After a morning at leisure, our group boarded the bus for a private tour of Pirate Life Brewery, sponsored by Carlton & United Breweries.
Established in 2014 at Hindmarsh, Pirate recently opened a new $15 million brewery at Port Adelaide in the Dalgety Woolstore.
AB InBev, of which Carlton & United Breweries is a subsidiary, purchased the company last year with the intention of continuing the brand's unprecedented growth.
The new facility at Port Adelaide visited by our group, works under the lifestyle brand of being carefree and relaxed and with the ability to create great beer.
The new facility at Port Adelaide visited by our group, works under the lifestyle brand of being carefree and relaxed and with the ability to create great beer...
The day began with some light snacks before being broken up into two groups for a tour of the brewery.
Along the way we were treated to an in-depth look at the workings of the facility, from the complexities of licensing for a working brewery, commercial outlet and hospitality site, to delivery systems, facilitating C02, packaging, canning, and the mind-boggling science of brewing beer.
While the delicate science of brewing was interesting and extensive, the attention to detail at the facility from using reverse osmosis to purify water and the robotic systems used to measure air inconsistencies within the canning process down to the ml, was incredible.
Likewise, there was no denying the emphasis the company has placed on culture and the way it's integrated into the future endevours of the brand.
It would be easy to label the feel of the company as being extremely hipster, with its in-house barber shop and laid back attitudes, but there is an undeniable strategy to brand perception within the business.
As we walked around the facility, our highly educated and engaged member of staff also pointed out several street-art style images painted throughout the site.
In addition to brewing, Pirate Life has deeply engaged with its ideal customer demographic and aligned with a number of lifestyle elements, from funding street art projects and highlighting the artist's works within the facility, to planning music festivals onsite and running free buses from events like Adelaide Fringe to the brewery for tours and tastings. Future plans include the creation of a beer garden and hospitality space, to creating rolling street parties, featuring Pirate Life beverages and listening to music while viewing street art throughout the city created by local artists.
As part of our tour we also learned that Pirate Life is currently brewing around 6 million litres of beer per year, with the goal of seeing that volume increase to 11 million, and is distributing the product nationally.
At the end of the tour, our group was treated to lunch and tasting some of Pirate Life's beer including Whisky Barrel Age Stout, Acai and Passionfruit Sour, Strata IPA and a Larger.
**********
After our tour of Pirate Life, we headed back to Adelaide's West End for an optional pub crawl - an 'option' taken up by almost everyone on the trip.
We visited seven small bars throughout the walking tour, including Apothecary 1878, Udaberri Pintxos Y Vino, Pink Moon Saloon, Maybe Mae, Clever Little Tailor, Malt & Juniper and La Buvette Bar.
We visited seven small bars throughout the walking tour, including Apothecary 1878, Udaberri Pintxos Y Vino, Pink Moon Saloon, Maybe Mae, Clever Little Tailor, Malt & Juniper and La Buvette Bar...
Each venue provided a variety of signature cocktails, wines and beers for our group to sample before moving on to the next bar.
Throughout the walking tour we were privy to sensational decors from Apothecary's 1940s Parisian theme, to a casual Spanish feel at Udaberri Pintxos Y Vino. Pink Moon Saloon at first looked like a tiny pine dollhouse, but inside three designated areas provided a relaxed style from a leafy courtyard to cosy booths.
Maybe Ma, inspired by 1950s Hollywood icon Mae West, offered a range of high-end cocktails options despite an unusually inconspicuous almost unsigned entrance.
*********
While some of our group made the trip back to the hotel to get changed into dinner attire after the pub crawl, many of our group enjoyed the walking tour so much we headed straight to restaurant Press for dinner.
At Press, we were privy to the entire mezzanine level for our private dinner, sponsored by Aristocrat.
At Press, we were privy to the entire mezzanine level for our private dinner, sponsored by Aristocrat...
With a menu created by Executive Chef Andrew Davies and Head Chef Joshua Lansley, our group enjoyed entrees of pork and pistacchio terrine, kingfish sashimi, fermented chilli and shallot and mum's dutch veal croquette with dijon.
Next up was wood-grilled squid with smoked hummus and paprika, rodriguez bros morcilla and pquillo pepper, and roasted pork bun.
Not content to rest on its laurels, Press followed up with wood-grilled sirloin with scorched shallot, papperdelle with blue swimmer crab, tomato and chilli, and wood-fired broccolini with spring onion and lemon.
Dinner finished with passionfruit and yoghurt bombe alaska with rum baba and vanilla ice-cream.
WHAT WE LEARNED FROM DAY THREE
Pirate Life's bar is 22 yards long - the same length as a cricket pitch
Brewing beer is an incredibly complex and scientific process and requires the use of many words most normal people don't understand the meaning of
Work place and successful brand culture is just as important as your product
Adelaide has many, many really cool small bars that utilise incredible interior design from Parision influence to urban industrial and Spanish flair
It's not always a good idea to make use of Adelaide's street scooter hire after a participating in a walking bar crawl
The cuisine at Press is incredibly delicious and has an emphasis on wood-smoked flavours that are second-to-none
The mechanical bull at the Woolshed does not operate on Tuesday nights, no matter how many hoteliers and industry guest want to ride it, and not even when Mick Starkey offers to be the operator and/or bar tender
Sometimes, when you've been out since 12.15pm it's not the worst idea to go back to the hotel before 4.30am
We have an amazing, fun and friendly group of people on our tour