Raconteur Reloaded: Hendo's Hopfest

Steve "Hendo" Henderson

If there's one thing that becomes immediately apparent in initially meeting Steve 'Hendo' Henderson, its that the man just loves beer. Good beer. And hops. He really loves hops.

The former Prickly Moses brewer (now plying his trade at Southern Bay Brewing) loves good beer and hops with an infectious passion that beams from every part of him as he waxes lyrical on the topic, it's the kind of enthusiasm that comfortably treads the tightrope between genius and madman. As with his passion, his talents as a brewer are equally unquestionable.

He has been responsible for some of the finer beers to come out of this country in the recent craft beer explosion, unleashing the Raconteur, the Tailpipe Big Ass Brown Ale and the Black Panther, just to name a few from the Prickly repertoire. It was the first of these that would be the focus of Raconteur IPA: Reloaded, a collection of 5 single-hopped versions of the original hop rocket.

A Crowded Royal Standard Hotel

The Royal Standard Hotel played host on a cold, rainy Monday night, (where Melbourne had seemingly decided that it had probably been a bit half-arsed at doing winter of late and that it was time to pull it's proverbial socks up) and the punters began shuffling in just after 6:30, a throng of beer nerds, industry folk and curious locals all keen to sample the five specially brewed ales.

On the wall, amongst the sporting memorabilia and the Good Beer Week promotions, a poster read "Raconteur IPA: A Love Story About Hops". Probably the most appropriate tagline for the event and the man himself, let alone the beer whose poster it rightfully adorns. The hops on offer were Galaxy, US hop Citra, Brambling X from the UK, Simcoe and the now-rare Riwaka flower, 5 hops with contrasting flavours and characters, some not often used in Australian beer.

Simcoe, Raconteur IPA and Galaxy

As a showcase for diversity in ingredients, the difference from one beer to the next was evident even to the most novice of novice beer drinkers, from the aromatic floral sweetness of the Riwaka, to the deep bitterness of the Simcoe, the passionfruity lightness of the Galaxy, to the bittersweet finish of the Citra, there was much to be analysed, discussed and compared amongst those who had filled the bar.

There was no subtlety with the hops either. Hendo, (who had been seen not two days before, sporting a t-shirt with a picture of a man firing a 'hop bazooka' on it) explained the importance of making each beer a hop explosion, to showcase each hop's individual characteristics. The end result was a feast of six (the five single-hop varieties and the original Raconteur) hop-charged IPAs, each with clear and unique identity and individuality and each capable of being a quality stand alone beer.


The pick of the beers was the Riwaka Flowers version. With origins in New Zealand, there has been something of a shortage of this hop recently. The last available Riwaka flowers in the country for some time reportedly went into this particular brew.

A strong floral sweetness gives way to citrus and grapefruit that take a firm grip without being too overbearing. It's sad to know we won't be seeing the hop used locally for some time, but I thank Hendo for gifting us the opportunity to sample it.

Brooklyn Brewery Degustation Dinner

It’s the first night of Good Beer Week and already one my most highly anticipated events has rolled around. The Brooklyn Brewery Degustation Dinner.

Brooklyn is one of those breweries that just oozes cool, so having their beers matched to five courses prepared by the kitchen at Beer Deluxe is just too good to pass up. 

Just get to the beers, you say? Give me a chance, there are some other cool elements of the event. 

Making the long trip across the water was Eric Ottaway, the General Manager of the brewery to be our host for the evening. Eric introduced each course and took the time to regale us with some anecdotes and give us some insight to the genesis of some of the beers. 

Eric personalized his role as host and made it around to each table for a chat to the punters and proved himself to be a warm and genuine person to share some excellent beer and food pairings with. 

Now that I’ve mentioned the pairings, what better time to start having a look at what we were presented with. I know, slick journalism right?

Upon entry everybody was served a glass of Brooklyn Lager matched with some cajun spiced popcorn that was on the tables for everyone to share. Now, this already was a stroke of genius. I could write a whole post about this combination alone, but that would not be entertaining for anybody. 

