# Redoak



## Jim_Levet (20/4/06)

RedOak picked up 2 Gold Medals at the World Beer Cup. Honey Ale & Rauch Beer took top honours while the Baltic Porter got a bronze. I will have to save up for another trip to this over priced & over achieving establishment.
James
No affiliation, I have never been a fan of there beers!


----------



## Finite (3/5/06)

I had a big night out last night at the Lowenbrau Keller, Lord Nelson and Australian Hotel. Was a really good time unfortunatley the other place I wanted to go to was the red oak but we didnt get there.

However I have heard from other people that it is very expensive.

Anyway I have to say that the Nelsons Blood was quite a nice drop at the Lord Nelson as was Victory Bitter which tastes remakably similar to Samuel Adams Boston Lager. It claims to be an english style but taste like a Vienna to me.

BTW if you go to the louwenbrau their Munich Dunkel and Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Dunkel are good drops!


----------



## Stuster (3/5/06)

The Redoak was one stop on the AHB Pub Crawl last month and I have to say it was the only stop that I won't be going back too, very disappointing IMO. All the other pubs were great, especially the Belgian Beer Cafe.

I had the altbier and had to send it back. It was very phenolic, which is how they describe it on their menu and website as well I later found out. Since this is certainly not how altbiers are supposed to be I do not know why they call it an altbier. Using a style description helps the drinker order something they want. If you can call any beer anything you want, that's no help to the drinker at all. Might as well just give the beers a number.

They were also completely blase about taking it back. Really seemed they didn't care why I didn't like it. :angry: 

Rant ends.


----------



## Boozy the clown (4/5/06)

I still rate Franziskaner as one of my favourites, pale or dunkel, das ist gud ya! :chug:


----------



## Franko (4/5/06)

Boozy ya ya


----------



## Weizguy (4/5/06)

Stuster,

I felt the same way about a beer I got at the Nelson, along time ago, but I went back with an open mind, and enjoyed their beers. I just didn't drink the one that was foul last time.

They are almost redeemed, except for the incident of the Admiral's Blood. Is it correct that they wouldn't pour it for us because some loser snapped off the plastic sparkler head??? Incredible!

Don't write the pub off. You can still go there, but U don't have to drink there.

Did U get a refund?

Boozy, I'm not sure that U remember what U drank at the Lowenbrau. And then interfering with a bloke's beard...shame.

Just joking. What happens on the AHB event stays with the AHB event.

Oh, and the Franziskaners were superb.

Seth out


----------



## Boozy the clown (4/5/06)

Hey, I have been the owner of such facial pride, i'm sure I showed you the proof. I carefully selected only one whisker to remove, no uncouth grabbing of such finery.

Totally compis mentis at lowenbrau, clown emerged some time at the belgian!


----------



## petesbrew (5/5/06)

Redoak's okay & Belgian Beer Cafe is fantastic... just up the limit on yr credit card if you're up for a bender!

Has Anyone been to that Bavarian Bier Hall? Gotta give it a try sometime.


----------



## mikem108 (5/5/06)

The Bavarian Beer Cafe is the Lowenbrau with fancy surroundings, beers are the same but the food is different. Only worth going if you can't make it all the way to the Rocks.


----------



## johnno (5/5/06)

Earlier tonight was given a Wee Heavy Ale and a Belgian Chocolate Stout.

I have tried the Red Duck Golden Dragon which is the closest to a Scttish Ale I have had yet.
It tastes pretty good, nice sweetness due to low hop additions. At 8% it is very warming. mmmm....should make similar one day.

The Choc stout is very tasty as well. Their site says its got oatmeal in it but I cannot taste any.


Both beers held minimum head. The stout probably held one for 40 seconds.

Overall not bad beers at all. I'm just glad for the price they sell I can make similar at home.

Pretty crappy review overall, but thats the best I can do for now.

cheers
johnno


----------



## sah (28/5/06)

I spent a couple of days in the City last week and spent a few dollars at Red Oak. All of their offerings I tried were superb. The Alt was not what I expected, so perhaps it is on the verge of the style. From memory I sampled the following (not in order):

- framboise
- bock
- alt
- wee heavy
- cask mild
- belgian choc stout

And others I've forgotten.

This place's beers are really superb and to my taste no other local beer comes close.

Other places of note that I visited were the Lord Nelson and the Australian. I was impressed with The Cage lager at the Aus, its a very malty lager. Unfortunately two of the local offerings from the same hotel were obviously infected 

I did notice that most of the pubs / bars have really increased the number of beers they have on tap in the last few years.

Scott


----------



## scotsdalebrewery (28/5/06)

With redoak you get what you pay for - you pay lots but you get lots - IMHO.


----------



## sah (28/5/06)

scotsdalebrewery said:


> With redoak you get what you pay for - you pay lots but you get lots - IMHO.
> [post="129839"][/post]​



And if you are a beer junky this means a big hit to the hip pocket :beerbang:

I wouldn't want to scare anyone off though.

Scott


----------



## big d (28/5/06)

Some positive some negative reviews.Do they sell beer interstate so on my travels i may bump into there beers to try.?

