On Friday the 24th of November I visited Mr Banks Brewery in Seaford, Victoria. This brewery started in May of 2016. Initially they were just brewing as a wholesale venue, but demand was such that in December 2016 they opened their cellar door/ tasting room. This has quickly been outgrown and they have plans for a bigger bar in the rear of their venue, ( when the council gets their act together and grants permission). The new bar will have twelve taps with at least ten of them carrying Mr Banks beers, the remaining two will pour as guest taps.
The brewery consists of a 15 hectolitre brewhouse with six fermentation tanks, three are 1200 litre, two are 3600 litre and one is 2400 litre.
They started off brewing in recycled dairy equipment but this proved to be too labour intensive so they upgraded in August with purpose built brewing equipment. This has improved the consistency of their beers and is a much easier process.
They are presently using a two head manual canning line that is capable of handling eighteen cases of beer an hour at top speed with two people working it. This is an area that may also be upgraded in the future.
The brewery was named after Chris the owner’s dog, who is called Banks.
Their beers are available in between 100 to 150 venues, pubs and bottle shops, between the Mornington Peninsula and Melbourne.
The beers that I sampled were:
1. Pale Ale, 4.7% abv, this has a golden colour and a fruity citrus aroma. It has a sweet fruity taste and then a gentle bitterness.
2. Red Ale, 5.6% abv, this has an amber colour and a sweet malt and fruit aroma. It has a great well balanced initial taste of sweet malt before a fruity mild bitter finish.
3. Hop Punk, 4.9% abv, this has a golden colour and a tropical fruit aroma. It has a smooth, sweet tropical flavour and a gentle bitterness on a crisp dry finish.
4. Wheeze the Juice, 6.1% abv, this is a New England IPA with a hazy golden colour and sweet fruity aroma. It has a wonderful sweet juicy flavour of citrus and tropical fruits and then a nice mild resinous bitterness on the finish.
Mr Banks is a great little brewery that is producing some delicious beers. They are still in their infancy as brewing goes and as they mature they should only get bigger and better. Definitely worth trying!
I would like to thank Chris for his hospitality when I visited.
