Murray's has garnered itself quite the reputation for its winter beer releases. Over the past few years, come the middle of the year, they've traditionally released a swathe of dark beers ranging from a trio of imperial stouts to black IPA. But this year things are set to go even bigger and even darker as they prepare to release five different brews.
The revered Wild Thing imperial stout will get its annual showing, alongside a delicious sounding Chocolate Wild Thing. Those will be followed by The Night Demon - a strong Belgian dark ale which was the winner of a Newcastle home brew competition - a dunkelweizen called Ronny Dunkel and a collaborative Baltic porter brewed with New Zealand's Coromandel Brewing.
They'll be getting their first outings at a winter festival being held at the brewery over the long weekend of 6-7 June. There'll be a free concert both days (Mark Wells Band on Sunday, Norm Bakker's Elvis tribute on Saturday), brewery tours at 2:15pm daily and the restaurant has come up with a special menu to go with the dark brews, featuring the likes of beer-marinated ham hocks and woodfired blue cheese pizzas.
If you don't want to drive to Port Stephens (possibly a sensible move considering the beers on offer...) there's a bus going from Nelson Bay to the brewery which costs $5 each way and runs on both Saturday and Sunday.
Following the festival, Murray's dark beers will be available at good beer venues and bottle stores - though be warned that some will be draught only.
