So I am travelling in regional Australia. Albury to Shepparton today. More on Albury in another post, but I got an opportunity to enjoy a couple of beers in the side of a hill amongst 100 year wine barrels at one of Victoria’s more venerable craft breweries. Black Dog Brewery has been around as long as Back of the Ferry has been a blog. In 2012, I copped a tip from another blogger @tipplesblog about their IPA and I gave it five from five on @untappd. @TipplesBlog no longer blogs, but he is still on Untappd and Black Dog Brewery is still going.
Black Dog Brewery is not far from Glenrowan – Ned Kelly country, but it is a remote location. My workmate was driving a car slung low to the ground and wasn’t happy about the rutted dirt no through road. It is only 16km from Glenrowan or 22km from Wangaratta but it feels far away from everything. I can’t tell you how relieved I was to see that it was open given the detour. The opening hours on Google are correct.
I don’t where the beer brewing equipment is but the taproom is in an amazing stone building built in 1914 that houses historic wine barrels that are over 100 years of age. The site is dominated by the Booths Taminick Cellars, but the brewer likes a beer and has been brewing since 2011. He is a fourth generation Booth and juggled the two jobs for some time. According to Untappd he’s 68 different beers since starting off.
There’s four taps for tasting, but the fridge has some of the classics including the five from five Leader of the Pack IPA. The ginger beer which just about every brewer is having a crack at is nicely spicy. It truly is a unique drinking experience in amongst massive historic wine barrels in a wonderful old building. If you are close and the opening hours align – this is a place you should visit once in your life.
Black Dog Brewery: 339 Booth Rd, Taminick VIC
back of the ferry 