Bar Biero – Sydney v Melbourne

Firstly just let me begin by saying I was born and live in Sydney. I need to get this out of the way early. Now to my theme today – this whole Melbourne versus Sydney thing really turns my stool to liquid. I mean, really, who farkin cares? With the global nature of things these days it’s like two seagulls fighting over a chip in the gutter.

This doesn’t stop the press in both cities turning everything from the location of public toilets to the position in some global list into a front page story about x being better than y. Isn’t there room for both cities to be brilliant in their own unique ways (which they are)? I secretly hope that everyone does think Melbourne is the better city so they’ll all move there and stop clogging up the Sydney roads, dropping in on me in the surf and making it hard to find a car park..almost anywhere. Though balanced Melbournites will also secretly harbour a similar outlook.

Now I am going to seem like a hypocrite and touch on area where Melbourne does do better than my hometown. Small bars. While they are starting to popup here and there in Sydney, the gems you find in Melbourne are brilliant. So I finally get to Biero Bar (@bierobar). Located on Little Lonsdale St and looking more like a 1920s temperance hall, your correspondent arrived on Wednesday night – half price pint night!

The beer list was hard to beat and had craft brewery representatives from Australia and the US. The food menu was pretty darn good also and as your correspondent has a penchant for tapas I punched out some chorizo, ‘belly of pork’ and a prawn and pumpkin nest. All brilliant but we’re here for the beer.

Pint #1 was a Murrays Gran Cru. Described as an ‘extreme’ beer by Murrays, this beer is has a hefty 8.8% ABV. It has a rich and ‘thick’ taste but was easy drinking. Having said that it was quite intense and I could probably only have one or two before saying something quite inappropriate to someone. A great drink it felt like cognac is to brandy – a class above.