It was a combination that would suit almost any situation. Watching a football match with a Brooklyn Lager and this cajun popcorn would be omnisensory bliss. That’s my word by the way, I’m coining it right now. 

Next up was pork belly with an apple mash with walnuts. Chosen to accompany this was the Brown Ale. In this course the beer played the support role as the big, bold flavours of the pork belly took over and made everyone in the room enjoy the moment. The sweetness of the sultanas in the apple mash made an excellent match to the Brown Ale. 

The food was expertly prepared and tasted delicious on it’s own. 

For those playing at home, I’ve just realised that “omnisensory” is already a word. How silly do I feel at the moment?

The next dish to be served was gravlax cured salmon on a shredded Thai salad matched with Brooklyn’s East India Pale Ale. This was another matching hit. The hop character of the IPA harmonised with the tang of the salad and combined for a truly tasty pairing. The salmon was cured beautifully and it rounded out a classy dish. 

Now following this was my favourite pairing of the night. Crispy lemon chicken with the Brewmasters Sorachi Ace Saison was classic flavour compliments executed professionally and I wanted to keep enjoying these all night but alas, there was more to come.

It was at this stage that the penny dropped that these pairings had been carefully considered and they were all just superbly complimentary.

After this onslaught of flavour it seemed like our tongues could use a break, and this was achieved with the serving of a Cuvee de la Crochet Rouge Rose as a palate cleanser.

Palates cleansed, the next matchings were out to please the sweet tooth in us all. A vanilla bean custard tart with candied acidulated malt. A dual pairing here, with the Monster Barleywine and the Companion Ale served with this dish. The Monster is a treat by itself, but the Companion Ale was my favourite of the two as a match to the dish (as well as a beer nerds delight. The rarity!). 

There was a second dessert offering, and I think most people were expecting it as we’d gotten to this stage of the dinner and hadn’t seen the Black Chocolate Stout yet. 

Sure enough, accommodating a dark chocolate, blue cheese mousse was the Black Chocolate Stout and the rumoured Black Ops Imperial Stout (that may or may not exist...). Both of these beers matched the chocolate mousse beautifully and it was just excellent to get to try (or not try....) the Black Ops. 

The dinner was one of the best degustations that I’ve been to in relation to the pairings. Each course was beautifully presented and more importantly really appropriately paired with the beers from Brooklyn. 

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and one that Beer Deluxe can be proud about holding.

A big thank you is also due to Eric Ottaway for his hosting duties, he made the night that extra bit special with his interaction with all the punters.

If this is how Good Beer Week starts, it’s going to be a wonderful seven days.

Pepper Steak Porter

A foreword: I just read this over, and it may be long and uninteresting. You’ve been warned. 

A journey. A short journey. What’s the threshold of time/distance that constitutes a journey? I don’t know. 

A journey nevertheless. 

Rian and I have oft discussed getting our brains together over a lovely ale and brainstormed working out some really interesting ideas at styles of beer that we’d like to brew. 

The only downfall to this picture of Utopian living is that neither of us are any good at brewing.

It’s a damn shame. 

For example, the Cheeseymite Saison is trapped in our creative psyche, likely never to see the light of day. You might say that’s a good thing. Of course, one Ryan Tyack from Southern Bay Brewing might mount the executive head brewers throne on the bridge of his Death Star home brewery and electroshock some life into this Frankenstein of a beer yet.

Also, he might not. 

Anyway, one such brainstorming session Rian floated his idea of a Guava IPA. Rian, that is. Not Ryan. Ugh, this is so confusing.

This was the extent of the planning for this beer, as we were under no illusions that if we tried to brew it up it would end in failure and tears possibly. Likely, actually. 

So this was swept under the rug for a while. 

