Weirdly enough, there weren’t as many sore heads after the Bridge Road Brewery / Tanswells pub jaunt. Most of us managed to stumble on down to help ourselves to breakfast. The plan was then to get back on the bus and head to the Bright Brewery, which is conveniently located in the town of Bright.

A few of us took the opportunity to use our post-breakfast time to have our wallets violated by the local Beechworth Sweet Shop. The fudge from there was delicious and comes in all sorts of flavours but I was attracted by the more gimmicky fare on offer…

They did have a lot of other things that took me back to my British childhood. I safely opted not to buy such sweets so as not to cause financial and dental ruin.

Seeing as that wasn’t enough, we also bought out all the large fabled Beechworth Bakery bee stings (good work, Ryan!). I’m not much of a sweet tooth (anymore) but I bought a small one to see what the fuss was about. I’m really glad I got one – they’re actually not that sweet. They have a cream filling and have honey on top which is then sprinkled with almonds. If you’re in the area, you should definitely have one.

We headed back to Bridge Road Brewery around the corner and waited for the buses to pick us up. It turned out that we had managed to ‘lose’ two of our party. Not being able to get in touch with them, we circled some popular spots in Beechworth before deciding we really had to leave for Bright – but not before everyone stocked up with ‘travellers’. I can’t believe people were actually finishing 6-packs en route to another brewery. Some of these folks have stamina.

When we arrived, the head brewer Scott Brandon was on hand to greet us and give us a tour. It’s a very different set-up to Bridge Road Brewery. Most of their equipment was purchased secondhand from a Japanese brewery that had shut down. Pretty cool!

At this stage, I will confess that it was very hard to concentrate – having to ‘enjoy’ a tasting paddle in a somewhat rushed time period may have been responsible for this…no doubt the staff had to work their arses off for thirty hungry and thirsty punters.

When you get your paddle, start with this side. Lightest to darkest is usually a good rule of thumb! From left to right we have: Hellfire amber ale, Bright lager, and Razor witbier. I have to confess that these didn’t do much for me, even though I’ve enjoyed the Razor on several occasions.

What can I say, I like darkies.

From left to right – Staircase porter (my favourite drop from Bright Brewery), Fainters dubbel (this one will hit you for six!) and the Brewers’ Choice (Winter Warmer stout). Ale Tsar Shandy got his growler filled with Staircase porter which was an excellent choice. Too bad the manky whatsit didn’t share on the way home…

The only thing soaking up the beer was nachos. Most people chose pizza as there were several flavours to choose from. Having had pizza the day before, I wasn’t in the mood for it. It’s a sad day when you realise just how much of a food blogger wankster you’ve become. Anyway, nachos – delicious. Enough for two? You bet! I know the brewery’s not really set up to feed so many people so quickly, but there were a fair few road trippers who waited a very long time for food. Our friend R didn’t get his kransky at all though was refunded. Naturally, there was much joking about a man and his wait for a sausage.

But wait, that’s not all! Scott, the head brewer, decided to treat us all to a special drop. It was sweet and had hints of stronger spirits and their barrels. As requested by the brewery, you didn’t hear it from me… *wink*

One reason Bright Brewery is worth visiting is that they have these fab mini-kegs that you can buy and take with you! I really wanted to get a Staircase porter one, yum. One of the benefits of the mini-keg is that the beer is super fresh. When possible, beer from a keg is always nicer than from the bottle.

It was finally time to head off home to Melbourne but not before a stopover at Milawa for some serious cheese tasting and shopping! Some other men bought sausages. Shandy proclaimed quite loudly that the procuring of beestings and cheese would result in some pleasures of the flesh.

Our faithful drivers safely deposited us elsewhere as they headed back to St Kilda. I freaking love The Local Taphouse, in case you couldn’t tell. So much so that I’ve decided to include a ‘we love beer’ widget on the blog so you can check out not just The Local Taphouse’s blog (and you should if you enjoy attending beery events), but also to other well-loved (by me at least!) beery folk.