University of Ballarat Unigold

Clean, sweet malt flavour, slight citric hint, a touch of honey, very low bitterness. A simple easy to drink beer with no unpleasant surprises. Until the locals start getting rowdy that is; and then it’s time to leave the Eastern Station Hotel.

Draught at the Eastern Station Hotel, Ballarat. Deep golden, clear, near no head. Fruity orangey nose. It has restrained sweetness, notes of vanilla and a pleasant amount of hops. The malt character is graceful and rounded, and the finish lightly bitter. A well balanced easy drinking session beer.

on tap at the eastern station hotel in ballarat. i was pretty bloody lucky to taste this as the uni bar was closed when i was in ballarat over easter. i found out that the beers were at this place and went by a few times and it was always closed. on my last day i was stuck with a bit of a wait before my bus to the airport and so i strolled by the hotel and saw a guy going in and asked him about the pub and he said it was only open on fridays but kindly offered to pour me a couple of glasses if i wanted to have a taste. many thanks to darren. anyways, this was a pretty pale sort of golden with nice lacing. aroma reminded me of porridge but maybe that was just because it was early in the morning. slightly honeyish malt character with light grassy bitterness. very fresh, not way flavoursome but well made, the sort of classy session beer it would be nice to find in sydney pubs

Travelling out to the Eastern Station in Ballarat to taste the university’s beers suddenly became a massive disappointment when I wandered into the pub (a hole filled with country hicks (tautology?)) and found only one of the beers available. It briefly improved when two chicks almost came to blows but other than that the beer was the only positive from the experience. Pours a nice pale lemony colour with a small, lasting head. Aroma has a very nice, general fruitiness to it with a bit of malt in the back, but the fruitiness dominates (and it’s good.) Light, tight, malty flavour with a slightly citrusy hop flavour. Not bitter but well balanced, with a tiny bit of soap at the end. I’d really like to taste the other beers but next time I’ll be skipping the Eastern Station and hitting up the uni bar.