Australian Ale: Find Some of the Best at Sydney’s Lord Nelson Brewery House

If you visit Sydney, you’ve got to visit The Rocks. If you visit The Rocks, you’ve got to visit The Lord Nelson Brewery House because…if you visit Australia, you’ve got to taste the Aussie ales. And some of the best ales are brewed in this historic Boutique Brewery. Try a Nelson’s Blood or Three Sheets or Trafalgar Pale, they’re all good.

Housed in a four-story, sandstone-block building the hotel opened in 1841 when William Wells obtained a liquor license. The heritage-listed hotel has been restored to its former 1800’s grandeur and is now a place where locals and tourists mingle sitting on tall stools at the rectangular bar or squeezed around small wood tables loaded with house brews. As servers race around trying to satisfy unquenchable thirsts some good-natured customers bang the table with their empty glasses and chant, “We’ve been praying. Why hasn’t the Lord delivered?”  This is a corruption of the Lord Nelson House motto: “You’ve been praying. The Lord has delivered.” In short, where’s my ale?

Interesting artifacts adorn the walls including an original “Times” newspaper dated November 7^th, 1805 with details of the Battle of Trafalgar and Lord Nelson’s death. A copy of the hotel’s first license is still posted.

Try the meat pie with mashed peas or leg of lamb or their famous Ploughman’s Lunch, every choice is great. For a memorable experience, spend an evening drinking ale and frolicking with the locals.

By the way, the characters in my novel, “Murder Down Under,” party at the Lord Nelson Brewery House.

Photo: Australia by Billy Whizz