TRB No.2

Today I visited Thunder Road Brewing Co. in Brunswick.  I've heard that they brewed their 2nd beer, so I went there to taste this brand new product. Exciting, isn't it?

Brewery is still under construction, but they've already have a walkway where we can enjoy a tour. It is quite exciting to see the working facilities that closely.

This quite metallic view might fascinate pipe-fetish guys (I'm not sure there are that many pipe fetish people...). This view establishes a kind of solid impression of this brewery as "brewing factory in the city".

In the cottage outside the factory, there are a dining room, a function space, a merchandise space and a library where we can browse many books, posters and photos regarding beers and brewing histories. Excellent!

I've found a neon light of the brewery. This is cool as well !

Their new beer (called as just No.2 at the moment) has quite different impression from the former one. Their first beer "Full Steam" is a kind of wheaty, fruity and refreshing lager. This "No.2" is an ale brewed from a single malt and two different hops. They told me that all ingredients are Australian grown, and in fact, they all came from Victoria. A real local ale!

This is clear bright yellow colored beer with beautifully white head. I could feel a herbal hoppy aroma at the first nose. It has really a subtle dry hop bitterness that lasts quite long even after swallowing. This seems dry and sharp hoppy ale, but after getting warmer, some fruity aroma became dominant. So it seems that the characters of two different hops are coming with some time lags. Quite unique. In my view, "Full Steam" is a lager with a twist. This "No. 2" also seems like a twister because it's an ale, but has lager-like dry hoppy characters. Interesting !

As I mentioned above, the factory is still under construction, but they're going to start brewing in this site from the end of February and it will be opened to public in around April.

Wait, wait... I have to go back to Japan in the end of March... Oh my god!

But they told me that I can taste their new beers before I leave here. And in fact, I'll be back to Melbourne for a week or so in July again!!

They are planning to brew over 30 different styles of beers at the same time with these facilities, and they'll be all served on tap here. So it's gonna be a place where beer-lovers in Melbourne MUST visit. It's quite close to CBD, so it would be a pleasant place for beer-loving Japanese travelers to visit. I promise!

You can find what's going on here in their facebook. Check it out!!

Japanese version is here.