Welcome to the insightful slurrings of a beer lover and occasional homebrewer...

Monday 16 June 2014

Ironhouse Brewery - Where Brews Come with Views

Launched in late 2007, my first foray into the beers from Tasmania’s Ironhouse Brewery occurred soon after when my parents bought over a mixed 6 pack from Tassie for my wife and I to sample. Always enthused to try a new entry to the ever emerging craft beer scene, we cracked into the fairly typical offering of Pales, Pilsners and Lagers only to be somewhat shocked by what we were tasting.

The Pale Ale tasted like a musky sour beer. That seemed odd. Maybe they were going for a Two Metre Tall ‘style beer’! But I couldn’t get past why they’d called it a ‘Pale’. Later we tried the Pilsner…same thing; musky yet sour. The Lager…argh, same thing! Okay, something’s not quite right here. The beers had been infected and were off. Bugger.

Personally, I wasn’t too bothered. It happens. My parents had bought the beer from a gift shop in Tassie selling all sorts of local produce. They may have been in the sun too long, kept beyond the appropriate time before being sold, or the brewery simply had some teething problems early in its brewing life. No biggie.

Fast forward a couple of years to March 2013, and my wife and I were in Tassie and happened to attend the ‘Taste the Harvest Festival’ in Devonport. And what do you know? Ironhouse Brewery had a stand!

After what happened previously, we were chomping at the bit to try the beers (this time on tap), and...

We were impressed! Really impressed. The Pale Ale and Porter jumped straight out as more than just solid new world versions. A slightly slurred mental note was made to one day get to the brewery itself on the picturesque East Coast of Tassie…


Hit the fast forward button again…this time to Christmas 2013. Low and behold my parents had given us an accommodation voucher to stay at Ironhouse Brewery! Woohoo! Come May 2014 we were off on our visit…

Without sounding too much like a giant advertisement or some Molly Meldrum clone…do yourself a favour and spend a weekend at the brewery. Located within White Sands Estate, I guess a major point to make is the fact that you don’t have to be into craft beer to enjoy your stay (or wine for that matter as the estate also makes their own wine!). The brewery itself is well integrated into the main building/restaurant of the resort; with cabin type accommodations scattered around the grounds.


I could say a lot about the resort itself but in a nut shell the major things to know are:

  • It’s kid friendly but importantly isn’t set up as some sort of adventure playground for kids. This is a good thing. There is a brewery there after all!
  • The resort is remote. About 90 minutes drive south from Launceston, it’s located 30 minutes north of Bicheno on Tassie’s rugged East Coast. And by remote I mean remote. There are no towns or shops particularly close by.
  • It would rival any brewery in Australia for views. Only metres from the beach, on a cold, grey day in May you’d be forgiven for thinking you were by the coast in Ireland or Scotland. Admittedly you could also blame alcohol for thinking such things...
  • The restaurant does excellent meals. My slow roasted smoked beef was rich and hearty and my wife’s pork ribs wouldn’t be out of place in any BBQ restaurant in the US.

As for the brewery itself, their full range of standard beers are on tap in the restaurant/bar for you to sample (tasting paddles are available). You can also purchase bottles to take away (all the way to your cabin!) or even get yourself a 2 litre growler to enjoy your favourite beer fresh from the keg in your room. We did all three. Rebels…

In one way the beers do reflect the ‘Cascade / Boags drinking culture’ of the area. In terms of craftiness most are fairly safe, entry level beers. Serving up an Imperial IPA or Saison may please us, however it wouldn’t be all that approachable for the area. Yet.


The beers on offer were:
  • Pilsner
  • Wheat
  • Lager
  • Pale Ale
  •  Porter 
  •  Stout
Fairly standard stuff however it does have to be said that all the beers were made extremely well. Beyond a tasting paddle, I’d normally skip any Pilsner or Lager on offer…but both were refreshing and full flavoured.

However the standout to me was most definitely the Pale Ale, followed closely by the Porter. An American style Pale, it was hoppy, malty and very sessionable. After a few bottles (umm and a growler) I turned to my wife and dubbed it ‘Tasmania’s best Pale’. As an ex-Tasmanian I feel like I have some sort of say in this ‘award’…but thinking about it after (and apologies maybe to Moo Brew), I honestly think it might just be Tassies best Pale. Stuff it. It is…


Alas there was one more treat in store for us. Thanks to the friendly owners of White Sands Estate, we acquired a couple of bottles of Ironhouse’s latest one off release – Paddy’s Head Stout. The beer was aged in whiskey barrels from Hobart’s Lark Distillery. Wow doesn’t even begin to cut it; it was just magnificent.


If Ironhouse’s standard brews don’t start popping up on ‘mainland’ Australia, then it’s their specialty creations like Paddy’s Head or their entries into Good Beer Week / GABS that will see them gain a reputation in a bigger craft beer market like Melbourne.

Until then, I can’t wait to see what they do next. Otherwise, it will be another trip back to White Sands Estate. Did I mention the coastal views?


The essentials:

White Sands Estate
21554 Tasman Highway
Ironhouse Point
East Coast of Tasmania
PH: +61 3 6372 2228