Leaving the dreariness of Melbourne's outer suburbs behind, it was refreshing to see the lovely vineyards and sheep-grazing country that surrounds the hamlet of Tooborac. Standing proud like a henge in the centre of town is the bluestone construction, The Tooborac Hotel.
A family run hotel, the publican has turned the former Cobb & Co. stables at the rear into his own micro, and he was kind enough to take us for a private tour. He has a large, 700 litre mash tun and six fermenters. The feature though is the bottling area, using the latest technology, our brewer uses his five children to bottle all his beers. A nice touch. He keeps a separate conditioning room at a regulated temperature to enable secondary fermentation.
Inside the pub is glorious! An enormous double-sided fireplace is the highlight, and it was roaring solidly by the time of our early arrival. It is always a relief to see new owners of old pubs maintain heritage, and this is definitely the case at Tooborac. All the original rooms remain, and the walls are adorned with old photos one could spend hours perusing. The local stonemason was obviously kept busy during renovations and he was rewarded handsomely with a beer named in his honour. With good reason, his handiwork is very impressive on this darling of a building.
He allowed us to sample a couple of his brews, namely the Amber Ale and the sumptuous Porter. I personally found the Amber to be dominated by the Cascade Hop finish, and he seemed a touch affronted when I mentioned this. A man is always proud of his brews of course. But I left him in no doubt of my fondness for his Porter and he mentioned it was selling well in these winter months. We left with an armload of takeaways and bid a fond farewell.
Right now I'm sitting at home enjoying a Limited Release Amber Ale. It is a muddy red colour and has strong flavours of grape involved. Under-carbonated by my reckoning, and the missus thinks this may be caused by the, shall we say, imperfect bottling techniques. But I preferred it to his standard Amber. More Porters await in the fridge.
All in all a visit that was well worth it, and highly recommended for anyone doing a day trip from Melbourne. If for nothing else than to see such a grand looking old pub.
http://www.tooborachotel.com.au/
