Green King Abbot Ale 500ml $6.33 Suffolk-based Greene King brews beer runs pubs, restaurants and hotels across the UK. Their mid-amber coloured Abbot Ale offers fruity and malty aromas and flavours on a generous, warm palate. After a few sips, a refreshing bitterness begins to build, offsetting the malt sweetness delciously.
Fraoch Heather Ale 500ml $5.85 Fraoch is seasoned with heather flowers and other botanicals during the boil, before fermentation begins. A full-flavoured, sweetly malty beer, it offers a round, soft palate and delicate, tangy herbal flavours in the finish. This is an attractive and distinctive ale, but the stale sample resulted in a reduced rating.
Evil Twin Brewing Fitzroy Hipster Ale 330ml $9.87 From the island of Fano, Denmark, comes this liquid salute to Melbourne’s hip Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. This is a full-bodied, malty pale ale, with a fruity note and a solid dose of hops giving a pungent edge to the aroma and assertive, delicious, lingering bitterness to the finish.
Brooklyn Brewery Brooklyn Brown Ale 355ml $4.41 This lively, deep-mahogany coloured ale comes from Brooklyn, New York. The deep colour, of course, comes from roasted barley – a process that also adds rich chocolate- and coffee-like flavours to the warm, generous palate. Despite the rich flavours, the beer retains a spritely frehness, enhanced by well-judged bittering hops.
Blue Moon Brewing Co Belgian White 330ml $3.99 Coca-Cola Amatil imports Blue Moon from Coors Brewing Company, a division of Canadian Molson Coors Brewing Company. The pale lemon colour, cloudy appearance and sturdy white head are all consistent with the Belgian wheat style. It is, perhaps a little rounder and less refeshing acidic than Hoegaarden (the original), with a more obvious orange flavour.
Popular Clare Valley winemaker, Pikes, expects to open a brewery alongside its wine cellars in December.
Alister Pike, son of found founder Andrew Pike, says the family expects to complete the new building on schedule and already has most of the brewing equipment warehoused in Victoria.
A recently hired brewer, due to join Pikes in October, will have three existing recipes at hand when he starts. Pikes currently offers contract-brewed ale, stout and pilsener under the Pikes Oakbank label – launched by brothers Andrew and Neil in 1996.
Alister Pike says the beer is to be rebadged as “Pikes Beer Company” and the word “Oakbank” is to be removed. Oakbank is the name of a town in the Adelaide Hills where a Pike ancestor settled in the nineteenth century.
Pikes Beer Company will join two other brewers in the Clare Valley: Clare Valley Brewing Company and Knappstein, belonging to Lion.
Pikes Beer Company Sparkling Ale 330ml $4.25 In 1996 winemaking brothers Neil and Andrew Pike introduced contract-made beer under their label. Their Sparkling Ale is made by Hargreaves Hill Brewing Co, Victoria. The ale is a full-bodied, malty and fruity style. A big but not overwhelming dollop of hops offsets the malt sweetness and provides a lingering, bitter finish.
Stone and Wood Cloud Catcher Ale 500ml $9–$12 Byron Bay brewer Stone and Wood released Cloud Catcher to mark the opening if its new Murwillumbah brewery. A pale-golden coloured ale, Cloud Catcher offers a rich, full, malty flavour, seasoned with exhilarating citrusy hops flavours. The hops also contribute an intense, lingering bitterness.
4 Pines Brewing Company Imperial India Brown Ale 500ml $10 Definitely a winter brew this one –dark and malty, with an alcohol content of eight per cent. This boosts the body and flavour, loading the palate with strong chocolate and roasted coffee bean flavours. The alcohol also contributes a warmth, while a massive load of hops delivers an extraordinarily bitter finish.
Moondog Jukebox Hero IPA 330ml $4.65 The darling of craft brewers originated in Britain’s colonial era as a turbo strength ale able to endure shipment in barrel to India – hence, India Pale Ale, or IPA. Moondog, from Abbotsford Victoria, offers a particularly fruity, rounded, alcoholic version of the style, with the obligatory mother lode of hops.
