Five Barrel Brewing

For this week’s brewery we return to Wollongong and Five Barrel Brewing.  Wollongong is starting to build itself a solid lineup of up-and-coming breweries (I’ve written about Reub Goldberg and Illawarra Brewing Company previously) and Five Barrel is definitely starting to come into its own at the head of that list.

While Five Barrel Brewing does have a core range of a couple of very nice beers (details a bit later on), the breadth and variability of the beers on offer means it’s always worth going back to in order to seed what new offerings are on tap.  On a recent visit, the brewery was actually in the process of a significant expansion meaning even more variety may well be in store.

The brewery itself is on Keira Street on the southern side of Wollongong amongst a number of car repair shops.  The tap room strikes a nice balance of comfort and functionality with the full on industrial brewing aesthetic.  There’s plenty of comfortable space both inside and outside to relax over a tasting tray or a bit to eat.

Food-wise, the main offering is burgers and they are excellent.  There are about 5 or 6 different options and they are all delicious and pair excellently with some hoppy beverages.

Speaking of which, as I mentioned earlier, Five Barrel Brewing offers quite the array of ever rotating beers.  They range the full colour spectrum from lagers and golden ales through to porters and milk stouts.  But for me, the two standouts are the milkshake IPA and the hoppy amber.  The milkshake IPA is a genre of beer I’m starting to see more and more frequently and I definitely have mixed feelings about it.  Sometimes brewers try to get too clever with weird flavours just for the sake of weird flavours (which as, mentioned in previous posts, is a pet beer hate of mine).  But the milkshake IPA from Five Barrels is just a nice hoppy IPA with the smoothness of the milkshake component, not the crazy flavours.

Even better than the milkshake IPA, in my humble opinion, is the hoppy amber.  It’s got a rich golden colour, excellent weight, and a great hoppy bite.  This is one that I have bought many six packs of over the past couple of years.  I love me some hoppiness and having it delivered in a delicious caramel-y beverage is just superb.

Wollongong these days is spoilt for choice with good breweries.  With its sizeable and ever changing spectrum of tasty beers, delicious burgers, and a nice place to enjoy them Five Barrels Brewing is definitely worthy of a visit.  You could certainly do a lot worse for a place to wile away a lazy afternoon.