Taking on the worse-for-wear pub that the Forest Lodge Hotel had become was always going to be a big task. But after 12 months hard slog, owner Matt Sen and manager Heath Carter have achieved a mammoth task.

Their Aussie craft selection is now outselling the mainstream tap offerings by three to one, and the pub now has a bank of six taps exclusively for craft beer, along with two taps for boutique cider. There is also a bank of six taps dedicated to mainstream offerings (for those that aren’t quite ready to make the jump).

And the pair are set to up the anti in coming months by rotating their craft taps more regularly, as well as introducing tasting paddles and craft info on blackboards. According to Dan the Beer Snob (their current social media guru) all this is simply to keep up with their punters’ insatiable thirst for quality and variety.

As well as a great selection of brews, visitors can grab some of the tasty, well-priced food on offer, as well as NSW boutique wines for those who are disinclined to embrace the amber nectar.

Dan puts the burgeoning success of the bar down to more than just a change in beer directions, he says that the venue is training their staff to know their stuff so that they can re-engage the locals and spread the word about the range of craft brews on tap.

The pub has already scored the “Best Value for Money” award in the Pub Food Guide Awards 2013, with a score of 15.5/20, and it surely won’t be the last the “Flodge” gets to put up in its metaphorical pool room.

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