On Saturday 18th of November I visited Devils Brewery Cellar Door in Margate, Tasmania. This cellar door is located in the Margate Train, meaning that it is in a railway carriage in a restored 1960’s steam train that is a tourist attraction with shops and restaurants in other carriages. They have been operating from here for one year.
Devils Brewery are in their third year of operation. They are gypsy brewers, using Morrison’s Brewery in Launceston to do their brewing. However, they do make their cider closer to their cellar door. They pride themselves with making Tasmanian beers using Tasmanian hops and smoking their grain locally and using local coffee. Their beers are vegan friendly and their cider is sulphide free. Where possible they have adopted the philosophy of recycle, reuse and repurpose, even to the point of repurposing old fire extinguishers as beer taps.
The beers that I sampled were:
1. Pilz Enigma, 4.2% abv, 27 IBU, this is a straw coloured Pilsner with a subtle fruity aroma. It has a sweet malty flavour and then a nice gentle, fruity bitter finish.
2. Not Another F#&%!! Pale Ale, 5.0% abv, 38 IBU, this American style pale ale has a golden colour and a sweet tropical fruit aroma. It has a lovely sweet tropical fruit flavour with a generous, lingering hop bitter finish.
3. Kiss Me Hardy, 6.8% abv, 50 IBU, this is an English style IPA with a golden colour and a sweet caramel malt aroma. It has a strong malt initial taste of caramel and then flows into a nice bitterness.
4. Smokey Moll, 5.8% abv, 32 IBU, this has a dark brown colour and a sweet, smoky, roasted coffee malt aroma. It has a strong smoked malt flavour with tastes of smoked meat and coffee and then a fruity bitterness.
5. Midnight Expresso, 5.0% abv, this has a dark brown colour and a strong roasted coffee aroma. It has a wonderful espresso coffee flavour and then a good bitterness on the finish.
6. Cloudy Apple Cider, 5.5% abv, this has a cloudy appearance and a sweet apple aroma. It has a nice sweet apple taste with a slightly tart finish.
The Devils Brewery are making some delicious beers and have a very interesting and unusual cellar door. They are definitely worth visiting.
I would like to thank Dave for his hospitality when I visited.
