Wayward Brewery Opened in Sydney Inner West

Greetings from the opening of Wayward Brewery in  Sydney's inner west. While the brewery is new, beverage making is not new to the area. The brewery is housed in the old cellar of a wine merchants and the brick wine tanks have been turned into comfortable space for patrons (retaining the wax lined walls). The Leichhardt Fringe Fast Art Competition is being judged in the brewery. Jamie Parker MP for the area and Cr Darcy Byrne Mayor of Leichardt.

Goulburn Brewery

Greetings from the "Goulburn Brewery", or more properly "BRADLEY GRANGE", an historic site near Canberra. This is claimed to be Australia’s oldest surviving brewery complex, with a building claimed to be designed by colonial architect Francis Greenway. Some beer is still brewed on site. Comfortable accommodation is available in the former brewer's cottages. The Maudslay Beam Steam Engine, which operated the mill at the brewery, is now at the Power House Museum in Sydney (it would be good if this could be returned).

The book "Remembering the first time : Francis Howard Greenway at work in Australia" Michael O'Halloran, 2006), gives some history of the
Goulburn Brewery buildings and argues the case for Francis Greenway being the architect.

Boutique Brewery Opens at ANU in Canberra

The Wig and Pen (W&P) Boutique Brewery has reopened in the foyer of the Australian National University School of Music, after some controversy. The W&P had to relocate from Civic (a few hundred metres away from the new location) due to redevelopment of the site. The new locaiton is in what was the "green room" of Llewellyn Hall, where musicians prepared for their performance.

One of the distinctive doors from the old W&P has been retained at the new location, but the bar currently is a little lacking in atmosphere, it is just one big square room.  This should improve with the accretion of posters on the walls advertising musical performances.

The W&P's award winning beer is on tap. I had an excellent low alcohol beer. I suggest W&P investigate a 0.5% " non-alcoholic beer. This could be popular with the thousands of nearby public servants, who are being discouraged from drinking at lunch time, as well as those who avoid acholocol for cultuyral and health reasons.

The selection of food on offer at W&P is limited at present (schnitzels, fish and burgers). AI had a hamburger and chips, which arrived promptly and was good. The conversation was about solar panel monitoring using Linux computers and the application of quantum physics to the functioning o0f the human brain (as befits a university pub).

The new W&P is well worth a visit.

University Graduate Can Organise a Brewery for a Booze Up

There is an old saying "They could not organise a booze up in a brewery", but this does not apply to the Australian National University Alumni, which managed to do just that last night. Graduates of the university met in the Zierholz Premium Brewery, established by ANU graduate Christoph Zierholz. Christopher provided a tour of the brewing facilities last night and a tasting of the beers. My favourite was the  Porter – Zugtrompete, a rich dark beer for a cold Canberra evening, accompanied by the Crackling Roast Pork Belly. The next ANU Alumni Event in Canberra is the ANU Alumni Career Forum, 29 May. There are also events at the Tate Modern Gallery London, Melbourne, New York and San Francisco.  If you are not an ANU graduate, get someone who is to bring you as their guest.

Dress warm for Hobart

From 4 to 12 September I had a holiday in Tasmania. Normally I would blog as I went along, but was a bit busy this time and had limited Internet access and so am just catching up. The trip started in Hobart, Tasmania's capital city. When visiting Tasmania, you should bring warm, waterproof clothing. This applies even if you are only intending to visit the city. The first thing my host did was take me on a hike up Mount Wellington, which is covered in snow at this time of year.

Accommodation
Montgomery's YHA turned out to be very well located in the Hobart CBD, close to the tourist area around the waterfront. The accommodation is basic. The rooms on the street side of the building are noisy due to traffic. The rooms above the bar of the hotel are very noisy on Friday and Saturday nights (I have suggested the windows be double glazed).

Hobart waterfront

The Hobart waterfront is only a few block from the city centre. This is still a working port and you can see icebreakers, such as Aurora Australis of the Australian Antarctic Division, between double deck tour buses and cruse boats.

There are also several square rigged replica sailing ships. On a previous trip I found USAV Spearhead (TSV-1X), an experimental US warship, at the wharf.

Hobart people appear to have not yet got over the collapse of the Tasman Bridge in 1975. The bus driver on the way from the airport mentioned it, just as the bus reached the span which had collapsed into the river, killing 12 people. The water taxi driver mentioned it, as the taxi headed for one of the pylons.

Salamanca Markets

Salamanca Place markets operate on Saturday morning, just behind where the icebreaker is docked. It is best to arrive early, around 8:30 am when the markets officially open. There is fresh produce, leather and wood handicrafts. On this occasion I spotted one of the stars of the ABC Collectors TV program, which is produced in Hobart, so I guess there are some collectables.

There were numerous leather goods stands. Just to make their jobs more difficult I went around asking for a leather bag to hold a 10.5 inch netbook computer, about the size of an A4 pad. In 2008 I purchased a bag for my 12 inch laptop in Athens, near the Acropolis, but this is a bit big for the new netbook. None had one suitable, so this seems a gap in the market (Henk Berg Leather had some which were a bit big).

The snow covered top of Mount Wellington is visible above the colonial sandstone buildings which line the markets, making a dramatic setting.

Cascade Brewery

Just outside Hobart on the way to Mount Wellington, is the Cascade Brewery. This has an excellent visitors centre, featuring light lunches and beer tasting. The highlight is the beer tasting paddle. This is a wooden board, with holes to hold several small glasses of beer. The taster is challenged to name the beers presented, with a souvenir cap as a prize. On the board were: Cascade Blond (brewed with wheat), Cascade Green (not green in colour, it is claimed to be Australia's first 100% carbon offset beer), Cascade Pale Ale, Cascade Draft, Cascade First Harvest (made with first harvest hops from the Derwent Valley near Hobart) and Cascade Stout. My favorite was the Blond.

In the foyer of the visitors centre I noticed a "See Australia" tourism touch screen electronic kiosk from Datatrax. Unlike many such devices I have seen, this one appeared to be fully functional.

Tarraleah
If you want to get away from it all, you can in Tasmania. My Vodafone mobile phone was out of range, about 40 km west of Hobart and was not usable again for the next week. Heading west from Hobart up the Derwent Valley are trout hatcheries and picturesque hop farms (hops feature on the Tasmania coat of arms).

Further up into the highlands is Tarraleah. This town was built for hydro-electric construction workers and is now a tourist resort with an arts and craft feel to it. Next to the main building is a dizzy descent to the river below, down which run six huge water pipes ("Penstocks") to the hydro-electric power stations below.