The New Homestead Brewery & Improved Mandoon Estate Cellar Door in the Swan Valley

I was trying to hold off visiting the new and improved Mandoon property for a few weeks, but the sun was shining this past Saturday and it was just the perfect day for a nice cold beer or glass of vino in the sun. It didn’t take much convincing for Mr. Spittoon and I to head out there!

I have visited Mandoon Estate a few times since living in Perth and have always been fond of their Verdelho and Cab Merlot plus the lovely Irish lady who was always on the cellar door was an absolute pleasure to chat to.

Over the past 12 months or so, Mandoon has undergone a MASSIVE makeover and upgrade. Their cellar door which originally opened in 2011 backed onto the working winery, which I loved but they decided to step up their game and are definitely now a major contender for the bigger wineries out in the Swan Valley since opening their new doors on monday 15th September 2014.

With the new Homestead microbrewery, the new cellar door, the a la carte fine dining restaurant, the beer garden, playground & deli, the functions centre and the arts centre – it’s safe to say that Mandoon are wanting you to come out not for a couple of hours but to spend an entire day with them.

The architecture and design are absolutely lovely, a lot of people have been saying that the venue reminds them of some of the big breweries and venues down in the Margaret River Wine Region. I love the swan water features around the property which are based off their Swan logo. it’s also nice that the property is well off the main roads and is surrounded by their vines, you definitely feel like you’ve escaped the roar and craziness of the city.
On this particularly Saturday, we were famished as we had been running around doing errands all morning so we rocked up at the brewery with our hungry & thirsty pants on for sure. surprisingly it wasn’t as busy as expected for their first weekend. We were greeted at the door by a staff member who explained about the outside beer garden and also that we would have to order from the bar.

The outside beer garden which is beside the playground is a lovely chilled out area. There were a lot of people relaxing at the picnic tables or on the grass, kids were playing the playground and young adults were throwing a footy around. You can order drinks and food from the beer garden bar and you can also order pizza to take home if you wish.

The Homestead Brewery Beers..

Naturally when I visit any microbrewery I always want a tasting plate (which is funny because I hardly ever drink dark beer so I normally have to give half the tastings away to Mr. Spittoon, not that he complains!). Currently Homestead aren’t doing tasting plates as they are still working on their range, once this is complete then they’ll offer tasting plates.
The lovely staff member who I was chatting to this about explained that they’re still working on a Munich style beer (exciting!) and 2 ciders are also in the works. Currently they have a Hefeweizen (wheat) beer ‘Kaisers Choice’, Belgian Pale Ale ‘No1 Premier’, American Pale Ale ‘Thunderbird’ and a Black IPA ‘Black Swan’. My pick was definitely the No1 – I could quite easily drink a few too many pints of it! Pints range from $12-$14. Of course you can also order wine, coffee, milkshake, juices etc.

The Homstead Brewery Food..

As we were starving we ordered straight up, not the healthiest of snacks, but we couldn’t help ourselves, here’s what we went for:

• Triple Cooked Chips (gluten-free) for $9 – Decent serving, tasty mustard-aioli type sauce on the side, would definitely order again!
• Wort Marinated Pork Ribs and Cornbread for $14 – The sauce took me to foodie heaven and Mr. Spittoon couldn’t get enough of the cornbread, would def order again!
• Buffalo Chicken Wings with Blue Cheese Dip & Celery for $13 – Whoever makes the sauces is an absolute sauce god as the blue cheese dip was divine. The wings were nice and light which married with the dip perfectly, 6 wings on the plate which was perfect, would order again.
• Prosciutto, buffalo mozzarella and basil pizza for $24 – Most importantly the pizza base was insanely good, finally some decent pizza nearby!

The food and 2 pints each came to around the $100 mark which was not too bad. We both left with a full tummy and our happy beer faces on. It was nice to have a walk around the large property after all that food!

The New Mandoon Estate Cellar Door..

I have to admit, the new cellar door is pretty swanky. It was packed on this particular day so we literally bought a couple of bottles of their new bubbles (check out my tasting note here) and had a wander around. They do have a bit of a gift shop which is good to know and of course we spotted the ‘underground cellar and tasting room’ sign so we just had to go and have a quick peek. The tasting room looks very cool, I am definitely looking forward to doing a wine tasting in there and exploring the underground cellar a bit more in the coming weeks.

It was a fab first visit to Mandoon, I am definitely looking forward to going back again soon to try out the restaurant and further menu items at the brewery and in the beer garden. It’s also good to see that they have a ‘taxi phone’ available for anyone to use. I think next time we may just have to taxi there!
Plus they do brekkie on Saturdays and Sundays from 7:30-11am, from 10am you can order alcohol so I think I know where my next bubbly brekkie will be!

For more information, please check out the Mandoon Estate website. View my full album of photos here.