Granite Belt Brewery - Stanthorpe

[Cosh]

I was just told of the news that a new brewery has finally opened at Stanthorpe www.granitebeltbrewery.com.au

It's out at Happy Valley and I'm planning on heading there later this week to sample all the beers and chat to the owners.

They currently have a Kolsch, Pilsner, Red Ale, IPA, Wheat and a Porter.

Has anyone been there yet?

 

[tallie]

I haven't been there yet, but I always thought a brewery could do well in that area (hopefully they pay more attention to their brewing than their website though!) Looking forward to checking it out some time.

Cheers,
tallie

 

[GuyQLD]

I'm heading out to stanthorpe in a couple of weeks for the small wine show. I'll add this to the itinerary and report back
some of those beers look tasty.

 

[winkle]

One guy from work was there last weekend and (whilst no beer geek) thought it was good and liked the food there.

 

[Rowy]

Both sides of the family come from there................lived there........................worked there...........................still have people in the area..............I smell road trip

 

[roboscot]

Not too keen on their abbreviation for Irish Red Ale...... h34r:

 

[pokolbinguy]

Visiting the area as I type. Having some lunch in Ballandeen at the moment, planning to check it out this afternoon.

 

[browndog]

Wheat at 5.5% and IPA at 5.3%................... Pok, slap the Brewer please.

 

[winkle]

Wheat at 5.5% and IPA at 5.3%................... Pok, slap the Brewer please.

Schneider's wheat are starting about there and they probably know a thing or two 'bout weiss.

 

[Cosh]

I finally made it out there and here are my thoughts:

The pub and restaurant are nicely presented, sorta like an old style country homestead with heaps of wood panelling.

They have 6 beers on tap and the prices are reasonable. They also do tasting paddles, but you can only get 4. So if you want to try all the beers, you need to buy two paddles and double-up on a couple.

The Beers:

Kolsch - Quite nice, but I found it to be a tad thin, due to the low alcohol content(3.5%). At full strength this would be delicious.

Pilsner - Very nice pils, malty and plenty of hop flavour

Red Ale - This was the pick of the bunch, Delicious!

Porter - Didn't really have a big sample of the Porter, but it tasted pretty good. Will try a full schooner next time.

Wheat - I didn't really like this one; it didn't really have any character apart from the wheat. Quite bland and not what I was expecting.

IPA - I didn't like this one either; it was probably more like an APA, but with minimal hop flavour or aroma.


So it is definitely worth a visit, and I will be going back in the near future to have a proper "tasting" session with the boys.

 

[GuyQLD]

I finally made it out there and here are my thoughts:

The pub and restaurant are nicely presented, sorta like an old style country homestead with heaps of wood panelling.

They have 6 beers on tap and the prices are reasonable. They also do tasting paddles, but you can only get 4. So if you want to try all the beers, you need to buy two paddles and double-up on a couple.

The Beers:

Kolsch - Quite nice, but I found it to be a tad thin, due to the low alcohol content(3.5%). At full strength this would be delicious.

Pilsner - Very nice pils, malty and plenty of hop flavour

Red Ale - This was the pick of the bunch, Delicious!

Porter - Didn't really have a big sample of the Porter, but it tasted pretty good. Will try a full schooner next time.

Wheat - I didn't really like this one; it didn't really have any character apart from the wheat. Quite bland and not what I was expecting.

IPA - I didn't like this one either; it was probably more like an APA, but with minimal hop flavour or aroma.


So it is definitely worth a visit, and I will be going back in the near future to have a proper "tasting" session with the boys.

I went out about 4 weeks ago and was planning on posting something but forgot about it until tonight (when I had had enough drinks for that part of the brain I have compartmentalised off under lock and alcohol kicked in)

I think right across the range the beers showed characteristics of later (I'm thinking 20min) hopping and I agree with the IPA being more characteristic of an APA with nothing below a 20 minute addition (or at least nothing I expected). I found this odd compared to the Red Ale which had a surprising about of hop flavour and aroma.

I agree with the above comments about the wheat. It had the characteristic tartness but was otherwise fairly clean. More like an American Wheat from my understanding.

My pick were the porter and the Red Ale - I think I'll start adding some later additions to my reds now, I know it wont be to style but it worked really well. And Porter is not a style I'm familiar with, but it had a really good balance of the darker malts which I find in Stouts to be a bit tooo coffee like for my tastes. the Porter was more dry chocolate and went down really well.

 

[Northside Novice]

We went on a bit of a mini road trip a couple of weekends ago to the granite country and stopped here for lunch.

Very impressed, a very good spot, great food and beers . They have cabins too! might do an over nighter next time .
A fair bit bigger than I imagined with a large dinning hall off one side of the old English like bar, a smaller traditional English style boozer area with lounges and fire place of the bar front and another drinking area off the other bar side with high stools and bar tables. Quite a strong English traditional feel but with a german feel with the large dinning hall . Its a really cool bar , outside theres a rustic aussie verandah dinning/drinking area leading to a beer garden complete with duck pond and of course granite !

The actual brewery is in a separate building right next to the bar/restaurant , you can see it from the bar through some large windows .

They had a lovely Rauchbier on tap along with their others mentioned in above posts. The porter was lovely and going down a treat aswell , great winter warmers :icon_drool2:

Overall we loved it and would go back in a flash, although the 6 hr round trip drive from our place my see us staying in one of their cabins next time . They do sell take aways and its really nice country down there , chuck in some bottles of wine from any of the 100 or so wineries and bags of fresh apples , and it makes a great mini road trip. (saw many an opportunity for some scrumping to be done too)

 

[Northside Novice]

more pics

 

[Bribie G]

Booked in for two nights from Wednesday. Will report. It looks like the beers lineup is the same as three years ago.

OOhh, you're going to a retreat.... Yoga? Buddhist?

Nope, fuckin beer.

 

[BJB]

Beers would want to be better than a few years back when I visited.

 

[sp0rk]

Booked in for two nights from Wednesday. Will report. It looks like the beers lineup is the same as three years ago.

OOhh, you're going to a retreat.... Yoga? Buddhist?

Nope, fuckin beer.

I'd skip the Irish Red Ale, I was very diappointed with it

 

[earle]

Booked in for two nights from Wednesday. Will report. It looks like the beers lineup is the same as three years ago.

OOhh, you're going to a retreat.... Yoga? Buddhist?

Nope, fuckin beer.

Check out their facebook site. Think they have a roggenbier on at the moment

 

[madpierre06]

Would rather go for the fishin' if they're on a decent water course. Can get a decent beer by just walking downstairs to the fridge. Or into the kitchen.

 

[Bribie G]

Just having a wee trip and a weekend away with SWMBO as one does, beer is secondary bonus. Have you actually been there madpierre?

 

[BJB]

Nice spot Bribie, you'll enjoy the time away.