4. The Wood Duck Inn - Wed 17 March 2010

The old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.  Well the ABC members certainly didn’t have that problem on St Patrick’s Day 2010, they were very thirsty.

Allyson Wedrat and the staff of the The Wood Duck Inn out at Hall hosted the 4^th ABC gathering on the 17^th of March 2010.  The Wood Duck is like Hall Rugby’s club house, across the road from The Hideout (Hall Oval), a home away from home for many of the ABC members.

The 1^st beer we drunk was “Guinness Extra Stout” served in the stubbie.  This was perfect beer to start the evening with given it was St Patrick’s Day.  As the name implies, this is a solid, full flavoured beer. From the same family as Guinness and Murphy's & Cooper's Stout. It retains the natural brew aspect, so it isn't like the Guinness you'd get from a tap. It uses specially roasted black malt to produce a strong, dark flavour.  The Extra Stout was matched perfectly with a serving of Oysters Kilpatrick.

The 2^nd beer was “Hand-crafted Bohemian Pilsener” from the Red Hill Brewery.  Based on the classic style of lager first brewed in the town of Pilsen in Bohemia (now Czech Republic), this is an unfiltered, yet clean & balanced beer. A generous malt character imparts a slight sweetness which is balanced by potent hop bitterness, achieved by 3 hefty additions of hop flowers in the boil. A long and cold fermentation period followed when plenty of hop flowers were steeped in the conditioning tanks with the beer for a further 6 weeks creating a floral and spicy aroma. Golden in colour with a dense white head, it went very well with a serving of lemon grass chicken.

The 3^rd beer was “Redback Original ale”.  Using bushels of the country's finest malted wheat, malted barley and a perfect blend of Saaz and Pride of Ringwood hops, Matilda Bay brewers have been producing Redback Original for more than 20 years. The deliciously refreshing brew is modelled on the creamy, wheat-style beers of southern Germany, and has become a benchmark for Australian wheat beers.  This was accompanied by a beautiful serve of seared prawns in a spicy peanut sauce.

The 4th beer of the evening was the “Beez Neez” another beauty from the Matilda Bay brewers.  This is a unique Australian made specialty beer. Brewed with a blend of premium pale malted barley and malted wheats with an equal amount of pure light amber honey. The light malt palate with its sominating honey aroma and flavour create a pale light golden coloured beer with a moderate bitterness.   Our last little feed for the night was a very nice little serving of rare seared beef in worcesthire sauce.

The 5^th – 25^th beers were various delectable tipples all from the taps at the Wood Duck. Members showed their stamina & prowess at guzzling approx 25 beers each, could have been a better effort but members showed restraint due to having to work the following day.

Our special thanks go out to all the guys at The Wood Duck Inn for providing the venue and the great beer and food.

A good little raffle was held with the first prize being a bottle of “La Trapple“as well as some Hall Rugby merchandise as the minor prizes.

Don’t forget beer was invented by monks, so each drink you get closer to god!  I think I met him after the last beer club meeting.