Category Archives: Beer review

Beer review — Zierholz

24 September 2008Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Zierholz pale-coloured beers $5 a pint
German Ale is a very zesty, refreshingly bitter, mid-strength Cologne style made for quaffing. Hopmeister is a little stronger and a little darker with bracing, lingering hops bitterness. The German Pils starts with sweet malt and finishes dry and hoppy. And Weizen is extraordinarily all banana, cloves and crisp acidity.

Zierholz dark-coloured beers $5 a pint
Amber Ale is an ‘alt’ or aged beer with idiosyncratic nutty, sweet and sour flavour – one to enjoy with robust pork dishes. Brown Ale offers rich, exotic caramel and chocolate flavours and a strikingly zesty freshness. And the lovely, dark, strong Porter is creamy and opulent with assertive roasted and bitter chocolate flavours.

Beer review — Schwarz Brewery

17 September 2008Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Schwarz Brewery Pilsener & Pale Ale 330ml 6-pack $17.50
These are two lovely, golden beers from Olim’s Hotel, an outlet for Dr Jerry Schwartz’s Sydney brewery. They’re both full of character but easy drinking, too. The Pilsner’s crisp and fresh with delicious tang of Saaz hops. And the American-style Pale Ale is full-bodied with assertive citrus flavour and intense hops bitterness.

Schwartz Brewery Dark Bier 330ml 6-pack $17.50
This a very smart German-style dark lager. It’s crisp, fresh and fairly light on the palate. But it still has the warm, toasty, coffee-like flavours and dark colour that come from the roasted malt. Samara Füss makes all the beers reviewed today at Schwartz’s Brewery, Macquarie Hotel, Sydney.

Beer review — Platinum Blonde & Mercury Artisan cider

10 September 2008Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Platinum Blonde Premium Low Carb 24x330ml $40
Low carb beers tend to be bland as they lack body-boosting unfermented sugars. Woolies’ new contract-brewed version moves the flavour focus from the mid palate to the front with zesty fresh hops. It’s a more-ish quaffer worth four stars within the genre, but a tad less in the broader beer world.

Mercury Artisan Tasmanian Apple Cider 345ml 4-pack $13.99
There’s an excitement crunching into a fresh apple or pear. And it’s part of the experience, too, sipping top-notch cider and perry. Alas, I couldn’t find it in Mercury’s new Tassie brew. It seemed more likely a too-old, slightly floury apple rather than the brisk, invigorating sensation of new-season fruit.

Beer review — Schneider Weisse & James Squire Pepperberry

16 August 2008Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Schneider Weisse Hefe-Weizen 500ml $6.69
Despite the dark colour and 5.4 per cent alcohol, this Bavarian classic is a fine and subtle example of wheat ale. It has the distinctive banana-like fruity esters of the style and a spicy, pleasantly tart palate that’s rich (but not heavy) and finishes with a gentle, bitter bite.

James Squire Limited Release Pepperberry Winter Ale 345ml $3.39
This is Chuck Hahn’s latest, delightfully wacky invention – a full-bore winter ale that’s been seasoned with native Australian pepperberries. Hovering over the opulent malt base is an exotic herbal/spiciness. It drives the aroma and gives the palate a bitter, warm tweak. It’s a love-it or hate-it, idiosyncratic brew.

Beer review — Moo Brew & Matilda Bay

30 July 2008Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Moo Brew Pale Ale 330ml $5.50
Today’s two beers, both purchased from the same retail outlet, show different faces of the American Pale Ale style – and critical importance of freshness. Moo Brew has this in spades. It’s an exciting, full-bodied ale cut with the brisk, resiny aroma and lingering bitterness of fresh hops. It’s a stunner.
*****

Matilda Bay Alpha Pale Ale 345ml $5.20
Even a month past its ‘best before’ date, Alpha was a more than respectable ale. But age had taken the edge off its hops character – a critical element of this robust beer style – leaving a rich, malty, bitter ale of some character but not the keen edge seen in fresh samples.
***

Beer review — Cascade & Weihenstephaner

21 May 2008Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Cascade First Harvest Ale 330ml 6-pack $19.99
This is the juicy, fresh, beer equivalent of Beaujolais. It’s built on plump, sweet malt flavour that’s cut through with the fresh, bracing pungency of just-picked hops. As well, the hops provide a brisk, teasing, lingering bitterness that slightly outweighs the malt sweetness. Limited availability as Cascade produced only 4,300 cases.

Weihenstephaner Vitus Weizenbock 500ml $7.99
This is a luxurious, strong (7.7% alcohol) wheat beer. It’s light coloured but has a dense, persistent foam; appealing, sweet, fruity aroma (boosted by the alcohol); a full, warm, velvety palate; and a lingeringly fruity aftertaste with wheat beer’s characteristic refreshing acidity. It’s bottle conditioned and therefore has a fine haze.