Many moons later (it was probably only two moons, three tops. I’m not down with the celestial cycles) we decided we’d make the trip to the Otways and take part in the Prickly Moses Brewers Experience, a package deal allowing you to go up to the Prickly Moses brewery for a day and brew a batch of their beer with the brewers and a couple of other punters. They run a couple of these a year so we had some time to look forward to it. 

You get a day of brewing, a gorgeous lunch, endless beer, and excellent fun along the way. 

Was that a good plug for Prickly Moses? I’d imagine they’ll want to send me some free stuff after that. 

Half a moon after we’d decided to participate in this experience, it was approaching another of our favourite parts of the beer calendar: The October installment of the Victorian Microbrewery Showcase. What fun!

I won’t go into detail about the showcase, but we made our way to the Prickly Moses stall and met Hendo for the first time in person. We’d conversed on Twitter as I jealously asked him to stop documenting his wonderful beer romp through the United States to all us poor folk at home. 

As we chatted, Hendo said “You guys should come up to the brewery some time and have a look around.” to which Rian replied “Well, we’re actually coming up to do the Brewers Experience in January.” 

“Oh is that so?” said Hendo, with a wry grin appearing. “Well how about this? We normally brew what we have on our schedule, but for that session why don’t you guys come up with a beer that you want to brew?”

At this stage I think I can speak for the both of us when I say we were being all cool and relaxed on the outside but yippee-ing and celebrating on the inside, and we both shared the telepathic message: Guava IPA. 

We hadn’t thought of marrying it up to a hilarious hair style, but we’re not professional brewers, you see?

So excited by the thought of getting our Guava IPA into tanks Rian suggested “ Tweet the idea to Hendo NOW.” 

“No.” said I. “Let’s keep this card close to our chest and throw some red herrings out into the Twitterverse.”

“Opiate Infused Wheat Beer”

“Pepper Steak Porter”

Resident beer geek James Davidson took this bait and demanded somebody created it for him. I apologized and explained I was just getting my creative juices flowing. Idea!

“Creative Juice Infused Flanders Red Ale!!”. 

Mildly entertained with ourselves we sent a private message to Hendo suggesting we make the Guava IPA. 

We didn’t get a response. 

Hendo pictured, looking like a crazy person.

We waited for a response. After a week we had heard nothing of this Guava IPA. Had we offended Hendo at the very suggestion of a Guava IPA? 

We were to get our response soon enough, but it wasn’t exactly what we were expecting. A simple tweet from Hendo about a week later set some things in motion. 

\

“Can’t stop thinking about Pepper Steak Porter. Maybe our entry for GABS?”

Once Rian and I pick ourselves up off the floor, the excitement of one our stupid jokes becoming reality sets in.

It was decided that we’d brew a pilot batch, and if it didn’t suck or kill anybody Hendo would tweak and hone the recipe for GABS. 

As much as we were looking forward to the Brewers Experience anyway, now we’re going to be brewing Pepper Steak Porter. 

Now the speculation begun about how the hell we were going to make a beer taste like pepper steak. 

A week before the brew day we get notified by Hendo that he has been smoking the malt with mesquite and hickory and he has smelled like meat ever since. This excited us. Hendo had it all figured out.

On the drive up we stopped in at Forrest Brewery for lunch and a couple of quiet ones. Good food and beer from Forrest, but we won’t go into detail here. 

Brew day arrived and we awoke at the crack of dawn ringtone that I had set as my alarm on my phone that was set just prior to the crack of dawn, got into a cab and were on our way to the Prickly Moses Brewery. 

We gathered with a couple of other Brewers Experience attendees and realized that a brewery has to start functioning the same way any workplace does.

With coffee.  

By the bottom of the cup, we were all feeling a little more normal and ready to get cracking on the brewing. 

I quite enjoyed watching the other punters faces when Hendo instructed that we’d be brewing an experimental Pepper Steak beer today. The large brew we made was the Otway Ale. 

