Category Archives: Beer review

Record crowd attends beer awards presentation

17 June 2015Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Celebrating the world’s biggest beer-judging event

More than 800 people packed into this year’s presentation dinner for the Australian International Beer Awards. The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria, which runs the awards, claims it as the biggest beer-judging event in the world.

This year 58 judges at the Melbourne show ground tasted their way through more than 1,700 entries submitted by 344 brewers from 35 countries.

Trophy winners include brewers large and small from all over the world. And some of the awards may put a smile on the face of the uninitiated.

Will Australian brewers worry when a Vietnamese brewer, Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corporation’s 333 Premium Export, wins the trophy for best Australian style lager? Or will the Belgian and French be up in arms over Australia’s Little Brewing Company’s success in their style division?

See the full catalogue of results at rasv.com.au/beer.

Beer reviews

Thatcher’s Gold English Cider 500ml $5.90–$7.50
Thatcher’s Gold won three trophies in the 2014 Australian Cider Awards: best in show, best cider and best international cider or perry. It’s widely available in bottle shops and also on tap. The cider has a bright, pale-golden colour an aroma of very ripe apples and flavour to match, with delightfully brisk acidity and dry finish.

Badlands Darkness London Porter 500ml $8.00
Badlands’ robust porter takes the palate on a silk-smooth ride through the dark side of ale. Flavours reminiscent of coffee bean, chocolate and a hint of charcoal reflect the roasted malts used by the brewer. It’s a warming, gentle, winter brew in which a subtle bitterness provides balance without overshadowing the malt.

Scramble for craft funds favours the big

10 June 2015Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Big brewers set to reap the benefits

IbisWorld research suggests our big brewers, Lion and SABMiller, are better placed than small brewers to reap the benefits of rapidly growing craft beer sales.

The researcher estimates craft beer’s market value at $167 million, following annual growth of ten per between 2010 and 2015. IbisWorld says 147 businesses in the craft beer industry employ 552 people.

In this rapidly growing market, says IbisWorld, small-scale newcomers face few barriers to entry and require comparatively small capital inputs. However, commercial success requires larger volumes and larger capital inputs – which favours the big brewers and their existing craft brands.

Echoing these thoughts in an interview for Radio Brews News, Stone and Wood founder, Jamie Cook, estimated short-term capital requirements for the industry at $85 million. The challenge for small brewers, he said, was to keep up with market growth and the big brewers.

Reviews

Killer Sprocket Hey Juniper 500ml $8
Killer Sprocket comes from Sean and Andrea Ryan, operating out of the Cavalier Brewery Melbourne. They make Hey Juniper in the richly malty, highly hopped American ale style, and season it with juniper berries. The combination of hops and juniper gives a pervasive – and inescapable – bitterness to a unique beer.

Holgate Brewhouse Nut Brown Ale 500ml $8.90
Holgate Brewhouse’s tenth anniversary ale combines “lashings of Australian macadamia nuts and hearty English malts”, says the back label. The beer’s deep and brooding brown colour matches its earthy, charry, malty, vegemite-like savoury flavours. Despites its weight, it’s spritely and fresh on the palate, with a mild bitterness offsetting the sweet malt.

Canberra’s BentSpoke Brewery – one year, 160-thousand litres

10 June 2015Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

A year in brewing

BentSpoke Brewery opened last June and on the strength of its superb brews became an instant Canberra landmark, smack in the heart of once-daggy Braddon.

For its first birthday this weekend, brewer Richard Watkins plans on unveiling four special brews, one each on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday (and bugger the Tuesday hangover).

He’s tight lipped about what’s in store. But for Canberra Times’ readers he’s revealed insights of the first year’s trading.

“I think we’ll hit about 160,000 litres”, he said. Spreading all that amber liquid over the three thousand patrons visiting each week puts consumption at a little under two pints a head.

The strong and bitter Crankshaft IPA proved by far the most popular of 31 brews offered during the year.

And for the future Watkins hopes to, “get our beer on tap around Canberra and maybe even into bottle shops”.

Reviews

BentSpoke Grainy half-pint glass $8
Under the ever-inventive Richard Watkins, BentSpoke’s new brews come and go at a pleasing pace. The new winter warmer, slurped joyfully on a cold autumn afternoon, offered the deep, sweet, toasty flavours of five grains – barley, wheat, oats, spelt and tiny teff – gently offset by mildly bitter hops.

BentSpoke Larken’s Brown half-pint glass $7.50
Larken’s Brown percolates through BentSpoke’s hopinator en route to the glass, absorbing exotic flavours from a mix of cinnamon, chillies and roasted coffee beans from Highgate Lane. Coffee aromas and flavours dominate the brew. And if it wasn’t cold, frothy and alcoholic, the drinker might swear they’d downed a very good espresso.