A cascade of hops-driven ales

21 May 2008Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Canberra’s Wig & Pen launched this year’s first hop-harvest beers – three idiosyncratic styles described here recently. Then Foster’s Cascade First Harvest Ale arrived on retail shelves this month, albeit in limited quantities – just 4,300 cases. Max Burslem, Cascade’s brewer, says that this year’s First Harvest Ale, the seventh vintage since its release in 2002, features three new Tassie-grown hops varieties as well as Tassie barley.

It’s come a long way since the first beer – a lager-like ale, I recall, from a team with little lager making experience. But Max says his brewers, through experiment, ‘developed quite a knowledge’ over the years, culminating in a pretty exciting 2008 ale.

It uses early harvested barley – malted especially for First Harvest – and a touch of roasted malt to give a deep amber colour. Max had also been working with local hops growers to have the three new varieties to the brewery within hours of harvest, at their resiny, oily, aromatic peak.

He added the bittering hops, ‘Guy Fawkes’, early in the boil, ‘Mill Line’ a little later for flavour and, finally, just before the boil ended, ‘Strickland Falls’ to give passionfruit and citrus aromatics.

Beer barons — old world styles; Aussie flavours

14 May 2008Beer, Beer review, PeopleChris Shanahan

Richard Adamson of Sydney’s Barons Brewing says that he and partner Scott Garnett wanted to “have a serious go” at the premium beer market by offering something unique.

And they kicked off in November 2005 with the release of an excellent high-alcohol (5.8 per cent) brew – Black Wattle Superior Wattle Seed Ale, seasoned with roasted wattle seed.

At the time, Adamson’s planned to add more brews featuring native Aussie ingredients. And since we first reviewed Barons two years back, he’s added a bottle conditioned Belgian-style wheat beer (reviewed below). It’s seasoned with lemon myrtle, rather than the orange peel and coriander favoured by Belgium’s benchmark, Hoegaarden.

Baron’s initial release, though, was an English-inspired ale, Extra Special Bitter, that evolved from extensive sampling and a taste-off between a couple of Richard’s recipes and four English favourites: London Pride, Old Speckled Hen, Old Hookey and Adnums SSB.

Adamson released the beer that emerged after the tasting as Barons Extra Special Bitter, but later shortened the name to ESB. They made it originally in 2006 from four hops varieties, Golden Promise malt and a London Ale yeast imported from England.

The back label’s not so specific these days, but it’s true to the original style – a pleasing Aussie interpretation of a classic English bitter.

Barons Black Wattle Ale & Witbier 330ml 6-pack $16.99
These two brews from Barons ‘native’ range include roasted wattle seed and lemon myrtle respectively. They’re subtle inputs and compatible with the smooth, toffee-like malt flavours of the dark Black Wattle Ale and the zesty, lemon-and-clove briskness of the pale wheat-based wheat beer. Available at Plonk, Canberra Cellars and Debacle bar.

Barons Pale Ale & ESB 330ml 6-pack $14.99
Pale Ale is a gold/amber-coloured mild beer that’s creamy textured, fruity and soft with just the right amount of bitterness offsetting sweet malt. ESB (extra special bitter) draws inspiration from classic English ales like London Pride. It has aromatic hops and a brisk, malty palate cut with assertive hops flavour and bitterness.

Beer review — Gage Roads & Young’s

7 May 2008Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Gage Roads Wahoo Premium Ale 330ml $15.99
‘Clean and dry with no lingering aftertaste’, says the press release – a fair summary of a brew that certainly doesn’t flood the senses. There’s a pleasant waft of aromatic hops, and a matching tang on the palate. But after that … not much, as far as I can taste.

Young’s Luxury Double Malt Chocolate Stout 500ml $6.50
There’s chocolate in the brew and it shows up as a dry, bitter note in the finish – like strong high-cocoa chocolate. But more than anything it’s a full-bore stout featuring rich, roasted malt flavour, all-round opulence, smooth texture and assertive hops bitterness. A small glass on a cold night would be perfect.

Beer review — Gage Roads & Bridge Road Beechworth

20 February 2008Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Gage Roads New World Wheat Beer 330ml-6 pack $17.99
Most Aussie wheat beers emulate either the Belgian or Southern German style. This one starts like a German, with its distinctive banana-like fruity aroma. But on the palate a citrus-like hops flavour, and light bitterness, slightly outweigh the fruitiness. It’s a fine, albeit unusual, balancing act that works surprisingly well.

Bridge Road Brewers Beechworth Australian Wheat Ale 330ml-6pack $19
Ben Kraus brew two wheat ales – this gentle, warm one with banana-like aroma, modelled on the Bavarian style; and the extraordinary Chevalier Hefe Weizen with its clove-like aroma (in the Belgian style) and gentle, smooth palate. It, too, gets a five-star rating and is available in 750ml bottles at $64 for six.