Tapped In #014: Home Is Where The Beer Is
- Future Magic
- Apr 21
- 7 min read
Hey all,
Right, so it has been about six months since the last one of these. I am not going to pretend that is not a long time, because it is, and you probably deserve a better excuse than 'things got busy.' That said...things got busy! We have been heads-down building, brewing, fixing, and occasionally breaking things, and somewhere in that blur the blog fell off the list. It is back on the list now, and I am glad to be writing it again.
The occasion that finally broke the drought: we just got back from two weeks in New Zealand, our first proper family holiday since we started building Future Magic, about 4 years! We crammed the whole family in a campervan, covered about 1,100 kilometres from Auckland down through the Coromandel Peninsula, Rotorua, Lake Taupo, the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, and eventually the one stop I had been looking forward to for longer than I will publicly admit. More on that shortly...
We landed back in Brisbane last Saturday, grabbed our bags, and drove straight to Future Magic for dinner, yes really! Not because we had to check on anything, just because we wanted to. Walking in to find the place buzzing, the outside tables full, the team running the show without a hitch, that was a better welcome home than I could have planned.
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New Zealand, and Why Hobbiton Stopped Me in My Tracks
The trip was genuinely one of the best things we have done as a family. New Zealand has a way of making you feel small in the best possible sense, and driving through it slowly, stopping when something catches your eye, is the right way to do it. The Coromandel coastline is beautiful, Rotorua, despite rumours that it smells like rotten eggs really isn't that bad at all and is completely worth it. We went luge-ing, zorbing and ate at a mate's venue literally lunch, dinner then breakfast the next day it was that good! Lake Taupo is out of this world beautiful too.
The Waitomo Glowworm Caves were extraordinary in a way that is hard to describe without sounding like a tourism brochure. You float through the dark on a small boat, completely silent, and above you there are countless thousands of tiny bioluminescent creatures lighting up the cave ceiling in blue-green. It is genuinely unlike anything else I've experienced, even my daughter at the age of 7 said "Mum, dad, thank you for taking us here, it was so beautiful!" Couldn't have said it better myself!
But the highlight for me, and I will not apologise for this, for I am a MASSIVE nerd at heart, was Hobbiton. I have been a fan of the books first and later the films for a long time and I knew I would enjoy it, but I was not prepared for how well they had done it. The tour is about two and a half hours of walking through beautifully maintained sets that feel, somehow, completely real and lived-in. The phrase I kept coming back to, and I said this to Sonia on the day, was 'perfectly overgrown.' Every hedge, every vine, every patch of moss looks like it has been there for decades, like someone actually lives there and has just nipped out. It turns out that is entirely deliberate. There are full-time gardeners and farmers working the property year-round, and what Sonia noticed, which I thought was a brilliant observation, is that they have planted specifically to attract wildlife. The biodiversity there is extraordinary, butterflies and bees and moths everywhere, far more than you would see in a natural area ten times the size. The whole place feels alive in a way that goes beyond just good set design.
We finished the tour at the Green Dragon Inn, which is the pub from the films, and I ordered a 3.5% amber ale and a 5% stout both brewed by Good George Brewing Co. They were simple, well-made, and exactly right for the moment. Sometimes that is all a beer needs to be, simple and wholesome, like the Shire itself.
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What's Pouring!?
So we have two beers that deserve more attention than they have been getting. I haven't promoted them anywhere as near as much as they deserve! Give them a go next time you come in, I promise you they're both absolute cracker beers!
The first is Just a Pale, Thanks, and the name is the whole pitch. It is not trying to be complicated. It's clean, balanced, well-hopped, and built for the weather we are in right now. I think sometimes we get caught up in talking about the more unusual beers on the list and this one just quietly sits there being excellent without making a fuss about it. Come in and give it a proper chance. Right now it's not in cans so the only places you can try it are here in the taproom and at Saccharomyces Beer Cafe in Fish Lane where it's on from now until the end of June.
The second is the Million Dollar Sour, a 4.7% mixed berry sour that we have absolutely undersold since it went on. It is fruit-forward and bright with just enough tartness to feel interesting, but it is not the kind of sour that makes your eyes water. If you are somebody who thinks you do not like sour beers, this is the one that tends to open the door just enough to get you in. It drinks more like a particularly good fruit juice than anything confronting, is genuinely refreshing, oh and also it's bright pink!
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Soul Groove 2nd of May: Get a Ticket
This is the one thing I genuinely want you to act on this week. Sounds of Soul are bringing their Soul Groove night to Future Magic on the 2nd of May, and it is an evening of original vinyl records covering Northern soul, sixties R&B, funk, and jazz. These are people who care deeply about the music and the experience they put on, and every night they have run has been the kind of thing people talk about afterwards.
Tickets are just fifteen bucks. For a real vinyl night with cold beer and a room full of people who know how to enjoy themselves, that is nothing. There are still a few left but not many, so if you are on the fence, get off it and come for a beer and a boogie!
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The Auger Story (or: Why My Back Has Been Terrible)
Just before we left for New Zealand, we finished a big run of brewing to stock the tanks after our recent equipment upgrade. On the very last batch, the auger, which is the large pipe that feeds milled grain up into the brewhouse, snapped clean in two, naturally, on the last batch.
For anyone who has not thought about how grain gets from a mill into a brewing vessel: you do not want to be doing it manually. For the past few weeks that has meant milling grain into bags, carrying those bags up by hand, and tipping them in one at a time. It is slow, it is tedious, and my back has had opinions about it.
Today the auger goes back in, rewelded and ready to go. Brew days are about to get an hour shorter and considerably less unpleasant. It is a small thing in the scheme of it, but after a few weeks of the manual version, I am genuinely looking forward to it!
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The Loft Has Its First Guests This Thursday
This is something we have been working toward for a long time, so it feels significant to be writing it down and sharing with you all! The Loft at Future Magic has its first official booking this Thursday, a private group coming in for after-work drinks with our events food and drink package. We have spent this week doing final setup: furniture, bar testing, making sure everything is exactly where it should be before people walk through the door.
There will be more to share soon about what the space looks like finished, what packages are available, and how to enquire about a booking for your own event or function. For now I am just glad it is happening. Getting the first real guests into that room is the moment the whole thing stops being a project and starts being something.
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The Welcome Home
One more thing worth mentioning. When Sonia and I walked back into the taproom on Saturday evening, still slightly in the fog of a long holiday and final flight, a few regulars came straight over to ask how the trip was. Shaun from next door had been on his way back from the shops and ducked in just to say hello. A couple at their usual table wanted to hear about New Zealand. It was completely ordinary and it was exactly what this place is supposed to be about, connection and greeting friends.
We built Future Magic to be somewhere people come back to time and again with friends and family, and on Saturday night that spirit and purpose felt very real. If you are one of those regulars, thank you. It means more than you know.
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Until Next Round...
It is good to be back, both from New Zealand and back to writing this. There is a lot happening at Future Magic right now, and I want to do a better job of bringing you along for it. The Loft is opening, the tanks are full of good beer, and there is a vinyl night coming up that I am genuinely excited about.
Come in if you can. And if you cannot make it this week, grab a ticket to Soul Groove on the 2nd of May or book a table for the weekend!
See you at the bar.
Sean
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