The view from our
balcony is lovely. A quaint little park directly below, often full of
dog walkers. Not dog walkers as such, with silly, tiny little toy
dogs they simply stand around while their dogs prance about the place
with their fluffy coats, curly tails and squashed little faces. Toy
dogs seem to be all the rage in Sydney. Nowhere is more obvious than
the parks in and around Surry Hills.
There anything wrong
with toy dogs, apart from their size and all the health concerns that
come with some pedigree breeds. It is like these little creatures are
not being used and treated as pets as such, the owners stand around
and converse using their dogs as ice breakers and conversation
starters.
On the corner of this
block, just past the doggie garden and above the apartments car park
is a pub. A relatively English looking and feeling pub.
If you read any pub
guides or food guides, 'The Royal Albert' is sure to be in it or
them. Famous for serving some of the best dumplings in Sydney. With a
constantly changing assortment of beer, fantastic craft beers at
that, it's obvious why.
Maybe it was the night
we arrived or another night soon after. My brother took me and my dad
on a massive marathon, twenty second walk to The Royal Albert around
the corner. It was a quiet evening but the pub was busy enough to
give it some atmosphere. Many many taps, a couple of hand pumps and a
canning machine. The place really looked and felt the part. Having
regular tap takeovers by craft brewers from all over Australia and
further overseas. The most recent one being 'Black Dog Brewery'. It
was last week but there still had several beers still on tap from
Black Dog.
Like always, so much
choice made for a very difficult decision, especially when I had no
idea what this brewery was and what their beers were like. My dad had
a '4 Pines Stout' as he fancied a darker beer. 4 Pines were a former
micro brewery based in Manly, in the Northern Beaches in Sydney. I
say 'former micro brewery' because they have grown considerably since
my last visit to Australia a few years ago.
I really should start
making note of the beers I'm having. When I get to a stage where I've
tried about twenty different beers and not written down what it was
or anything. I put it down to the fact that I'm drinking too much not
getting drunk but the sheer quantity of different beers is making
things difficult.
I remember having a
Black Dog 'Leader of the pack IPA' and two Saisons, one was the
'Estate Hopped Saison' and I can't remember the other but it wasn't a
hoppy one. The IPA was darker than usual for what I would have
thought an IPA should, it was hoppy and delicious but with so many
other beers, I couldn't settle with an IPA. I had to try more, my
palate needed a bit of excitement, a voyage of discovery like
Christopher Columbus setting off in search of The New World. Two very
different but at the same time quite similar farmhouse ales. The
Saison that wasn't hopped or anywhere near as hoppy was very typical
of a traditional Belgian Saison. Light, sweet, spicy, fruity and
rather yummy. I preferred that over the hopped one, it had an overall
more pleasant and rounded flavour and feel. Saison was the style of
choice last year in the UK and USA so it is really good to see that
such a 'hip' and 'cool' beer has made its way over the vast oceans
and is now a very 'happening' style down under.
I really like The Royal
Albert, a brilliant barman (and other bar staff), great beers and the
most convenient location for where I'm staying. The last time I was
this close to a pub was when I lived above one.
The Australian Black Dog Brewery (not the English or Kiwi one)
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