On July 20th I came across a wonderful venue for craft beers in Airlie Beach, Queensland, called Denmans Beer Cafe. It is situated on the Port of Airlie with lovely views over the water and boats. They have a huge range of craft beers, both Australian and International, over 300, as well as a good choice of wine and spirits.
I attended a beer and food matc
hing evening that was put on by the Australian Beer Co. who are the makers of Yenda beers.
The representative from Yenda, Sam Johnstone, gave us a brief history of the brewery and the Yenda region which grows a wide variety of crops including large amounts of barley, so it made sense to use some of the barley to produce beer.
The first beer we tried was the Yenda Golden Ale, 4.2% abv, it is a golden straw coloured ale with a subtle sweet aroma. It has a gentle, sweet malt palate and slightly fruity flavour with a mild bitterness on a crisp finish. It is very easy drinking and went well with the sticky lemon chicken skewers.
Next we tried the Yenda Crisp Lager, 4.2% abv, this is an unfiltered Lager with a hazy straw colour. It has a nice light malt taste and a crisp dry finish. It is quite refreshing and would be great for knocking back on a hot afternoon. It was well matched with crispy kataifi prawns but would go nicely with any seafood.
The next offering was the Yenda Pale Ale, 4.5% abv, it is a light-golden coloured, Australian style, pale ale with a subtle citrus aroma. It has citrus and fruity flavours with a good hop bitterness. This ale would go well with any spicy food, we enjoyed it with an aromatic spicy Thai beef salad.
We tried the Yenda Indian Pale Ale, 5.4% abv, next, this is an amber coloured ale with a strong, sweet, tropical fruit aroma. The initial taste is of sweet malt and then transitions into a lovely hop bitterness on the finish. It went very well with the sticky soy mirin pork belly, but would be a great beer to have with any fatty food.
For dessert we were treated to the Yenda Twist and Stout, 6.5% abv, a black beer with a dark brown, creamy head and a lovely aroma of dark chocolate. It has a magnificent complex, smooth flavour of malt with tastes of chocolate and vanilla. I really enjoyed this one. It went down superbly with the chocolate stout cake made with this beer.
Yenda make beer that is malt driven using locally grown barley, Australian and New Zealand grown hops and Snowy Mountain water. Their beers are not too confronting and are aimed at encouraging more people to try craft beers.
I had a wonderful evening and would really like to thank Sam from Yenda and the great staff at Denmans for putting on a very enjoyable event, with some lovely beers and some truly delicious food. It all went down well and was topped off by some great company with like minded people who love craft beers.
Denmans will be hosting another beer and food matching evening in September featuring Pirate Life beers. Unfortunately for me I will have moved on, however, if you will be in the vicinity of Airlie Beach at that time and are interested in being part of what should be a great event, contact Denmans Beer Cafe and get your name on the guest list.
