Beer, Beer And More Beer

We have discovered a lovely lovely place to have lunch.  It's called the Boston Brewery which is part of the Willoughby Winery a couple of minutes out of Denmark.  It's very pretty, relaxing and a great place for families.  Steve and I have the occasional lunch there with a glass of wine for me (Jamie & Charlie SBS - tis good) while Steve has a glass of one of their designer beers.  Paul and his friends discovered that you can order a tasting of their range of beers and Steve has been looking forward to trying this ever since he heard about it.

Enter Steve's good friend and prior work colleague Tony, another connoisseur of the amber brew.  We have had the pleasure of  Tony's company this week and the boys have had a good time trying (alas unsuccessfully) to catch the elusive salmon, and enjoying each others company with their other friend, beer.  The perfect person to take to the brewery!

 

Even though it was an overcast, drizzly day, the outlook at the brewery is really nice.  There is a huge playground outside for kids, and lots of tables scattered around the place so you don't feel on top of other people.  The staff are very nice too.

But enough of that, let's talk about the IMPORTANT point of the outing.  Look at them, like excited children with a new toy.  This is the tasting range of the brewery, five beers and a ginger beer.

The tasting comes with blurb about each beer, the flavours contained within each and the recommended order you drink them.

Amid the warm, grainy aroma of hops cooking, we ordered our lunch.  This is part of Steve's steak sandwich, which is very nice and they do ripper chips.  Tony and I ordered the fish of the day (which was gold banded snapper), which was okay, but other meals I've had there are much nicer.  They do a fantastic tasting plate for two.

As you can see, the boys managed to force their beers down.  They were playing at beer experts and I was their scribe....
Ginger Beer
Tony - I think I had more alcohol in my urine this morning (are we scraping the bottom of the barrel with our house guests do you think?).  A palate cleansing cordial.
Steve - I didn't think I liked ginger beer but have been converted.  Might try and do a home brew

Lager
Tony is sulking because his glass had about 20 mLs less beer in it than Steves.  However he says it is like a crisp autumn morning..
Steve - It doesn't have a lot of bubbles but I like the taste.

Hefeweizen (Wheat Beer) - which says in the blurb that it tastes like banana
Tony - Bananary, and I can taste it more because I have more taste buds (the reason for which escapes me)
Steve - Actually it is a bit bananary (ever the sceptic).  Quite interesting.

IPA (India Pale Ale)
Tony - It smacks of desperation.  It is trying too hard to be.... (I asked him to repeat and he had already forgotten what he said....the brain cells were dying at this point)
Steve - Not my favourite.  Too bitter for a light bodied beer.
So we have one sensible sounding person and one who is going downhill fast....

Boston Dunkelweizen (Dark Wheat Beer)
Tony - Unremarkabable (sic)
Steve - It's nice, sweet and rich.  Better than the other wheat beer.

Munich Dark Lager
Steve - Beautiful.  A lighter tasting version of Guiness.  My favourite.
Tony, who has descended into a beer quaffing wanker :-) ....
"It's good.  Like being allowed to lick the cake mixing bowl, the joy and delight that comes from the initial taste of the Munich dark lager stays with you long after the mouthful has worked its way warmly into your stomach.  Further sips (sips!!) allow the drinker to slip into a deeper appreciation of the sheer amount of work the master brewer has put into creating such a lovely drink.  One not soon forgotten".

As the boys loved their Munich dark lager so much, they of course had to have more.  Tony couldn't even wait until the photo was taken.... and to think we invited this person to stay, sigh.... :-)

Tony, I think this need to be your Facebook profile photo.  You, complete with Munich dark lager frothy mouth.

Next was dessert.  Oh My God dessert.  We can heartily recommend every dessert we have tried here.  In the foreground is my coconut panacotta with berries and vanilla syrup - the BEST dessert I have had in years!  In the middle is the frozen berry yogurt with fresh berries - delicious and a huge helping.  Tony chose the chocolate mousse with fresh berries which was also yummy. 

At this point, and you may think it unnecessary for me to mention this, but I must!  I visited the loos.  Nice, clean male and female loos with a communal handwashing area.  I went to wash my hands but wait, no taps to turn on the water, no mixer to lift with your arm, what to do!  Just a row of tap arms sticking out of a big square thing.  I tentatively put my hands up to the arms and woah, water just came out like magic!  As you can tell, I have never before seen a sensor controlled tap that just spits out water when you put your hand underneath, very impressive.

 And here are the lads waiting to be driven home.  Steve is holding a two pack of Jamie and Charlie SBS that Tony bought me as a present.  Thank you! :-) All previous insults are now rescinded....

And when we arrived home we were greeted with the sight of fascinated kangaroos flocking around Tony's drying clothes hanging off his car.  And we wont mention why those clothes needed to be dried, we wont mention about people who can't keep their footing in the ocean, and I don't even think there was any alcohol involved.  But we wont mention it...