Commercial Hotel (Morpeth) + Potters (Hunter Valley)

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

freek

Well-Known Member
Joined
21/7/12
Messages
50
Reaction score
15
I have nothing to do with either business but want to put in a plug these two.
On Saturday I visited both and got a good deal out of each visit.

Staring with the Commercial- they had a small, basic brew pub setup. The brewers name was Dave Allan, he was very friendly and very happy to share the knowledge he had. He is there 12-1pm on Saturdays.

From Dave I learnt how low tech brewing can still produce fantastic beer. It was a very small setup using a 200L Braumiester that fed the pub. He did not use any floculants, clarifying agents or filtration. He did not oxygenate the wort prior to fermentation. He did not use secondary conditioning tanks. He did not force carbonate, he added fresh wort to the kegs to naturally carbonate. The result was cloudy, tasty beers. I thoroughly enjoyed each of the four different beers I had there my favorite was a "big hitter", a darker ale.

Potters brewery also ran a very decent tour with knowledgeable, friendly folk. They run tours daily 12pm, 2pm and 4pm. They swung a bit more toward the commercial style of filtered, well finished beers. This is what I was expecting from a commercial setup. They knew a good deal about the overall processes and were happy to show me all of the intricate details after the main tour broke up. Their brew vessels were integrated into one of their bars and on show to the drinkers. They were brewing beer while I was there. They had just finished a boil and were showing me the whirlpool, chilling and transfer process.

Thumbs up to both!
 
The Commercial sounds well intentioned, but I find that this "beers should be natural and cloudy" and also orange in colour for some strange reason, to be a bit of a wank. Sorry.

Growing up in the UK I grew my beer gland on UK real ales which are cask conditioned - as Morpeth strive to do - unpasteurised, and ales. And they are are crystal clear due to natural settling and a bit of help from some isinglass. So cloudy orange beers are not to my taste. IMHO they are cutting corners and justifying this with a spiel, and could do far better. Also if they are intending to woo entry level craft beer drinkers they are probably going to drive them away.

Manu has spoken :p
 
jess and keith at potter are great and really know their stuff.
i enjoy every visit i make. highly recommend dropping by.
 
Interesting regarding the Commercial, I've fixed their pokies every now and then over the years...though probably not in the last twelve months

Wonder how long they've been doing this?
 
Back
Top