On Friday the 29th of September I visited Dusty Miner Craft Brewery in the town of Aberglasslyn, New South Wales. This is a small brewery in a shed in the backyard of Stuart and Cath Duff.
Stuart is the brewer and has a fantastic set up and is producing wonderful beers. He has been brewing for 20 years but started the brewery in September of 2014 with the first keg of his beer being sold in March 2015. He picked up his first award in September of that year, being a Silver Medal from the Sydney Royal Beer Show. He followed that in 2016 with an AIBA award. He recently picked up three more; a Silver Medal for his Saison Du Dusty and two Bronze Medals, one for his Choc-Orange Porter and one for his Three Daughters Red Ale. These are great achievements for a one man brewery that is only a part time operation as Stuart still works in the mining industry.
The brewery is very much hands on. He has a bottling machine but this only fills two bottles at a time and requires him to put in the bottles and caps and then remove the full bottles and label them by hand. Quite time consuming and a real labour of love for great quality beer. However, he can bottle 140 bottles in an hour.
The beers that I sampled were:
Shaftman Pale Ale, 4.2% abv, this is a golden colour with a fruity aroma. It has a sweet fruity taste and then a gentle bitterness on the finish.
Stook IPA, 7.0% abv, this has a golden colour and a strong citrus fruit aroma. It has a sweet fruit flavour and then a lovely resinous hop bitter finish.
Blacbones Dark Ale, 5.0% abv, this beer was named for the Maitland Rugby Club whose old boys are known as the Old Bones. The beer has a black colour and a malt aroma. It has a roasted malt flavour with hints of chocolate and coffee.
Three Daughters Red Ale, 5.6% abv, this one was named for Stuart and Cath’s three red haired daughters. It is a dark amber colour with malty aroma. It has a great full malt flavour of caramel and toffee, from the New Zealand malt used, and then a gentle hop bitter finish.
Saison Du Dusty, 5.7% abv, this farmhouse style beer has a light amber colour and a subtle spicy aroma. It has a great spicy Saison flavour that is very true to the style.
Choc-Orange Porter, 7.0% abv, a black coloured beer with a creamy head and a subtle chocolate and sweet orange citrus aroma. It has a wonderful malty chocolate flavour with a gentle orange taste. Very nice!
Bitter, Black and Twisted, 6.3% abv, this beer was made for the Bitter and Twisted Beer Festival. It has a black colour and a fruity citrus aroma. It has been aged with medium roasted French oak chips that were soaked in Bourbon. This process gives the beer a great sweet vanilla and chocolate flavour and then a nice rich bitter finish. A wonderful beer!
I was really impressed with the beers being made by Stuart at his Dusty Miner Craft Brewery. For such a small operation the range of truly fantastic beers being produced is quite incredible. I would like to strongly thank Stuart and Cath for the hospitality they extended to us on our visit, I could have stayed and talked with them in the brewery shed for hours. It was a most enjoyable and memorable experience.
Keep an eye out for their beers I strongly recommend trying them! 