The Brewers Experience really offers what it says on the label, it takes you through every aspect of creating a commercial grade beer from start to finish, and Hendo is really in his element when conducting it. He’s got a pure passion for educating people on and encouraging the experience of craft beer. 

Brewing the Otway Ale on the large gear was fun, as well as pretty educational for this novice home brewer but the real fun came when we turned our attention to the pilot brewery to get the Pepper Steak Porter rolling. The grain smelled great. It smelled like meat. I didn’t want to stop smelling it. 

Once the boil started it became more aromatic and meatfully delicious.

At this point in time I’ll go off on a tangent. During the boil Hendo cracked open some bottles of the experimental “Saboteur”, big brother of the excellent Raconteur IPA, and wow! When Hendo gets a brewery at Southern Bay that can support that you can be sure he will turn out a mighty Double IPA if the Saboteur is anything to go by. 

The boil was 60 minutes, what better time to go and have some lunch?

What else would it possibly have been? We all sat down and tucked in to a mouth watering pepper steak that was cooked perfectly. 

After some steak, some Raconteur and some good chin wagging it was back into the brewhouse to get the beer into the fermenter and let the yeast do it’s thing. 

Pepper Steak Porter was in a fermenter and now it was just down to time and yeast. After some cleaning up (and a Raconteur or two...) our brew day was over. 

Now, the tale of the Pepper Steak Porter didn’t quite go as we thought it may have done, because for those playing at home, this was the time that Hendo accepted the job as Head Brewer of Southern Bay Brewing Company. This meant that the Pepper Steak Porter would need to be withdrawn from GABS, which is disappointing but there wasn’t really a feasible way of doing it with Hendo taking over the helm at Southern Bay. 

The upside to this was that when it was ready and I received my three growlers, we’d created a really great beer. Big, smoky, meaty characters dominate this porter that finishes with the pepper flavour from dry hopped peppercorns. 

The porter itself stood up as pure class and I would not be surprised of this is used as a basis for a Southern Bay Robust Porter when the time comes. 

A joke come to fruition. That’s just how we roll. 

If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this garbage and are excited by the idea of the Brewers Experience then I strongly recommend it and you can call Prickly Moses to make a booking on 03 5233 8400.

For added pleasure, I have posted some more photos. 

Celebrity Brew Day

A cause for celebration.

The chance to brew a Raspberry Saison at True South Brewery with head brewer Sam Füss, local comedians Charlie Pickering and Danny McGinlay, Beer Diva Kirrily Waldhorn and beer scene writing stalwarts James and Jenn Davidson.


Yes, it does justify the aforementioned celebration, but you've jumped the gun. 


The reason this celebrity brew day took place was to brew the ceremonial beer to be shared and to be given to guests of the wedding of Danny McGinlay and his lovely fiancee Lesya.


Pickering and McGinlay are avid home brewers and Sam's blind tasting of their Celtic Red Ale at the recent Ballarat Beer Festival was the trigger to this idea to put the icing on top of the finishing touches of the wedding.


The two close friends operate their home brewing under the moniker "McGickering Brewing Industries" and clearly have a passion for the activity. 


To give the day an extra special touch, Sam decided she would throw open the doors of the brewery and invite the public to come and watch, or even join in if they felt so inclined. This is how I managed to worm my way into proceedings. Very clever, I know. Besides, my innate ability to... reach things from high shelves.... was most likely a total blessing to all involved.


You're welcome.


Raspberry Saison was the choice to to commemorate the occasion and it piqued the interest of everyone involved as the Saison Du Victorien was such a nice example of the style with the local kick, and today's brew to was draw from the base of that offering.


Right from the get go it was clear that the day would be about brewing beer and cracking wise, with the two lads turning even the most mundane of tasks into chuckles, giggles and fun. The element of "kids in a candy store" was apparent for the entire day with the chapter of McGickering Brewing Industries stepping into the full production volume for the first time. 


So not really "kids in a candy store", they were adults. In a brewery. That is the adult equivalent. 


