Category Archives: Beer review

Beer review — The Barossa Brewing Company

21 November 2007Beer reviewChris Shanahan

The Barossa Brewing Company Wheat Store Ale 330ml 6-pack $20
This is modelled on the southern German wheat beer style and starts well with distinctive banana-like esters. The palate appears a little fuller and rounder than the German style. While it seems lower in acidity, it’s still a tasty, characterful and refreshing drop. It’s a 50:50 blend of floor-malted wheat and barley.

The Barossa Brewing Company Greenock Dark Ale 330ml 6-pack $20
Greenock Dark Ale packs huge flavour without the high alcohol that often accompanies it. It’s 4.4 per cent alcohol and in the English porter mould: dark and attractively aromatic with a flavour sitting somewhere between dark chocolate and coffee. English Fuggles hops balance the malt richness with a refreshing bitterness.

A Barossa brew

21 November 2007Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Grape and grain seem to cohabit peacefully in many of our wine regions, with small breweries popping up, in recent years, in the Hunter, Mudgee, Yarra, Beechworth, Gippsland, Bright, Macedon, Rutherglen, Mornington Peninsula, Tasmania, Mildura, Clare and the Barossa.

These are probably many more. And some that’ve made this column to date have direct wine industry connections. At Rutherglen’s Bintara Brewery, for example, grape grower Michael Murtagh, doubles as brewer. And Tasmania’s Moorilla Estate Brewery sits alongside the winery of the same name.

And one that’s recently hit our radar, the Barossa Brewing Company, is connected to the Trinne family, suppliers of stainless steel equipment to the wine industry since the 1970s.

Darryl Trinne operates the business from an old wheat store in Greenock, a quiet little village on the western side of the Barossa. It’s a little off the main tourist trail, but very close to some of the very best vineyards.

I’ve enjoyed the beers on tap at the Greenock Pub (a must-try if you’re in the Barossa). But the bottled versions scrub up well, too, and might eventually reach the east.

Like the best small-maker wines, these are hand-made, small-quantity, highly individual products that give real drinking satisfaction.

Natural beers like these add welcome colour and depth to regional tourism and can even put a smile on our faces here in Canberra. See www.barossabrewingcompany.com for interesting details or to order The Miller’s Lager reviewed last week or the two brews below.

Beer review — The Barossa Brewing Company & St Arnou

14 November 2007Beer reviewChris Shanahan

The Barossa Brewing Company The Miller’s Lager 330ml 6-pack $20
Drop into the Greenock pub in the western Barossa and try this lovely lager on tap. Or go to barossabrewingcompany.com to order the packaged version. It’s a slightly cloudy, robust, tremendously aromatic and hoppy brew. Darryl Trinne brews it using Hallertau and Saaz hops – source of the distinctive floral and citrus aroma.

St Arnou Pilsner 330ml 6-pack $17.99
This is the first packaged version of St Arnou’s popular Pilzen style lager. It has a rich, smooth malt flavour seasoned with classic Saaz hops. These give an attractive citrus-like aroma and flavour and a refreshing, lingering bitterness that offsets the malt sweetness. It’s available from the independent liquor trade

Beer review — Lord Nelson & Cascade

7 November 2007Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Lord Nelson Brewery Three Sheets Ale 330ml $4
This is the first packaged beer I’ve tried from Sydney’s Lord Nelson brewpub. Three sheets is mid-golden coloured ale with a rich, spontaneous head and the light haze of bottle conditioning. It has a pronounced fruity, tangy, citrus-hoppy aroma. It’s smooth on the palate with flavours that reflect the aroma.

Cascade Stout 375ml $3.50
This is a genuine, full-bore stout with deep brown/black colour, high alcohol (5.8 per cent) and assertive roasted-barley, chocolate-like aroma. Those roasted and chocolate characters dominate an opulent, warming palate, with sufficient hops to balance the malt sweetness and a deliver a lingering, fresh roasted, mildly bitter aftertaste.

Cider and beer review — Little Creatures Pipsqueak & Boag’s

31 October 2007Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Little Creatures Pipsqueak Best Cider 330ml $12.95 6-pack
The Little Creatures team takes a lead from the Brits with this lovely, tangy, appley cider. Apparently it’s been in development for about a year. Melissa Fettke made it from ‘fresh, locally-sourced apples’. It’s at the drier end of the cider spectrum with a refreshing, natural-tasting, apple-like acidity.