Cheers 
Big D


----------



## sah (28/5/06)

big d said:


> Some positive some negative reviews.Do they sell beer interstate so on my travels i may bump into there beers to try.?
> [post="129851"][/post]​



There exist a few interstate stockists, see http://www.redoak.com.au/downloads/RedoakStockists.htm

They also ship stubbies direct, but the destinations are limited?, see
http://www.redoak.com.au/BuyingRedoakBeer.htm

Scott


----------



## big d (28/5/06)

Unfortunately looks like im in the two state and one territory west of the divide so i miss out.May have to factor in an eastern state trip one day.

Cheers
D


----------



## lucas (28/5/06)

I recommend the Honey Ale. I tried it at beertopia and it was fantastic, crapped all over 'bees knees'. sadly it doesnt appear to come in bottles


----------



## Jens-Kristian (29/5/06)

SWMBO and myself went to the Nelson in November last year. After having spent the preceeding 48 hours in transit going from Denmark through London (where we went to Ye Old Cheshire Cheese for lunch and a couple of pints) and then on to the flight from hell. Seriously, no-one above the height of 1.65 was comfortable on that plane due to the seats being much, much too close to eachother. I'm 1.86 and didn't get a wink of sleep.

Going to The Lord Nelson felt like I was finally in a spot I could once again survive in. 

Good beers. We only had two at the pub, Trafalgar Pale Ale and Three Sheets, both of which were great beers. Can't comment all that much on them as the only thing I can really remember about them was that they brought bliss to me. Until then I had been worried if it was even possible to get good beer in Australia. We only manage two beers, because we had to catch a train to Melbourne. I could have stayed all night otherwise. 

It's definitely a place I want to come back to!

In Melbourne, the best I saw was The Charles Dickens, but it would have been great if they had a brewery as well. They easily have the atmosphere to live up to it.

Cheers,

Jens-Kristian


----------



## Boots (29/5/06)

I've been to Redoak a few times now (not recently though) and every time i went, there wasn't a beer that i didn't like. I particularly remember enjoying the organic pale ale and oatmeal stout. I can't remember the other beers i tried (there were a few) unfortunately.

Yes it's expensive ... but what do you expect. It's a boutique brewery in the heart of the Sydney CBD, with a white tablecloth restaurant serving fine food. They are aiming at a particular segment of the market and good on them for doing that. (having said that, I've seen their 6pack prices and from memory feel that for that price ... I would stick to going in and getting it fresh / well looked after out of the tap)

I'll say one thing, their staff were excited about their beer and keen to talk about it, which is sadly absent in a lot of the brewpubs I've been to around australia.


----------



## sinkas (29/5/06)

big d said:


> Unfortunately looks like im in the two state and one territory west of the divide so i miss out.May have to factor in an eastern state trip one day.
> 
> Cheers
> D
> [post="129857"][/post]​




Dont worry too much Big D, im sure the overcharging mo-fo's at the IBS in perth will stock it soon, and a obscenely inflated price.


----------



## Curry (13/6/06)

Hey Guys,

Having just visited the Redoak Caf for the first time, I thought it would be good to share my thoughts bearing in mind Im no expert.

The first thing you should know is they have lots of seasonals, 17 to be exact. Coupled with the standard menu of 12 makes for a lot of choice.

Anyway I managed to down 7 plus a few mouthfuls of a couple more; my thoughts:

Bavarian Pilsener: a very easy beer to drink, very crisp but all in all not a wow beer.
Organic Pale Ale: you can definitely taste the fruity character coming out of the hops, easy to drink, but once again nothing special
Hefeweizen: this looked more like a Cristalweizen than a Hefeweizen, my least favourite due to the lack of taste
Rauch Bier: let it be know that I had never had a Rauch styled beer before, and I was very curious when the waitress said it will taste like smoked salmon. WOW! I have never tasted anything like this before; the smoked flavour is very strong. Definitely my pick of the night.
St Nicholas: as soon as I drank this beer it reminded me of a Belgium that I had tried, as my memory was starting to go at this point it became hard for me to remember but I likened it to the Hoegaarden Forbidden Fruit. A strong beer at 9.2%
Weizen Dopplebock: now this is a much better weizen, you can definitely taste the banana esters coming out and its strong at 8.4%
Belgium Choc-Cherry Stout: full of flavour is the only way to describe this one and they are not wrong when they say it has a black forest cake aroma to it. 
Of the other ones I tried with only a few mouthfuls:
Honey Ale: A very light and easy to drink beer, rather crisp.
Framboise Froment: lots of taste to this one but I dont think I could drink many of them. Im not sure if they were trying to do a lambic with this one.
Blackberry Hefeweizen: I must give them credit for this one as I have never tried a flavoured weizen before and once again this one was full of flavour, not bad really.

All in all my thoughts of the place were positive when it came to the beer and service. My advice would be to bypass the standard stock beers and head straight to the unique styles like the Blackberry Hefeweizen or the Rauch. Ill second what Boots said about the staff, they are definitely engaged and want to talk about there product. My only downside with the place was the food, we elected against the dinner menu as the choice wasnt that great and the price was a bit on the high side. We did however have some bar snacks which were okay but nothing great. My recommendation would be to drink some beers, walk two doors down to Oportos then come back for some more beers.
Two links that you might want to look at before you go:
Regular beer Menu
Special Beer Menu

Cheers

Curry


----------