Once we were mashed in and boiling in the kettle, it was time for a little bit of food, and of course a beverage. First honorable mention goes to the True South Pale Ale which is tasting better than it ever has, but the special siren that stole everyone's heart was the ever fading supply of Ninkasi's Angel that was being poured and tasting a treat.


Now, if you haven't been to True South for a meal then may I ask you why? In an excellent illustration of the magnificent food being prepared in the brewery kitchen we sampled the tapas menu and were continually delighted with the dishes being served up to us. 


I could probably eat the salt and pepper calamari perpetually, but I couldn't attempt it on this occasion because lunch was over and there was work do. 


Late hops go in and we get this baby transferred into a fermenter to let the yeast get busy and eat all those fermentable sugars, but our work isn't quite done yet. To the fermenter was added six containers of pureed fresh raspberries (Yes, this is the "raspberry" component of the title. Raspberry Saison.) to round out the tartness of this celebratory beer.

Adding the raspberries was both a necessary task and a spectacle with our Beer Diva Kirrily not afraid to get her hands dirty. There are pictures around that tell a thousand words. Two thousand.


Set to bubble away we set ourselves on cleaning the brewhouse, and funnily enough the celebrities had to go off and make some important appointments, that's weird timing huh?


Capping off what was a remarkably fun day in Black Rock we went our own separate ways. 


We'd like to take this opportunity to wish Danny and Lesya all the best for the wedding day and what is to come in the future.

Now although this Saison has been brewed specially for the big day, there will be some available at the brewery, and very limited supply going out to the venues that regularly pour True South beer. This will be the last single batch brew done by Sam as head brewer so if you see it around make sure you snap it up and enjoy!

New Years Eve

It's getting to that time of year. Well Christmas is closer, but that's not what I'm talking about at the present time.

Hey maybe I should do a post about the various Christmas beers that are available currently?

Topical.

Damn. I should have got a Melbourne photo. 

Anyway, New Years Eve is approaching and myself and Rian are planning on emulating last years event where we spent 3 hours (and silly money....) buying up what we thought were our favourite beers from the year from several bottle shops around Melbourne to see in the new year in style. Whew, that was a long sentence. I'll work on it, I promise.

The night was one of the great New Years Eve's of recent times and we knew immediately that it would be a tradition for the foreseeable future.

So we had it all planned 12 months in advance but with one key improvement. We'd ACCUMULATE the best picks over the whole year!

Excellent strategy! We wouldn't leave anything out, and we'd also be kinder to our credit cards in the festive season.

So the list compilation has been going on for 12 months now. It's gotten really long.

Wait, was that beer that we had in February really NYE worthy? I can't remember. And what about THIS beer?

Clearly, the only sensible option was to stage a Semi Final to qualify if some choices were worthy of the main event and to try some new beers that we thought might be special.

That Semi Final, my friends, occurred on Friday night. It was a splendid night indeed, but don't think it really helped our situation. For starters, we didn't revisit any selections to see if they held up. We had all new beers, and some were absolute belters.

The Ruination IPA from the Stone Brewing Company, Diamond Knot's Industrial IPA and the Yeastie Boys Red Rackham all made strong cases to be there for NYE.

So the list got longer.

Worst outcome for a Semi Final ever. Traditionally, a semi final would halve the field in order to ultimately decide one winner.

Having said that, with more first class beer to be had on the night the winners are clearly us.

Which beers are on the list? Now I'm not going to divulge all of them here. (I can totally get another post about the night and tell you then...)

However, you can imagine that Untappd will get a royal beating that night so you'll be able to see what we've got there.

On the night the tweets will be flowing like the beer, so if you don't want to be bombarded with things you probably aren't interested in then I'd suggest unfollowing us for a while.

No, wait. Don't unfollow us. Follow us. We'll be hashtagging (or "trending"? Is that the term the kids are using these days?) #FBTENYE. It'll be fun, I promise.

Happy Festivus, y'all.

