May 7, 2008
Snowy mountains beer?
After a day of skiing the slopes of Perisher, Blue Cow, Smiggins and Guthega, I'm sitting in Basil's bar relaxing and watching small cars without snowchains sliding around the carpark at Perisher terminal.
In my hand there's a cold beer, or, as it says on the white label in Spanish... a cerveza. Cervesa mas fina. That's right, in the Australian Snowy Mountains the beer you most frequently see people drinking is an adjunct lager from Mexico that requires a lime stuffed in the top for you to drink it. I'm assuming the limes aren't local either. Otherwise we're going to run out faster than a learner starts to snowplough at the top of Olympic.
Now, I actually quite enjoy the Corona from a beverage perspective. In terms of beer though, it's entirely unremarkable. Then, as I look around and what everyone is drinking in this Australian ski resort I can't see anything that I think suits the place.
What would be fitting is some honest beer from an Australian craft brewer. The problem for me is that all my favorite Australian craft brewers such as Murray's and RedOak are a very long way from Perisher.
Out of the corner of my eye though, I spot something different. Beer from the Snow Mountains Brewery. This is initially promising until I discover that it's brewed by AIB in Camden. That's nowhere near the Snowy Mountains... I'd rather be drinking RedOak.
So, What do we have in terms of local beers? I've excluded breweries in Canberra as being a bit too far away but quite possibly that could be a good place to look.
Anyway, here's some breweries that you might loosely consider to be in or near the Snowy Mountains.
I plan to try them all.
Posted at 12:21 AM