Brief Report from Oz

[Uncle Bobby]

I am here in deepest, darkest suburban Sydney, having a wonderful time with the outlaws and ducking the race riots. A few notes:
-prices in the bottle shops are high, $12-$20 per six pack, and not just the premium stuff
-there is a reasonable variety of darker beers, each of the major breweries offering some kind of porter or stout

Beers so far: Cascade Pale Ale, an okay IPA; Jame Squire Pilsener, an expensive and pretty plain yellow beer marketed as a premium; the most pleasant surprise of the lot, Sheaf Stout, a product of Carlton & United Beverages; and (on draft) Toohey's Old Dark, which appears to be a kind of thin bodied porter.

I have yet to hit the hotels, but am headed to a walk over the Harbour Bridge tomorrow followed by a stroll through the Rocks with the brother-in-law. Also headed to a brewpub in the Surry Hills next week. Am looking forward to finding out where the good stuff is served. Thanks to the replies from a few months ago.

Kind Regards,

Uncle Bobby

[Uncle Bobby]

BTW the best online pub guide I have found is www.sydneypubguide.net a good guide with pub listings cross-referenced by style and area. Individual pub listings include reviews by locals and the front page offers a pretty good top 20 list for easy reference.

Regards,

Uncle Bobby

[Uncle Bobby]

I am home now and have more or less made the 16 hour time adjustment. Unfortunately not much to report -- I am posting here simply to conclude my one-man string.

Part of my difficulty in trying beers stemmed in part from staying with in-laws who were more than 10kms from the centre of Sydney (Carlingford in case you are familiar with the place) and who also gave me blank stares when I asked about craft beer. (They seemed to think that when I said the word "quality", it was just a quirky Canadian mispronunciation of "quantity".)

My inability to sample the best of NSW also stemmed from the fact that we were travelling with a baby. And because not only was our schedule crowded with family and Christmas events, we also were getting married while we were there.

And frankly, I began to get the impression that there is not a lot to sample in terms of craft beers anyways.

I did have a few pleasant suprises in terms of the stouts that were available. Sheaf was reasonably nice (and it's made by one of the big corporate brewers), as was Coopers Stout (yellow label). Both came in the 800ml bottles which meant sharing with a partner.

Of the few pubs and (sailing) clubs I went to, all had some kind of dark beer available, but none were particularly good. Toohey's Old Dark, the most common of the brands I saw, could best be described as "Rickard's Brown". The James Squire's micro also did a brown, but it was brutal. By the time I got out to a pub in Balmain and had a glass in my hand, I gulped down two glasses of it before bothering to taste it. And I began to get the impression that James Squires brand was simply a corporate brewery dressed up as a micro.

The pub scene is good only in select areas nearer the centre of town. In the suburbs, what few bars there are available are generally in the many social and sporting clubs that dot Sydney's perimeter. It is not necessary to have a membership to drink and eat there so long as one does not live within a 5km radius of the premises. And although most of these places are nominally sporting clubs, sporting in many ways is secondary to the social facilities and gambling venues that these clubs provide. They are quite large, and often quite asset-rich, but there are few athletes and sportsmen among the members. Needless to say the lack of focus on food and drink means cheapo sales deals with big brewers and that few or none of these places offers a quality drop. In the area where I was staying, the only bar was in an overblown lawn bowling club about 4km away.

Purchasing from a local liquor store was no more satisfying. Selection in many of the chain liquor stores was in fact quite limited to the major brewers. "Liquorland" seemed to be one of the more common chains. There was a weird policy of pricing most 6-packs in the $15-20 range and yet a "slab" of 24 was usually only in the $40-50 range. That did not figure unless one wanted to encourage bulk purchasing and indiscriminate drinking. (Perhaps that is the intention.)

For my own wedding reception, a small affair hosted at my sister- and brother-in-law's house, I purchased Cascade Light and Toohey's Dry, as a result of the relentless urging of my brother-in-law and the lack of any quality options at his local "bottle shop". So I drank wine.

I will finish off with an illustration of my frustration in trying to get a good glass of beer in Sydney. The oldest part of Sydney is The Rocks area, now a pub and entertainment district of old, cut-stone houses, but once the landing place and original settlement of the first shiploads of British convicts. It is a very pretty district of hilly streets running down to the harbour. Many of the buildings and roads date to convict times. I had had two or three abortive attempts to try to get a drink there. One night we got no further than the Löwenbräu Kellar, a Bavarian-themed drinking hole staffed by weary, joyless backpackers. And on my wedding night my wife walked me down to the Belgian Beer Cafe, another in the Ambev-run chain that owns its Toronto sister, the Biermarkt.

