First Impressions: Brisbane Brewing Co. @ West End

Brisbane's newest beer and food venue also has one of the oldest brewing setups, having moved around a few times in it's life it now rests in what is hopefully it's final home down an inconspicuous lane way in West End.

As you walk down boundary street you will no doubt turn your head as a large, intricate metal fence catches your eye. Doubling as the brewery sign, the words Brisbane Brewing Co have been masterfully metal worked and with the longer than normal entrance create intrigue as you make your way in.

I watched as many people stopped and had to double take before continuing past making sure they weren't missing something special. For those that kept going, they are actually missing something pretty special and quite unique as far as brew pubs go!

Heading into the main bar area I made my way past the kitchen, with chefs were preparing food and the cold cuts, and brisket sitting in the window creating a conundrum of "do I order food or beer first?"

I persevered, I had to, the thirst had been building for a few days and after hearing about the opening of this new venue and how well it had been received I just had to check it out!

Starting out with a Brisbane Pale Ale (BPA, catchy huh?) I sniffed, greeted by a hint of galaxy hops, then I drank and enjoyed a smooth but not overly bitter finish making for a very quaff-able pale ale.

As I enjoyed my beer I thought to myself, this beer has been around for awhile now at Brewhouse Brisbane, why haven't had I had it? The truth is I find Wollongabba to be a lackluster area to visit for craft beer but West End whilst not perfect is far more interesting with several decent venues within walking distance of each other.

There is about 10 taps with a range of house beers from a honey infused wheat beer to an IPA, with a cider and a couple of guest taps filling out the spots.

The bottle range contains over 60  different beers with a lot of old favourites and recent releases being featured like beer from the excellent Aussie micro brewery, La Sirene and even Garage Project's recently released Hop Trial #2. They also have some interesting sounding cocktails and wine if beer isn't your thing!                                

The food menu is just huge! two a3 pages of foodaliciousness, (patent pending..) with starters like corn bread as well as share plates of meats and cheese, hoagies and sliders. 

The standout part of the menu (for me) is the ability to to choose a meat option and then simply add sides to it like chips or feta and watermelon salad and create a main or your own share platter and everything is decently priced ranging from under $10 for corn bread to $36 for some of the platters. 

On my visit I shared the brew platter which was pretty impressive, with warm brisket and pulled pork taking centre stage along with potato and bacon salad, house made pickles, cheddar cheese, beer infused seeded mustard and tomato relish as well as corn and rye breads. All of which matched quite well with a pint of the house brewed Walker IPA.

Beers come in pots, pints and jugs and are competitively price with most pints being $10 or under which is good value and if you aren't sure what to drink there is also tasting paddles available if you want to try a few different beers.

I finished the evening with a pint of a guest beer from Cavalier, their  Russian Imperial stout which isn't really a summery beer but went down a treat as it had rained all day so it felt like stout weather anyway!

It's really great to see this type of brew bar setup in West End and hopefully it has a long future because so far it is fitting in brilliantly with the other local bars and should be help ensure the area is buzzing BrewsVegas in March.

Bacchus Brewing Co opening weekend! @ Capalaba

You could nearly say that 2014 has been the "Year of the Bacchus" with the continued growth of arguably one of Brisbane's most popular breweries.

After brewing a total of no less than 50 unique beers for Brewsvegas and winning Gold at the Australian International Beer Awards for it's Sex, Drugs & Rocky Road it's finally time for their Brewery Bar to open it's doors.

The bar and tables use reclaimed bowling lanes as well as pins for lamps. As you sit and enjoy your tipple it is very clear you are in a living brewery with barrels of ageing beer and brewery equipment being the background for the venue.

There is 15 taps (14 beer) consisting of barrel aged, cask, smooth pour and regular pour with beers ranging from mid strength English style bitters to IPA's and unique beers like Sex, Drugs & Rocky Road.


Bacchus have been known to produce some really high alcohol beers and some crazy (and awesome!) flavoured ones, currently the taps are fairly tame but with 15 there is plenty of room to rotate as people become more comfortable with the beers and seasons change.

It also seems that some of the more interesting beers will be getting bottled for takeaway and on-site consumption which is very cool.


You only need to look at my Instagram for a few seconds to know I'm obsessed with IPA's and the two currently on tap at Bacchus don't disappoint.

Pug IPA emulates the fruity deliciousness of gateway IPA's like Brewdog's - Punk IPA also offering a Black IPA named "Obama" with expected smokey, fruity and hoppy goodness.

I also tried Lamington Dark Ale which I had at Eaton's Hill Beerfest earlier in the year and it continues to be an impressively tasty beer.

Leaving my Sex, Drugs & Rocky Road taster until last was a smart move as it is super delicious and oddly session-able which is scary at 8.2% abv.

For non-beer drinkers there is Alchemy Cordials available with a do it yourself soda water and cordial setup costing only a gold coin with all money going to Alzheimer's Australia.

The pricing is very reasonable with a 5 beer Tasting Paddle costing $15 and 3 standard beer sizes ranging from $5 - 10 depending on the size.

