FogHorn Brewery — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

As we were driving back to Sydney, I saw the “FogHorn Brewery” on a brown background sign – this could only mean it’s a tourist or featured attraction. I asked my partner if we can detour there before heading home. I thought it would be nice to check out the local brewery to see what they had to offer. I love playing tourist in my own country.

OUTSIDE THE PLACE – seems nice from the outside. Even the beer tap sculpture on the building gave it a unique look.

INSIDE THE PLACE – It looks spacious. With one side for group booking (I guess), and the rest was open with some bar tables and stools and other with table and chair. You can see Vats with different beer/ale labels. I thought it was impressive, until my partner pointed out that they weren’t even connected. So unlikely, it was operational. As we made ourselves comfortable on the bar table/stools, I couldn’t help buy feel that the table was sticky. I mean, it looked clean, but it was sticky! As we stayed longer, we found that the place was not well insulated. It was a warm day, and there was one small fan flowing on high speed that I could see to distribute airflow. We were sitting there beginning to sweat as we waited for our share plate to arrive.

THE FOOD AND DRINK – I thought the share plate for arancini balls was reasonably priced. I can’t comment anymore on the food because the longer we sat there, the hotter we got and eating was the last thing on our mind. My partner had the tasting paddle "Walk The Plank", a selection of pale ale. I'm not one to drink, but my partner did say that the drink was "okay, but I won't be buying anymore to take home".

Should we decide to visit this place again and I have the opportunity to taste more of what's on the menu and the Gin selection, I may amend my review. For now, the place just...

We loved this place!! Its so wonderful to see old factories/building getting a new lease on life being converted into a great venue.

Staff are friendly & very welcoming. It's a huge area with plenty of tables. This place has a great industrial feel with huge ceiling heaters that kept us warm & cosy in the expansive area.

We shared a beer paddle, buffalo chicken wings, and the mushroom & goats cheese pizza.

What we did love about ordering a tasting beer paddle was the selection printout. I don't know how many times we go to breweries and they either write on the paddle, and it's so hard to read/decipher, or otherwise they just expect you to remember. The printout stuck to the beer paddle solved all those issues.

Hubby loved the Hunter Hazy beer, and I loved the Tilse's apple cider. I was disappointed with the ginger & chilli beer, but it was worth trying.

The chicken wings are amazing! I felt it didn't really need the blue cheese sauce accompaniment. I was literally liking to buffalo sauce off the plate. I would come back just for their wings!

The pizzas are huge!! We were struggling to finish! We struggled through because it all tasted so yummy!

We arrived before the Sunday afternoon music started. It would be a great place to catch up with friends on a lazy afternoon and...

Took me a moment to get my head around what they were doing with the pizza's. Sparse toppings but once I started the chew, The crust and the sauce made up for it. Its a massive pizza but if you think of it in terms of a smaller pizza with the same amount of toppings it would have been crowded, so I wasn't getting shafted even though on the surface that appeared to be the case. My pizza selection was the 'Buffalo', it was a fantastic taste. I also had a lash at the onion rings, the sauce was cookie cutter standard fare, but the batter was interesting but sadly it was a bit too fatty. My girlfriend had a 'Summer Ale' and said it was fantastic. I had a Lemon Lime bitters that was standard post mix...pretty average. Would have asked for a real one if I had thought of it, so ill reserve my judgement at this time. The atmosphere was relaxed and fine, the free Wi-Fi is a nice touch. I would imagine the place would be very noisy during busier periods but overall things were fine, volume wise during my visit. i will give...