zoos & brews

yesterday we went to on the XXXX ("make it a Fourex, mate!") alehouse brewery tour in milton. it is about a 2.5km walk from where we are staying in brisbane. it was pretty neat to see the magnitude of the factory. when we got to the bottling area, mike and i were totally thinking "laverne & shirley"! we weren't allowed to take pictures during the tour, but i got some of us before and after the tour. we had lunch in the alehouse before our tour at 2pm, and the lady at the ticket counter explicitly told us we couldn't have any alcohol before the tour. so, having lunch at the alehouse without a beer for mike, was, well, weird. so, we sat with our coca-colas and waited for our tour to start.

the tour was really done-up. we got escorted into dark rooms with puppets, tv's and a spinning stage where they told us the history of beer and their beer. the tour ends at the alehouse, where your ticket is good for 4 beers. and i was surprised that the beers were not tiny sampler glasses, they were 285ml glasses. mike tried most of the beers, except the carbine stout. i only tried 2, b/c i am a lightweight, and there's just no escaping that. we tried the XXX sparkling ale first. ashley, our tour guide told us that this is a special brew. apparently, the alehouse is the only place in the world that you can get it. the brewery tried to recreate this special ale for their 125th anniversary, but it didn't do so well when it hit the public. so, XXXX recalled all the sparkling ale and now only sells it at the brewery itself. i didn't like it that much. mike liked the bitter the best, and said that the XXXX gold, which holds 50% of the marketshare tastes like piss....worse that budweiser. anyhoo, after the tour, we walked back into town. we stopped at the bakery to get some meat pies and sweeties, and to the grocer for a few more things for meals. we spent the rest of the night watching law & order reruns.

today we are finally going to the australia zoo. we decided to book a tour for today, just to make it easier for us. also, i stupidly thought that that train would run more often. but there really are only 2 trains going to the zoo in the morning. so, we are going on a tour bus. the bonus is that it comes and picks us up from our hotel and drops us off in the evening. no worries about public transportation all day! and we get the maximum time at the zoo.

happy columbus day for friends back in the states that have the day off! hope you are enjoying your day!