Plonk bottlo, Tusker Lager and Jelen Pivo

According to Wikipedia, Fyshwick is known for its adult entertainment industry and as one of two suburbs in Canberra where prostitution is legal. That entry will have to be updated as it is also the home of 3 interesting sources of beer. Strickland Beer Group’s office is in Fyshwick, Zierholz Premium Brewery is in Fyshwick and one of Australia’s best bottlo’s is in the Fyshwick Food Market. Plonk is simply awesome and the range of Australian and overseas beer is superb. The range of prices is also extraordinary from a couple of bucks a stubbie to a number in the $10 to $20 range and some more than that. There was no problem to expand the number of countries covered by the BotF Beer List (if I get around to updating it).

The first new country attempted was Kenya. The exotically named Tusker Lager is made by the historically sounding East African Breweries Limited. This brewery has been producing beer since 1922 and has become a little bit of a Pacman in East Africa taking over breweries in Uganda and Tanzania. The history is colourful and one of the founders died soon after the company began when an elephant hunting trip went wrong. Despite their long and colourful history, EABL have not produced a great beer. Tusker Lager smells pretty ordinary and tastes worse. There is an ickiness and tinny after taste that dominates a very bland mouth feel. I hoped to find a Kenyan Embassy for an exotic piece of beer porn, but the Kenyan High Commission is on the 3rd floor of a small office block in the Canberra CBD. I’d suggest they do a swap with the Greeks that maintain an embassy despite their economic woes.

The second country visited was Serbia. Jelen Pivo is brewed by the Apatinska Brewery which has been going since 1756. It is unfortunately now owned by a private equity firm. Jelen sponsors the Serbian Football League and is probably the VB of Serbia – though that’s a guess. Jelen Pivo is pretty bland, but is totally inoffensive. You’ve gotta love the label, though.