Dropped in today after lunch at the Monk and a couple White Rabbit's at LC's.
It's at an old converted cafe/restaurant/bar on the beach in North Freo. Great location actually, nice views out onto the beach and ocean, sun shining and the freo doctor to cool you down. Had a squiz through the glass doors - looks like the "nano" brewery is converted dairy gear? Good way to start out anyway.
4 beers on tap - Kolsch, Altbier, Hefe and Dunkelweizen. They had a 3 beer taster tray (kind of silly considering there were 4 beers?), decent sized tasters too, about 200ml each. Tried the Alt, Hefe and Dunkel.
Had the hefe first, nice banana, could have done with a little more carbonation to lift it (and give it some head), but was quite a quaffable hefe. Very balanced and dry enough to be a good thirst quencher in the warm beach setting.
Altbier was the standout. Really complex malt flavours, nutty biscuits, fresh baked bread, maltesers (i.e malt/chocolate combined). Quite clean too, perfect balance of bitterness for the beer. I could of had a pint or two of this easily, I'm not normally into Alt as a style, but this was a truely morish yet still dry/quaffable beer. Clear ruby colour - good head retention/lace too.
Dunkelweizen was disappointing. Only had two mouthfuls. Looked appetising, very persistent creamy head atop a cloudy brown coloured beer. Instant flavour of burnt rubbery plastic though, almost band-aid like. Clearly a problem with the beer (infection?), unfortunate considering the quality of the Alt.
I didn't bother ordering a Kolsch - but it was obviously going down well as loads of people were drinking it. My boss was there a week or two ago for their Oktoberfest and said the Kolsch was enjoyable. He's not into craft beers so it was obviously clean / drinkable.
I think it has real potential to be a great beach bar. Would be nice to see them try something a little adventurous though. Would be a great spot for a "Pizza Port" style location like in southern California. I.e. informal beach bar with good, simple food like pizza and an array of interesting beers. I don't see the need to stick with a German "theme" - Duckstein already has that cornered. Maybe the brewer is German?