The Bar - Beer, Wine & Spirits.

[Virus__]

So this topic hasn't seen some love for a long time. But whatever. This is a long post, so sorry not sorry.

 

Last weekend I got to go on a tour of the first brewery dedicated to barrel ageing beers in Queensland, Australia. Called AWOL a new venture created by Black Hops Brewing also situated in Queensland, Australia. It's not the first brewery of it's kind in Australia, but it is the first time a brewery in Queensland has taken the leap to dedicate a whole brand to just barrel aged beer, with venue, branding etc.

 

 

This has been in the works for well over 18 months, pretty awesome how it all started when a random keg of Black Hops' Lay Day Lager got infected by some unclean lines at a venue somewhere on the Gold Coast, they swapped it out after the lines were professionally cleaned & took the keg back, tapped it as they were keen to see what the beer tasted like, the 3 owners (one being their head brewer) liked what they had & decided to put it on tap at their taproom, and aptly named it AWOL after the military term (absent without leave), before the keg was drained completely they harvested what was left in hopes they could culture it & turn out some more wild sours. Which then saw AWOL #2 & AWOL #3 (my personal favourite).

 

The tour started with a glass of their signature beer for the brand called Haven Sour, a hibiscus & cherry sour named Haven Sour, after the street the brewery is on (Hibiscus Haven in Burleigh Heads, QLD). It's vibrant bright red crisp clear look makes it look like you've been presented with a glass of rose, packed full of sour cherries on a blonde ale base & then aged for a number of months in red wine French oak foeders. It's a subtle, but flavoursome sour. One just about anyone could enjoy.

 

 

After that we got taken in to barrel room #1, where there was a good 50 or so barrels. A variety of beers were housed here, mostly what they are going to be calling their 'core range' beers of which they're aiming to have 7 of & then a bunch of limited release beers that will be one off beers or make appearances very rarely because of how long they take to mature, like a lambic which is currently in the barrels there somewhere. In this room we got to try a beer straight from a barrel, this was their Brettanomyces Saison, a Belgium style beer cultured with the brettanomyces yeast strain, then aged on French Oak Chardonnay barrels. It's going to be one hell of an awesome beer once it's done.

 

 

Next we got taken to the production side of the brewery, which is actually next door in the original Black Hops site, often referred to as HQ. Black Hops now have 3 breweries in Queensland & then they have AWOL. Here we got shown the brewhouse, which can brew 2000L at a time before it is transferred into the fermenters where it is dry hopped & then into barrels, for example like one of these 2,500L ex-shiraz foeders. One of them continuously houses their signature beer Haven Sour & the other houses whatever they feel like putting in there.

 

 

 

Next we got taken into a various number of coolrooms, one acts as dry storage for grain, hops & cans. Another was keg storage & I saw a few Black Hops beers I was keen to take with me, like the Full Nelson (Nelson Sauvin Hopped Double Hazy IPA). Then we come to barrel room #2 another cool room, which isn't an active cool room. But maintains a constant temperature all year round which appeared to be in the low 20's (that's Celsius not the other one). Here we got a treat. We got to have some of AWOL #3, that one I spoke about earlier. It's been almost 18 months since I first tried this beer, I only found out the other week there was still a keg left & they were saving it for these tours. I didn't take any pictures here sadly, I wish I had. But ah well. Instead have this photo of the mural outside the brewery in the lane way.

 

 

Then we returned back to the tap room where we were greeted with a tasting paddle (I think North Americans call them a flight) of the other 3 core range beers that were on offer along with a limited release Gose & a cheese & meat platter. Left to right we have Gose AWOL, Pink Mist - Raspberry Saison, Insurgent IPA - Brettanomyces IPA & Rebellion Stout - Whiskey Barrel Aged Stout & it was all paired with a cheese & meat platter.

Then me & my mate decided on another tasting paddle this time of the beers we hadn't had yet, along with another one of the Haven Sour just because it was that good. From left to right we have:
-Dark & Stormy: Honey ginger cider aged on ex-rum barrel from Beenleigh Rum, ABV 8%
-Haven Sour: Hibiscus & Cherry Sour Blonde Ale, aged on ex-shiraz foeders ABV 4.7%

-Flanders Red: Belgian Red Ale brewed in collaboration with Brisbane Brewing Co, aged for 18 months ABV 8%

-Barrel Aged Murder Hornet: Jet black IPA, originally brewed for Black Hops' 5th birthday, 50/50 of fresh & barrel aged blended & then dry hopped.

 

 

I had been looking forward to AWOL for a long time, since September 2019 when I found out about it was already & it was already in the works then. Well worth taking the day off work for it, as it stood up to my expectations & more. No clue how many here live on the Gold Coast in Australia & like craft beer, but check it out if you get the chance.