For the last few weeks I've been in New Caledonia, which for those playing at home is a Pacific Island about 1,200 east of Australia (where I live). It is arguably one of the closest pacific islands to Australia (depending on where in Aust you start) and is well worth a trip.
just over the that road is the beach
New Caledonia is a mix of local Kanak people and the French who did some colonizing in the 18somethings. It remain a 'piece of france in the south pacific, or at least if you are in the main city of Noumea it is still quite french.
And of course there is a little bit of the french beer culture going on, think what we would call Belgain styles, it's not unusual to see ambers and blancs and tripels in the line up from the major breweries. But today we are talking about one of the two brewpubs in Noumea. Les 3 Brasseurs.
That means the 3 brewers for those who don't speak french and is a largeish venue over two floors in Lemon Bay (or Baie des Citrons). We found ourselves there on our first night in Noumea, we were having a tough time, the airline (Qantas) had lost our bags, and we were in need of a calming drink and some dinner.
So what was on offer? well a core range of Brown, White, Amber, Pale ale, Lager and the rotating seasonal brew, which in this case was an IPA. They are all brewed on site, in fact to get to the second floor restaurant you need to walk past the brew room, which is a glass room full of fermenters and kettles and what not.
I must admit I didn't have high hopes for the beer, I've spent enough time in south pacific countries to know you are going to get some fairly ordinary lagers and that's about it but this was quite the surprise. All of the beers were impressive, they were true to style, nice and fresh and well brewed.
the amber
The amber was a pasticular highlight, a nice hoppy amber is one of my favourite styles but unfortunately not one we get a lot in Australia anymore (everything seems to be a hazy IPA) so it was nice to get back to something that was trefreshing but all really well balanced between hops and malt.
that's a lot of IPA
Of course I did need to try the IPA though and I have to say, although perhaps not up to the standard I would get at home where the hops are super fresh and abundant it was a really passable beer, perfect to sipping on a balcony, on a warm night overlooking a bay and wondering when you might see you clothes again (spoiler alert it took Qantas four days to get our bags back to us, thank Christ for another French institution - Decathlon for outfitting us for those 4 days)