Craft Beer Garden in Blenheim – Day 245

Today we’re gonna have a craft beer / German / Italian / Kiwi foodie experience at Dodson Street.

Today is gonna be a quiet day for us in Blenheim the sun is out and we are heading for a beer garden.

Marlborough is known for its wine but if you do have more of a taste for beer then this is the place to come. Dodson Street in Blenheim.

First up, the place is absolutely gigantic and second the owner, Dietmar, is so welcoming it’s absolutely amazing to have an owner walking you through his entire establishment as soon as you walk in. He is in love with what he is doing.

He’s taking the time to show us every type of beer that they are serving here they actually change them super regularly that’s why they are all stickers and you always get a different experience when you come here there is also a massive outdoor garden where people come to relax after a hard day of work or just instead of a hard day of work. But before getting serious we need a coffee.

Oh my God, that is the fluffiest hot chocolate I have seen.

After coffee it doesn’t take us long to go straight onto lunch because when you are on a backpacker budget like Robin and I you kind of have the same food all the time so we are super stoked to be trying some new and different food here at the Dodson Street Beergarden.

because these guys do a whole range of food they do like German, Italian and New Zealand food we’re having a little bit of a Italian and classic Kiwi fish and chips.

Speaking of food, a question that you guys are often asking us is what is typical New Zealand food. Well aside from the traditional Hangi or the pavlova which is a meringue dessert invented in New Zealand, New Zealand sort of does the best of everything because there’s so many different cultures that have immigrated to New Zealand. So for example, the fish and chips it’s not exactly a traditional New Zealand meal but it’s something that they do extremely well because this is a fisherman’s nation.

And now that we have full bellies we are Ok to drink so we are heading to the bar grabbing ourselves a tasting tray and heading back to the garden.

So I guess in chess you have to think a few steps ahead. Is that right?

Yep.

Ain’t nobody got time for that.

So while Laura is slowly learning to play chess we are trying a selection of beer because Dietmar told us that Dodson Street has one of the widest selection of beer in the entire country. That’s basically his claim of fame.

On our tasting try today we are trying a wealth of different stuff we are trying a porter beer, we are trying a sour beer, we are trying a Czech Pilsner, we are trying a cherry cider, god knows why, and we are trying a wheat beer we are grabbing ourselves a massive handle of beer and heading back inside because the team from the local brewery here in Blenheim called Renaissance is about to have lunch and they have invited us to join them which is really cool it’s something that Kiwis do best, getting yourself integrated with the crowd.

And because we are in the bar we are trying some more beer there’s heaps of beer selection it’s really cool the old decoration on the place because they kept one coaster of every beer they have served in here. it’s really fun and it shows how many beer they have had here.

Another reason this place looks so good is the fact that it’s a heritage building it’s actually the oldest commercial building in Blenheim which used to hold an ice cream factory, a malt house, and two wineries before it became a beergarden which it has been for around six or seven years now.

So we’re getting ourselves some more huge German style beer handles and joining the guys from the brewery next door for lunch but because we’ve already had lunch we are having yet more food this time in the form of some delicious dessert we’re having brownies and mixed nut cake with ice cream.

And one of the cool things about having lunch with the locals is that they are here to give us heaps of tips about the area because we already told them that we’ve done enough of the wine country of Blenheim we’ve done two tours about the wine country in Blenheim already, we told them we want to look for something a little bit different. So they told us about Peter Jackson, yes the guy from Lord of the Rings, he stores all his planes right here in Blenheim and we’re checking it out tomorrow.

I believe I can touch the sky so we had a few beers and now we’re singing. Should do that more often.

So that actually marks the end of our foodie experience here in Blenheim because tomorrow we’re gonna do something slightly different in the Marlborough town we’re going to be going to the aviation heritage centre which means we’re gonna be seeing some vintage planes and yeah. Gotta love those vintage planes. See you tomorrow.