On the 11th June I visited the Macalister Brewing Co. in Cairns. It is a relatively new brewery, having been open for about a month, but they are already quite popular with the locals that know about them. I tried the four beers that they had available but wish I had come a few days earlier as they had just finished two other varieties.
The beers that I sampled were:
Cairns Pale, 4.5% abv, this Australian style Pale Ale is straw coloured and has a subtle fruit aroma. It has a very approachable taste with gentle hints of tropical fruit. Very easy drinking.
Latitude 27, 4.5% abv, this is a tropical blonde style beer that is straw coloured and has a very sweet fruity aroma. It has a lovely light fruity taste with a gentle hop bitterness and a crisp finish. Refreshingly good.
Foxtail, 5.3% abv, this is an American style Pale Ale that is amber in colour and has a subtle sweet malt aroma. It has a great malt initial taste and then transitions to a good hop bitter finish.
Valentina, 5.0% abv, this is a red Ale that is dark amber in colour and has a malty aroma with hints of coffee. This is a wonderful malt driven Ale with a great malty flavour that has background hints of caramel and vanilla. Delicious!!
The beers that I sampled were delicious from such a young brewery. I will return in a couple of weeks to try their smoked porter which should be ready by then, it is one that they recently ran out of and I look forward to drinking it with the view over the cane fields. A top spot for drinking top beers!
I returned to the wonderful Macalister Brewery in Cairns on June 29th. When I was here last, Rob, the owner/ brewer, was disappointed that I had missed out on trying their smoked porter ( so was I ), so I came back.
Bushwacked, 5.0% abv, Smoked Porter, this is a bla
ck beer with a smokey, roasted coffee aroma. It has a great, smooth, malty taste with lovely subtle flavours of smoke, dark chocolate and coffee on a lasting finish. I can see why this beer is popular with the regulars, it was well worth coming back to try. Excellent!!
They have some other styles coming out soon that also sound delicious. If you are in Cairns this should be a venue to check regularly for great beers.