On Monday the 4th of December I visited The Lady Burra Brewhouse in the Adelaide CBD, South Australia. The brewery has been operating for two and a half years. It is the only microbrewery in the central Adelaide area.
The Brewhouse has a good size bar area with room inside and out and also houses a restaurant. The food menu is Portuguese influenced and has evening specials most days. The bar serves a good range of wines and spirits, as well as their beers, and tries to keep them as local as possible. They have an extensive cocktail menu with a couple that are brewing oriented either being brewed or using hops in the recipe.
The brewing is taken care of by James Collis, who has previously been with Barossa Brewery, Little Creatures and White Rabbit. He uses a two vessel brew system with three fermentation tanks giving a total fermenting capacity of 3350 litres, ( this is to increase soon with the arrival of another tank). At present most of the beers are sold in the bar. They make a core selection of four beers and always have two more taps that have seasonal or special brews. They are also regularly brewing a rice lager for a local Japanese restaurant.
The name of the brewhouse comes from a local South Australian character that was born in Burra but ended up in Ballarat, some where along the way she became attached to an American brewer.
The beers that I sampled were:
1. Pilsner, 4.7% abv, 25 IBU, this has a golden colour and a malt and subtle floral hop aroma. It has a nice sweet initial flavour of malt and a gentle bitterness on a crisp, clean finish. This won a Bronze Medal at the 2016 Royal Adelaide Beer and Cider Awards.
2. Pale Ale, 5.2% abv, 40 IBU, this has a golden colour and a sweet tropical fruit aroma. It has a nice well balanced flavour of malt and fruitiness on a good bitter finish. This won a Bronze Medal at the 2017 Australian Craft Beer Awards.
3. Irish Red Ale, 4.9% abv, 18 IBU, this has an amber colour and a creamy head with a subtle biscuit malt aroma. It has a nice smooth mouth feel and a sweet biscuity, caramel and toffee malt flavour. This won a Silver Medal at the 2016 Royal Adelaide Beer and Cider Awards.
4. IPA, 6.5% abv, 60 IBU, this has a golden colour and a citrus hop aroma. It has a juicy citrus and tropical fruit flavour on a good bitter finish. Easy drinking. This won a Bronze Medal at the 2016 Royal Adelaide Beer and Cider Awards and a Silver Medal at the 2017 Australian Craft Beer Awards.
5. Berliner Weisse, 3.5% abv, this has a hazy straw appearance and a subtle apple fruit aroma. It has a gentle fruity flavour on a slightly tart sour finish. Refreshing.
6. Golden Ale, 4.0% abv, this has a golden colour and a subtle sweet fruity aroma. It has a sweet malt initial taste and then a slight fruitiness before a strong bitterness on the finish.
The beers at The Lady Burra Brewhouse were all enjoyable and the venue is great. Definitely worth checking out if you’re in the Adelaide CBD.
I would like to thank Tom and James for their hospitality when I visited.
