So My brother and his family have bought a holiday house, that least that is what they would call here in Australia, maybe it's a vactation house, a beach cottage or even a Bach depending of where you are.
This house is on Phillip Island which is about an hour and a half from Melbourne, Australia where we both live. Phillip Island is all of 640 metres 'off-shore' in Westernport bay, which ironically enough is East of Melbourne (go figure) if you've visited Melbourne you may have been there to seen some penguins, if you like motorbikes you may know it as the place of both the MotoGp and SuperBike grand prixs. There are about 10,000 people who live on the island, but in summer with visitors it get up to 40,000 odd.
There are multiple connections that I have to the island, my school had a camp there (it's at the end of the street where my Brother's house now is) so I went there as a 10-12 year old. a friend of mine when I was about 18-25 had a holiday house down there so I've spend a number of drunken weekends there. But I haven't been there for quite some time, that is likely to change.
But enough of this boring story - get on with the beer. Well like all holiday destinations it has a couple of craft breweries. The best of the lot is Ocean Reach brewery in Cowes (which is the main town on the island)
So of course it was appropriate that the first beer we had on our first visit to there house was 'The Island' by Ocean Reach. As you can see from the shot above of the can (note the famous penguins) it is a Strawberry and Watermelon sour and quite good one at that, it would have been perfect for sipping on a hot day sitting outside on the comfy chairs, of course even though it's November in Australia and thus should be hot we are in a unseasonably cold spell so it didn't quite suit the weather.
Maybe the Brewery has a desire to name their beers after Victorian Tourist Attractions, because the next night at dinner (yes those are fresh sardines on toast, and yes they were amazing) was called 'Great Ocean Road' which on the other side of Melbourne and about 3hrs from where we are (maybe quicker with a couple of boat rides) It was a pretty solid Hazy IPA, not the best I've ever had but certinaly very passable.
I'm sure I'm going to be back a number of times to the island, I'm sure I'm going to drink a lot of Ocean Reach beer, and I might even go to the actual brewery some day