Category Archives: Beer review

Beer review — Cascade First Harvest and Pure Blonde Naked

4 May 2011Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Cascade First Harvest Ale 2011 356ml 4-pack $19.99
Brewer Max Burslem’s final brew at Cascade uses three experimental Tasmania-grown hops strains added green and fresh to the fermenter. It’s a dark amber, opulently malty, silk-smooth brew to sip and savour. The beautiful hops show, not so much in aroma, as in complex flavours and bitterness intertwined with the malt.

Pure Blonde Naked Premium Ale 355ml 6-pack $16.99
Growing demand for low-carb, mid-alcohol beers (3.5 per cent in this case) presents brewers with a challenge. How do they make interesting beer stripped of two major flavour components? Well, they make it clean and fresh. But drinking it’s about as thrilling as a kiss with your lips closed.

Beer review — Krusivice and Orkney

27 April 2011Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Krusivice Imperial Czech Premium Beer 330ml $3.80
Krusovice Imperial, part of Heineken International’s portfolio, sits square in the Czech rich, bitter lager mould. The colour’s deep golden, and the aroma sweetly malty with an overlay of hops. The palate offers full, smooth malt, mingled with hops flavours and finishing a dry, delicious hops bitterness.

Orkney Brewery Dragonhead Stout 500ml $9.50
The very dark brown/black colour suggests the brooding beast it is – modestly alcoholic at four per cent, but assertively bitter, even slightly smokey, from all that roast grain character, like very dark chocolate. Despite the intense flavours, though, it’s dry on the palate, finishing clean and bitter.

Beer review — Wig & Pen and Sierra Nevada

20 April 2011Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Wig and Pen Venom Imperial Ale half-pint $6
Choose your poison? It’s a hard call at the Wig – so many stunningly good brews. But this week it’s Venom: seduced by the estery, apricot-like aroma, then totally won over by a fleshy, velvety, luxurious palate and exciting interplay of unctuous malt and intensely bitter hops.

Sierra Nevada Porter 350ml $6.90
What a beaut porter this is from the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California. The aroma and palate reveal rich, roasted malt character – reminiscent of dark chocolate and toffee. It weighs in at a solid 5.6 per cent alcohol, but it’s lively and balanced on the palate with a refreshing chocolaty, bitter finish.

Beer review — Moa and Daleside

13 April 2011Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Moa Noir Very Rare Beer 375ml $5.90
Moa Noir is brewed in Blenheim, Marlborough, the heart of New Zealand’s sauvignon blanc country. It’s a strong, dark ale featuring flavours reminiscent of chocolate and roasted coffee beans. The palate, however, has a refreshing lightness to it and it finishes dry and bitter.

Daleside Pride of England Beer 500ml $8.20
From Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Pride of England is a mid-alcohol (four per cent), medium bodied pale golden ale, built for warm weather refreshment. It provides an attractive balance of fruitiness, smooth malt and refreshing, lingering hops bitterness, without any single element dominating the mix.

Beer review — Dalgety Brewing Co and Matilda Bay

6 April 2011Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Dalgety Brewing Co Smoked Porter 24x330ml bottles $80
It’d drive you to drink – the label says Dalgety Brewing, the web address is snowyriverbeer.com and the home page says Snowy Vineyard Estate. But their porter sends a clear message – “I am dark, malty, chocolaty, alcoholic, round and smooth; porter through and through”. Available through the web site and at cellar door.

Matilda Bay Alpha Pale Ale 345ml 6-pack $19.99
Growing success of Matilda Bay’s Fat Yak, a toned-down version of Alpha, prompted a revisit to the original. What a beautiful, idiosyncratic beer it is, featuring opulent malt and eyebrow singeing Cascade hops from Washington State. It’s quite an accomplishment packing in so much flavour and bitterness and maintaining drinkability.