In fact the best of the few brewpubs in the city is in The Rocks, the very historical Lord Nelson. On one of the last days available to us, my Sydneysider wife and I went on a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the city centre finishing our tour mid-afternoon with stops at the Sydney Fish Market (a must-see for foodies) and The Rocks. Knowing how important a good glass of beer was to me, and how frustrated I was becoming at my inability to obtain one, my teatotal Australian wife said we would go to the Lord Nelson before we got on the train to go home again.

We were anticipating a quiet , quality refreshment and an opportunity to use the washroom while the rest of the city worked. However this was December 22nd, and many of the troops of office workers who had left the office at noon for a yuletide liquid lunch had not returned to their desks. The doors of the pub were open and as we approached from a block away we could hear the noise of the heaving, overheated crowd from inside. We decided that this was not the best place for our 11 month-old son. But still my wife was pushing me into the pub, telling me that she would wait outside with the baby in the 29C heat while I had a glass of beer inside. (God love an Australian woman!) And you know what: I really had to think about it.

After a few moments of hesitating on the front step of the pub, one foot straining toward the threshold, I decided, no. So we walked a few blocks nearer to Circular Quay to the Orient Hotel, an indifferent pub housed in a beautiful historic building, and we found a table in the back garden. And I sat with my wife and my son in his stroller, surrounded by a half-soused crew of road pavers, drinking yet another indifferent 16-oz "schooner" of Toohey's Old Dark.

Lovely city, but keep "vos expectations brassicoles" low.

Here is a link to an article in today's Sydney Morning Herald about the expansion of a NSW micro, Blue Tongue. I actually went to the Hunter Valley to try out some of the wineries there -- I guess it did not occur to anyone to point out that there was also a craft brewery there. http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/blu ... 73060.html

(Apologies if my continued crankiness from persistent jet-lag is a downer.)

Best Regards,

Uncle Bobby

[Andicus]

Sounds disappointing, but an interesting read anyway. I've got to make an excuse to visit an aunt in Australia. If I do, I'll at least go in not expecting any good beer.

Congratulations on your marriage!

[inertiaboy]

I had a similarly disappointing experience in Australia. There are a few micros tucked here and there, but they are difficult to find.

The John Squires in Melbourne was actually reasonably good and is more to what we would expect in a brewpub. The one on Darling Harbour in Sydney is recent (Nov 2003) and has been designed largely to compete with the plethora of other restaurants on the harbour, methinks.

It is unfortunate that you were unable to visit the Lord Nelson. It is the one place I would recommend that I visited. The beer was very good and would be more at home in London than Sydney. It's also a mecca of sorts for rugby as the owner is a huge fan. Given your circumstances though, you made the correct decision - it is a very cramped space.

[iguenard]

Did you get to see the Cooper's Vintage Ale?

Grabbed a few in NYS last time I was there. Simply wonderful stuff.

Good trip report, thanks for the info!

[esprit]

FYI, Ambev does not own Biermarkt...it is owned by the Prime Pubs division of Prime Restaurants.

[Uncle Bobby]

FYI, Ambev does not own Biermarkt...it is owned by the Prime Pubs division of Prime Restaurants.

Sorry, Peter. "Owns", as in a locked up relationship. The restaurant certainly feels like a showcase for Ambev's Belgian products. And judging from the Belgian Beer Café in Sydney, the entire format for both restaurants, right down the noise-reflecting high-vaulted ceilings, is easily copied and reintroduced around the world, presumably by the brewer. My wife works upstairs from the Biermarkt, and we both remarkt(!) how familiar the Sydney venue felt. I understand there is one in London now, too, somewhere off Shaftsbury Ave.

I was under the impression that Ambev was using the Scruffy Murphy's model of exporting ambience as well as beer. There is a Scruffy Murphy's in many major cities around the world and they are all remarkably similar. I understand many of the interiors are even made at the same plant in Ireland. They are not owned by Guinness, but Guinness "owns" the place. God knows Guinness may even charge a royalty for the know-how of formatting a successful restaurant.

