Monday, April 13, 2009

The story behind ginger beer (Apr. 4/09 - Hervey Bay, Australia, mileage 164km)

*** Note: This day's entry is out of order- should go two days earlier! Oops! ***

Back when we first arrived in Cairns and Ken was suffering from stomach troubles, he ordered a bottle of ginger beer, hoping the ginger and the fizz would be soothing. Having never even heard of the stuff before, I had a taste and was very impressed, which says a lot coming from a soft drink non-drinker. It's sort of like the gingerale you can get at home but with the potency of root beer and a strong, zingy flavour of fresh ginger. Ken had tasted it years ago in the states and was now instantly hooked again. It's called Bundaberg Ginger Beer, and our fridge has had a stash of it ever since we left Cairns. Well today we were in Bundabery, and it just so happens that the brewery is here and offers tours. (Apparently, their more popular product is Bundaberg Rum, made with local sugar cane, but we were more into the non-boozy side of things.) Their display office is shaped like half a giant keg, and inside they had some great interactive displays on the whole brewing process right from the trial recipes that were developed in the 1800s in people's back yards right up to the mass production and international export to 27 countries (but not Canada!) that happens today. It's a family owned company that started almost 200 years ago and has gone through the growing pains every company does, even coming close to bankruptcy three years in. It was interesting to learn that they still use a completely natural brewing process without any added preservatives, colours, or artificial stuff. The only four ingredients are water, sugar from the local cane fields, ginger from the local ginger fields, and their own yeasts. At the end, we got to sample all eleven varieties of non-boozy drinks that they make, including lemon ale, apple ale, sasparilla (aka rootbeer), lemon lime & bitters, peach ale, creaming soda, their version of cola, and of course the ginger beer. Most of them had low sugar versions too, and all of them were great. The ginger beer is still the hands down favourite though!


After some quality time at an internet place updating the good old blog, we hit the road bound for Hervey Bay. This town is the gateway to Fraser Island, a unique sand island that is almost 150km long and boasts clear freshwater lakes and streams, rainforests, sand dunes, wild dingoes, and a huge flat 75 mile long stretch of beach that 4x4s zoom down as a beach highway. Since 2WD vehicles aren't allowed (no roads!), you either have to rent your own 4x4 (expensive!) or join a tour. So tomorrow we'll join a truckload of tourists to go see what all the fuss over Fraser Island is about.

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