On Monday the 16th of October I visited the Lord Nelson Brewery in Sydney, New South Wales. This brewery is housed in the Lord Nelson Hotel that has been serving beer for the last 176 years, having opened in 1841. The brewery side of the operation started 31 years ago when Blair Hayden bought the pub. Prior to this it was a wharfies pub. When Blair took over he renovated the place by putting in a restaurant and most importantly the brewery. He started brewing British style, sessionable ales with a core range of four beers. The operation has grown quite a bit in the last thirty years, however, he is still specialising in the same style beers and now the core range has grown to six beers with a few seasonal ones thrown in.
The head brewer has been with them for ten years and comes from a strong brewing background as his father was one of the pioneers of the Australian home brewing industry. The beers consumed at The Lord Nelson are all produced on site using their 6.5 hectolitre brewhouse and putting through three or four batches a week. The packaged beers are produced off site for distribution nationally. All of the beers use only 100% natural ingredients and no added sugars or preservatives.
The beers that I sampled were:
Quayle Ale, Summer Ale, 4.2% abv, this has a straw colour and a subtle citrus aroma. It has a gentle malt flavour on a clean, crisp, dry finish.
Trafalgar Pale Ale, 4.2% abv, this is an English Bitter style with a straw colour and a malt aroma. It has a biscuit malt flavour with a long, dry finish.
3 Sheets, 4.9% abv, this is an Australian Pale Ale with a golden colour and a subtle citrus and floral aroma. It has a nicely balanced sweet malt and gentle fruit flavour on a slightly bitter, dry finish.
Victory Bitter, 5.0% abv, this is a British Pale Ale with a amber colour and a sweet bubblegum aroma. It has a rich malt flavour of caramel and toffee on a gentle bitter finish.
111, British IPA, 5.4% abv, this has a cloudy amber colour and a sweet hop aroma. It has a lovely sweet caramel malt flavour on a good, lingering bitterness on the finish.
Old Admiral, 6.1% abv, this is a dark Ale with a dark amber brown colour and a strong caramel and toffee malt aroma. It has a wonderful complex rich malt flavour with strong tastes of caramel and toffee. Excellent!
Nelson’s Blood, 5.0% abv, this is a Porter with a dark brown colour and a creamy head. It has a subtle aroma of roasted malt and a great malt flavour with hints of chocolate and coffee on a smooth finish.
The beers at The Lord Nelson are all quite delicious and very easy drinking. This is a brewery with a fantastic history and it is still maintaining a great standard of producing British style, sessionable ales as it has done for the last thirty years. Really something special and well worth visiting.
I would like to thank Kieran and Martine for taking the time to talk with me and for their hospitality when I visited.
