Bent Beers in Braddon

Bentspoke Brewery is the latest addition to Canberra’s micro-brewing scene. Set just off Lonsdale Street, excellent beers and a great vibe have already made it a popular evening destination. The bar opened on the 6th of June, and has been bustling ever since. Indeed, their first weekend saw so many beers poured that they were in danger of running out during opening week.

Fortunately, the brewery isn’t far away. The brewing starts in the mashers upstairs, with only a glass wall to separate the process from the bar patrons. When Richard and Tracy have worked their wizardry, the beer is piped through the stair’s handrails into a line of 2500L fermenters. Once matured and ready for consumption, it’s served directly out of stainless steel tanks behind the bar without being bottled or stored in kegs. This approach, unique in Australia, is one Richard and Tracy hope will deliver their beers at their very best.

Fermenters line the bar's back wall.

Photo courtesy of Jessica from
Words and Wilds.

While sipping the latest brew, patrons are invited to consider how it was produced. The brewery on show is explained by a wall-sized mural representing the ingredients and each stage of the brewing process. Even the kitchen plays its part, the by-products from the brewery working their way into the food on offer. Spent grain appears in both their chicken wings and burgers.

“They’re all a bit bent.”

The beers themselves are already living up to the high expectations set by Richard’s seventeen years as the head brewer of the Wig and Pen. Five beers and a cider were served up for the opening of the bar, all of distinctly different styles. The beers don’t fit neatly into traditional categories, brewed to showcase the ingredients rather than to meet specific expectations. “They’re all a bit bent” was Richard’s description when asked what types of beer he intended to serve. The cider, too, presents a complex flavour profile, one that might be unfamiliar for Australians accustomed to either over-sweet or completely dry ciders. Although they might be unusual, Bentspoke’s offerings are certainly proving popular. Two beer tanks and one of cider have already been emptied, and the brewery is running non-stop to replenish supplies and prepare new offerings.

Ultimately, there will be eighteen beers and ciders on tap, with a few particularly unusual concoctions in planning. Richard and Tracy have been experimenting with everything from gluten free beer to barrel ageing and even a truffle infused beer for Canberra’s truffle festival. Takeaway 2L insulated flasks also allow patrons to enjoy freshly brewed Bentspoke beers further afield.

But the Bentspoke bar isn’t just about the beer. Unlike most micro-brewery-bars, Bentspoke has gone that little bit further to make the decorations and atmosphere stand out. From the recycled bike part chandeliers and wall-garden to the keg seats and hoppinator lights, they’ve gone out of their way to make the bar stand out as a unique and interesting experience. Half beer-hall, half restaurant, the upstairs bar also provides an unusual view across Braddon and Civic, making an excellent backdrop for the other decorations.

The bar’s popularity has undoubtedly been boosted by the great setting, but ultimately it is Bentspoke’s beer that has made them an instant success. Canberrans have already voted with their wallets and the results are clear. There’s nothing wrong with delivering beers a little bit bent.

Stop by Tunnel Vision Café for your morning brew

If you're making your way between the Hobart Aquatics Centre and the CBD, you might notice something odd when passing through the Railway/ABC/Fountain Roundabout: a van and trailer parked in the underpass. Odd though this may seem, the surrounding chairs and the wafting smell of coffee should explain its presence easily enough.

Tunnel Vision opened its trailer's doors in February 2013, and I was fortunate enough to come across this eccentric café just in time for its first birthday. Most of those who make their way through the tunnel are apparently determined not to say hello, let alone stop, but Tunnel Vision is building up a client base of regular customers. David—the café's owner—has an impressive memory for faces and knows many of his customers' usual orders well enough to start brewing before they have a chance to ask.

It's not difficult to see why those who do stop would choose to keep on stopping in the future. Tunnel Vision uses Five Senses Coffee, a West Australian roastery that has recently expanded to Victoria. The beans pour surprisingly well as a black coffee (impressively so for a blend) and superbly as a milk coffee. And if coffee isn't your thing, the other drinks on offer should more than make up for it. David makes his own syrup for chai lattes, a lightly spiced concoction with more subtlety than the usual sickly sweet mixes on offer. The real winner of the drinks menu is the spiced hot chocolate, flavoured with homemade ganache and chilli jam. This rich beverage, touched with hints of cinnamon and chilli, is an absolute must-try and ranks as one of the best spiced hot chocolates I've ever tasted.

A few chairs and picnic blankets are provided in case you feel like stopping for a while. After a full sit-down breakfast? The menu is limited to waffles, but the range of toppings on offer is anything but. Or you could just stand and chat with David for a while, sipping a drink from his most unusual cafe.

Canberra: In Pursuit of the Perfect Cuppa

Canberra sports a wide variety of coffee roasters and cafes, which range from the Melbourne-esque Lonsdale Street Roasters to ONA Coffee's South American themed Cupping Room. There is Gus's, laying claim to Canberra's first outdoor cafe seating, and Sly Fox, erected on trestle tables and milk crates each morning. Amid all the choices on offer, these are a few of my favourite Civic and Inner North* cafes.


