Category Archives: Beer review

Beer review — Hopper Soft Brew and Henninger

6 October 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Hopper Soft Brew Citrus, Apple and Blackcurrant 330ml $3
Looks and feels like beer texturally, but the red tinge in the blackcurrant gives it away. The citrus smells liked candied orange rind; the apple version is more clear-cut, like tangy granny smiths; and the blackcurrant’s like Ribena. To me they’re sweet and cloying, though carbohydrates represent just 7.9gms in every 100.

Henninger Original German Lager Bier 330ml 6-pack $11.99
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, the big retailers keep the pressure on premium beer prices by importing their own and selling it direct – cutting out the middleman. Coles imports Henninger for its Liquorland, 1st Choice and Vintage Cellars outlets. It’s a pleasant, light-golden lagers with appealing, delicate, herbal hops bitterness.

Beer review — Pigs Fly and William Bull

29 September 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Pigs Fly Pale Ale 330ml $3.99
Pigs Fly, the inaugural brew from Bowral Brewing Company (founded 2005), is in the English pale ale style – combining rich malt, high-toned fruitiness, boosted by hops aroma, and lingering, well-balanced hops bitterness. It’s been very consistent over the years and pushes the “complex” and “very drinkable” buttons at the same time.

William Bull William’s Pale Ale 330ml $3.69
De Bortoli makes this complex, quaffable brew at their William Bull brewery in Griffith, New South Wales. It’s pale lemon coloured and highly aromatic with a light but tasty and very brisk palate. The tangy freshness comes from “sharp carbonation” and terrifically clean, lingering hops bitterness.

Beer review — Sharp’s and Southern Tier 422

15 September 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Sharp’s Special 500ml $8.02
Sharp’s, founded in 1994, brews at Rock, Cornwall, and specialises in cask-conditioned ales. This is a bottled version of its strongest brew – a deep-amber ale with opulent sweet, malty palate, complex (but subtle) roasted-grain notes and perfectly judged hops adding more flavour complexity and bitterness.

Southern Tier 422 Pale Wheat Ale 330ml $6.75
From Lakewood, New York, comes this distinctive, full-bodied, bottle-conditioned wheat ale. The aroma and palate both reveal more hops character than we normally see in wheat beers. But it’s a subtle, pleasant and balanced difference that works well with the full, sweet maltiness of the palate.

Beer review — Lobethal Bierhaus and Weihenstephaner

8 September 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Lobethal Bierhaus Red Truck Porter 330ml $4.42
This English style dark ale comes from Lobethal in the Adelaide Hills, just a short drive east of Adelaide. The aroma suggests roasted grain, coffee and chocolate – flavours delivered generously on the palate. A subtle hops flavour adds freshness and a mild bitterness that offsets the generous malt flavours

Weihenstephaner Kristall Weissbier 500ml $5.85
This beautiful Bavarian wheat beer comes from the Weihenstephen brewery, dating to 1040. It’s their filtered version and therefore crystal clear. It pours with a luxurious white head and has the style’s classic, delicate banana-like aroma. The palate’s light and lively, combining subtle, smooth malt with wheat beer’s zesty, fresh finish.

Beer review — Nogne and Mikkeller

1 September 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Nogne Wit 500ml $14.90
In Nogne Wit – a Norwegian take on the Belgian wheat ale style – brewers turn the volume up while keeping the beer balanced and drinkable. The aroma’s delicate, pure and fruity and the palate full and smooth, with crisp, lemony acidity, complex spicy notes and a slightly more bitter finish than in the Belgian originals.

Mikkeller American Dream 330ml $11.90
Mikkeller, a small Danish brewery, churns out dozens of idiosyncratic, attention grabbing brews – like this turbo hopped, bottle-conditioned lager. But the beer’s mighty malt opulence can’t match its ballistic bitterness beyond a sip or two, as the bitterness builds, leaving a sour aftertaste. It’s an interesting curio, but who’d drink it?

Beer review — Murray’s and Brouwerij de Ranke

25 August 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Murray’s Dark Knight Porter Style 330ml $4.50
Murray’s delicious take on the porter style includes a vein of hops – starting with a herbal, resiny note hovering over the malty aroma, then combining with the bitter black-chocolate flavours of the malt and finally freshening up the finish. The mid-palate’s generous, packed with toffee-like and chocolaty flavours

Brouwerij de Ranke XX Bitter 330ml $8.50
What do we learn from XX? Primarily that this Dutch brewer adopts a take-no-prisoners approach to “bitter”. It’s a pale coloured ale and the aroma’s delicately, aromatically hoppy. But the 6.2 per cent alcohol palate screams for attention – the full, delicious malt flavour seduces momentarily before a monumental hops bitterness takes over.

