Cory’s Top 20 – #4 Pirate Life Brewing
Rank: #4
Location: Port Adelaide, SA
Favourite Beers: IIPA, Strata IPA, Mosaic IPA
Previous Blog Appearances: IIPA
We’re nearing the top of the list now as we return to South Australia. Cory’s Top 20 – #4 Pirate Life Brewing.
This was another brewery that some might expect me to have even higher on the list. I did, again struggle with the fact Pirate Life is no longer independently owned. But as with a couple others on this list, their beer is just too good to even think of leaving them off. I fully support independent brewers and give them probably at least 90% of my beer dollars. But at the end of the day, this list is about places that make quality beer, full stop. And by that criteria, Pirate Life deserve to be not only on the list, but near the top.
If Pirate Life made no beers other then their IIPA, I’m not sure it would affect their position at all. The degree and specific type of hoppiness in that one (hop profile is the term that I think applies), is just stupendous and exactly suited to my personal tastes. I would put it in my top 3 beers I’ve had. Again no qualifiers there. Just one of the top 3 beers I’ve ever had in my humble opinion.
It’s dead-set like drinking a hoppy lightning bolt and I love it.
Don’t let the previous paragraph lead you into thinking that Pirate Life is a one-trick pony either. They put out a ton of good stuff. Their basic pale ale is an excellent go to. But if you jump back over onto the hoppier end of the spectrum (though granted not to the extremes of the IIPA), the Strata and Mosaic IPA’s are both absolutely brilliant.
I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention their ginormous Port Adelaide brewery as part of the equation. Tons of space, brewery-only special releases, really good food, and a boatload of cool merch. That ticks four serious boxes. I will admit that they go maybe a step too far down the hipster path for my taste with the in-brewery barber shop, but hey, nobody’s perfect.
Say whatever else you want about Pirate Life, the fact is I love their beer. And as I mentioned, in my opinion (which is the only one that matters for this list) they’d deserve to be here on the back of the IIPA alone.