On April 30th, I visited was the Wheatsheaf Hotel and what a magnificent venue and Brewery this is. It has everything a great party pub should have, good inside drinking/ pool bar, excellent large live music room and fantastic outside beer garden/ sea container bar area. Wonderful!!
They have a great range of international beers, Australian craft beers and of course, their own range of brewed on site beers under the label Wheaty Brewing Corps. The beers that I sampled were:
Berry Tight Saison Down Under Honey, 5.8% abv, this is a pale pink / straw coloured beer with a heap of blackberries, raspberries, vanilla and honey thrown in. It has a lovely fruity, sweet taste and then a great crisp dry finish. Unusually wonderful!
Wolperdinger Dunkel, 5.1 % abv, this is a wet hopped dark lager with an amber colour and lovely aromas of sweet malt and citrus hops. It has a great malt driven palate and a smooth Enigma hop finish. Quite delicious!
Non-corps Promise, 7.4% abv, this is a golden coloured Rye IPA with a big spicy tropical fruit aroma. It has a great malt flavour start and then transitions through citrus and tropical fruit before a huge hop bitter finish. This is full of flavour and really enjoyable.
Green Team Oz, 6.5% abv, this is an only wet hopped IPA that has only used Australian grown hops. It has a golden colour and strong sweet fruity hop aroma. It has a well balanced start of mild malt and then a really good bang of resinous, fruity hops on a nice bitter finish. Hops, hops, hops!
Wheaty-Bix, 5.3% abv, this is a breakfast stout with a black coffee colour and espresso aroma. It has a wonderful smooth full palate taste of roasted coffee and malt with hints of dark chocolate. Magnificent!!!
Wheaty-Bix, Nitro poured, 5.3% abv, this is the same wonderful stout as above, but served nitrogen infused. It has a completely different texture and taste. It has a really creamy head and a super smooth, creamy texture. Taste wise there is less of the coffee but more of the chocolate flavour. Who would have thought that the same beer could be so different and yet still so fantastic.
Benatar, 7.5% abv, raspberry sour stout. This stout has the usual black colour but has an aroma of sour raspberry. It has a great fruity sweet initial palate and then a lovely tart raspberry taste that lingers onto a quite dry finish. This is refreshingly dangerous!! Far to easy to drink at 7.5%!!
The beers that I sampled were only a few of the many that are rotated through the taps at the Wheatsheaf Hotel. They were all fantastic!
I really must thank Jade Flavell, the publican and brewer, who was very generous with her time for me. She has a great passion for craft beer and has built a fantastic facility to produce some of the best beers you could hope to taste. She has collaborated with some of the best brewers in the world and has put this knowledge into her brews.
Coming up in May between the 11th and 14th is “Good Beer Wheaty” this is a mini- beer-fest held at the Wheatsheaf Hotel that is a showcase of everything that is great about craft beer. Tap takeovers, meet the brewers, masterclasses and more. I wish I could be there but even more I wish that the Wheatsheaf was my local. What a great pub!
