Report: Greek brews Tzatziki Beer in Australia

A bar in Melbourne tapped on the dozens of thousands of Greek Australians who joined the festivities at Lonsdale Street earlier in February by brewing a tzatziki beer which actually is still served at the bar due to popular demand, according to the following story by greekreporter.com:

Boilermaker House on Lonsdale Street, used the flavor of the world-famous Greek snack, made of yogurt and cucumber, into a beer.

Talking to the Greek Reporter, manager and partner Jack Sotiriou, noted that he wanted “to make something a little bit unique for the festival.”

He described how he suggested to a local brewery to brew something inspired by Greek flavors. “After a lot of brainstorming we agreed that cucumber and mint are delicious, so we brewed tzatziki ale.”

The end product resembles a German-style beer, a sort of sour ale which you normally brew with a little salt water.

“The salt is inherently good for the tzatziki, we added some lacto sugars, a common ingredient used for brewing, half a ton of cucumber and a lot of dill,” Sotiriou explained.

Nevertheless, for tzatziki fans, the beer is not served with tzatziki.

“At Boilermaker House we use less obvious combinations. Βeer and whisky, for example, enhance one another…You drink them side by side.”

“It’s about the flavor pairing instead of just getting drunk,” Sotiriou points out.

The bar situated at 209-211 Lonsdale Street did not stop with tzatziki beer. For the duration of the Greek festival it also offered several innovative Greek-inspired cocktails.

Among them, a lovely twist on the Manhattan: A little bit of Kalamata olive oil added to the famous cocktail. “It was fantastic,” Sotiriou notes.

He was reluctant however to unveil his plans for the future. “We have some ideas but we will save them until next year’s Greek festival.”