasmania, the two wildlands to the south of Australia. In these parts some have been shivering through long cold nights, or staving off certain death by running up power bills that would embarrass residents of even the most luxurious of mansions.

To us Victorians, the northern lands of Brisbane or "Brisvegas" as some like to call it, is a place to dream of in Winter. Only in winter though, because we only need them for their warmth, as what they have that we don’t have better, is near perfect winters. The sub-tropical climate through Australia’s coldest months of June through August see’s Brisvegas shine! Frequently recording temperatures between 20-25°c, with clear and sunny skies and usually minimal wind. Practically perfect conditions, so perfect that the moment it drops to a 19°c maximum temperature, with a bit of a chill in the air or a brisk wind, Brisbanites far and wide cry foul, don their scarves and puffy jackets and complain to all that will listen on their way to work and then continue to complain all day at the office.

So when my work decides they need me in Brisbane, I don’t think twice about jumping on the next flight and escaping the drafty, chilling air of my home state. I gleefully pack my bags, knock back a cold brew coffee or two, jump in an Uber, get on that plane and 2 hours later I am defrosting and feeling like my fingers, toes and ear lobes might just survive another year. First action item - gather some decent beer to occupy the minibar fridge for my stay.

Ok brief disclaimer here - Melbourne doesn’t get that cold, rarely does it dip below 0c, even overnight. Our daily maximums are usually 8 to 10c on a cold day and 16c on a nice day, if we get 19 or 20c we are pretty much in festival mode. But as a great man once pointed out, things in nature are all relative, just as I frown with pity at the Brisbanites as they complain all day about 19c being so cold, us Melbournites have no right to complain compared to the truly cold winter wastelands of Australia, where you will find our ridiculously situated and small capitol city of Canberra.

As I have undoubtedly made very clear, I love my beer, you can probably see it in my writing style. My sporadic ability to stay on point, a penchant for waffling, lapses in humility, coming across as a wanker, and then overcompensating with self deprecation. Yet somehow redeemed by my charmingly witty, satirical, topically and pop culturally relevant sense humor(see part about remaining humble).

if your sarcasm radar has not alerted you in the lat 5 minutes, please report to your local sarcasm detection service station ASAP, it may require new batteries.

Green Beacon – Teneriffe

This fantastically laid out, open plan brewery is situated less than 4 kms from the Brisbane CBD. The open plan warehouse with the bar and customer area at the front and the brewery at the back, is quite alike to the Batch brewery in Sydney that I wrote about last time. I am big fan of this layout, I just love to sit and drink beer with giant vats of beer towering over me, shimmering with light, looking gloriously beery!

This gem of a brewery also has daily food trucks of various kinds, the night I visited was this delicious pizza. You can check online for what food is going to be on and on what night, food is important too! A great beer is not the only thing you need in life!

above image from pizzantica facebook page

Green Beacon have a decent selection of beer available on tap, roughly 8 or 10 from memory. Yes I know, I was there just this week and I should have counted them, memorized them, and been more attentive in general. But I just get too caught up in enjoying the beer and the atmosphere in these places. I can inform you that they 8 beers in their core range, 4 seasonal releases, and 3 special releases.

First up I had the American Amber, not usually an amber ale drinker, generally find them lacking in depth of flavor but this amber popped. Really enjoyed this beer and would actually pick up a few if I come across them at any of my Melbourne bottle shops. I then went straight the Windjammer IPA, as the IPA is one of the most important tests of a brewery for me. Because I drink quite a lot of IPA, APA and Red IPA’s, these are my go to drinks when I want to assess the quality of a brewer, I know this will draw ridicule from some fellow beer snobs but it’s my system. Their IPA was solid, a very nice and smooth but richly flavored beer. One with a particularly cloudy opacity, a bright, rich, lightly colored but cloudy IPA. I wouldn’t have bothered typing this if I didn’t really enjoy this beer. If a brewery can’t put on a good IPA they are not getting any more of my money or time. Another great measure of a brewer’s ability are the more creative, different and intriguing bees on their menu. The brewers at Green Beacon have a Passionfruit Gose listed as among their core beers, this would usually be another beer on my hitlist, because I love a good fruity, yet tart, sour or salty beer, if done right, they are fantastic. Like someone is having a party in your mouth and everyone’s invited!

From Green Beacon, we moved on to a more suitable venue for my non beer drinking companion, there is a few wines available at Green Beacon but not enough to hold a wino for any more than a few.

Saville Row - Fortitude Valley

This cocktail bar is sensational! From the décor, the art, the mural above the wall of well-crafted spirits of all varieties and the bar, which is all perfectly viewed from an awesome mezzanine. Then there is the menu, such a brilliantly designed and well thought of array of cocktails with so many intriguing and brave flavors. As well as the menu in its own right, this is so well done.

The menu, which is in the style of an old kids book, with some wonderful artwork for each cocktail.

With the bar tender literally shooting fire from his hands, the amazing mural of God, reaching out to touch ET’s finger, while a Banksy like character tags the wall behind him. All the while a female figure, perhaps Gods mistress, stares wantonly at Banksy..

Not to take anything away from the lady diving from above the city and into space.. Not sure what to make of that part, but am sure it was meant to be important.

Malt Traders – Southbank

Finally, the bottleshop, if you are heading to Brisbane for a few days or more and want some decent beer to stock your mini fridge, this is the place to go, and they also stock a ridiculously good range of Whisky and Gin. The staff I met at Traders was incredibly knowledgeable on all of these things, and you know your in the right place when the people working there love their beer, whisky and gin as much as you. I don't have any pictures of the place so I've borrowed this from http://www.eatsouthbank.com.au

I think that’s enough from me today, if you are still reading, thanks for sticking with me!

I hope that my excessively descriptive, ranting and raving, and overly passionate ramblings can provide some inspiration or even just a little guidance to a like minded person who finds themselves bumbling along a similar path to me. Whether they be on a work trip or a holiday, if a beer lover is coming to Australia or one of the cities I have written about, they should check out this series of posts. I know I would love to find a similar blog to help me in my ever-intensifying search for the perfect brew.

Finally, the great view I had from the balcony of my room at the Rydges Southbank recently

I have no affiliation with any of the above mentioned venues outside of being a customer, I do not live in Brisbane and will not be benefiting from this post in any way from any of the venues. My views and opinions of these venues are my own, some photos were borrowed from their websites to fill in gaps, links were provided. Obviously if I was doing this for the venues the photography would be more carefully planned and I would not have started drinking everything before I remembered to take a photo haha :)

Introducing My Mistress part 2 - Irresistible Miss