Today I visited True Brew Brewery in Bendigo. This Brewery started out as a place for people to brew their own beer six years ago and has evolved into a wonderful brewery and bar. It is a great venue to have a function or party or just enjoy a great beer.
I would like to thank Cam, (one of the two brothers who own and run the brewery), for his hospitality when I visited. I sampled some beers while there and took some away to try as well.
The beers that I sampled were:
1. Forest Lager, 4.8% abv, this is a golden coloured beer that has a mild malt backbone. It is very easy drinking and would go down well on a hot day.
2. Golden Ale, 5.0% abv, this is a golden coloured ale, as the name suggests, it has a subtle fruit hop aroma and well balanced taste with a mild hop bitterness and a crisp finish.
3. Summer Ale, 4.8% abv, this is a golden coloured pale ale with nice citrus hop aromas. It has a wonderful citrus flavour and a subtle hop bitter finish. This is a very sessionable beer.
4. Pacific Ale, 4.6% abv, this golden coloured ale is quite new to the brewery range, it has aromas of tropical fruit. The crisp taste is of sweet fruit and then a slight bitterness on a clean finish.
5. Scottish Ale, 8.2% abv, this dark brown ale has aromas of malt. It is a wonderful, strong, smooth malt driven ale with a delicious complex malt flavour. Lovely!!
6. Ginger Beer, 4.8% abv, this cloudy, gluten free ginger beer is the only one of their range that is available outside of the brewery. It has a great strong ginger aroma and a wonderful sweet ginger taste. It is very easy drinking and has proven to be very popular.
7. Bendigo Honey Ale, 4.6% abv, this is a golden coloured Ale, it has sweet, honey taste that is smooth and crisp. Quite delicious and very easy drinking.
8. Bendigo Extra Special Bitter, 5.2% abv, this amber coloured ESB has a subtle hop aroma. It has a very well balanced taste that has a good maltiness on the initial palate and then a mild hop bitterness on the finish.
9. Bendigo Slim Llama Ale, 4.8% abv, this is a golden coloured with a mild sweet hop aroma. It has well balanced taste with gentle malt flavour and a subtle hop bitter finish.
10. Pale Ale, 4.6% abv, this is a golden coloured Australian style Pale Ale that has a nice citrus hop aroma. This ale has a good malt flavour on the initial palate and then has a very slight bitterness on a crisp dry finish.
11. Belgian Tripel, 7.5% abv, this is an amber coloured beer with a very subtle malt aroma. It has an unusual malty taste with hints of nuts and caramel and then a crisp dry finish.
12. Old St Nick’s, 9.9% abv, this is a dark amber coloured ale with a mild malt aroma. It has a very mild malt flavour, that is quite unexpected in an ale of this alcohol strength, there are very subtle hints of raisins and caramel and then a clean finish.
Although the brewery has an extensive range, a lot of their beers are very similar in style and flavour, that being the easy drinking Australian Pale Ale style of beer that is very approachable and quite sessionable. If you like this style of beer then they will definitely have at least one or two to suit your palate. Personally, I really enjoyed the Scottish Ale as it has a great strong taste and was just that little bit different from the run of the mill beers. True Brew in Bendigo are worth the visit.