It's all about Boag's!

Well my last day in Tasmanian is almost at an end. I'm sat in my room drinking some Goaty Hill Riesling with some A-League soccer on the TV.

I've had a really good day. It started of with the alarm going off at 6.30am – it was bloody loud and it took me a little time to work out how to turn it off. So no danger of me sleeping through it! (Oh my God. A really crap advert has just been on for Carlsberg starring the 'charismatic' Dirk Kuyt. Really bad)

I walked up the road to the Aquatic Centre much is only a few months old. It seems like a fantastic facility with God knows how many pools. I counted two outside – a 25m/diving pool and a 'fun' pool with a flume and three inside – an 8 lane 50m pool, a 25m teaching pool and a 'play' pool with fountains and slides etc. All this for a city with a population of about 100,000.

My swim was really good and for most of the time I had a whole lane to my self (the benefit of all 8 lanes being used).

After my early morning exercise I walked to a place called Tant Pour Tant for breakfast. I had what was basically 'fancy Spanish beans on toast', except the beans were spiced with paprika and had chunks of chorizo and the toast was a slab of sourdough bread. Because the place is a French bakery I also had a great almond croissant (a real butter/cholesterol bomb).

I now had a few hours to kill before my 'Beer Lovers' tour at the Boag's brewery. I had a look in a few shops and then when to the Tasmanian Wood Design Centre. Some very interesting/cool pieces on display and some nice things to buy, but pretty expensive.

Time for the brewery tour!

First off I had to go back to my hotel to change in to jeans and 'enclosed footwear' – a requirement of the tour.

I arrived at The Centre for Beer Lovers just before 1pm and signed in. The tour itself lasted about an hour was fairly interesting. The bottling part of the brewery is almost hypnotic. Some interesting facts (from memory):
- It almost went out of business in the late 1980s
- James Boag's Premium was basically its saviour
- At one time there were 10 breweries in Launceston
- From about 1920, and for 70 years, Boag's and Cascade were part of the same company
- Boag's Premium outsells the Cascade equivalent, but Cascade Premium Light does better than the Boag's version
- Premium is only sold in bottles
- Boag's Draught and Pure Blonde are now exported to the mainland

The tasting was excellent. We tried 4 beers and each one was matched to a Tasmanian cheese. Really informative and eye opening. We tasted:
- Pure Blond with a Swiss style chees
- Premium with a brie
- Draught with a mature cheddar
- Wizards Ale (an English style ale) with a cheddar with black pepper in it.

After the tasting, of course, was the merchandise store!

The weather here today has been a bit weird. Quite mild, overcast and muggy. This afternoon the wind got up a bit and it threatened to chuck it down with rain, but it never did. A few spots of rain, but not a proper shower.

After the tour and tasting I had another look in some shops and then went back to my hotel. The plan was to have a quick turnaround, have a couple of beers, get some food and then go back to do my packing. In the end I did a fair bit of packing before I headed out. Everything will fit, but I'm a bit worried about the weight – bottles of sparkling wine are not light!

I went out for beers at the Royal Oak Hotel. Next to me at the bar were an Aussie and a couple of blokes from Leeds (one who lives here and his nephew who is visiting). It was quite interesting doing a bit of eavesdropping! Their topics of conversation included:
- Fly fishing
- Triathlons
- Canoeing
- A young blonde female carpenter the Australian would 'not say no to'!
- Snakes –'they're fucking everywhere at the moment'!
- Leeches – a tale involving the Aussie finding one on his 'ball sack' and thinking he was having a period!

It was now time for food.

I walked down to Hallam's Waterfront – except I wasn't going to be eating in the 'flash' restaurant. It's takeaway for me! I ordered the Waterfront Special – flake, scallops, calamari prawns and chips. I ate it by the the Tamar and it was all good!

Once I'd eaten it was time to leave the Friday night 'revellers' of Launceston and go back to my room and sort myself out for my journey home.........

(Oh, and the football finished Adelaide 1 Gold Coast 1. The Adelaide fans are not happy!)