Red Hill Brewery, Red Hill

admin — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 01:57:20 +0000

I have a confession to make. I have actually had this post sitting in my drafts for some time now, but have held off publishing it due to the dismal weather. However, finally, after a few sneaky days (weeks? months?) of rain, summer – aka perfect beer drinking weather - seems to be back with a vengence and I now feeling sufficiently ‘inspired’ to tell you about my (semi) recent trip to the Red Hill Brewery.

As mentioned a few posts back, The Brooding Architect and I recently had a whirlwind weekend visit from Glamorous Sister No. 2 and her boyfriend, The Strong Silent Type. To be completely honest, a whole lot of the weekend was about the things Glamorous Sister No. 2 wanted to do – we drank lots of coffee, we shopped for turbans and we ate. There is however one thing we did just to light up The Strong Silent Type’s trip – we visited the Red Hill Brewery for a tasting paddle of their finest brews.

The Red Hill Brewery are a local Victorian craft brewers based down at the Mornington Peninsula – which, as you can see, is an absolutely gorgeous part of the world on a sunny day.

The view from the Peninsula lookout

After a scenic drive along Shoreham Road, we arrived at the Brewery. Although it’s a bit hard to tell from this photo, for a man who does not get excited too often, The Strong Silent Type was over the moon. If you squint, you can just make out the beginning of a smile under the cap.

The Strong Silent Type at the Brewhouse

We ordered the tasting paddles, which let you taste the Brewery’s three specialty beers – Golden Ale, Wheat Beer and Scotch Ale - as well as one of their seasonal brews. We scored the Temptation, which is a refreshing, golden, Belgian-style beer. Extremely refreshing on a hot summer’s day. The current seasonal brew is the Christmas Ale - which I have been told is sensational. A perfect last minute Christmas present for the man who has everything, or is just too hard to shop for.

Attached to the Brewery is a relaxed cafe, which has a lovely big timber deck on the back, surrounded by the leafy, green hops grown on site used to produce the beers. The perfect spot to sit and enjoy your beer on a relaxed Saturday afternoon.

Tasting Paddle of Brews

The group favourite was the award winning, Golden Ale – a crisp, pilsner-stlye, pale ale with loads of fruity flavour. We ended up buying a few 6 packs for the road (only half of which made it back to Melbourne). If you like what you see, the full list of beers produced on site can be found on the Brewery’s website. A brief word of warning though, some of the beers at the Red Hill Brewery pack quite a punch – the Temptation has an 8% alcohol content – meaning you will need to allocate a designated driver.

Since we were absolutely stuffed with treats from our earlier stop at the Red Hill Kitchen, we did not order any snacks to go with our beers. I have to say that I got some serious food lust when I saw the Brewmaster’s Ploughmans come out to another table. House made pickled onions (one my absolute favourite snack foods no less) , pork pie, ham and vintage cheddar – perfect beer drinking food. I cannot wait to go back and try it for myself.

The Red Hill Kitchen, Red Hill

admin — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:06:17 +0000

As I mentioned a few post back, Glamorous Sister No. 2 and her boyfriend, The Strong Silent Type, were down in Melbourne for a visit last weekend. Saturday was a gorgeous, sunny Spring day, so we all jumped in the car and drove down to the Peninsula to soak in the hot springs. On the way we stopped by The Red Hill Kitchen to stock up on some baked treats.

A selection of baked treats from The Red Hill Kitchen The Red Hill Kitchen

The Red Hill Kitchen

Red Hill Kitchen is a quaint farmhouse kitchen, located on Prossor Lane, which runs off Arthurs Seat Road. The drive up this lane is ‘picture perfect’ idyllic countryside at its best.

Driving up Prossors Lane

Idyllic country backdrop

The Red Hill Kitchen is surrounded by a productive market garden, stocked with fruits, vegetables and lots of fragrant lavender. This produce is then transformed by the owner and chef, Bernie, into delicious baked treats, jams, relishes and sauces (the traditional tomato sauce is particularly good).

The market garden which surrounds The Red Hill Kitchen

Particularly impressive looking artichoke from the market garden

The Red Hill Kitchen is not licensed to serve hot food and drinks; so food is really only available takeaway for you to then heat up at home – or to eat cold. The other option is to order the Goats Cheese and Caramelised Leek Tarts which have just come out of the oven and eat these while still warm in a sunny spot in the market garden. The pastry which encases the Goats Cheese Tart is handmade on site – it is buttery, flaky and crunchy. Delicious. The sharp, tangy goats cheese is a perfect match for the sweet caramelised leek too.

Goats Cheese and Carmamelised Leek Tart

We also stocked up on a range of sweet treats for the ride home – a large slice of prune tart, a lemon tart and some quince tarts (which at only $1 a pop we could not afford not to buy!).

Prune Tart, Lemon Tart & Quince Tarts

All of the tarts are encased in a sweet version of the buttery homemade pastry described above.

The lemon tart was filled with a lovely egg-based lemon custard. The custard is silky smooth, with a sharp citrus flavour. The custard is also a deep yellow colour – indicting that the eggs used were very fresh, with deep yellow-orange yolks.

The quince tarts are filled with a homemade quince jelly. The quince jelly has a rich and jammy flavour and is a beautiful deep red colour. Sadly, (or perhaps for the best as far as my waistline is concerned), these little bite sized treats disappear in one or two bites.

My absolute favourite treat of the day was the prune tart. I know prunes have a bit of a terrible reputation – insert old person toilet joke here – but I still love them. The prune tart was deliciously moist and sweet and was topped with a carmelised brown sugar topping, resulting in a beautiful crunchy, rich golden syrup flavoured crust.

Now if only The Red Hill Kitchen could get its hand on a coffee machine…

The Hungry Lawyer » Red Hill

Red Hill Brewery, Red Hill

The Red Hill Kitchen, Red Hill