On Saturday the 16th of September I visited The Bellingen Brewery and Co. in the town of Bellingen, New South Wales. This brewery celebrated its second anniversary in July this year. The brewery has a philosophy of sustainability and was constructed mainly from local timbers and salvaged material.
It shares the space with Big Fig Arts, which means that the brewery has an interesting collection of different artworks on display. They have a wonderful venue and regularly host live music. The brewery also has food available with great wood fired pizzas being prominent on the menu and the ones that I tasted were delicious.
The beers that I sampled were:
Ginger Beer, 3.5% abv, this is a cloudy, straw colour with a strong ginger aroma. It has a nice full flavour of sweet ginger with a gentle spicy finish.
Bello Pale Ale, 4.5% abv, this is a golden colour with a subtle citrus aroma. It has a wonderful, sweet malt driven flavour then a mild bitter finish. Nice!
Prize Pig Porter, 4.5% abv, this is a black coloured Porter with a creamy head and an aroma of roasted coffee malt. It has lovely smooth mouth feel and a solid malt flavour with strong coffee hints on a mild bitterness. Lovely and quite sessionable.
The brewery also had some of the New England Brewing Co. beers on tap so I gave them a try. The beers that I sampled were:
Flying Ram Lager, 4.7% abv, this is an amber coloured Lager with a smooth malty flavour on a crisp finish. Very good.
Brown Ale, 4.5% abv, this Ale has a dark amber colour and a sweet malty caramel aroma. It has a wonderful malt taste with strong hints of caramel. Excellent!
Hop Cannon, 6.4% abv, this is a black IPA with a sweet floral aroma. It has a sweet malt initial flavour and then a strong, fruity, hop bitter finish.
I enjoyed my visit to The Bellingen Brewery and Co. and would like to thank Rain and Corey for their hospitality. They have a great venue and are producing some fantastic beers. Well worth the visit.
The brewery is open Wednesday to Friday 5pm – 11pm and on Saturday and Sunday Midday to 11pm.