The boutique beer ride

There was a welcome break in the humidity yesterday so we thought it was time to check out some new bars in a boutique beer ride.

We started off at the beautifully located Bitter Suite, with a fine glass of Burleigh Heads Figjam IPA and some iced water bought to the table unasked by the (as always) very friendly staff who I think were a bit concerned that we'd dehydrate

 After that we had a short but beautiful ride along the river to Brisbane's latest microbrewery, the Green Beacon Brewing company

This is a little different to the average craft beer nook as it's a working brewery as well as a pub. Unsurprisingly they serve their own beers and the IPA was excellent, a blast of fruity amarillo hops backed up with - something that we couldn't quite spot - and the wheat beer was almost as good. They also serve food, with a strong emphasis on local seafood. The website claims that they will be brewing a series of 'regular' beers as well as seasonal specials so that's something to look forward to. I'm just hoping they don't end up following the path of most small breweries and producing an almost interchangeable range of 'pale, golden, amber, wheat, IPA, lager'.

Tipplers Tap lies only a very short ride away, but is a little harder to find. It's a classic craft beer bar with a small and easy to miss outside area   

and a dark yet welcoming inside - apologies for the bad photo. They have 10 craft beers in rotation, a wall of tasty looking bottles and some great smelling food that I need to revisit and sample.

 After that much craft beer we needed to cleanse our palettes with a refreshing glass of Coopers Pale at Rics, the best bar in Brunswick St mall by far 

By this point we were getting hungry so made our way to The Burrow in West End, a popular breakfast venue which has ridiculously friendly staff, a great range of bottled beers and a couple of beers on tap. Unfortunately the Feral White (one of my favourite beers) had just run out, but they replaced it with 4 Hearts Summer Wheat which was - OK. The pizza was great though.

By this time the night was drawing in so a couple of us retreated to Archive, the grand-daddy of Brisbane craft beer pubs, for a recuperative ale whilst waiting for a lift back. Surprisingly they didn't have an IPA on tap, and my alternative choice of a chilli-chocolate stout overwhelmed my already overworked tastebuds.

The only place we didn't get to visit was The Scratch Bar in Milton, possibly my favourite craft beer bar in Brisbane. I need to find another four or five pubs and put together an alternate route that ends up there. Any ideas?