Category Archives: Beer review

Beer review — Brunehaut and Orkney

20 January 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Brunehaut Blanche Biere Biologique 330ml $9.50
There’s an appealing light, lemony freshness to Brunehaut bottle-fermented organic Belgian wheat ale – a style based on delicacy, subtle flavour (including a light dusting of spice) and refreshing acidity rather than hops bitterness. Its lightness belies its full five per cent alcohol content. This is a beautifully balanced, complex brew.

Orkney Raven Ale 500ml $9.50
From Orkney, Scotland, Raven is a full flavoured, pale-amber coloured ale weighing in at a modest 3.8 per cent alcohol. The aroma reveals rich malt, seasoned with pungent hops – a combination that carries through on the creamy-textured, complex palate. The finish is dry, with a lingering, harmonious hops bitterness.

Beer review — Great Divide and James Squire

13 January 2010Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Great Divide Hercules Double IPA 355ml $11.90
“It is not for the faint of heart. It is, however, fit for the gods”, reads the label. And there’s a heavenly side to Hercules. It’s luxuriously malty, hoppy and silk smooth in an over-the-top, alcoholic, one-is-enough way. Hercules comes from the Great Divide Brewing Co, Denver, Colorado, USA.

James Squire Original Pilsener 345ml 6pack $16
The original lagers of Bohemia offer rich, pure malt flavour balanced by the striking aromatics and assertive bitterness of Saaz hops. It’s a style emulated around the world. But few match James Squire’s interpretation, using Saaz hops from New Zealand and the Czech Republic. It’s made by Lion Nathan’s Malt Shovel Brewery, Sydney.

Beer review — Premium Clean Skin and Great Divide

9 December 2009Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Premium Clean Skin Beer 330ml $2.99
To borrow Michael Luscombe’s term, frugal is the operative word here – so, in my view, it’s a brew for the desperate, destitute or mean and penny pinching. My sample, purchased at 1st Choice, tasted flat, dull and tired, albeit recognisably beer. It earns a grudging star for being cheap, wet and alcoholic.

Great Divide Brewing Company Belgica IPA 355ml $8.50
What a contrast – from a beer confronting in its ordinariness to one that stuns with tasty idiosyncrasy. It’s an American brew, built on a British colonial style, India Pale Ale, but including Belgian (the malt) and American (hops in overdrive) influences. It’s a luxuriously malty, hoppy, alcoholic brew – but for sipping only.

Naked beer

9 December 2009Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

It may seem unconnected to beer, but Australia’s gigantic wine surplus, currently running at around 100 million cases and growing by 20-40 million cases a year, led, indirectly, to what I believe may be the first cleanskin beer in the market.

1st Choice, the big-box liquor-retailing arm of Wesfarmer-owned Coles Liquor Group, recently introduced a beer clean skin, billed on the slip label as ‘imported’ and ‘no preservative’.

Having tasted it, I’m tempted to say they might also add ‘flavour free’ and ‘not as fresh as it could be’. But $29.99 for a slab of 330ml bottle is very cheap – the equivalent of $33.75 a slab for 375ml bottles (VB 375ml was $39.99 the day I shopped.)

A spokesman for Coles Liquor Group said the runaway success of wine cleanskins prompted them to test the concept on beer. Which must’ve made the rep selling this South Korean import smile like he couldn’t believe his own luck.

Only time will tell whether beer drinkers embrace naked bottles. The concept confronts the safe, tribal boundaries represented by major beer brands. But only recently Woolworths’ boss, Michael Luscombe, declared “Frugalism is a defining feature of the Australian consumer right now.”

Premium Clean Skin Beer 330ml $2.99
To borrow Michael Luscombe’s term, frugal is the operative word here – so it’s a brew for the desperate, destitute or mean and penny pinching. My sample, purchased at 1st Choice, tasted flat, dull and tired, albeit recognisably beer. It earns a grudging star for being cheap, wet and alcoholic.