Boag’s Classic Blonde Low Carbohydrate Lager 375ml about $2.70
If you’re reading this column you probably don’t drink bland beer. Which may put Classic Blonde off your radar. For all the marketing palaver about meeting demand for low-carb beer while maintaining flavour, this, in my view, is a very well made, fresh, clean brew with all the interest of water.

Beer review — Fish Rock and Knappstein

18 October 2007Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Fish Rock Brewery Leather Jacket Lager 6X330ml $18
Was it the riverside ambience at the Pickled Octopus, Tuross, that made Leather Jacket Lager and Red Emperor Amber Ale taste even better than on their release last year? With fresh beer-battered flatty fillets and char grilled dory, nothing could’ve been more refreshing than these brews from Mittagong. See www.fishrockbrewery.com.au

Knappstein Enterprise Brewery Reserve Lager 330ml 6-pack $16.95
In the year since its release Knappstein Lager seems to have taken on a cult status. It’s a stunningly good drop brewed in the historic Knappstein Enterprise Winery building in the Clare Valley, once home to a brewery. Winemaker Paul Smith’s brewing mentor is fellow Lion Nathan man, Chuck Hahn.

Beer review — Duvel & Grimburgen

10 October 2007Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Duvel 330ml $7.99
Duvel, one of Belgium’s best known brews, is a love-it or hate-it high alcohol (8.5 per cent) wheat ale. It has a pale lemon colour, luxurious foam and subtle, lightly fruity aroma. The high alcohol kicks in on the palate, adding body and warmth to offset the typical wheat beer acid and astringency.

Grimburgen Dubbel Abbey Beer 330m $7.99
Grimburgen is a dark brown, mahogany-tinted barley malt and wheat beer with a lightly malty, fruity, seductive aroma. The palate’s soft and buoyant with delicious, fine molasses/malt flavours that meld seamlessly with the 6.5 per cent alcohol. It’s a big but tender beer to sip and savour after dinner.

Beer review — Debowe Mocne & Mongozo

3 October 2007Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Debowe Mocne 500ml $5.99
Feel like a brew that claims to be ‘an excellent proposal for real men who expect from beer truly beer-like sensations’? What it offers is dark colour, high alcohol (seven per cent) and a burly, malty flavour with alcohol astringency and a bitter, verging on acrid, finish.

Mongozo Banana 330ml $4.99
Yuk. Let’s give a star for being fresh and beer. But not even ‘fair trade organic bananas’ save Mongozo from the compost bin. Better there than consumed. It’s bright, fresh and beer-like. But it’s oh, so cloyingly sweet and confection like. Perhaps I’m missing something. But I’ll be glad when I’ve enough.

Beer review — Erdinger Weissbier & Brok Sambor

27 September 2007Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Erdinger Weissbier Mit Feiner Hefe 500ml $5.99
This is a first-class, bottle-conditioned Bavarian wheat beer. The spontaneous head hints of quality – a promise fulfilled by the pure, delicate, fruity aroma and vibrant, fresh palate. It’s round and sweet — but delicate at the same time — and balanced by a refreshing, crisp acidity.

Brok Sambor Export 500ml $3.79
From Poland, Brok Sambor, at 5.7 per cent alcohol, sits at the sturdier end of the lager spectrum. It has a fragrant and appealing hops-led aroma, supported by sweet malt. The malt richness comes through on a smooth, full-bodied palate. But the malt’s held in check by delicious, moderately bitter hops.

Beer review — Weihenstephaner & Orval

19 September 2007Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Weihenstephaner Tradition Bayrisch Dunkel 500ml $5.99
Despite its 5.2 per cent alcohol and dark colour, there’s nothing heavy about this Bavarian ale from the ancient Weihenstephan Brewery. It’s a rich, smooth, beautifully balanced beer offering sweet malt as its keynote with absolutely harmonious bitterness drying out the finish. I’ll have another glass please, this is delicious.

Orval Trappist Ale 300m $8.49
This is a Belgian classic for the adventurous. It’s tremendously lively, with a luxurious foam, sweet, fresh, enticing aroma and strikingly tangy palate. It has the bite of acid, the flavour of wheat beer and an idiosyncratic bitter/sour, lingering aftertaste with distinct and exotic feijoa-like note.