Despite this, there is still a growing micro-brewing/brewpub/craft ale industry - even in the heart of McLaren Vale there are a few small breweries:
- The Vale (http://www.mvbeer.com/)
- Goodieson (http://goodiesonbrewery.com.au/)
- Ekhidna (https://ekhidnawines.com.au/ekhidna-mclaren-vale-beer/)
- Swell (http://www.swellbeer.com.au/)
The more remote breweries are the more interesting to me. We really enjoyed going to Myponga, aka the Smiling Samoyed Brewery. It's a tiny village in the Fleurieu Peninsula with a population of only 500. The brewery only opens Friday/Saturday/Sunday but they seem to come from miles around to enjoy the country ambience:
This is the reason for the brewery's name:
and here's their beers:
Our favourite, however, remains the Lobethal Bierhaus (http://www.bierhaus.com.au/). Lobethal is up in the Adelaide Hills and is a little bigger than Myponga, but still has a population of less than 2,000 and again only opens at weekends - but what business it does then. It doesn't need to open the other 4 days.
Incidentally, Lobethal is one of the few places that is willing to supply and re-fill growlers. Apparently you have to have a separate licence/H&S clearance to do this and many don't bother.
A disappointing trip for us, however was to Port Adelaide, near to where we are staying in Semaphore. We'd been to the Port Dock Brewery Hotel (http://www.portdockbreweryhotel.com.au/) on a previous trip Down Under and it had disappointed then, but we decided to give it a second chance as knew it had had some refurbishment since then. The interior layout had changed but it was still fairly gloomy inside and most of their own beers were off when we visited. A quick look at the fairly untidy brewery didn't give us a good impression and even when we spoke to the owner, she herself complained about her son (who apparently does the brewing and heavy work) not having done what he promised. Not recommended at this stage.
More to come we hope!
This is the reason for the brewery's name:
and here's their beers:
Our favourite, however, remains the Lobethal Bierhaus (http://www.bierhaus.com.au/). Lobethal is up in the Adelaide Hills and is a little bigger than Myponga, but still has a population of less than 2,000 and again only opens at weekends - but what business it does then. It doesn't need to open the other 4 days.
Incidentally, Lobethal is one of the few places that is willing to supply and re-fill growlers. Apparently you have to have a separate licence/H&S clearance to do this and many don't bother.
A disappointing trip for us, however was to Port Adelaide, near to where we are staying in Semaphore. We'd been to the Port Dock Brewery Hotel (http://www.portdockbreweryhotel.com.au/) on a previous trip Down Under and it had disappointed then, but we decided to give it a second chance as knew it had had some refurbishment since then. The interior layout had changed but it was still fairly gloomy inside and most of their own beers were off when we visited. A quick look at the fairly untidy brewery didn't give us a good impression and even when we spoke to the owner, she herself complained about her son (who apparently does the brewing and heavy work) not having done what he promised. Not recommended at this stage.
More to come we hope!
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