Woolshed Brewery
As we’re fully up to date with the Royals for the time being, this post will go back to the roots of the blog and talk about a brewery. And that brewery is Woolshed Brewery from Murtho, South Australia. We’re off on another Royal trip this coming weekend so we’ll be back to Royals soon. But for now, allow me to sing the praises of Woolshed Brewery.
We actually visited Woolshed during the South Australia/Riverina/Western Victoria trip last year. We stopped in between the Royals in Crystal Brook, SA and Wentworth, NSW. It’s a 4 1/2 drive between those two Royals. And conveniently Murtho, the home of Woolshed Brewery, is somewhere vaguely around halfway.
I’ve been a Woolshed fan for some time now. There have been no less than three of their beers that I’ve written about here:
And that’s not even mentioning other great beers like the Bunyip Imperial Stout and Cherax Destructor IPA. They also made my Top 20 Australian breweries list I did a little while back (clocking in at #19). So when the Royal Tour was scheduled to take us through that area, it was a no-brainer for me make sure our route went through Murtho.
When we pulled up, the brewery looked exactly as you’d expect with a name like Woolshed. It looks like it’s been constructed exclusively from timber and corrugated metal. There’s a bit of a mini-museum there as well documenting the days when the place was indeed a woolshed.
I’ll admit I was a little bit giddy to walk in the door and see all of those beers that I love up there on the board. All of the beers I’ve listed above were there except for Blackberry Bambalam which was tragically a one-off brew. But jeez there were still some good ones. The Scorched Almond Porter is one of the best porters I’ve had. It’s a rare dark beer that you could have a session on without feeling like you’ve eaten a 4-course dinner. And the scorched almond flavour is just perfect.
The Bunyip is also a favourite end-of-night beer for me. It packs a huge punch but is a great one to sit with on a cool evening.
But the go-to for me is the Cherax Destructor IPA (the scientific term for the humble common yabby in case you were curious). It’s a resinous punchy IPA that is right up my alley.
But I have been remiss in getting this far into the post, without mentioning easily the greatest part of Woolshed Brewery: the back deck. When you get yourself a schooner or tasting paddle and wander out to find a place to sit, you are greeted by one of the greatest decks I’ve ever seen in a pub or brewery.
It sits amongst towering gum trees directly overlooking a calm stretch of the might Murray River.
If it’s not my favourite place I’ve ever drunk a beer, it’s pretty darn close. And I’ve drunk beers in a fair few places. Just the combination of the great beer, the view, and the serenity of it all is almost impossible to beat.
Usually an absolutely amazing brewery venue and awesome beers is a rare find in and of itself. But Woolshed Brewery goes one better. And that one better is that the brewery also has accommodation. We stayed in the Wilkadene Cottage on the brewery grounds. There were also houseboats on the river you could stay in as well. But unfortunately those required a multi-night stay. Cuz otherwise, we would have 100% stayed in a houseboat at a brewery on the Murray. Who wouldn’t?!
But even though we were limited to the land-based accommodation, we were still staying at a brewery directly next to the Murray. So the complaints were minimal. When beers on the deck came to a close, we grabbed ourselves a takeaway case of Cherax Destructor and wandered 100m to our cottage to have a BBQ dinner and enjoy our beers. And later we wandered back down to the deck to enjoy a night cap and add the stars to the already impressive gum tree/Murray combo. It was just a brilliant afternoon and evening and one of my all time favourite brewery visits.
There are a lot of breweries that I love to visit if I happen to be in the area. There are very few that I’d plan a special trip to visit. Woolshed Brewery is definitely one of those.