Prancing Pony Brewery
South Australia’s strong craft beer credentials are once again on display as this week we head to the Adelaide Hills and Prancing Pony Brewery.
Prancing Pony is located in Totness just between Handorf and Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills. I’m not 100% sure whether or not its name has anything to do with the Inn of the Prancing Pony featured in the Lord of the Rings, or if that’s just my overactive nerdy side trying to draw connections.
The brewery itself is situated in a shopping centre with a comfortable and good-sized seating section both indoors and outdoors. The menu is solid with some pretty decent pub grub to complement the beery offerings. I happened to be in the area for work and finished up fairly early in the afternoon on a weekday. So I was about the only person there when I visited earlier this year. The bar was manned by a gent who turned out to be one of the nicest, most beer-loving, most massively-bearded guys I’ve ever met. He was more than happy to talk me through all of their offerings in detail. He even went back to fetch me a taste of a couple of their beers that had just finished but weren’t even in the bottle or keg yet.
As for those beers, there are several darn good offerings, but one truly special one. Of the very good ones, two are worthy of special mention: the Amber Ale and the Magic Carpet Midnight Ride Imperial Stout.
Amber ales seem to be largely overlooked in the craft beer industry. And this one is done particularly well. It’s smooth and malty (while certainly not devoid of hops). I reckon it’s a bit of a comfort beer. It’s not knock-your-socks-off hoppy, it’s not ultra dark, rich, and creamy, it’s just a really well made tasty beer of a style that’s not super common anymore these days.
Magic Carpet Midnight Ride Imperial Stout on the other hand, is very much ultra dark, rich, and creamy (it also packs quite a kick for good measure coming in at 9%). It’s only available during autumn and winter (which are the best seasons for drinking stouts anyway). It is absolutely the ideal beer for drinking on a chilly evening. The depth of flavour is just fantastic.
Speaking of fantastic, the truly special beer from Prancing Pony I mentioned earlier, is the India Red Ale. I first happened to come across this beer at a pub in Broken Hill and it knocked my socks off! Having sampled it is the sole reason I made the effort to make my way to Prancing Pony Brewery in the first place. I subsequently found out that the India Red Ale had won some big awards and I am frankly completely unsurprised. It matches the warm caramelly maltiness of any good red ale with a perfect massive blast of hops. The two complement each other flawlessly. So much so that I’d probably class Prancing Pony’s India Red Ale in my slightly nebulous top ten beers I’ve ever had.
Prancing Pony Brewery has a comfortable venue with extremely friendly and knowledgeable staff. They’ve got a great selection of beers, including some tasty seasonal offerings. So it’s a great place to stop in if you find yourself driving through the Adelaide Hills, especially if you’ve had your fill of wineries. However, even with all that being said, there is one unmistakeable star of the show that makes Prancing Pony worthy of a visit in and of itself: the India Red Ale. But if I’m being honest, it’d still be worth a visit regardless.