Well Pakenham for those of you who actually know Melbourne, which is an outer suburb, about an hour's drive from the CBD of Downtown of Melbourne - Yes Melbourne's suburbs stretch on for that long. And shen you have endless KM of suburbs you have plenty of Craft Beer Breweries to find - the interest tells me there may be about 80 breweries in Metro Melbourne - that seems possible and I think I've been to maybe 30 or so of them. But this was a new one.
We were in the area for other reasons but it was a lovely sunny winter's Saturday afternoon so it seemed logical that we should pop into and try a few beers.
It is located in a modern industrial park in a high roofed cement walled space which I'm sure is designed for warehouses not brewing craft beer, but it gives you the space you need and with a good collection of businesses around a strong after work drinks crew I suspect. But as mentioned this was a Saturday afternoon so it was just ourselves and a few other tables of families with kids enjoying some time in the sun, although I did note that every table was reserved for that night so I think they are doing okay.
But enough of my musings on life in the outer suburbs and onto the beer. We had two rounds, which means that's as we share I could taste 4 beers and still be able to drive back up into the hills where we were staying.
After a long chat to one of the owners we understood the structure of the menu - a pretty standr mix of 4 or so core range, a couple of seasonals and then the ability to get wine, cider and alike. As I'm a bit of a beer snob I immediately went for the seasonal releases and I'm glad I did.
First up was Red Ale called seeing Red which was perfectly balanced, with a next malty backbone, I don't feel like enough people do red ales, they are all so busy pushing out those Hazy IPAs everyone loves.
Of course Smiley has one of those too, and I have to say it was sensational, the best beer we tried (so good there is a four pack sitting in my fridge right now). Hazy IPAs always benefit from being fresh and this one was, it was so zesty and light and so drinkable, it was a real pleasure.
As you can see we were sitting outside in the car park, but this is Melbourne in Winter so it might be sunny but it's still cold so it was time to head inside, get some food (a Japanese hotdog from a food van parked inside the brewery - I'm told the foodtruck rotate from week to week) check out the stainless steel brewery, which was a reasonable size suggesting they are doing good volume and sit in the sun near the window for round two
Round two consisted of a West Coast IPA and a Oat Stout, which is looking more like a Amber ale with the sun behind it.
These two beers were both from the core range and you could tell, they we both solid and pretty impressive but they were more standard in their ambition. Having said that they perfectly fit the bill for a afternoon of sitting in the patch of sun near the window and watching the football on the big screen (North Melbourne, my team had a close loss to Hawthorn unfortunately).
And this is what these breweries should be, part of the community, a place to shot the shit with your workmates after work, a place to hold your 21st birthday party on a Saturday night, and a place were two inner city blow ins can sit a drink on a Saturday afternoon, eat some hipster food and watch the footy - It just makes you smile.