Beer review — Zierholz and Murray’s

30 March 2011Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Zierholz German Ale 5-litre keg $40
Like bread straight from the oven, beer from the vat gives a thrilling freshness. Zierholz five-litre kegs deliver the near-vat experience, in this instance with a German Kolsch style – a mild, fruity golden ale with a lager-like delicate, crisp, smooth flavour and clean, lingering hops bitterness.

Murray’s Whale Ale 330ml $3.98
Port Stephens-based Murray’s brews this in the American style – a toned down version of Bavarian styles, with their strong banana-like fruity esters. Taking away the esters leaves a light, tangy, ale with the abundant froth, smooth, creamy texture and tangy lemon freshness typical of wheat ale.

Beer and cider review — Bridge Road and Coldstream Brewery

23 March 2011Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Bridge Road Hans Klopek’s Hefe Weizen 330ml $4.05
With wheat beers we look first for a big, fine-textured, long-lasting head. Alas, Hans Klopek flopped, dead flat – an experience completely at odds with Bridge Road’s high reputation. The aroma and mildly acidic palate also lacked the style’s usual aroma and punch. A bit of QA needed here.

Coldstream Brewery Apple Cider 330ml 6-pack $16.99
Coldstream claims to ferment its ciders from fresh Victorian apples, not concentrate as used in some brands. Using cool ferments and cold filtration, they aim for a pure expression of apple. The aroma’s light and pure; ditto the light but crisply apple-like palate with its crunchy acidity, countered by natural fruit sweetness.

Beer review — Southern Tier and Weihenstephaner

16 March 2011Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Southern Tier Phin and Matt’s Extraordinary Ale 355ml $6.75
Hats off to Phin and Matt, whoever they are, for making a complex, fairly alcoholic ale (5.6 per cent) that’s subtle and inviting. The aroma’s all warm, generous malt with a hint of hops. The generous malt continues on a silky, deep palate, dried out by beautifully balanced, clean hops bitterness

Weihenstephaner Tradition Bayrisch Dunkel 500ml $4.77
This is a dark version of the Bayrisch mild, helles (pale) style reviewed last week. A luxuriant pale brown head caps the deep, burnished-mahogany liquid underneath. It’s a mild, gently hopped brew accented with the chocolate-like flavours and lingering bitterness of roasted, malted barley.

Beer review — Feral White and Weihenstephaner

9 March 2011Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Feral White 330ml $3.42
Feral White, from the Swan Valley, combines wheat and barley, seasoned with coriander and orange peel, in the Belgian style popularised by Hoegaarden. It delivers the style’s fresh, clove-like aroma and lemon-fresh palate. But it lacks the creamy richness of the originals and finishes perhaps a little sweet.

Weihenstephaner Original Bayrisch Mild 500ml $4.77
This lager is a pale, mild and subtle counterfoil to the assertively bitter Weihenstephaner Pilsner reviewed a few months back. Subtlety is the keynote all through: malty aroma with just a hint of hops aromatics; smooth, deep, velvety palate with just enough hops to dry out the finish.

Beer review — Pike’s Oakbank and Invercargill Brewery

2 March 2011Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Pike’s Oakbank Pilsener 330ml 6-pack $17.99
Henry Pike first brewed Oakbank beer in 1886. In 1996 Pike’s descendents, Neil and Andrew Pike of Pikes wines, Clare Valley, introduced a Coopers-brewed Oakbank Ale. A few years later the Pike’s replaced the ale with this pilsner style, featuring rich, smooth malt and wonderfully aromatic, mildly bitter hops.

Invercargill Brewery Boysen Beery 330ml $8.98
The label describes it as a traditional fruit beer with a Kiwi twist. A wheat ale, brewed with boysenberries, it’s a vibrant red-mahogany colour, luring us with a sweet, berry aroma. After an initial fruity hit, the palate turns pleasantly, tantalisingly sour. It’s an idiosyncratic beer, based on the Belgian fruit Lambic style.