Pirate Life Brewery - It's the Pirate life for us!

Pirate Life Brewing - 89 South Rd, Hindmarsh SA 

On Tuesday 12 November, we were invited to attend a tour of the Pirate Life Brewery. The tour was opened by Michael Cameron (or Mick as he was affectionately known through the night).

The Pirate Life!

Mick is a knowledgeable and passionate beer craftsman who explained to the group the origins of Pirate Life. Mick described how his son Jack met fellow head brewer Red Proudfoot while working at BrewDogs in Scotland. This friendship formed at BrewDogs, followed by brewing stints at Cheeky Monkey (Red) and Little Creatures (Jack) was the genesis to an eventual request of Mick to help them setup their own craft brewery. Pirate Life was formed.

Mick telling us all about brewing

After Mick gave us the abridged version of the Pirate Life story we then headed off for the tour. Mick didn’t seem worried about sharing secrets as you got the feeling that a strong craft beer industry would benefit all. This was evident by Mick’s recent experience of an emergency transport of canning equipment to a competitor to Victoria who was running low on stock.

Kegs on the deck

You sense he knows that what goes around, comes around, and he is certainly keen to do what he can to promote his industry. Proving this point, Pirate Life even print their recipe and process for brewing on each can. Before the tour, I admit that I had also never actually tasted malt. Mick allowed us all to taste some of his malt, and this was a meal in itself.

Why doesn't my home brew look like this?

Pirate Life are also a vertically integrated organisation, and recognising the lack of Adelaide water quality, has also implemented a water purification system within the brewery. Quality and control counts!

Mick also pointed out that they are expanding the size of the brewery with additional fermenters arriving shortly. This just serves to highlight that the business is going well and that the local craft beer industry is thriving.

What really shone through was that Mick and his team are extremely passionate about what they do.

Throwback IPA

Throughout the tour, we were given the opportunity to try three of their beers. The IPA, Pale Ale and the big long canned Double IPA.

IIPA

All three are fantastic beers but the standout is the Double IPA. In a whopping 500ml can, this is a beer that packs a punch in flavour and standard drinks. One of these cans and you can’t drive a car for about 3 hours (this writer drank just half of his can – promise!).

Pale Ale

At the end of the tour, we were treated to great pizza to top it all off from the local Amalfi Pizzeria Ristorante. I’ll be sourcing that pizza again in the future – amazing!

Anita was a great host, and Yelp Adelaide Elite did an excellent job in organising the event.

Great tour of the facilities, combined with a great knowledge of the brewery process, industry and what makes things tick overall. Long live Pirate Life and their commitment to awesome craft beer.