6 Furlongs
St Andrews Beach Brewery

My first from St. Andrews, so I went on their website and was struck by two things. First, they've done a lot in under ten years; basically building a complete farm-to-brewpub operation from growing their owns hops and barley (and apples for cider) to harvesting and preparing them for brewing to serving them along with what reads as fine food. Plus they opened a second taproom in Melbourne's professional sports complex for tennis, cricket and Aussie football. And if all that weren't enough, they've got the sustainability thing wired well with giving spent barley to livestock and reusing water. And did I mention that they repurposed a racehorse centre into this farm?

The second thing about St. Andrews is that all this takes money to do as quickly as they did. This is not Mom 'n Pop opening a shop.

That added up, I give St. Andrews very good Overall Hugs.

Also, I like 6 Furlongs in the final analysis. While its Looks are only slightly above average (the amber is nice, but the foam is lacking), its Smells are also (only modest hints of piney hops.) However, Tastes are well-balanced; not suffering from the APA tendency to pile in too many aromatic and bitter hops as an excuse for not blending the malts right. 6 Furlongs' hops linger gently to a semi-dry finish, more like a long distance runner than a thoroughbred. Medium-mouthed.

I'd take this around the track again... if I were a betting man.