The 2nd stop on our microbrewery tour of Adelaide and surrounding suburbs was the Pirate Life Front-of-house sale point in Hindmarsh which I have now found out is actually the Palais Imports shop.
The venue is a bit of a non-descript, office-type shopfront, and not exactly brimming with character like the other stops along our tour. I've kept my review at 3 stars because, as I said, every other stop along our tour was rammed with exciting surroundings...I wanted to bring tourists there. This place did not have that vibe.
I will start with the most positive part of the review first: the beers (that I got to try).
Golden Era - Golden Ale
The guy behind the bar touted this as 'West End, but cleared up'. I think he and I have been drinking different West End Draughts!
However, it is a solid beer choice, floral, bitter, crisp with good carbonation level. I can't comment on the colour because I drank it straight from the can. It's thirsty work travelling around on buses drinking beers all day!
Double IPA (IIPA)
My first note says 'hard to get floral aromas from can serving'. FYI Anyone who wants to try this beer in a glass, PLB keep plastic cups on their bar for the water.
In the cup, it has an amber sunset colour to it, and it has a mild-heavy bitterness.
Fair warning, It is a bl**dy big beer. No further aromas when I poured it into the cup, safe for some burnt greens.
Interestingly for me, I found it had a smooth finish on the back of the tongue, and a harsh finish on the front. Maybe I needed to eat some food with it to smooth it out. My next tasting I will remember to pair it with some food - maybe a creamy cheese, maybe some deep-fried zucchini flowers.
Venue
Sure, they have a coffee machine, a few seats around the place, a bathroom and an EFT machine, but damn if this place isn't lacking some basic flair.
We weren't allowed to sit outside around the barrels which clearly have seat for sitting around, which I think was a license issue, but whatever, we were happy to mill around inside. On the license note, because they are classed as a wholesale booze manufacturing plant, they can only sell takeaways in volumes exceeding 4.5 Litres!
One poor girl had popped in to grab a four pack of her favourite Pirate Life brew, with her bike helmet still on and got told she had to upsize her order or vamoose! I felt quite bad for her, but then again, she could've only known that if she'd either been there before or had scoped out the miniscule sign by the coffee machine telling customers of this exact rule.
Now, they do actually sell cans of the Pirate Life brew to consume on premises, but they are pretty pricy. Fair call for a decent beer though, I will give them that.
And they sell PLB memorabilia like tshirts etc.
I would give it a while to see if they transform the venue a bit. Otherwise head to your local pub that sells the stuff and smash it down there. It's bonza brew! read more