Mornington Peninsula - Red Hill Brewery

88 Shoreham Road
Red Hill South VIC 3937
Ph: 5989 2959
Website: www.redhillbrewery.com.au

This post is part of my Mornington Peninsula weekend courtesy of Mornington Peninsula Tourism and Q Strategies. Check out the other posts here:
-Heronswood Gardens
-Red Hill Estate and Max's Restaurant
-Peninsula Hot Springs
-The Long Table
-Woodman Estate
-Linden Tree Restaurant and Lindenderry Hotel

After a great night's rest at Woodman Estate and a wonderful breakfast, it was off to Red Hill Brewery to try out some fantastic beer. I heard many good things about Red Hill Brewery and tried their Golden Ale before, which I loved. I had tweeted with Karen before and was looking forward to meeting her and David in person. The brewery is owned and operated by Karen and David Golding, making boutique beers with quality ingredients resulting in award winning beers. Karen looks after the bar and administration while David is responsible for making the beers.


Karen and David helped explain their ales to me with their sampling board. I started off with the Golden Ale, which is light and bright. It's extremely easy drinking and something that I think most people will like. The next beer was the Wheat Beer, which had more flavours from the hops. The Scotch Ale next was my favourite of the day. It had a strong flavour, a bit sweet and caramel in taste. The Hop Harvest, as the name suggests, is strong in hop flavour and has a good kick. I also got to try the Black Indian Ale (not pictured) which is a special limited brew. Karen said it was the latest trend amongst beer geeks, to try and infuse as much hops as possible into the ale. That beer definitely had a massive kick of hops.


The bar which adjoins the brewery is a simple space, with an indoor and outdoor section. While you can go and just taste the fantastic beers, they also serve simple bar food if you want a bit to eat.


After sampling the beers, Karen showed me around the brewery. It was interesting to see the whole process from the start to end. You can see the tank on the left, which is where the grains are heated up and mixed with the yeast. Then it's all transferred to the second vault where the hops are added for an hour at a high temperature. You can see the hops below. Hops are a type of flower off a plant, and they have the really strong bitter flavour that you taste in some beers. Only a small amount should be added as it is really strong. The brew then goes through a heat exchange to cool down from 100C to 20C. Once it's cooled, it off into the silver tanks for 3 days or so to let the yeast settle out and then removed. Finally, it's bottled, labelled, and ready for your consumption. The brewery makes about 1600 litres of beer a week, of the various types. The three standards of Golden Ale, Wheat Beer and Scotch Ale are available all year round, with seasonal beers made throughout the different months.



It was fantastic to try the beers and to see how it's made from start to finish. I would highly recommend you come and visit Red Hill Brewery and try the beers for yourself. I'm sure you won't leave without buying a few dozen like I did. Thanks to Karen and David for hosting me and explaining everything I ever wanted to know about beer.