In this blog I’ve been known to complain about the relative dearth of great beer in Wollongong. I’ve done the same on Twitter, where I’ve had to put up with reading about people from Melbourne seemingly being able to drink any beer they want, whenever they want it.
But things are certainly improving in my home town, if this afternoon’s haul (which appears in the photo at the top of this post) is anything to go by. With an afternoon to myself, I figured I’d head up the coast to check out a few bottle shops that had been known to stock some great beer (which I’ll define as “stuff you wouldn’t even dream of seeing at Dan Murphy’s”). The first was Coledale Cellars, which I’d not managed to visit for quite some time. But I’m glad I did – I was able to score a trio of Brooklyn beers as well as a Hitachino Nest Sweet Stout. That second one had me very excited – I’d had the stout in Newcastle last year and it was blissful.
Then, just because I was passing by, I stopped in at Thirroul Cellars. Again, glad I did. From their fridges I picked up a six-pack of Temple’s Bicycle Beer, an Autumn Tumbler from Sierra Nevada and a rye IPA from Beer Here and a Red Duck amber ale.
So it’s a pretty safe bet that I’m going to have a rather pleasant afternoon. And many pleasant afternoons in the future if this sort of high-quality beer keeps turning up in Wollongong.