#1 The Cupping Room, corner University Ave and London Cct, Civic

A relatively new arrival in Canberra, The Cupping Room is the latest venue to be opened by the award-winning Canberra coffee roasters, ONA Coffee. As well as their exceptional house blends, they serve a wide variety of single origin coffees that are each matched to different brewing methods.

Service staff, baristas and roasters are all friendly, knowledgeable and happy to discuss every detail of the coffee process, from different bean varieties and farm locations right through roasting and preparation to the beverage in your cup. Coffees are delivered to the table with tasting notes and the background story for each batch of beans.

The Cupping Room’s kitchen produces a wide variety of experimental dishes and classic favourites with a South American twist. There are several vegan and gluten free options on the menu, and they are happy to modify other dishes to meet dietary needs. The Cupping Room does not offer muffins or other quick takeaway snacks, but makes for a superb venue for a sit-down breakfast or lunch in Civic.

#2 Wilbur's, 14 Hackett Pl, Hackett

A true hidden gem, Wilbur's is an unassuming cafe-bar located in Hackett. At first glance, it's just a bar with a lunch menu and a coffee machine. Second glance doesn't reveal much more, but give them the chance and they'll give your tastebuds a treat to remember. The menu offerings are mostly on the bar snack end of the culinary scale, but their cake fridge is another matter. Don’t be fooled by the setting; these cakes make for superb treats and would comfortably compete with a fine French gateau.

Wilbur’s brews coffee from a Sydney roaster, Di Stefano. Although Di Stefano is far from a renowned coffee roaster, Wilbur’s prepares the beans well in both their milk-based and black coffees. While its location makes it less than ideal for a quick lunch-break visit, Wilbur’s is a great place to stop in on the way back from the Saturday Farmers Market or on a lazy Sunday.

#3 Lonsdale Street Roasters, 7 Lonsdale St, Braddon

An outpost of the Melbourne hipster cafe scene, Lonsdale Street Roasters runs two cafes on the street that gives them their name. The roastery, at number 23, is focused on the coffee, with a blackboard outside giving only a limited range of food options. Wander a few shops down to number 7 and you'll find a markedly different venue. The walls are decorated with bicycles and a line of blackboards listing a more extensive menu. Retro light fittings illuminate a case filled to bursting with pastries from the Flute Bakery.

The menu at number 7 is largely dominated by a variety of paninis. The flavours on offer vary significantly, with a more exciting array than the usual choice of chicken & avocado, sundried tomato & olive, or ham, cheese & tomato. Goats’ cheese, lamb, braised pork, prosciutto and chorizo were some of the ingredients to make an appearance. However, the large menu offers only vegan cupcakes or gluten free fruit with yogurt for those with dietary restrictions. If your diet is unrestricted, you will find that the pastries on offer are excellent and the paninis are both varied and delicious.

Lonsdale Street Roasters serves excellent long blacks with complex flavours, using their various single origin beans. However, a few of the blends used for their milk-based coffees leave something to be desired. While palatable, the bland flavour profile is what might be expected from mass-produced coffee rather than a small roaster. Extensive hard surfaces and loud background music are certainly in keeping with the hipster vibe, but make it a poor choice venue for a sit-down lunch. Instead, take advantage of its pastries and paninis, coupled with its proximity to Civic, and grab yourself a quick takeaway breakfast or lunch.

#4 Sly Fox, Inner North cycle path between Macarthur Ave and David St, O’Connor
Sly Fox is quite unlike the other cafes on this list, being neither a roastery nor a hidden gem out in the suburbs. They accept bitcoins as payment—the first Canberra cafe to do as such—but the most significant difference from their rivals is their complete lack of either roof or walls. Patrick sets up his trestle table counter beside the Inner-North bike path to catch the weekday rush of commuters cycling to work. Sporting an awning when the weather turns foul and running off a small generator, Sly Fox is a “venue” worth visiting.

They serve Lonsdale Street Roasters coffee, and prepare it well, but don’t think of this as just another place you can stop in and grab a takeaway coffee on the way to work. While they’re presented in paper cups you could sip along the ride to work, it’s worth stopping for a few minutes and pulling up a milk crate. The resident bike mechanic can tune your bike while you breakfast on coffee and Sly Fox’s food of the day. There is no set menu, nor much chance of finding the same food there twice. Instead, Patrick brings in whatever has inspired him for that day. Perhaps you’ll find fresh fruit salad and yogurt, an upside-down cake, or even his mum’s secret recipe spiced date scones. Every time I catch myself dismissing Sly Fox as a gimmicky venue, more about the setting and convenience than the produce, I remind myself of the delicious food I’ve tried there.

#5 The Fresh Roast Coffee House, 30 Kemble Ct, Mitchell
While Jindebah Hills is easily Canberra’s most award-decorated coffee roaster, the small cafe attached to their roastery is not widely known. Visitors could be forgiven for underestimating it, given the semi-industrial surrounds and almost non-existent food offerings.