Zierholz – brewer by appointment to the King

10 June 2015Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Local brew for Canberra watering hole

Popular Civic watering hole King O’Malley’s recently joined forces with Fyshwick brewer, Christoph Zierholz, to create The King’s Pale Ale for sale exclusively through O’Malley’s.

O’Malley’s owner, Peter Barclay, and three staff, Mark Piesley, Dan Kelly and Jacka Hicks worked with Zierholz on the recipe and brewing.

With typical understatement, Zierholz says, “I’m quite pleased with it – tasty enough but really sessionable”.

He modelled the beer broadly on the full-bodied, assertively bitter American pale ale style – but with the throttle pulled back just enough to provide easy drinking without losing complexity.

Five different malts (BB pale, maris otter, and Weyerman carapils, carafe and Munich) give King’s Pale Ale its opulent malt and caramel flavours. And three hops varieties (southern cross, amarillo and mosaic), added at different times, provide complex aromatics, flavours and lingering, but not overwhelming bitterness.

Reviews

King O’Malley’s King’s Pale Ale (Zierholz) pint glass $8
Zierholz-brewed King O’Malley’s Pale Ale looks luxurious even at is pours deep gold-amber and richly headed from the tap. The sturdy, persistent foam tops a deeply flavoured, rounded beer, with a satisfying, chewy, malty depth. Hops gives an attractive lift to the aroma, liveliness to the palate and a convincing, lingering bitterness.

O’Brien Gluten Free Pale Ale 330ml $3.50
Beer-loving coeliac John O’Brien launched his first gluten-free beer in 2005 – made for him at Bintara Brewery, Rutherglen. Two years later, O’Brian and fellow coeliac, Andrew Lavery, established their own brewery at Ballarat. The pair’s pale ale provides fresh, easy, crisp drinking with a lingering, bitter, hops finish.

Beer consumption falls

20 May 2015Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

But mid-strength gains

ABS figures released in May reveal a decline in Australia’s “apparent” per-capita consumption of alcohol from 10.6 litres in 2009 to 9.7 litres in 2014 – the lowest level since the early 1960s. The bureau says the figures overstate consumption as they don’t allow for wastage and other factors.

The figures also show a steady decline in both total and per-capita beer consumption over the past five years, as well as changing patterns in the styles of beer we drink.

Consumption of low-alcohol beer fell from 156.9 million litres in 2009 to 93.4 million in 2014. Per-capita figures were 9.0 litres ad 4.9 litres respectively.

Mid-strength beer gained popularity, rising from 281.8 million litres to 328.8 million litres (per-capita 16.3 litres and 17.4 litres).

Consumption of full-strength beer fell from 1.9 million litres to 1.7 million litres per capita 107.9 litres to 92.3 litres).

Reviews

Stone and Wood Limited Release Stone Beer 500ml $8–$10
Byron Bay’s Stone and Wood excel as brewers and marketers, building each year on its ever-changing, annual Stone Beer. This year it’s a black, 6.4 per-cent ale with deep, complex fruity, nutty flavours and moderate, toasty bitterness. The addition of wheat malt gives a lively boost to the sweet, plush mid-palate.

Little Creatures Return of the Dread Domestic Stout 330m 4-pack $18
Lion-owned Little Creatures produced Return of the Dread as a hearty, winter-only brew. The name salutes an earlier one-off batch, The Dreadnought. It’s a serious stout: dark as night and high in alcohol (7.2 per cent), with powerful roasted malt flavour, opulent palate and a mother load of bitter Fuggles hops balancing the sweet malt.

Beer review – Mornington Peninsular Brewery and Maisel

13 May 2015Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Mornington Peninsula Brewery Sorachi 330ml $4.65
Originally from Cologne, Germany, Kolsch is a pale-lemon coloured beer with pronounced hop aroma and flavour, but comparatively low bitterness. Mornington Brewery’s version emulates the Japanese take on Kolsch, using Japan’s Sorachi Ace hops. The result is a delicate but full, pale-coloured beer with zesty, lemony hops character.

Maisel’s Dunkel Hefeweissbier 500ml $4.95
The label translates to “dark wheat beer with yeast”, the latter indicating a yeast haze in the beer. From Maisel brewery, Bayreuth, northern Bavaria, the ale captures the regional specialty beautifully: dark colour, luxurious head, sweet, enticing, fruity- and clove-like aroma with rich, smooth, brisk palate and flavours exactly matching the aroma.

