Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel 500ml $5–$6.00
Bavaria’s 1000-year-old Weihenstephan brewery makes delicious, complex, traditional beers including this glorious bottle-fermented dark wheat beer. It’s got the dense, abundant head of the style and a harmonious, malty, rich-but-not-heavy palate with the brisk, acidic, dry wheat-ale palate. The strong dollar seems to keeping the price down – the sample bottle cost $5 on special.
Shepherd Neame Premium Spitfire Kentish Ale 500ml $9.00
This is a lovely, satisfying, full flavoured ale weighing in at a modest 4.5 per cent alcohol. The focus is on incredibly rich, silky, treacly malt flavours nicely offset by quite bitter, lingering hops flavours. Serve it at about ten degrees as an attractive cool-summer-evening ale.
Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2013
First published 11 December 2013 in the Canberra Times