Little Bang Brewing
This week’s brewery is once again from my recent travels to South Australia (back when that was still allowed). It’s from Adelaide and is Little Bang Brewing.
I had been aware of Little Bang Brewing for some time and had even written a post about their excellent Sludgebeast a little while back. But I hadn’t been to the actual brewery before as my Adelaide trips usually require stops at Big Shed, Pirate Life, and my favourite Adelaide pub, the Gilbert Street Hotel. So often I run out of time to go out and explore other breweries. But this time, I had recently discovered that Little Bang had been awarded Best Brewery Venue in South Australia. So I figured I’d better make some space in my schedule this time around. And I’m very glad I did.
Little Bang is, like many other breweries, situated in an industrial building in the backstreets of Stepney, not far from the Adelaide CBD. As you walk in, you can clearly see it’s a huge space, with some decent seating out front and upstairs as well. The décor successfully walks that tricky line with a ‘Cool-place-to-hang-out-but-still-clearly-a-legit-working-brewery-as-well’ vibe. The interior is basically massive brewing vessels flanking the industrial chic seating area running off into the distance. Even though there’s a ton of space, the clear focal point of the place is the extensive bar (and rightfully so).
When I visited there were more than 15 different beers on tap. Most were Little Bang’s own brews, with a couple of guest taps thrown in for good measure. Faced with that kind of variety, the only logical move was to get myself a tasting paddle. I opted for The Naked Objector, Undercover Fashion Police 12, Fifty Dalrymples, and the excellently named Face Inverter.
As is fairly common with my tastes, my selections ran largely towards the hoppy IPA end of the spectrum. The Naked Objector is an ‘Indecent’ West Coast IPA. It wasn’t completely sure what to make of that description. But it did have a hint of dankness (which I suspect may be the source of the ‘Indecent’ component of it’s title), but is over all just a solid hoppy whack in the mouth of an IPA.
The Undercover Fashion Police 12 was a NEIPA. And somehow it managed to be simultaneously a bit softer and still even hoppier than the Naked Objector. It is actually a really complex beer. There’s a ton of different layers (granted those layers largely being various degrees of hoppiness) all merging together in an excellent hoppy mishmash in your mouth.
The Fifty Dalrympes is a DIPA and basically drinks like an amped up version of the Naked Objector. It has a serious kick from both a hoppy and a boozy standpoint (it comes in at 8.5%). But even with that, it is dangerously drinkable. I went back for a second. And while I definitely started feeling it, I definitely didn’t regret it.
The pick of the lot for me, though, was the Face Inverter sour. As the awesome name implies, this is an extremely sour beer. Extremely sour, but really really tasty. I don’t think it’s the sourest beer I’ve had (that honour probably still goes to Hope’s Sunny Boy Sour), but it’d be pretty darn close. I ended up going back for two additional doses of face inversion in the end.
And the sour proved to be an excellent accompaniment to the seriously top-notch food. I ended up going for the pub burger and some Buffalo cauliflower bites. I genuinely have no idea why I went for the cauliflower bites rather than wings, but they were really good. There was a ton of good options coming out of the kitchen, but I was pretty happy with my selections.
My one regret was that when I visited (on a Wednesday) it ended up being trivia night and pretty packed. I should have done better recon prior to my visit. Because I would’ve definitely booked ahead to settle in for some trivia to accompany my hoppy smorgasbord. But that’s a minor gripe and is actually on me rather than Little Bang.
On the whole, I will definitely head back to Little Bang next time we’re allowed to travel back to South Australia. It’s going to make scheduling my Adelaide craft beer itinerary even a bit more challenging, but I am will to take on that burden. The really good food and the sheer volume of fantastic hoppy beverage options mean I don’t really have a choice. After all, in the interests of thoroughness, I will be compelled to try them all.