[Uncle Bobby]

A company description of the parent, a publicly-traded income trust, Prime Income Trust, as published in one of Canada's more authoritative publishers of corporate profiles, the Financial Post Survey of Corporations:

COMPANY DESCRIPTION:
Holds 67.1% of PRC Trademarks Inc., which owns the Canadian trademarks and trade names used by Prime Restaurants of Canada Inc., which operates a chain of casual dining restaurants and premium pubs.
PRC Trade-Marks Inc. has granted Prime Restaurants of Canada Inc. (PRC) a non-exclusive 99-year licence to use the trademarks used by PRC in consideration for a royalty of 3.25% of the gross revenue of the restaurants and pubs in the royalty pool. At Sept. 30, 2005, royalties were payable from 156 restaurants and pubs in Canada.
The portfolio of concepts includes East Side Mario's, Pat and Mario's and Casey's restaurants; a family of Irish pubs operating under the trademarks Fionn MacCool's, D'Arcy McGee's, Paddy Flaherty's, Tir nan Og and Slante; and a Belgian-style brassiere operating asEsplanade Bier Market.

(Their spelling mistakes.)
The parent company owns "the Canadian trademarks and names" to a "portfolio of concepts". The Prime group does not even own the concepts outright, it only owns the Canadian rights to a series of easily replicated eating and drinking establishments. Who owns the rights elsewhere? And the royalties are paid through a series of companies, none of which are wholly owned by the parent, Prime Income Trust. Who are their partners?

And from their own 2004 annual report, Prime cites as a competitive advantage the "formation of strategic alliances with Labatt enabling PRC to serve brands such as Stella Artois and Alexander Keith’s beers as part of PRC’s premium beer segment." I am certain that does not even go halfway in describing the length and breadth of the relationship between the restaurant chain and the beer manufacturer.

The relationship is attentuated, but it almost certainly exists. You can also be certain that the relationship is sufficiently arm's-length to skirt the "tied house" rules.

Pardon me for flogging a dead horse, but I thought it might be an interesting examination of this aspect of the industry.

A related note also found at the conjunction of conspiracy theories about uncompetitve situations and Australia, there was an oft-repeated quote repeated once again last week at the death of Australian billionaire, Kerry Packer. Mr. Packer held an economically dominant position in Australia's economy, in some sectors even holding monopolies. He is said to have once lectured the former Aussie Prime Minister Paul Keating, "Son, the problem is that you believe in free enterprise and I don't."

You can be certain that the attitude is pervasive among all large corporate entities and their owners the world over.

Regards,

Uncle Bobby

[antirealist]

Just a gentle bump to this old thread - I was in Sydney last weekend and paid a number of visits to the Lord Nelson. The beer scene in Sydney really does seem to be pretty tame, but the beer at the Nelson was definitely better than the rest.

The interior of the bar is quite attractive, and the staff were great. Very good food too, particularly the fish and chips. But I found the Trafalgar Pale Ale and the Victory Bitter a bit bland, and nowhere near as well-hopped as their European style equivalents. The Three Sheets, which I took to be a kind of golden ale, was a better effort, and a pretty drinkable session beer. Probably the best beer I had was Nelson's Blood, a fairly decent porter-style nitro-dispensed beer. Even so, I don't think it would compare well with locally-available porters in Toronto.

So all in all, despite the centrality of beer to Australian cultural identity, I wasn't too impressed. On the other hand, it's a lovely city with great people, and the wine is spectacular. So why worry about the beer?

[pootz]

-prices in the bottle shops are high, $12-$20 per six pack, and not just the premium stuff
Uncle Bobby

In my realm of reality that makes Oz a "failed state"

[Uncle Bobby]

Bump!

I am using this string to post a link to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about a good beer pub in central Sydney. Posting the article for the edification of any Bartowellers who may follow the previous posters to that great thirsty land in the southern hemisphere.

The Australian Hotel is a pub in the Rocks, immediately below the overpass that leads on to the Harbour Bridge. It looked lovely when I saw it, although I did not get an opportunity to visit.

Well, according to this article it is a pretty good pub for the finer side of Australian brewing culture.

It is just up the street from the Harbour Bridge Climb embarcation point. Although I recommend you do the Bridge climb before hitting the pub. The bridge climb people will breathalyze you.

Occassional visits to the pub website indicates to me that they do special events with better beers from around the country. If you are visiting Sydney, see if they have something on. It also apparently has one of the better "bottle shops" (i.e. retail outlets) in town.

Regards,

Uncle Bobby