On Friday the 1st of December I visited The Goodieson Brewery in McLaren Vale, South Australia. This brewery was started by married couple, Jeff and Mary. They bought the property about ten years ago and spent a year building the brewery. It has now been in operation for over eight years.
Jeff has a background and wealth of experience in brewing from twelve years working in a much larger brewery, but his aim was always to run his own brewery. His philosophy is to keep the brewery family owned, use the best ingredients available, treat the beers with love and respect and very importantly to not sell a beer that he would not enjoy drinking. From his time with the big brewer Jeff was also trained in tasting of beers, judging beers and in flavour training. These are skills that he uses to make sure he is producing beers with the flavours that he desires.
The brewery has an annual capacity of six thousand cases of beer, but this is controlled by Jeff’s desire to maintain a healthy work/ life balance and to make sure that his family comes before the beer. He recently took delivery of a newer bottling line which, when operational, should be a lot more efficient than the present one. He has also recently been persuaded to start barrel ageing some of his brews, with a stout and the Christmas Ale being the first to receive this attention.
They have a core range of eight beers and a revolving selection of seasonal brews. The core beers are; Pale Ale, Pilsner, Wheat Beer, Imperial Pilsner, IPA, Brown Ale, Indian Red Ale and a Golden IPA.
Some of the seasonals include ; a dry hopped Autumn Ale ( the hops for this brew are grown on site), a raspberry wheat beer, a ginger bock, a lemon pale ale ( using fresh lemon zest), a Christmas Ale and six varieties of stout, some of which are a chocolate stout, cherry stout and a barrel aged stout.
The beers that I sampled were:
1. Pale Ale, 4.5% abv, this English style Pale Ale has a golden colour and a subtle malt aroma. It has a sweet malty taste and then a gentle bitterness.
2. Pilsner, 5.0% abv, this is a Czech style with a golden straw colour and a sweet malt aroma. It has a nice malt flavour and a clean, crisp finish.
3. Maibock, 6.5% abv, this is a spring/summer seasonal with a straw colour and a spicy fruit and floral aroma. It has a malt initial taste and then a gentle fruitiness on a crisp, clean finish.
4. Imperial Pilsner, 7.9% abv, this has a golden colour and a sweet malt aroma. It has a wonderful, big maltiness that lingers on the palate.
5. Wheat Beer, 5.2% abv, this has a golden colour and a wheaty and banana aroma. It has a great flavour of bananas and cloves. True to the style.
6. Golden IPA, 4.9% abv, this has a golden colour and a tropical fruit aroma. It has a sweet fruity flavour on a mild bitter finish.
7. Brown Ale, 6.0% abv, this is an English style Ale with a dark brown colour and a malt aroma. It has a complex malt flavour with hints of caramel, chocolate and coffee with a nice gentle bitterness.
8. Christmas Ale, 6.3% abv, this uses a Red Ale as a base, it has a dark amber colour and a spicy aroma. It has a wonderful spicy fruit flavour with hints of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.
9. Indian Red Ale, 5.5% abv, this has an amber colour and a sweet malt and fruit aroma. It has a big malty initial taste and then a generous fruity hop bitter finish.
10. Barrel Aged Christmas Ale, 7.4% abv, this has a dark amber colour and a strong spicy aroma. It has a rich, complex flavour of spice and fruit with strong hints of Shiraz, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Very nice!
The Goodieson Brewery is producing some fantastic beers and has a large selection of styles to choose from. The venue is great with a tasting room as part of the brewery and a deck area outside. This is a brewery that is definitely worth visiting.
I would like to thank Jeff for his hospitality when I visited.
