When you have a kid it can be hard to fully indulge your inner beer geek. For instance, my parents live out Campelltown way and we regularly drive up for a visit. I’ve known for some time there was a microbrewery there – in fact our route takes me straight past the building that houses it.

But I’ve never been able to stop in. I’d feel bad about asking my wife and child to hang around a brewery while I try beers and do the whole “take a photo of the beers and write down tasting notes” geek-out.

This week, things were different. The kid was having a sleepover at my parents, which meant I dropped her off and then had to drive past the microbrewery by myself. So of course I took advantage of the chance to stop in, take a photo of beer glasses and write some tasting notes (I was slightly unprepared on the latter score. Having no note pad, I had to use the white paper my lunch of hot chips came wrapped in to scrawl some observations. Tres unprofessional of me).

The Infusion microbrewery is located in the foyer of Rydges Campbelltown (beer geeks should note that Tim Thomas from HopDog in Nowra was involved in making their beers in the early stages. They do four beers, which come with geographically appropriate names but are classed as styles caused me some confusion.

While I was given the beers with the Appin Ale first and the Fisher’s Ghost Lager second, I switched them because the ale would have more flavour than the lager. But no, the lager had some nice ever so slightly tropical fruity notes with a hint of malt in the mid-palate and bitterness that builds. The ale, on the other hand, was clean, crisp and most of the other words used to describe lagers. The beers were given to me in the order of the tap line-up at the bar, which made me wonder if somehow the kegs had been connected to the wrong taps.

The third beer in the line-up was the MacArthur Wheat. I’m a sucker for a good wheat beer, and this fits the bill. The flavours of cloves and then banana are there right from the first sip. It’s not as robust as the German hefes, but that’s okay because it’s not supposed to be. It’s a straightforward, very pleasing wheat beer, and my pick of the Infusion beers.

Last up was Razorback Golden Ale, another beer where the description didn’t gel with what the beer actually is. Untappd lists this as a dark ale and that’s far more accurate in my book. A golden ale often tends to be a light flavored beer, somewhere near the crossover point from lager to ale. But this beer, with it’s dark colour and very distinct toffee and biscuity malt flavours was way, way more chewy than a golden ale is supposed to be. It’s quite an enjoyable beer – but it’s not a golden ale.