#Beerdsaturday #141 a new neighbourhood bar.

harveyword (65)in #beersaturday • 5 years ago

What could be better than a new bar opening? A new bar within stumbling distance of your house, and even better than that a craft beer focused bar.

This is what has happened in my little corner of Melbourne, Australia, North Melbourne to be exact.
We have been watching this bar as it slowly been fitted out over the last 6 weeks or so, the first hint a liquor licence notice in the front window, which was promising, then the front windows were covered up with newspaper but not just any newspaper it was pages from 'Froth' which is a local Zine about craft beer - very promising indeed.

Good merch

An so it came to pass that 'Benchwarmers' opened on Tuesday this week, a soft launch I think is what they call it - the taps were in, all 10 of them, the fridges were empty (no licence for takeaway beers yet) and the Kitchen is still a few weeks away, but being good locals who want to so our support for a craft beer supporting bar we headed down.

It's a nice set up to, spacious, lots of blond wood, a couple of different rooms, one with little two people booths which is quite cute and a beer garden out the back which I can see myself spending some sunday afternoons in.

The line up at the bar

But the most important things was beers so let me tell you about the first two beers I had there:

The first was from Edge brewing who are a local Melbourne Brewery in colloboration with Lanikai who are from Hawaii, The beer was called Island Time, and it's no surprise this was a a rather unsual Sour Brut IPA, which really should be a thing, how something can he sour and dry all at the same time is a little beyond me, but I have to say this worked, and worked really well, it was light, refreshing, a nice hint of citrus sour and it really would suit drinking on a beach somewhere, maybe Hawaii.

Next up was something called a Lime Bucket Cheesecake Sour from Valhalla which again are a local Australian brewery, this one shouldn't be a thing either, cheesecake sours are not a beer style I recognize. this was not as good as the Island Time, this was a little one dimensional, lime, lime and more lime.

Anyway I can see myself spending a fair amount of time are Benchwarmers, becuase you should always support local. >

#beer #review #australia #melbourne #craftbeer