Vintage shoot out — Coopers Vintage Ale and Crown Ambassador Lager

18 August 2010Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

There they were at last, side by side on the tasting bench – two beers for the cellar, both made in single batches each year and released in winter; one aimed at beer enthusiasts, and affordable at $20 a 375ml 6-pack; the other seemingly aimed at the hospitality PR machine first, then well-healed collectors, and finally, perhaps, very curious beer enthusiasts prepared to pay $90 a 750ml bottle.

One’s ale, the other’s lager. Both are bottle conditioned. Both are high in alcohol – Cooper’s Extra Strong Vintage Ale 2010 weighing in at 7.5 per cent, about half as strong again as a normal full-strength beer; Crown Ambassador Reserve Lager 2010 hitting a strapping 10.2 per cent – way up there with Belgium’s specialty ales.

Both share a deep-amber colour, the Cooper’s a tad darker, with a mahogany tone. But from there on, each spins off in its own orbit. Cooper’s heading down the banana-fruity end of the ale spectrum; Crown Ambassador where lager seldom treads, but initially defined by distinctive, pungent hops aroma boosted by alcohol.

They’re both complex, substantial beers brewed with bottle ageing in mind. We know Coopers ages well as it’s been around since 1998. Crown looks the goods, but we’ll hold judgement until we see a few oldies.

Cooper’s Extra Strong Vintage Ale 2010 375ml 6-pack $20
Specification – Australian malted barley. Hops: New Zealand Nelson Sauvin, German Magnum and Perle bittering, English Styrian Golding aroma hops. Initial aroma impact is of sweet, banana-like esters. But under that lies a pleasing hoppy note and sweet malt. The opulent, malty palate is cut with spicy hop flavours and a lingering bitterness balancing the malt sweetness.

Crown Ambassador Reserve Lager 2010 750ml $90
Specification – Malt unstated. Hops: fresh picked Galaxy hops from Myrtleford, Victoria. A portion of 2009 vintage, oak-matured for 12 months, added to the brew. Pungent, spicy hops dominates the aroma and persists through the powerful palate — of rich malt, heady alcohol, complex, dried-fruit flavour, and a bite of tannin from the oak.

Beer review — Mountain Goat and Innis & Gunn

11 August 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Mountain Goat Hightail Ale 330ml $3.70
Mount Goat, from Richmond, Victoria, shows an extra freshness and liveliness often seen in bottle-conditioned beers. It’s a dark-amber ale, nicely combining in its aroma resiny hops with fruit and malt. The palate’s medium bodied and smooth, its maltiness cut but well-judged hops flavour and bitterness.

Innis and Gunn Rum Cask Oak Aged Beer 330ml $7.90
Innis and Gunn’s high-alcohol (7.4 per cent) dark ale – matured in American oak barrels and old rum barrels – leads with a deep, sweet molasses-like, malty aroma. The molasses carries through on a well-balanced, opulent, silky palate – an idiosyncratic warmer on a cold Edinburgh (or Canberra) night.

Beer review — Gage and Bulmers

4 August 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Gage Premium Lager 330ml 6-pack $16.99
The label’s changed from “Gage Roads” to “Gage”, but the beer seems the same – a rich, smooth, very fresh lager, seasoned with the distinctive aroma and flavour of Hallertau hops; and has a pleasant, lingering bitterness. Woolworths bought 25 per cent of Western Australian based Gage in 2009.

Bulmers Pear Cider 500ml $4.99
The press release cites cider market growth of 22 per cent in the year to April 2010 – no surprise if you’ve noticed the growing shelf space lately. But please don’t expect from Bulmers the razor-sharp, intense pear flavours of the Norman versions. This one’s bubbly, sweetish and crisp with a hint of pear (or is it apple?) flavour.

Beer review — Spaten and Nogne

28 July 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Spaten Munchen Original Munich Beer 500ml $4.50
Spaten has a bright, pale lemon colour and persistent pure white head. It’s highly aromatic and the palate’s full and malty with a distinct sweetness. Hops add a subtle flavour that works well with the malt, mollify the sweetness and keep the finish crisp and refreshing.

Nogne Imperial Brown Ale 500ml $14.90
Nogne, from Norway, delivers vigour, flavour, bitterness and alcohol by the bucket. It’s a deep brown colour and the aroma and palate simply scream with all these elements, leaving an aftertaste of brown sugar and a lingering, almost acrid bitterness. In the end, it’s a struggle to get past the first few sips.