On April 29th, I visited the Gulf Brewery in the picturesque, tourist village of Hahndorf. It is in the main street, so it gets a huge amount of passing trade. They have a good range of beers and also ciders. The drinks that I sampled were:
She’s Apples Cider, 7.0% abv, this is a cloudy English style scrumpy made with Adelaide Hills apples. It has a strong apple aroma and a very dry taste. It is lightly carbonated but still quite Champagne like in its taste.
Pear Shaped Cider, 5.4% abv, this cloudy cider is made with 100% pear juice and has an aroma of sweet, fresh pears. It has a mild sweet pear flavour and a dry finish.
Harvest Moon Organic beer, 4.6% abv, this is a light straw coloured beer with a subtle melon aroma. It is very light bodied and has a taste of tropical fruit with hints of melon, followed by a crisp dry finish.
Kitten 9 Tails Oktoberfest, 4.3% abv, this is German style amber lager with a light amber colour and a strong malt aroma. It is very well balanced with a lovely sweet initial taste, then a good malt middle followed by a subtle bitterness on a dry finish.
Pilot’s Light, 2.7% abv, this low alcohol beer is light amber in colour with an aroma of mild malt and subtle sweet citrus hops. It has a mild malt initial palate and then hints of grapefruit on a gentle bitter, dry finish.
Dunkel Sturm, 5.0% abv, this is an amber coloured, German dark lager with a good malt aroma. It is medium bodied with a nice malty flavour with hints of caramel and nuts.
Humpback Pale Ale, 4.2% abv, this is a golden straw coloured ale with a good citrus hop aroma. It has a sweet malt taste to start and then moves into a citrus hop bitter finish that lingers.
Trade Winds American IPA, 6.0 % abv, this golden coloured ale has aromas of citrus and pine. It is well balanced with a malt start and then transitions into a big citrus hop bitterness on the finish. Full of flavour.
Sou’Wester Stout, 4.6% abv, this black beer has aromas of smoke, espresso and chocolate. It has a smoky, stout flavour with nice hints of chocolate on a complex palate of malts.
Smoke Stack Rauchbier, 5.0% abv, this light straw coloured, German style beer has strong aromas of smoke, smoked ham and bacon. It has a wonderful full palate flavour of smoked meat. It is very true to the style.
They also have a Pilsner, Fish Tale Pilsner, and a Wheat beer, Cabin Boy Half Wit, that I did not try.
The Gulf Brewery has a great range of beers with some that are quite different to the usual offerings but suit the setting of a German village, which Hahndorf is very much like.