Nostalegia

Symbolism. 

A misspelling in the title of this post? 

No it's not actually. It's another poor attempt at a beer pun. Inserting "ale" into the word "nostalgia", if you are still having difficulty with it. Forget it.

The sense of smell is perhaps the most evocative trigger for the memory, and perhaps this is part of the reason why enjoying a beer can set off an unmistakable, lucid recollection of past events. 

A reminder of relaxing on a beach in the midst of summer, the first time you had your mind blown by a huge hop hit or huddled up in front of a fireplace on a winters night are all potentially accessed in an instant once again by the taste or smell of a beer. 

This happened to me very recently and the memory was so vivid I really felt like I was instantly transported 13,000 kms back to the western shores of Mexico. 

Before my eyes were opened to microbrewed beer I had traveled to Mexico for 6 months as a reward for... all the hard... something to do with... well I went to Mexico for 6 months. 

I hadn’t ventured into the world of beer that actually had taste and character and was only really exposed to bland Australian macro lagers and Euro lagers so this world of Mexican beers seemed pretty exciting. 

I was sophisticated enough to know that I wasn’t interested getting Coronas while I was there and it seemed that even Mexicans didn’t drink Coronas. 

But what was this? Dos Equis? Modelo Especial? Negra Modelo? Yeah this was all pretty interesting stuff. I mean, they probably are more interesting than Carlton Draught and VB but by no means are the flavours that great among these beers. 

None of these were enjoyed more than the Pacifico Clara, which became my beer of choice when I was out and about. 

The beers were always served with a plate of sliced lime and a dish of salt and the expectation was that you dipped the lime in the salt and then squeezed it in to the beer. I was never a fan of adding lime to beer, even when my palate was only grappling with Becks and Carlsberg I always queried: “If it needs lime added to it then how good can it be?” Fair question I thought, but this is the way everyone was doing it so “When in Rome”. Or Mazatlan as the case may be. Mexico City too. Look, you get what I mean.

Sitting on the beach in the sun with a Pacifico was just about as good an afternoon as I could imagine. 

Just for some clarification for you all. I mentioned I’ve had the Pacifico recently and my palate has evolved out of recognition since then. The Pacifico is just a bland, mass produced lager. At the time however, perfect. 

About a week ago I went to MexiCali restaurant on Swan St in Richmond. I had the faintest breath of a hope that there may be some Mountain Goat beer as just about all the places in Richmond have some Mountain Goat at the ready. Alas there was not, so I thought I would revisit my holiday favourite. 

The first sip was disappointing. Dull. Boring. Still probably one of the better beers on the list. I worked through the beer with effort but figuring that I’d probably get another one after as the other two options were Carlton Draught and Corona. The end of the beer is where it hit me. 

In the last mouthful of the beer I could have sworn I had a strong taste of lime and even a lime seed at the bottom of the bottle. Instantly I was back in a hammock on a hot day in a totally different hemisphere. My fluency in the Spanish language came back and I was immediately less punctual. Is that offensive? It might be, but that’s really beside the point. 

The personal nostalgic value that this beer holds for me far outweighs the objective quality of the beer and takes me back to the best holiday of my life so far. This might be spoiled and ruined if I decided to have this beer more than once in a blue moon. 

I don’t think that’s really going to be a problem. 

Raiding the Red Hill Brewers Secret Stash

Such was the sense of adventure and joy afforded from our last trip down to Red Hill (for the launch of the Hop Harvest and the newly installed hand-pump tap), that it was with no hesitation or trepidation that Dave and I jumped on the opportunity to spend another Saturday morning making the lengthy trip down the Nepean Highway to one of Victoria's most aesthetically pleasing breweries. Laying unassumingly in the hills just inland from Mornington Peninsula's scenic coastline, surrounded by woodlands and boasting it's own hop farm, the Red Hill Brewery could almost claim to be situated right in the heart of "God's Country", or if not, certainly the well-kept backyard of some middle-shelved deity.

