Sampled a few beers in Byron Bay.
First off was my second attempt at drinking the Stone and Wood Draught Ale. My first crack at it was on a trip to Brisbane and i did finish the pint but it was hard work.
Second crack at it was worse, i had a mouthful and left it. Tastes like there is a randall full of freshly mown grass between the kegs and the tap.
Later in the trip someone handed me a pint of Byron Bay Premium Ale. It was not too bad, quite plain and relatively clean tasting but seemed like more of a lager to me. It was good enough for a few of us to track down the brewery the next day and I had a chat with one of the brewers who happened to be ex-Adelaide.
I tried the dark lager (reminded me a bit of my dunkel) which the brewer told me was a darker bock lower in alcohol. Whatever style is may have been it was very good. Followed that up with the australian pale ale which was cloudy (coopers have a lot to answer for) and had a nice balance between malt and galaxy hops. I enjoyed it.
Tomorrow is going to be a huge beer day, the annual xmas case swap organised on AHB. My contribution for the case swap is my rye 'golden' ale with all homegrown chinook hops. Also taking a keg of the same beer except i used homegrown cascade. Will be serving it through my handpump although a few other brewers are bring kegs to serve through it as well so it will likely to rotated regularly.
