Category Archives: Beer review

Mad brewer’s mood swing

14 March 2012Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

How can a quirky beer like Hoppy Hefe come from the same brewery as the bland and boring James Squire 150 Lashes – the one thrilling and edgy; the other, well, it’s wet and alcoholic. But Maybe that’s just a mad brewer’s mood swing.

The latest offering from Mad Brewers – Malt Shovel’s Chuck Hahn, Tony Jones, Rob Freshwater and Dayton Coffey – puts a novel spin on bottle-conditioned wheat ale.

Wheat beers generally rely on high acidity, not hops, for their freshness and bite. But Hoppy Hefe takes several cues from the American Pale Ale style – full, malty body, high alcohol and really pungent, assertive hops, added late in the brewing process.

Brewer Tony Jones calls it a “mongrel of a wheat beer with no claim to nationality” – a fair description for a brew that occupies no known niche.

Malt Shovel Mad Brewers Hoppy Hefe Ale 640ml $9.99
The colour’s medium amber with a light yeast haze (hefe); the aroma combines ale fruitiness with rich, sweet maltiness, cut by fresh, citrus-like hops; and the opulent, malty, alcoholic palate benefits from fresh acid, courtesy of the wheat, and the challenging but delicious dollop of lingering, bitter hops.

Beer review — Hacker Pschorr-Munchen and Murrays

29 February 2012Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Hacker Pschorr-Munchen Gold 500ml $8.00
This is a full-bodied, light coloured (helles) style from Munich Germany. Luxurious comes to mind as we admire the dense white head and rich malty, hoppy aroma. The opulent palate fulfils the promise of the aroma, and finishes with a refreshing, clean hoppy bitterness.

Murrays Nirvana Pale Ale 330ml $4.50
The label describes Nirvana as a hybrid of the American and English pale ale styles. But to my taste the penetrating hops aroma, full, malty body and assertive, lingering hops flavour and bitterness point it more towards the American mould. Beautiful, fresh hops are the keynote – a great match for hot chilli.

Belgians launch PET-packed beer in Australia

22 February 2012Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

In the past, Australian breweries have produced beer in PET plastic bottles, principally for safety at large-scale event – protecting people from liquor fuelled violence or simply keeping benign drunks out of harm’s way.

Recently, however, Fluid Wholesalers, Sydney, introduced a plastic-packaged Belgian beer to the market, promoting its environmental as well as safety benefits.

Distributor Allan Hayes writes, “It is in a patented PET bottle which protects it from any reaction with the plastic and provides nine months life from production. We developed this as we saw a gap in the market for safe, lightweight and more environmentally friendly option over glass and aluminium”.

Initial distribution is Australia-wide through Woolworths’-owned Dan Murphy outlets and a few independent Sydney retailers.

Brass comes in two styles – Lager and Pilsener (which means they’re both lagers, the pilsner, reviewed below, being notably more lively and bitter, and the lager OK, but not exciting).

Brass Belgium Pilsener 330ml 6-pack $14.99
I couldn’t bring myself to drink from the plastic bottle, so glug, glug, glug, into the glass it went. Clear, pale-golden colour, good head retention and lively carbonation all raised hopes; the aroma and palate were as fresh as the appearance suggested. And the intense, bitter hops balanced the malt richness well.

Nothing sheepish about Wig’s new lambic

15 February 2012Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

This week Canberra’s Wig and Pen releases an oak matured beer, modelled on the ancient Belgian lambic style. Brewer Richard Watkins started the brew in January 2009 – a blend of 75 per cent barley and 25 per cent wheat malts – inoculated with a microbial tag-team, including brewer’s yeast, brettanomyces and lactobacillus (derived from Belgian lambic populations).

At the end of 2010, with the traditional lambic style now almost two years in barrel, Watkins sourced a batch of de-stemmed, de-seeded hail-damaged cherries from Young.

To build the mid palate of the beer, he added the pureed cherries to the two barrels – so the lambic became a kriek style, still following the Belgian tradition.

In early February 2012 Watkins transferred the beer to tank for final adjustments, including carbonation and freshening up with a dash more cherry.

Wig and Pen Lambs-go-Baa (Kriek Lambic) 285ml balloon $9
Three years in the making, this is perhaps Richard Watkins finest brewing achievement. The colour’s a medium cherry-skin red and the flavour combines sour cherry and marzipan. Brisk acidity keeps the palate lively and fresh. But there’s a rich texture, too, and a hint of oak-derived vanilla in the dry, delicious aftertaste.

