Kevin and Alison O’Neill created the Snowy Mountains Brewery brand in 2004 and had their first beer – Snowy Mountains Pale Ale – brewed under contract, to Kevin’s specification, by Hunter-based Blue Tongue Brewery in 2005.

In 2006 the O’Neill’s shifted production to contract brewer AIB, near Camden on Sydney’s southwestern outskirts, a move that marked an expansion to a range that now includes a southern German style wheat ale, a Czech inspired pilsener and a unique red ale.

The beers are all named for Snowy Mountain heroes or landmarks (Charlotte’s Hefeweizen, Bullocks Pilsner, Crackenback Pale Ale and Razorback Red Ale). But if the connection to the Snowies seems tenuous at present, the O’Neill’s website says they’ve plans to build a brewery in Jindabyne.

As well as providing a captive market and regional connection to the brews (do skiers drink?), having their own brewery gives the O’Neills an opportunity to tweak quality a few notches higher.
In my view that’s essential in an increasingly crowded market where the big brewers, with their distribution and cost advantages, turn out distinctive beers like James Squire and Matilda Bay that match or surpass in quality what many craft brewers produce.

Snowy Mountains Brewery Crackenback Pale Ale 330ml $3.50
This a toned-down but attractive version of the American pale ale style – ie, not quite as malty or hoppy as the originals but still with enough oomph to lift it above the pack. There’s an appealing citrus note to the hops aroma but a little more body might better offset the bitter finish.

Snowy Mountains Brewery Bullocks Pilsner 330ml $3.50
Bullocks is modelled on the Czech Pilzen style, but like Crackenback above, it mutes the keynotes of the style without going too far to the bland centre. It has attractive, fragrant, herbal hops aroma and rich but lively, fresh palate that finishes dry and moderately bitter, leaving the mouth ready for the next sip.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2008

If you’re motoring through Gippsland, Victoria, chances are you’ll be on the Princes Highway – just a skip over the mountains from Cooma via the Snowy Mountains and Cann River Highways.

Continue west past Lakes Entrance and Bairnsdale and it’s not far to Morwell – and from there it’s only half an hour south, on the Strzlecki Highway, to the village of Mirboo North, home of the Grand Ridge Brewery.

This is one of our great and enduring microbreweries, founded as the Strzlecki Brewery before taking on its current name after Eric Walters and others bought it from the receivers in the late eighties.

Beginning with a high hops Pilsen style, Eric and the team developed, over time, a wide spectrum of beer style from low alcohol lager to11-per-cent alcohol ales, modelled on Belgian classics.

While you can buy bottled versions of the beer, it’s at its best from tap in the brewery bar (open 7 days) or attached restaurant (lunch and dinner Thursday to Monday).

On our flying visit we opted for the ‘paddle’ – a timber serving tray with inset shot glasses of six of the key brews: Natural Blonde, Mighty Light, Brewers Pilsner, Gippsland Gold, Moonlight and Black and Tan – a classy line up to be reviewed over the next few weeks.

Grand Ridge Brewery Natural Blonde Wheat Beer 330ml $3.50
Grand Ridge natural blonde has an advantage over the original Belgian coriander and orange-peel infused wheat ales. Being locally brewed it’s fresher – especially from tap at the Gippsland brewery. It’s a delight — from the pale lemon, cloudy colour to the stiff, fine head to the creamy texture to the bracing, lemon-fresh tang.

Grand Ridge Brewery Moonlight Midstrength Ale 330ml $3.50
With beer flavour tends to rise and fall with the alcohol content, making it difficult to brew tasty low and mid-strength products. This English nut-brown ale style meets the challenge with its plush toffee and malt flavours, creamy, soft mid palate and beautifully judged Golding hops that provide subtle flavour and a balancing bitterness.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2008

The Germans call Berliner Weisse ‘arbeiter sekt’, the workingman’s champagne. And  a few months back I lamented not having seen the style in Australia.

But Wig & Pen brewer, Richard Watkins, reminded me (over a glass of his locally brewed version) that he’d offered it on tap about two years ago.

That batch, he said, had been a pure, challengingly sour beer with fresh mango or blackcurrant added at the tap to offset the sourness. A few die-hards tried it straight, he recalls, but invariably came back for the fruit.

In Berlin, it’s found in many bars, typically flavoured with woodruff or raspberry, giving an alarmingly green or red hue.

It’s a wheat ale made sour by the addition of a lactobacillus culture that produces lactic acid. And it’s this  interplay between sourness of the beer and sweetness of the fruit seasoning that makes Berliner Weiss unique and refreshing.

Watkins’ new expression of the style is a fifty-fifty malted wheat, malted barley blend with the fruit incorporated into the brew rather than mixed in at the tap.

Richard says that he added Italian filtered, pureed elderberry (hence, no pips, no  skins) early in the brew to encourage the ferment and dryness and after the ferment to add a touch of sweetness.

And rather than use a lactic culture, he simply added the desired amount of lactic acid.

The result is an idiosyncratic take on a traditional German regional beer style. As visiting beer author Willie Simpson  said, ‘It tastes like it should be good for you.’

Dan Rayner’s Beer Ape (Australopithecus Cerevesiae) pint $7.50
Archaeologist Dan Rayner won the local amateur brewing comp with a robust American pale ale style. And the Wig & Pen now offers a one-off batch brewed to Dan’s recipe. It’s a terrific expression of this in-your-face style with rich malt and aromatic, citrusy/resiny hops aroma, flavour and bitterness.

Wig & Pen Berliner Weisse pint $7.50
‘God, that’s not what we’re getting?’, a nervous drinker asked, eyeing three ruby-red, crimson-frothed beers. What he saw was the Wig’s new Berliner Weisse – a sour, tart, brew, mollified by elderberry’s startling colour, intense berry flavour and just enough countervailing sweetness. It’s a seasonal specialty that tastes like it should be good for you.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2007