World

A SERiOUS BREW-HAHA

SEVEN OF THE DOWNRiGHT RAREST BREWERiES AROUND THE WORLD

1/ Against the Grain LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY

Americans love going to the ballpark. Imagine how much they’d love it if every ballpark was also home to a brewery.

Just out of right-field at Louisville Slugger Field, home of the (not so) famous Louisville Bats, is this left-field location of a brewery. They serve up classic southern American food alongside impressively unimaginatively named beers like A Beer (lager) and Cold Ass Beer (amber ale). The Overcompensation is more interesting, an imperial-style 9% Double IPA. Knock back a few of those and you'll be seeing double or even triple in the outer—if it’s hit your way, your best bet is to try and catch the middle ball.

Go Bats.

SMASH: Overcompensation Double IPA Click to view gallery

2/ RISE & WIN Brewing Co. KAMIKATSU, JAPAN

To understand RISE & WIN, you have to understand Kamikatsu, the Japanese town where it is located. Kamikatsu is keen to become the world’s first ‘zero-waste town’, and judging from their brewery, they’re well on their way.

RISE & WIN (it’s all in capitals so I guess you have to shout it) is made from mostly recycled materials. Notable mention to the epic patchwork of windows at the front of the building, all nabbed from abandoned houses in the area. Even the malt dregs, a by-product of the beer brewing process, is recycled and not discarded. Instead, it's composted into liquid fertiliser which is then used to enrich the soil of the local barley farms. The very same farms that provide the barley that's used to brew fresh beer. Pretty cool.

Beer-wise there’s everything from a lighter summer ale through to a stout, and a tasty looking, Japanese-BBQ-inspired menu.

CRUSH: Kami Katz Pale Ale Click to view gallery

3/ Moon Dog Brewery MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

If you asked a bunch of kids (actual kids) to design a brewery, they'd probably come up with Moon Dog World in Melbourne’s trendy north. And we mean that as a compliment. Moon Dog is wild and weird in the best kind of way.

There’s a river flowing through the middle of a large pond/lake type of thing (what do you call a body of water in a brewery?), a sports arcade room and a full-sized indoor playground for the kids and drunk adults.

They also brew really, really good beer. At get lost we love the term ‘sessionable’—used to describe beer of which you could drink a shitload. Of the 72 beers on tap at Dog World, we reckon the Old Mate Pale Ale is probably the most sessionable.

WHEN YOUR WHISTLE: Old Mate Pale Ale Click to view gallery

4/ Brouwerij De Halve Maan (The Half Moon Brewery) BRUGES, BELGIUM

This brewery features an underground beer pipeline that stretches for over three kilometres, connecting the brewery to its bottling plant on the outskirts of Bruges. Not dissimilar (we imagine) to Homer’s Beer Baron operation in The Simpsons:

They sure know what they’re doing when it comes to brewing wheat beers in Belgium, and if you ever find yourself In Bruges like Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, you could do worse than taking a tour of The Half Moon, before tipping a few 9% Straffe Hendrik Tripels back (out of a goblet, obviously) in the sun in its stunning courtyard.

GET ONE OF THESE UP YA: Straffe Hendrik Tripel Click to view gallery

5/ Open Gate Brewery DUBLIN, IRELAND

This is where the magic happens.

We get it. You know all about the Guinness Storehouse tour; probably the world’s most well-known and well-loved beer tour. But did you know about the slightly more obscure Open Gate Brewery?

Much like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory (the original, not the Johnny Depp one), you can go ‘behind the gates’ and talk to the brewers who are given a license to go full experimental. We're talking Mango Chilli Smoothie Ale and Guinness Nitro Fruit Stout. It's a fascinating insight into the crazy minds of those who do God's work (just don't stay too long!).

The on-site bar serves up a rotating range of experiments, many of which can literally only be found here. Consider this a kind of utopia for home and craft brewers. There’s also a range of beer cocktails. Sláinte.

OBLITERATE: There’s a rotating range of eclectic experiments here — this is not the time to be vanilla. Click to view gallery

6/ Family Brewery and Spa CHODOVAR CHODOVÁ PLANÁ, CZECHIA

Have you ever heard of a more conflicting title than ‘Family Brewery and Spa’? The Czechs just don’t seem to give a fuck, emphasized by Chodovar’s self-ascribed description as ‘a beer wellness land’. Finally! A wellness trend we can really get behind.

The spa therapy is a combo of hot mineral water, dark bath beer and dry herbs. Drink a beer in the beer—that’s kind of the point. After that you get a massage.

The noughties saw a few beer spas pop up but Chodovar was likely one of the first. It’s also a brew-hotel, another groundbreaker, so you can stay the night if you envision tipping more than a few back.

These guys know their ales too, having been brewing here since at least 1573, and possibly longer. That’s a long time to work out how to brew a good froffie. There are some really nice, typically golden, typically European beers. We recommend the Zlatá Jedenáctka, meaning 'Golden Eleven'—a refreshing, über-popular beer from Bohemia.

DEMOLISH: Zlatá Jedenáctka Click to view gallery

7/ Svalbard Bryggeri SVALBARD, NORWAY

There are cool places to drink a beer. And then there’s drinking a beer beneath the northern lights at the world’s northernmost brewery.

Svalbard Bryggeri is based about five minutes out of Longyearbyen, which is a long way in complete darkness, especially if you’re blind drunk.

You’d think you’d be able to guarantee that the beers here would, at the very least, be ice cold. Their beers are made with 16 per cent local glacial water, but it’s actually a lukewarm Spitsbergen stout that the locals recommend, which kind of makes sense given the climate.

“Drink enough of this and you will see the northern lights with your eyes closed,” said Robert, head brewer, when get lost visited recently. Challenge accepted.

INHALE: Spitsbergen Stout Click to view gallery