Beer review – Wig and Pen, and Weihenstphan

6 May 2015Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Wig and Pen Velvet Cream Stout half-pint $7
New Wig and Pen brewer, Frazer Brown says he’s making the house stout, “a little less sweet with more roasty, toasty flavours”. Certainly the brew on tap’s consistent with memories of older batches. It’s as opaque as bureaucratic language – but thankfully easier to understand. Wholesome chocolate and roast-grain flavours meld seamlessly with the warmth of six-per cent alcohol and creamy, smooth texture.

Weihenstephaner Kristall Weissbier 500ml $6.10
It’d been some time between encounters with Weihenstephan brewery’s Bavarian beauty, but it still showed the beauty of a classic Bavarian style. It’s their filtered version and therefore crystal clear. It pours with a luxurious white head and has the style’s definitive, delicate banana-like aroma. The palate’s light and lively, combining subtle, smooth malt with wheat beer’s zesty, fresh finish.

Canberra’s Wig and Pen settles in at Llewelyn Hall

29 April 2015Beer, Beer review, PeopleChris Shanahan

Canberra’s Wig and Pen brewpub re-opened on 12 January, even as workers finished off the brewing area. For the re-opening, owner Lachie McOmish served beers brewed before the original outlet closed on 30 October 2014 and held in cold storage.

Shortly after opening, brewing commenced at the new Llewellyn Hall site. At the same time, Tom Lillicrap headed off for post-doctoral studies, handing brewing responsibilities to Frazer Brown and assistant, Alan Ball.

From a drinker’s perspective, the Wig came through the move and brewing changes unscathed. The stock held in storage remained remarkably fresh for the opening. And the new beers brewed on site since then retain the Wig’s benchmark quality, with subtle tweaks introduced by Brown.

A preview of his coming imperial brown ale, aptly named King of the North, point to an inventive future at one of Canberra’s most congenial, civilised watering holes.

Wig and Pen Duck a l’Orange $7 half-pint
This is a variant on the Wig’s popular Duckmaloi Irish Red Ale. On its way from keg to tap, the rich, malty ale percolates through a glass cylinder (the “hopinator”) loaded with fresh orange peel and cinnamon. The appealing, pungent–fruity aroma turns to a teasing, tart, delicious orange hit on a sumptuous, mildly bitter palate.

Wig and Pen Backnow Extra Special Bitter $7 half-pint
For a time the Wig’s staff responded “not now” to requests for its sold-out Extra Special Bitter. But it’s back now and true to the English cask-conditioned, hand-pumped style: round, soft and warming on the palate with a lingering, balanced hops bitterness – the right beer for a cold winter’s night.

Canberra’s Wig & Pen brewpub – Canberra landmark returns

28 January 2015Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

After closing its city brewpub on 30 October, Canberra’s much-loved Wig and Pen poured first beers at its new Llewellyn Hall home on Monday 12 January.

Owner Lachie McOmish opted for a low-key launch, heralded by nothing more than a “not long now” Facebook post on 1 January.

Eleven days later the Wig opened. And the customers came. “We did about the same business as we would’ve on a usual Monday at the old Wig and Pen”, said McOmish.

On our visit a day later, patrons enjoyed their brews as workers – no longer visible in the bar area – completed the finishing touches to the brewing and storage rooms.

Brewer, Dr Tom Lillicrap, said he hoped to begin brewing at the new site by mid January. Meanwhile, the bar served beer brewed at the original site and kept in cold storage during the move.

Wig and Pen Thousand Monkeys Hefeweizen $12 pint, $7 half-pint
Dr Tom Lillicrap says he’s leaving the Wig for post-doctoral studies. But he’s handing over to Frazer Brown and Alan Ball, his collaborators on this delicious wheat beer, infused with fresh plumcots, navel oranges and lychees. The fresh fruit and orange-rind flavours make an already spritely, fruity beer even more enjoyable.

Beer review – Prickly Moses and 2 Brothers

21 January 2015Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Prickly Moses Blueberry Hefeweizen (Barongarook, Vic) 330ml $4.65
Prickly Moses introduces blueberries to the southern German wheat beer style. The full flavoured ale displays the rich and enduring head of a good wheat beer, and the fruity aromas and flavours. Definite blueberry notes come through on nose and palate and the beer finishes with typical wheat ale tartness.

2 Brothers Growler American Brown Ale (Moorabbin, Vic) 330ml $4.23
The aroma of molasses, toffee and roasted coffee beans seems to fit the brooding, deep brown colour. The molasses and toffee flavours come through on the suprising buoyant and lively palate. They give an impression of richness and warmth, delicately offset by mild bitterness – but not enough to detract from sweet, comforting malt flavours.