Empty Growlers are $10 and fills range from $18-$30, they also sell 2 styles of Belgian beer glasses for $10 each.

It is a bit of a trek out to Capalaba from the North Side of Brisbane but well worth it and I suspect I will be doing regular visits for growler fills once the taps start rotating. If you are a local or can plan to make a visit you won't be disappointed with something for almost everyone.

The future of craft beer in Brisbane is an ever growing and bright one for sure!

At the time the excellent food truck The Bun Mobile was there as well so check out my post about that too!

[Edit] Bacchus now do a range of tasty and delicious Pizza's so if you needed another excuse to check it out there is one!

Sunshine Coast Brewery

I've been drinking local and international craft beer for around 10 years now, so it seems fitting that I return to my home town and the first brewery I ever purchased beer from!

I was in my early 20's when I last visited The Sunshine Coast Brewery and back then I purchased a carton of chilli beer which in my youth I thought was a good idea. I can say now that I'm older and wiser that attempting to drink a carton of chilli beer was an unwise decision.

Returning to the brewery with a more mature palette has been a blessing as I got to enjoy a tasting paddle which included their Hef, Dark (middy), Bitter Ale, Pilsner and Summer Ale. After this I was offered an extra taste in the form of a German style smoked beer called Rauch Bier which was quite nice but really is something you have a small amount of.

The tasting platter was excellent and let me know what was on offer and despite having a busy period over Easter which cleaned out a lot of their stock there was still a good selection. The standout beer for me was their Rye ESB (Extra Special Bitter) which is a fantastic hoppy explosion with a nice punch of rye. It reminds me a lot of the IPA style which is so popular right now and worth visiting the brewery for on it's own.

The only beer I didn't get to try that I was hanging out for was their Porter but I am sure I can order some when they have it bottled again or use it as an excuse for another visit!

The staff were very knowledgeable and seemed genuinely interested in listening to of their customers feedback and exchange beer related stories.

They were also nice enough to see if the Rye ESB was anywhere near being bottled again and whilst I couldn't get any during my visit the young man serving me went out of his way to give me a bevy of options to ensure I could order some if I wanted to, this type of service is fantastic and definitely only comes with passionate staff who care about the beer and their customers.

Whilst the main attraction is clearly the beers the food that is on offer is also very good with pub style mains and nothing costing over $17. They even do take-away!

I went with the chicken parm which was delicious and my party had another parm and a couple had beef burgers. We were all satisfied with our meal both in flavour and portion size and all agreed that the chips were the standout as they were crunchy and moreish! 

Overall a good experience and worth dropping in for lunch and a beer or five if you live on the coast or are visiting for any reason! 

International Hotel - Hipwood Brewery Launch

As Brewsvegas was coming to an end I realised I had been rather absent from the festivities. I made plans with a couple of mates to head to the International Hotel's Hipwood brewery launch so that I could at least have attended an event over Brewsvegas and to check out what was in store with the re-launch of the hotels internal Brewery.

I have visited International Hotel a few times for lunch and some very cheap ($5.50/pint) and half decent craft beer and do enjoy the local pub atmosphere on occasion so it made sense to head there for a few brews after work on Friday and see what the Hipwood re-brand was all about!

Hopping on the Spring Hill loop meant we were at the hotel in no time, greeted by a pretty decent looking turn out of locals and beer lovers we found a spare table and settled in.

Hefe+Pretzel = Heftzel?

I started off by ordering a pint of the Hills Hefe which flavourful and true to the Hefeweizen style pairing off well with the free pretzel we were offered to snack on, however it seems the price of beers have gone up with the launch to around $8/pint which is still cheap compared to other places but not nearly as much as it used to be!

As the launch started to ramp up we were offered more free (and delicious!) food with mini pork sliders, mini hot dogs and beer nuts which were all quite delicious.

I headed back to the bar and ordered a couple of tasting paddles(for me and a friend) to get a better idea of the rest of their beers. It was a pretty impressive looking paddle and decently priced at $12 with a taste of the 5 beers on offer.

The beers were Hills Hefe, Jimmy's Pils, Midnight Porter, Poley Oley (Pale Ale) and Red Eye (Red Ale).

My favourite was the Pale Ale and although I find the name a bit odd I didn't find the beer anything but delicious with a real big citrus punch and good hop flavour, by far the stand out here and worth having a session of.

After finishing off my paddle of beers I ordered a meal in the form of "Bacon and Eggs Pork Belly" which was an interesting combo of pork belly, mashed potato, saurkraut style red cabbage and 2 fried eggs.

It was rather tasty and had definite German food influences which match the Hipwood beers really well however I would have liked the belly to be rendered a bit more, it had some crunch but was missing that "crackling" feeling you expect.

I really like what International Hotel is trying to do with changing their "local" hotel image into a good time, good food gastro pub with in house craft beer.

I think it is ambitious but also very doable if they keep working at the beers and the food and promoting themselves. I absolutely wish them all the best in this and will no doubt visit again sometime in the near future.