Beer review — Moo Brew

2 December 2009Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Moo Brew Hefeweizen and Pilsner 330ml $5.50
The Hefeweizen, made in the Bavarian wheat-ale style, offers fruity, fermentation-derived esters and a light, tasty, delicious palate with refreshing acidity rather than the hops bitterness of barley beer. The Pilsner takes on this role. It’s based on pale crystal malt flavours, balanced by aromatic, bitter, firm Spalt hops.

Moo Brew Pale Ale and Dark Ale 330ml $5.50
These are based on the American pale and dark ale styles. The pale version is stunning – featuring high-toned hops aroma and opulently malty palate, offset by a lingering, bitter, dry hops finish. The dark version delivers caramel and chocolate malt flavours meshed with hops flavour and bitterness.

Beer review — Red Duck and Lord Nelson

25 November 2009Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Red Duck Overland Bright Ale 330ml $4.90
From the Purrumbete Brewing Company, Victoria, Red Duck is a lightly hazy, pale-coloured, easy-drinking ale. It’s moderately alcoholic at 4.2 per cent, with an emphasis on zesty freshness and refreshing hops bitterness rather than overt malt flavour. Strangely, Overland doesn’t rate a mention on the Red Duck website.

Lord Nelson Old Admiral 330ml $3.80
Sydney’s Lord Nelson, opened in 1842, claims to be Australia’s oldest continuously licensed pub. In 1987 it began brewing on site and has become one of the Rocks area’s must-visit sites. The opulent, malty, high-alcohol and generously hopped Old Admiral ale is best on tap, but the bottled version slips down easily enough.

Beer review — Stone & Wood

18 November 2009Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Stone & Wood Pale Lager 330ml $3.90
Brad Rogers and the team at Wood & Stone, Byron Bay, hit all the right notes with this juicy, pale-lemon-coloured lager. It’s ultra fresh, has a smooth, pure, malty richness belying the light colour and complex, harmonious hops aroma, flavour and bitterness.

Stone & Wood Ale 500ml $8.00
We mover from Wood & Stone’s easy-drinking lager, to an altogether more assertive beast – an opulent, dark-mahogany-coloured ale, laden with sweet, intense toffee-like aromas and flavours. These come from wood-fired stones added to the kettle to “rouse the boil and caramelise the brew”.

Beer review — Brains and Daleside

11 November 2009Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Brains SA Premium Beer from Wales 440ml can $4.00
It’s all the way from Cardiff, just $4 a can, and a very good example of dry, mild ale: burnished-copper colour; attractive, fruity-malty aroma; malty but dry palate with subtle hops flavours and mildly bitter finish. It’s understated, complex and at 4.2 per cent alcohol easy to sink a few.

Daleside Old Leg Over 500ml $8.20
From Wales we head north and west to Yorkshire for a darker, but still dry-ish ale, billed as ‘a right grand Yorkshire beer’. It’s beautifully fresh, with roasted-malt and nutty flavours to the fore – and well-judged hops bitterness kicking in refreshingly at the finish. All that, and it’s just 4.1 per cent alcohol.

Beer review — White Rabbit

4 November 2009Beer reviewChris Shanahan

White Rabbit Dark Ale 330ml 6-pack $19.90
This is a smart brew from the new White Rabbit Brewery at Healesville in the Yarra Valley. It’s dark and malty with an attractive roasted note, pervaded by delicious herbal hoppy aromas and flavours. The palate is lively, refreshing and surprisingly dry – making it a good session beer.

Beer review — Wig & Pen and Rogue

28 October 2009Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Wig & Pen Kembery Regional Ale 330ml 6-pack $19
It’s the Wig’s first bottled beer, brewed and packaged at De Bortoli’s Red Angus brewery, Griffith, under supervision of Richard Watkins, the Wig’s brewer. It’s similar to the on-tap Kolsch style – pale in colour with piquant hoppy aroma and sensationally fresh, subtle flavours, finishing with a lingering, balanced hops bitterness. Available at the Wig.

Rogue Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale 660ml $16.90
Rogue, of Oregon USA, offers two versions of Soba Ale, made from a variety of barley malts plus roasted soba (buckwheat). This is the deep tan, turbo version, featuring a greater number of malts and hops varieties than the standard brew. It features subtle, rich, roasted malt flavours and a delicious, ash-dry tartness.