Phone: 03 9380 9569
Link: gnh.net.au
Cuisine: English/Irish
Overall Impression: 7/10
Hand pumped, cask conditioned beer. This is how beer used to be (before big corporations started pasteurising and carbonating it) and how beer should be.
After years of mass produced, artificially carbonated beer flooding the market and becoming the new ‘norm’ in Australia, hand pumped beer is beginning its resurgence thanks to breweries like the Holgate Brewhouse in Woodend, and temples of beer worship such as The Royston and the Great Northern Hotel.
Holgate ESB
This genuine, English style of beer shows greater complexity and depth of flavour than its artificially carbonated and pasteurised competitors. A pint of this brings J and I right back to the time we spent in the UK. We were glad to hear that they recently installed a second hand pump!
Apart from excellent beer, Great Northern Hotel provides good food at reasonable prices.
Asian Style Beef Salad
Marinated and fried beef strips, cucumber, chilli tomato, and bean shoots with a soy and sesame dressing
Veal Parmigiana oven baked and served with a choice of beer battered fries and salad or vegetables and baked potato.
Spaghetti Bolognaise a rich red wine and beef sauce, nestled in fresh cooked spaghetti and topped with shaved parmesan
Our visits are always satisfying so it is easy to see why Great Northern Hotel has been gaining a cult following in recent times.
1 comment:
About to return to Melbourne after 6 months in the UK, and there are two things I'll really miss: the breakfast cereal, and the cask-conditioned hand-pumped ale. Not sure how I'm going to be able to return to lager, as proper beer is absolutely delicious by comparison. I've recently likened it to the difference between white and red wines: the former is refrigerated and can be a nice refreshing drink in the summer, while the latter is drunk at room temperature and has wonderful smells and can be gloriously rich in texture. Good on the Great Northern for installing a second hand pump; I'll definitely be popping down for a visit when I return. The question remains though, why on earth aren't the pubs in Brunswick doing this? I'd have thought that real ales would really suit the Brunswick demographic, and can imagine a whole new line of products springing up for independent brewers. Perhaps the Great Northern's second cask is all the proof surrounding pubs need to inspire them to install hand pumps themselves.
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