The Brewer's Secret Stash was a chance for punters to try Red Hill's ever increasing, always impressive collection of aged and limited edition ales in the one place, on tap, for one weekend only. Boasting a tap line-up including the Barrel-aged Imperial Stout, Temptation Ale, Weizenbock and the Christmas Ale as well as the promise of a beer-matched menu of gourmet treats, it was a red circle calender date for any beer lover with adequate transportation, or in our case, someone willing to drive us. (Thanks Tiff!)

If that wasn't already reason enough to fill a car with beer drinkers and head south, it also coincided with the much anticipated launch of the brewery's brand new India Black Ale, which would be pouring through the recently installed traditional beer engine, or hand pump. This launch, alone would have probably been enough to drag us down the coast, away from such city luxuries as mobile phone reception and all-day kebab vans, so the combination of the two was a well-pleasing bonus, if not a deal-clincher.

There is something quite exciting about finally arriving at the brewery. Whether it be the sight of the hop yards as you close in on the entrance, the first glimpse of the rustic, wooden brewhouse, giving a sense of arriving at an old farmhouse, the anticipation of having a range of quality craft beers to sample or just the relief of being able to stretch ones legs after a long drive, arrival at Red Hill is always met with a sense of occasion. The bar/restaurant has an eclectic country-pub-meets-city-beer-garden charm that plays on the brewery's surrounding gardens and farmlands, making it impossible not to feel welcomed and relaxed. An astute environment for the sampling

of quality beers.

We kicked of the session with a pint of hand-

drawn India Black Ale, a style of beer that has seen a surge in the local beer culture of late. But few breweries are giving drinkers the chance to try the style from the traditional hand pump, so we were keen to see the effect that reduced carbonation would have.

Brewers Simon and Tim had been given a little creative license, with this brew being a one-off specialty batch, and while the first taste was somewhat unassuming, it developed in depth and character with every subsequent drink. A balance of upfront bitterness and a rich, lingering malt

character makes this a particularly session-able ale, that could really be enjoyed on a cold wintry night or a balmy summers eve in equal measures. Certainly an excellent follow-up to my favourite Australian beer of 2011 so far, the Hop Harvest Ale. I also must offer thanks to Mr Dave Golding who allowed me to fulfill a long time dream of mine to hand draw my own beer via the traditional beer engine... cementing once and for all, any accusation that i am, in fact, a beer nerd.

We followed a couple of pints of the India Black Ale with the Imperial Stout, which was a particular favourite of both Dave and myself from 2010, as well as sampling the Christmas Ale and the Temptation. With the food-pairings on the special Secret Stash menu, and an abundance of fine ales in this beautiful surrounding, it was hard not to sit back and be content with one's lot in life... We weren't the only ones enjoying ourselves either. Beer lovers, families, couples and groups of mates filled the bar and restaurant, many of whom were sporting the "I found the Brewers Secret Stash" tankards that came ale-filled as part of the booking fee. We were also treated to a tour of the brewhouse and a rundown on the production process of some of the better known Red Hill beers. Sheer beerporn.

In summary, the Brewers Secret Stash really succeeded in showcasing the passion, diversity and quality from a brewery that has only been brewing since 2005, while the India Black Ale proved their adaptability to tackle new styles with their own unique flair.

All in all, a top day trip and the recent opening of the Mornington Peninsula Brewery not too far away has meant that you can really justify making the drive and spending a day down the coast, taking in some of Victoria's (if not Australia's) top beers.

With the brewhouse buzzing with the anticipation

of the impending Imperial Stout (we understand the brewers are quite excited by the progress so far), and a rumoured new Weizenbock recipe on the horizon, I can say without hesitation that it won't be too long at all before Dave and I load up the car again and make the trip south.

Thanks again must go to our official "blogtographer" Jeremy Daniell for accompanying us and taking photos of a quality beyond that which we can write. And thanks to Tiffany for driving us back.