2 BROTHERS BREWERY TAXI

Why are some blokes more likely to open up to taxi driver? Rather than let our mates share with strangers, let’s assure them that it is ok for them to tell us they’re not ok. It’s true that oils ain’t oils, so here’s a perfect liquid to lubricate those conversations.

ORIGIN. Moorabbin, Victoria
ABV. 4.7%
SIZE. 330mL bottle
STYLE. Pilsner

With over 500 craft breweries in Australia, let alone the rest of the world, I figured there would be plenty of brothers who founded a craft brewing operation together.  Yet with my (limited) research I only managed to track down a few. One of them, the still independently owned Illinois-based microbrewery Two Brothers, founded by brothers Jim and Jason Ebel in 1996, and another, these lads, Andrew, and Dave Ong, who established their craft brewery in Moorabbin in 2007, well before Melbourne’s southeast had become a thriving hub for microbreweries.

Interestingly enough both went to great lengths to source the equipment to get them started on a shoestring budget.  Jim and Jason converted milk tanks that were donated to them by their grandfather, a retired dairy farmer, into fermenters. While Andrew and Dave managed to convince a New Jersey trucking company employee to disregard Manhattan’s traffic laws in the dark of the night, to help them salvage tanks that were about to be sold off as scrap from the defunct Times Square Brewery.  And it’s those copper-clad tanks from the Big Apple that today still form the backbone of the 2 Brothers Brewery and Bar.   Given the many accolades awarded to these brothers, it’s clear that the get-your-hands-dirty creativity also flows over into their beers.

With nothing but beer on their creative minds, since throwing in the towel on their day jobs and returning home from the US, there has been no looking back for this former bullet-dodging physio from the Bronx (Andy), or number-crunching aeronautical engineer from Seattle (Dave). And it was this Taxi Pilsner, named after Andrews first car, a former Melbourne cab, that set the wheels in motion, to pardon the pun. More closely representing a Munich Helles (Blonde) style lager with its cold temperature fermentation and generous use of German hops, she serves up a golden coloured, slightly malty, mildly bitter and extremely approachable drop.  Not only is Taxi the perfect beer to get your dad to move from draught to craft, but it’s also an ideal post-meal cleanser.

Unlike the Taxi industry, even after many years, this Taxi Pilsner remains a well-respected pour at many Melbourne venues. And better still, it doesn’t come with the complimentary body odour!

2 BROTHERS BREWERY