Friday Five: Stouts at the Wig and Pen

The Wig and Pen have got some lovely rich dark stouts on to help us through the winter months. That's very considerate of them, so we went along and tried them when they kicked off 'Stout Fest' last month. They were very good, so we have been back several times just to check that they are all still there. They are. 

5 Stouts at the Wig & Pen:

1. Velvet cream - rich and strong, dark fruit, hints of chocolate, creamy texture: Black Forest Gateau.
2. Papa Tom's Double Chocolate Stout (6.7%) - tasting notes say this is a traditional sweet stout with lashings of German chocolate malts and Dutch cacao, but it wasn't as chocolatey as I had expected.
3. Sailor Dick's - a spiced rum stout flavoured with Queensland molasses and infused with a selection of spices including local black truffles. Again, it didn't taste spicy enough, but the obvious Freudian slip in the name developed before too long.
4. Russian Imperial Stout (8.2%) - my favourite! Tasting notes refer to "a good bite from freshly roasted barley and hints of dried fruit esters from the traditional English Ale yeast". Perhaps that's why it's my favourite.
5. Machu Picchocolate - apparently exactly the same recipe as 2 but with chilli; it gets hotter as the night goes on.

Some of the stouts on tap at the Wig & Pen

Last Week's Thing

Here are the main stories that were making the news last week:

6. The Wiggles are disbanding – well, three of them are leaving and being replaced by new versions – one is even a woman! The Blue Wiggle (Anthony Field) is already the highest-paid entertainer in Australia, and now he is the only remaining original Wiggle. According to the outpourings of emotion in the press, mums across the continent are devastated.

5. Michael Clarke (Australian cricket captain) married Kyly Boldy (model with spelling issues). He was the one who left a cricketing tour a couple of years ago to dump former girlfriend Lara Bingle (her of the Australian Tourism Board’s ‘where the bloody hell are you?’ campaign). They wed in a ‘private ceremony’ that they didn’t disclose to the media and tweeted pictures on Twitter. Celebrity gossips admired the ‘brave move’ because apparently women’s magazines would have paid approximately $100,000 for exclusive rights to the ceremony. The Canberra Times had this to say: “Both husband, 31, and wife, 30, have websites listing their key statistics. He has played 83 Tests, scoring 6,097 runs at an average of 48.78. She has a 34B bust and brown-green eyes.” Thus proving yet again that while men are respected for their achievements, women are merely judged on their looks.

4. At the Australian International Beer Awards, Hop Hog Pale Ale from Feral Brewery was awarded the best international pale ale prize. Feral Brewery also won the trophy for Champion Large Australian Brewery.This year there were a record 1,344 brews entered from 41 countries, an increase of 10% on last year’s entries. The trophy for Champion Small Australian Brewery went to The Wig and Pen Brewery and Tavern, right here in Canberra. We have already been to it a few times in the fortnight we’ve been here – Him Outdoors refers to it as an oasis.

3. Donna Summer died. I’m not a huge disco fan, but I do admire her music and think I Feel Love and Love to Love You, Baby are great hits. Through accident rather than design, she is also connected to my Queenstown theatrical experiences. I acted in Hot Stuff by Christina Stachurski, to which of course, that was the theme tune, and set the bows to one of my first directorial outings, Night Cleaners by Angie Farrow to her She Works Hard for the Money. She does indeed.

2. Manchester City won the Premier League in the 94th minute of the final day of the season – how exciting is that? And as if it weren’t good enough to see the blue Mancunians over the moon, the tears of the (red) clowns were even more satisfying. As the banners proudly claimed, ‘Manchester: the City is ours!’

1. King Kenny was sacked as manager of the mighty Liverpool FC. I am still in shock, and haven’t yet come to terms with my thoughts over this decision. I’m sure I’ll share them with you at some point.