FYI; Brisbane Craft Beer

(Apologies in advance for the lack of pictures of ACTUAL beer) 

A mix of pearly office towers and awful 60's era precast concrete monsters bound together by a rats nest of urban planning errors, Brisbane still surprised me with things that may go unseen by the naked eye. Luckily I had a host of great friends that were able to guide me to the best craft beer bars, cafés and breweries all while seeking out some of the cities remaining architectural landmarks. What resulted was a four day long craft beer crawl. 

To my surprise Brisbane is actually home to a pretty developed and thirsty craft beer scene. What it lacks in the number of local or state craft breweries it more than makes up for in taphouses, cafés, and bars. The start of our tour began at one of the marquee craft joints in town, Archive Beer Boutique. Here I enjoyed some really good pints notably, Brewcult's Beer Geek Rage Quit IPL, and local a by Noisey Minor(Fortitude)'s RSVP Baltic Porter. Archive is know throughout Brisbane for its over 20 taps, and large selection of local, Australian and International bottle selection, of which I had to have a local favorite from back home, St. Ambroise IPA! After that we hit up a newer joint down the street called Burrows. 

Burrows has 4 craft taps and a moderate Australian and international craft bottle selection, and was fortunate to enjoy Mornington Peninsula Brewing's Mosaic IPA on tap. So delicious! Burrows is also a quaint little cafe with great coffee and lots of good food. 

The next day it was worth while to visit the Bottanical gardens where downtown seems to pop out of the far corner of the park. We also paid a visit to the Treasury(a great market is open out front every Wednesday), and the gallery upstairs in the old Brisbane city hall building. The exhibits were great photo collections of the indigenous people that populated the area and the history of Brisbane, which had maps, and I love maps.

We then had another big day of boozing on the craft tour starting at the Belgian Beer Cafe in the CBD. I personally only found the outside beer garden the only thing it really had going for it... Otherwise it was mostly AB InBev product and a rather uninspiring bottle list. 

Next stop was for a few jugs at the Brisbane Brewhouse, I would recommend trying the Belgian Wit, Rye Brown Ale, and if your into something a bit more sessionable the Brisbane Pale Ale. Next stop was the small taphouses that are almost directly adjacent to each other, The End and BOSC.

(Sorta related... Near Brisbane Brewhouse)

At The End you need to The End/BlackStar's Collab Mocha Stout and also they had one of my favorites on tap, Mountain Goat's Rare Breed India Red Ale. The bar sports craft 4 taps and a small bottle menu. 

At BOSC you can expect to find a bartender that is no stranger to chatting about beer, we went on and on about brewing and great beer. Also they sport about 8 craft taps and a moderate bottle menu. 

My final day was started nice and early out in the north east suburb of Teneriffe at the Newstead Brewing. The luxurious interior of this former warehouse turned brewery totally does justice for the food and beer menu. They have everything from sessionable to the $80 Bottle of scotch barrel aged ale made with truffles. They have twelve taps and from what I had I definitely enjoyed the Rye IPA and IPA's the most. 

Next stop was another brewery in Teneriffe and my favorite beer in the city, Green Beacon Brewing. They have about 8 taps and my favorite had to be the Reds Dead West Coast Red Lager, such a well balanced beer with Centennial, Columbus, and Citra hops. So good. 

The last stop and the spot that I think will have to take best customer service would be the Bar Scratch. The bartenders were so nice and they also have about 8 taps and a moderate bottle menu. It's a cozy place with relaxing couches and I won't forget, a great Stout spider with beer infused ice cream! 

One more shout out for a few good beers(4 taps) and great coffee, is the alleyway gem called "John Mills Himself". This little spot is off 40 Charlotte Street in the CBD.

That's is for my FYI Brisbane!