There are actually three beer-makers on the South Coast. There are the two everyone knows – Illawarra Brewing Company and HopDog BeerWorks. Then there’s the little-known Mountain Ridge Winery.

Well, little-known in terms of beer. In terms of wine it’s quite well frequented – any time I’ve stopped in while down that way there always seems to be some people at the cellar door. While wine is obviously the focus, the people here also have a sideline in beer (and they also sold their own organic produce at one time but I’m not sure if they’re still doing that).

And it’s lucky for me they’re around because it means I can keep things even between the IBC and HopDog by giving each three posts this week, rather than having to pick one to get four Wollongong Beer Week slots (yeah, I just realised how pretentious that sounded, like a spot in my blog’s Wollongong Beer Week actually means something).

Over the last few years, I’ve tried three of their beers. The first two came out together and were, as I understand it, brewed on the premises. That would be the Broughton Pale and the Bolong Black – I remember being quite partial to the pale but they don’t seem to make it any more.

The third, and most recent, is the oddly-named Broughton Draught. Odd because draught beer is something that comes out of a keg, yet this is sold in bottles. This one, I think, is brewed off-premises because they decided they didn’t want to risk any infection to the wine.

When I went to check this beer into Untappd, I found no entry so I had to create one (First!). I put it down as ‘‘Euro lager’’ even though that’s not really accurate, because I couldn’t find any style that fit (because I’m kind of crap at style picking).

For me, it was like a mainstream lager but with a bit more going on. Aromatically, it’s slightly sweet with some hoppiness and no sign of that ‘‘wet cardboard’’ aroma prevalent in a lot of mainstream lagers. It seemed a bit chewy and there was some definite malty sweetness there, which turned into almost a honey sweetness as the beer warmed up. Aromatically, it’s slightly sweet with some hoppiness.

It’s not as good as I remember the Broughton Pale being but, if you’re heading down south along the coast road past Gerringong, it’s worth stopping in and picking up a bottle or two. I doubt it’s sold anywhere else.