Cory’s Top 20 – #2 Bent Spoke Brewing

Rank: #2

Location: Canberra, ACT

Favourite Beers: Crankshaft IPA, Cluster 8 IIPA, Sprocket IPA

Previous Blog Appearances: Bent Spoke Brewing

With just two breweries left on the countdown, we head back to the nation’s capital for Cory’s Top 20 – #2 Bent Spoke Brewing.

Bent Spoke will be a familiar name to any Australian craft beer drinker.  Now I love to ferret out little off-the-beaten-track breweries.  And I’ve been lucky enough to find more than a few really good ones.  Bent Spoke is not one of those.  It’s a big name in craft beer.  But I’m certainly not going to penalize them for that.  As long as they make sensational beer, they’re going to make the list.  And lucky for them (and me) that’s exactly what they do.

One of my favourite things about a visit to Bent Spoke is the sheer number of beers on offer.  I don’t think I’ve ever been there when they’ve had less than 15 on tap.  And they range from a Flemish Red, to a Cappuccino Porter, to a couple of damn good sours and everything in between. 

But you may detect a theme amongst my favourite three beers above.  Bent Spoke nails the hoppy beers.  The Crankshaft and Sprocket are both brilliant IPA’s.  And they’re an excellent illustration of the variety you can get within the IPA genre.  That is while maintaining a hoppy kick in the teeth as your defining feature, of course.  And then there’s the Cluster 8 that’s even a notch higher than either of those two.  But the best part of all three of those beers is they’re all now available in a can as well.

And on top of the beer, Bent Spoke’s Braddon Brewpub is one of my absolute favourite places to spend time in Canberra.  There’s great food, the variety already described above, and just two floors of excellent space to relax and enjoy a beer or four.

Odds are if you’re reading this blog, you’re probably already well familiar with Bent Spoke.  But I’d very much encourage anyone who hasn’t already to venture beyond the Barley Griffin and Crankshaft and get into the full spectrum of what Bent Spoke has to offer.  You won’t be sorry.