Beer review — Bellarine Brewing and Sierra Nevada Brewing

8 February 2012Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Bellarine Brewing Lonsdale Lager 24X330ml $80
Bellarine Estate, on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, offers both wine and beer and gives brewery tours each Saturday. Their pale, golden lager offers smooth, generous malt flavour backed by pleasant citrus-like hops flavour and moderate bitterness. Our sample showed signs of age, so expect a better experience with fresh stock. See www.bellarineestate.com.au

Sierra Nevada Brewing Torpedo Extra IPA 355ml $4.99
Sierra’s boom-box interpretation of India pale ale maxes the volume on all components – malt, hops and alcohol. Opulent malt provides, deep sweet mid-palate flavour and texture – the boom. Alcohol fills the mid palate. And hops deliver both the tweeting, citrusy high notes and a pervading, intense, lingering bitterness.

Beer review — Trumer

1 February 2012Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Trumer Pils 330ml 6-pack $23
A bright lemon colour and pure-white foam give Trumer a refreshing appeal, confirmed by the fresh, attractive herbal hops aroma. This appeal carries through on a lively, fresh and tasty-but-light palate with a fine balance of rich malt and herbal, drying, bitter hops. Brewed and bottled in Salzburg, Austria.

Zierholz goes to uni

1 February 2012Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

If the god’s of bureaucracy and fate smile on Christoph Zierholz, Canberra University may have its own brewpub by the time you read this. Well, it’ll have the pub, and lots of beer, but it’ll be a little while before the brewery arrives.

In mid-January, Zierholz said he expected to open the pub in time for O week (30 January to 3 February) and supply it from his existing brewpub at Fyshwick.

However, he plans to install a brewery this year and supplement the Fyshwick-brewed products with “unique house beers” brewed on site.

The bar will initially offer 18 beers and a couple of ciders, including Gundaroo’s Jolly Miller.

The university outlet – located at the hub in building 1, Kirinari Street – features a wood fired pizza, grill and some of the German-style dishes created originally for the Fyshwick brewpub.

Zierholz Pils 5-litre keg $40
The recyclable keg, purchased at Zierholz Brewery Fyshwick, opened easily, poured reliably and delivered the true, fresh-draft experience. The cloudy, light golden colour promises wholemeal goodness and delivers deliciously, with a pure, rich, malty flavour and lovely, clean lingering bitterness (for those that like hops).

Beer review — North Coast Brewing and Swell Brewing

25 January 2012Beer reviewChris Shanahan

North Coast Brewing Acme California India Pale Ale 355ml $5.99
The enticing aroma leans to fruitiness and toffee-like malt, with a sweet note from the substantial alcohol (6.5 per cent). The fruit, malt and alcohol follow through onto the plush palate, then they’re swept along with intense, lingering bitterness of hops in overdrive – a distinctive take on this widely interpreted beer style

Swell Brewing Co Golden Ale 500ml $8.60
Swell Brewing, founded by stepbrothers Dan and Daniel Wright, and Dan’s wife, Corinna, brew their beer down in McLaren Vale’s wine country. Golden Ale, a medium-bodied beer, offers light malt flavours, cut with spicy, zesty, citrusy hops flavour and drying, moderate hops bitterness. It’s an easy drinking style.

Cider and beer review — Comte Louis de Lauriston and Samuel Adams

21 December 2011Beer review, CiderChris Shanahan

Comte Louis de Lauriston Poire 750ml $23
This Norman cider, made from 10 different pear varieties, provides dazzling acidity, pure, delicate pear flavours and pleasingly, teasingly, bone-dry finish. It has all the racy freshness of the just-ripe fruit itself. The maker captures the fruitiness through a cold fermentation, followed by a secondary fermentation in bottle to produce the bubbles.

Samuel Adams Noble Pils 355ml $3.70
This is a distinctive American interpretation of the classic Bohemian style pilsener, using Bohemian malted barley and hops originating in Bavaria and the Czech Republic. A pungent, seductive hops aroma lures us into the rich, smooth, malty palate, cut by the pungent flavours and lingering, clean bitterness of the hops.

Crown Ambassador de Luxe Lager — layers of flavour

14 December 2011Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Australia’s largest brewer, Fosters, makes one of Australia’s finest craft beers – Crown Ambassador de Luxe Lager. Ambassador measures up as “craft” on all fronts – quality, small production (4,000 to 7,000 bottles annually) and hands-on production by John Cozens and two brewing colleagues.

This year Cozens released the 2011 vintage, fourth in this series of high-alcohol, bottle-conditioned lagers.

It builds on the four previous vintages, adding what Cozens calls “layers of flavour” as he tweaks the style each year. In 2009 he introduced crystal malt to the blend, to add caramel and toffee notes. In 2010, a couple of hand-me-down oak barrels from Foster’s wine division added complexity, as well some unwanted characters to the blend.

This year’s release, incorporating handpicked galaxy hops from Bright, and a portion fermented new French oak, seems the most layered, pleasing brew yet.

Crown Ambassador Reserve Lager 2011 $90
Dark, cloudy, golden-amber Crown pours with a dense head and enticing aroma of floral-citrus hops and sweet caramel. Over an hour or as so it warms from fridge to room temperature, the silky textured brew s reveals layers of caramel and toffee malt flavours, spicy notes and both the flavour and bitterness of hops.