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THERE’S MORE THAN ONE WAY to wet your whistle

You can’t drink wine all the time, even in a famous wine region like the Mornington Peninsula. Sometimes you need a beer or a cider in your hand rather than a glass of chardonnay or pinot. After a hard day’s surfing at Gunnamatta in summer, say, or in front of a roaring fire after a winter bush walk around Cape Schanck.

Luckily, there are plenty of non-wine options to be found here, from all sorts of different beer styles to a range of ciders and even a few meads.

Karen and David Golding were the first to explore the malty, hoppy potential of the region when they established Red Hill Brewery in 2005. “Beer was seen as pretty mainstream back then,” says Karen. “A lot of people – younger women in particular – weren’t interested. The idea of craft beer hadn’t evolved. Now everything’s different. We get a really diverse group through these days, a really interesting mix of tourists and locals who drop in for knock-off drinks. And while easy-drinking beers are the most popular, people also now appreciate the darker, stronger beers.”

Since Red Hill started, a bunch of other breweries have opened their doors offering a great diversity of choices. There’s Dainton Beer Taphouse at Carrum Downs, with its range of adventurous IPAs and sours; the popular Jetty Road, and gluten-free beer specialists Two Bays, both in Dromana; and the new Tar Barrel in Mornington at the original home of the much-expanded Mornington Peninsula Brewery, where a still has been installed next to the mash tuns and kettles to also make gin and whisky.

The region has attracted some major investment in the beer tourism market, notably at St Andrews Beach Brewery, where fermenters, bar and beer garden are all located in a refurbished thoroughbred equestrian centre – the place, in fact, where Makybe Diva was trained. owners have also planted thousands of heritage cider apple trees – English and French varieties of apple specifically used for cider-making – which reflects another exciting aspect of the Peninsula’s burgeoning drinks scene.

Lisa Creswell has been making cider under the Seven Oaks label at her family orchard in Merricks North for well over a decade. Recently, she launched a new bold label called Red Hill Cider, and has bottled a custom cider for the nearby vineyard and cellar door, Red Hill Estate. “Tourists are really connected with Red Hill,” says Lisa. “They know this place for the cellar doors and the food and wine. I love all that and wanted to tap into it.”

More and more cider labels are appearing on the Peninsula, including Eddies Cider, produced from apples and pears grown in the Edwards family’s fifth-generation certified-organic orchard. “There’s a good cider community building down here,” says Bec Edwards. “We have a cider judging as part of the Red Hill Show now which is helping to bring more people in.”

The show also includes a judging of mead, the fermented honey ‘wine’ with cultural roots stretching back over millennia. Some people, such as show organiser and cider and mead-maker Wayne Hewett, predict big things for this drink. “It’s so diverse,” says Wayne. “You can ferment the honey in so many different ways, add so many different fruits and spices to it. I think it’s going to take off.”

He could well be right. After all, you can’t stick to wine all the time, can you?