Going Down Under

What a day - no alarm, not too much program (just a relaxed craft beer tour in the afternoon😂), no hurry... Anyway, I was active, too, at least in the morning. After waking up at 9:00 am (last days I sleep very badly at the hostels), I went for a run at the lake. I was not in a good shape though. I ran some 10 km, but I really had to fight to make this happen, after 6 km I was already about giving up. At noon I was picked up for a craft beer brewery tour. I was the only participant, but it was great anyway. So, I had a lot of time to talk with Lewis who runs these tours. First, he took me to the Altitude Brewery on the fringes of Queenstown. Pretty small location with a cool atmosphere with skis and lift seats on the "terrace". They have some twenty beers on tap. I could choose five of them which was not so easy😀 Well, I think, I had a good mix with a plisner, a pale ale, an India pale ale, a sour and a stout. I liked them all, well, the sour (it is sour!) for me only matches a hot summer day/evening when you want a really refreshing beer. Then, Lewis took me to the Cargo Brewery about half an hour away from Queenstown which used to be a winery before it was turnt into a brewery about two years ago. The tasting room is an old church. There, I could taste four beers together with four corresponding small dishes: a refreshing lager wih some cheese, a wheat beer with a spicy sausage, an India Pale Lager with some jalapeño cheese balls, and a porter with a chocolate cake. All went really well together. I did like the wheat pretty much because it had some notes of banana, also very nice for a hot summer evening. I think, I had never drunken an India Pale Lager before. It has a more interesting taste than a regular lager. After Cargo, we had some spare time before going to the last brewery. Lewis took me to Arrowtown, a little town which was founded in the gold rush of the late 19th century. I am happy, I could see it. On my own, I would never have gone there. On the way back to Queenstown, we had to wait for a rescue helicopter to land on the road. There were also many police and fire brigade cars. It must have been a heavy crash, but we could not see any details. Lewis decided not to wait for the road to be opened again, but to turn and take another road. We came into Queenstown over Queenstown hill. I was flashed by the view on Lake Wakatipu, the mountains and Queenstown - amazing! The weather had become so nice again. When we started the tour there were many dark clouds and Lewis expected it start raining soon. Fortunately, the clouds pushed along with only a few drops of rain. The last brewery - the Searchlight Brewery - was in Queenstown again; a pretty hidden location in a commercial/industrial area. Here, I could chose four from sixteen beers, again not easy, but I went four a "wheat" (not so special like the one before, but also good [close to a "Kristallweizen"]), a brut IPA (very special), a red ale (very nice to drink), and a milk stout (a nice sweetness from the added milk). At Searchlight, I could also visit the brewing area with the malt mill, the heating tanks as well as the brew tanks - pretty small, considering that they have sixteen beers on tap. I also bought a bottle of beer there which I am going to enjoy the next days. Searchlight was the end of the great tour. I thank Lewis, that he ran it even though I was the only customer. After the tour, I got some stuff organised for the weeks to come and went for dinner and a beer at a craft beer place in town where I could get a 15% discount because I had gone on Lewis' tour.Read more