The Odyssey Tavern has been going great guns since bringing eight taps and multiple fridges full of craft beer to VIctoria’s Surf Coast last year. Yet it wasn’t living up to its name.
From day one, the sign on the outside of its rather unique home has read: “Odyssey Tavern & Brewery” and it has always been founder Grant Byrne’s plan to open an onsite brewery. But, as is often the way with these things, they take longer than planned.
So, since opening, the staff have regularly fielded questions along the lines of: “So which are your beers then?” and been able to offer little more than: “Well, none as yet. But…” Until now that is.
As of this week, the Odyssey has a beer to call its own: the Calypso, a hoppy New World Pale Ale. That said, it still doesn’t have a brewery, as the 500 litre system that will take up residence in the space that once was used for producing ice cream is still under production along the coast in Portland and is unlikely to be operational much before the end of the year. But, with Grant having taken on former Southern Bay brewer Matt Cuthbert as the Odyssey’s brewer a few months ago, they figured he really should be brewing an Odyssey beer.
So earlier this month he headed to Otway Estate to hook up with Prickly Moses brewer Luke Scott and create the Calypso.
“This first beer, if it goes well, will probably become a mainstay,” says Matt, who spent seven years at Southern Bay, where he created their Ocean Ale and Requiem Pilsner. “We’ll probably look to have one or two of our own beers on all the time and then some seasonals.
“We chose a pale ale for our first beer as something that would appeal to craft beer people but would also appeal to other drinkers too. The name comes from Homer’s Odyssey [she was a nymph] as Grant wanted to keep to that theme.”
“It was a pretty big day for Leah [his wife] and I,” says Grant. “After all of our hard work it was great to finally have our first official beer being brewed. Even though the brewery itself has taken longer then we anticipated we are now at least able to offer a beer brewed by Odyssey for our Odyssey punters both new and old. The response so far has been great.”
According to Matt, the space for their brewery is “pretty much ready to go”, with the intention being to fit the 500 litre brewhouse and two 500 litre fermenters. Before then, they will continue to brew at Prickly Moses and Forrest Brewing, while there is also talk of a collaboration for Oktoberfest with Black Rock’s True South.
As for the Calypso, it is already pouring at the Odyssey and is likely to make its way to Melbourne venues in the coming weeks.
Photo at top: Luke Scott (Prickly Moses), Matt Cuthbert, Grant Byrne and business parter Bryce Swindells.
Brewer’s tasting notes for the Calypso
Calypso Pale is an Aussie take on an American Pale Ale combining three bold aromatic hops from Oz (Galaxy), NZ (Nelson Sauvin) and the US (Citra). Galaxy and Citra work together to provide an enticing citrusy fruity flavour and aroma while hints of a NZ sauv blanc come through from the addition of Nelson Sauvin.
This is all supported by a rich malt backbone provided by Scottish Golden Promise used as the base malt, while Crystal and Munich specialty malts give a tasty biscuity maltiness to balance the bitterness provided by these big hops.
The beer pours golden amber with a creamy white head and is a little cloudy as it is unfiltered to retain the full flavour of the beer so it can be appreciated, as craft beer should be, fresh and bursting with flavour! At five per cent ABV it is also very sessionable!!
