We arrived in the Tasting Room, grabbed a couple of bar stools and sat back to sample the beers rather than the wines. We ended up doing the winery range as well, but it only took a brief glance to persuade me the beers needed to be sampled, and if they’d been willing to make me up a mixed carton I’d have had one shipped home.
But, seriously, we don’t drink that much beer at home, and a full two dozen of any of the five styles on offer would be too much. They do seasonals as well, which might complicate matters, but none were on offer when we were there.
What was on offer for a modest $10 tasting fee was an interesting range of five, presented as a flight for tasting purposes so you can range back and forth for comparative purposes. You tend to start at the lighter end of the spectrum, which came in the Pilsner, a Czech style lager which was a good point to start with. In that mode, you end with the Dark Ale, an American Brown ale that was the one I’d have left out if I was making up a mixed box to send home.
In between, ranging from light to heavy, we had a Hefeweizen in the Bavarian wheat beer style, a light bodied Belgo that was pretty close to the Trappist brews I’d sampled in Sydney on the way down and a Pale Ale that was decidedly moreish.
All came in a distinctive bottle and label package, which you might think was the reason Hughesy went looking for a mixed box, but, seriously, I couldn’t make up my mind. Fortunately, when I clicked on the Store Locator link on the website it revealed Denman Cellars Beer Cafe at Airlie Beach stocks Moo Brew, so I’ll be checking them out next time we’re down that way.
With my luck, they’ll only have chilled six-packs, but if they don’t we might just end up with that mixed carton after all. In any case, the tasting fee was $10 well spent.