3. The Wig & Pen - Wed 27 January 2010

Well how time flies, we’ve just had the third Australian Brew Club gathering which was held at The Wig & Pen on Wednesday the 27^th of January 2010 and again it was a great success. 

The Wig & Pen is a traditional brewpub and has been part of the Canberra social scene since 1994. It has ten different beers brewed on premises, some on Tap and some on Hand Pump.
The food was traditional pub fare. It was a bit of a step down from All Bar Nun and Debacle, nun the less it nicely suited our casual gathering

The 1^st beer we tasted was the “Kamberry Ale”. A German Style ale, pale to golden in colour with a hint of graininess and fruit in the aroma. Light to medium body, a very easy drinking ale.  We were served some garlic bread and some nice little prawn kebabs.

The 2^nd beer was “Brewers IPA”(hand pumped).  The India Pale Ale is a classic variety of British ale designed to survive the rugged sea voyages to India.  The use of four malts and four hops combine to create a very hoppy ale.  An earthy and ripe fruit aroma makes way a for a robust malty middle palate and a long dry finish.   

We were served more garlic bread and some little dim sims accompanied by some sweet chilli dipping sauce.

The 3^rd beer was “Rumpole Organic Pale”.  Brewed using ale malt from Warmister Maltings in the UK and organic caramunich from Weyerman Maltings in Germany.  The hops are a new variety from Tasmania called Galaxy.  The rich biscuity malt is balanced by the intense passionfruit and grapefruit aromas.  This beautiful ale was accompanied by some perfectly cooked, crisp hot potato chips and some sate chicken kebabs.

The 4^th and last beer of the evening was the “Velvet Cream Stout”.  This was a deliciously creamy and roasty dry stout with an intense lingering dark bitter / sweet chocolate finish.  They use an innovative conditioning technique to achieve the outstanding creamy smoothiness.   This was a perfect beer to wash down some potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli dipping sauce as well some golden brown deep fried chicken pieces.

Our special thanks goes out to all the guys at The Wig & Pen for providing the venue and the great beer and food.

The warm weather resulted in a nice little windfall, we were able to fine anyone not wearing their Hall socks as they were wearing thongs.  Again there was a fine for anyone caught using the word “WINE”, this is continuing to be a very good money spinner as quite a few guys were caught out.