Big Shed Brewing Concern

This week’s brewery is another purveyor of excellent beers from South Australia, Big Shed Brewing Concern.

Big Shed resides in the industrial area of Royal Park in Adelaide’s western suburbs.  As soon as you pull up outside the place, you can tell it means business (that business naturally being the production of delicious beer).  Walking in the front door, this impression is only strengthened.  To the right, there are some long wooden tables, just to the left is the kitchen.  Straight ahead is a classic video game arcade machine, racks of merch, and the bar.  Beyond that, the place is all business with brewing vats, bottling machines, and forklifts in the back.  Just as a bit of a cherry on top, Bad Religion was pumping from the speakers as I walked up to the bar.  It’s a place that says ‘come on in and have a beer, we’ll be in the back making something delicious, just give us a shout if you need anything’.

I didn’t sample the food on this particular visit, but given what I saw coming out of the kitchen to other tables, I think I probably will next time I’m there.  The beer, however, I most certainly did sample.  There were six beers on tap when I was there and the tasting paddles conveniently included all six.  I know it’s a little thing, but I really liked having the entire selection of the brewery’s offerings available in one hit.  In fact, they had also just finished a Belgian Trippel in collaboration with Temple Brewing of Melbourne, and the kindly barman brought me out a taster of that as well, despite it not even being on the menu.

The only beer I’d had of theirs prior to showing up at their brewery was the Californicator IPA.  I love that beer and that (along with multiple recommendations from mates) was a big reason I made the effort to visit Big Shed on my latest South Australia trip.  And having it from the brewery direct did not disappoint.  It’s a darker than average IPA with an accompanying slightly maltier flavour.  That, however, most definitely does not come at the expense of the hoppiness; those hops are still there in a big way.  It’s about 7.5% which is pretty potent, but not outside of the realms of reasonability when it comes to an IPA.

All of the other five beers (six counting the Trippel) were excellent as well.  But there was one that really stood out for uniqueness and, more importantly, deliciousness: the Golden Stout Time.  As the name suggests, it’s a stout flavoured like a Golden Gaytime icecream.  And it is amazingly accurate and absolutely delicious.  As you raise the glass to your mouth, the massive whiff of Golden Gaytime aroma that overwhelms you is enough to make you do a double take.  Even better, the flavour of the Golden Gaytime is definitely there and delicious in the stout, but it’s the stout that’s the star.  At first I was afraid it was going to taste like drinking a melted ice cream.  Thankfully that was not the case.  It was simply a great stout with a Gaytime kick.  It was the beer that I went back to for an additional ‘butcher’ (South Australian beer glasses have funny names).

Before leaving, I did have to indulge my weakness for merch and went home with an awesome hat, shirt, and cheeky takeaway six-pack of the Californicator.

Overall Big Shed was more than worth the visit.  I’ll definitely be back next time I’m in Adelaide, and will be keeping an eye out for more of their beers that will hopefully be getting more and more prominent and easy to find on the east coast in the very near future.