Dalgety Brewing Co Pale Ale 330ml $3.90 From Dalgety in the NSW Snowy Mountains foothills comes this tasty and bitter ale. The bright lemon colour and persistent, generous head capture our attention before the pungent and appealing, indeed compelling, hops aroma takes over. The fruity, brisk palate supports the hops and lingering, intense bitterness.
Red Hill Brewery Imperial Stout 330ml bottle $7.50 Karen and Dave Golding grow their own hops right alongside their Mornington Peninsula brewery. The label boasts “Lashing of our own hops” in their imperial stout. But the hops simply balance the stout’s powerful roasted-coffee, bitter-chocolate flavours and warming 8.1-per-cent-alcohol. This seasonal specialty is available at Plonk, Fyshwick Markets.
Mash Brewing Russell American Amber Ale 330ml $4.25 The beer pours a deep red-tinted, mahogany colour with a firm, persistent head. True to the American style it delivers pungent, hops-derived citrusy aroma. The citrus character carries over to a full, malty palate that’s soon overwhelmed by an intense, lingering bitterness.
Bridge Road Brewery Beechworth Pale Ale 330ml 6-pack $23 A visit to Ben Kraus’s brewery should be on every to-do list for Beechworth visitors. Beer always tastes best where it’s brewed. And it’s a bonus when top-notch craft brewers are also available widely through retailers. Kraus’s pale ale delivers rich, smooth, malty flavour, seasoned from aroma to finish with mouth-watering hops.
Boatrocker Alpha Queen 330ml $4 First impression: here we go with another uber-hoppy ale. But the plush, creamy head softened our scepticism; and the smooth, ultra-fresh, well-balanced palate won us over. This is a beer with the body and richness (and a unique dryness) to handle a great deal of hops bitterness and flavour.
Matso’s brewer, Marcus Muller. Photo Chris Shanahan
Our long and dusty drive from Kununurra to Broome, via the Gibb River Road, finished tasting beer on the veranda of Matso’s brewery Broome.
This remarkable business produces several familiar beer styles – Hit the Toad Lager, Smokey Bishop Dark Lager and Pearler’s Pale. But its quirkier brews, including the very popular ginger beer, appear to be exciting drinkers all across Australia.
Brewer Marcus Muller makes all of the draught beers on site in Broome. And there’s no better place to try them. The delicious ginger “beer”, incidentally, is actually a blend of white wine, ginger essence and water.
However, on the back of increasing success, owners Martin and Kim Pierson-Jones now have the packaged versions brewed under contract by the partially Woolworths-owned Gage Roads Brewery, Perth.
The couple also own accommodation across the Kimberley region, including the recently opened, luxurious (and remote) Berkeley River Lodge.
Matso’s Chilli Beer 330ml 6-pack $22 The frosted glass brimmed with lemon-gold, white-foamed beer. What could be more appealing on a hot Broome day, far from frigid Canberra? A first impression of lemony freshness retreated before the fiery chilli onslaught. Another sip might quell the fire? Yes, then no, as the chilli triumphed. What a thrilling, quirky, beer.
Matso’s Smokey Bishop Dark Lager 330ml 6-pack $22 Smokey Bishop, inspired by Belgium’s dark lagers, provides medium-bodied, easy drinking – with the freshness of lager and chocolate- and toffee-like flavours of roasted malt. A light and slightly bitter chocolate-like flavour lingers, giving a dry, refreshing finish. It’s an attractive lager, with the various flavour components in harmony.
Matso’s Lychee Beer 330ml $3.42 Matso’s brewery, Broome, describe this as a “mixed marriage” derived from the various long-term influences on local culture – “Chinese, Japanese, Koepangers and Ghans”. Slightly reminiscent of the Belgian wheat style, Lychee offers fresh, light, delicate flavours with a little sweet kiss, courtesy no doubt of the lychee and elderflower in the brew.
Tilse’s Pear Cider 500ml $6.45 Tilse’s cider comes from Beurre Bosc and Williams pears grown in the foothills of Barrington Tops, in the upper Hunter Valley NSW. The delicate and definitely pear-like aroma leads to a light bodied, delicate, similarly pear-like palate. The delicate acidity gives a freshness to the slightly sweet finish.