Little emphasis is placed on presentation, and latte art—seemingly a must in every cafe—is conspicuously and intentionally absent from their coffees. But even lacking a delicious menu or outstanding presentation, The Fresh Roast is made exceptional on the grounds of their coffee alone. Complex, rich and varying flavours abound in their single origin and blended coffees. The couple of staff members who keep the place going are happy to discuss their produce and the history of the business.

While the lack of food on offer makes The Fresh Roast a poor choice for a meal, they make an excellent stop if all you want is good coffee.

* I know there are many excellent cafes south of the lake—and have enjoyed visiting several of them—but reviewing those will have to wait until I've made a more extensive sampling of their ranks.

ONA Coffee's Cupping Room

ONA Coffee has just opened a new outlet in Civic, the Cupping Room, and it's a must-see for any Canberran or visiting coffee connoisseur.

ONA Coffee has been roasting their own beans in Canberra since 2007. What they lack in an impressive establishment date is more than made up for with the quality of their product. One of only two ACT coffee roasters to win medals in the Sydney Royal Coffee Competition—a category of the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show that was established in 1998—and operating their own bean sourcing programme direct from coffee farmers in India, Central and Southern America, they have a fast-growing reputation for excellence.

Their Fyshwich Coffee House and Roastery has been a favourite cafe of mine since moving to Canberra, despite its distance from my Northside home. I was more than a little excited to hear they were opening a new café in Civic, and not just because it was right next to the university campus where I spend my weekdays.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Hancock.

Exquisite latte art, as always.

The doors of the stylish new venue on London Circuit opened last Saturday to admit Canberra's coffee lovers and I arrived soon after. On the advice of the Fyshwick staff, I've swapped my usual brew from latte to a flat white and I started off with an Organic Blend flat white. In most cafés, their organic coffee offering has exchanged excellence for its name. Whereas the organic coffee served by ONA has reached such high quality that they now serve it as their house blend, supplanting the already exceptional Malawian Mocha and ONA Signature blends. Hints of dark chocolate and caramel make it a favourite of mine for any milk based coffee.

Photo courtesy of Jessica Hancock.

The day was warming quickly and another ONA favourite was soon sampled, their cold drip. Stylishly served to match the mad scientist equipment used to produce it, the cold drip is delivered in an old-fashioned medicine bottle with a similarly old-fashioned label. Lacking even a trace of bitterness, cold drip is an ideal drink for anyone still taking their first baby steps in the coffee world. It also makes an excellent summer beverage for even the most discerning of coffee connoisseurs.

The Cupping Room's coffees lived up to the ONA name admirably, but the new venue has something more on offer that sets it apart. Between the espresso machines and the kitchen is an offering new to Canberra: a bar lined with stools, at which a few unusual coffee offerings are prepared. This is the heart of the Cupping Room, the filter bar, where their pourovers are poured, aeropresses are pressed, cold-drips drip slowly away and freshly roasted beans are cupped.

ONA founder, Sasa, prepares pourovers at the Cupping Room's
filter bar. Photo courtesy of Jessica Hancock.

Lured in by the mid-week free coffee day, I returned to the Cupping Room with a group of caffeine addicted postgraduates a few days later for a study session. For some, this was their first introduction to ONA and they were generally impressed by what they discovered. One person—a non-drinker of coffee, tea or hot chocolate, who found his meal choices restricted by his low-carb diet, dislike of fish and egg, and an aversion to ordering custom dishes—sampled only sips of the coffee on offer, but still enjoyed the atmosphere. Then, as the studying wound to a close, we had the chance to take part in a cupping.

Roaster, Gus, checking the smell of his latest
roasts. Photo courtesy of Jessica Hancock.

Cupping is a scene reminiscent of a wine or whisky tasting, with the anonymous coffees lined up along the bar. The "crust" of coffee grounds is first broken to release the aromas of the mysterious brews and then scooped off. The unfiltered coffee beneath is slurped in a most undignified manner, spreading it evenly across the tongue. From these tests, roasters can check the quality of each batch of beans, pick out the individual flavours and refine the roasting process to match. Customers at the Cupping Room have the chance to take part in the process under the guidance of ONA's expert coffee roasters. We were treated to samples of seven different single origin roasts, including a taste of the rare and intensely aromatic geisha, a legendary coffee varietal that has been breaking world price records since its discovery by the world markets in 2004. I was at a loss to describe its powerful aromas and flavours (were those floral notes? Berries, perhaps plums?) but could appreciate their exquisite combination.

The Cupping Room's food menu is worth exploring.

Like ONA's other venues, the Cupping Room provides excellent food to accompany their range of espresso, pourover, aeropress and cold brew coffees. Their new menu is a fusion of flavours inspired by South American cuisine, and their all-day breakfasts boast a few unusual takes on the typical Australian offerings.

"Not So Benedict" takes eggs benedict, then adds
silverside and a mustard sauce.

"Dragon Eggs" are avocado halves, filled with mildly
spiced guacamole and topped with poached eggs.

The banana hotcakes include a hint of salt to offset
their sweetness.

Also check out ONA's video, Cup A Wonderful World. Bonus points for spotting the author of this blog.