Category Archives: Beer

Aldi German beer imports hit the mark

26 September 2013BeerChris Shanahan

Aldi stores in their various formats worldwide made Theo and Karl Albrecht very wealthy men indeed.

While other stores in Germany copy the low-price, limited-range approach, Aldi’s retail model remains unique in Australia as far as I can tell – as does the predominance of house brands. The latter reportedly constitute 95 per cent of sales.

Sprinkled among the house brands, though, are one-off bargain offerings of everything from computers to water pumps.

The beers reviewed today possibly fall into this one-off category – though it’s never easy to tell in Aldi whether they’re ongoing or not. But however they fit in, these beers from Flensburg, Germany, are outstanding.

The pilsener in particular appeals as a classic example of the German pils style. It ticks every box in the beer judge’s style manual. Thanks to a reader, Marc Fenning, for providing the bottles for review.

Flensburger Weizen 330ml swing-top 6-pack $14.99
Aldi’s import from Flensburg, far northern Germany, offers little information on the label, but the beer in the bottle says heaps. It has a light lemon colour with a fine haze, suggesting bottle conditioning. The fruity, spicy aroma leads to a tangy, lemony palate, reminiscent of the southern German wheat styles.

Flensburger Pilsener 330ml swing-top 6-pack $14.99
The pale lemon colour, luxurious white head and fresh, herbal-hops aroma invite a big mouthful. And what an impressive beer it is – an excellent German pilsener style: crisp, fresh and lively with deep, smooth malty flavours cut through with refreshing hops flavours and a fine, lingering, cleansing bitterness.

Sydney craft beer week — 19 to 26 October

18 September 2013BeerChris Shanahan

Sydney’s annual craft beer week runs at venues across the city from 19 to 26 October. The event offers beer tastings, of course, and even a comparison of Spiegelau glasses versus the rest – a phenomenon Riedel exploits to the hilt in the wine industry.

But beer and food pairings sprinkled across the week’s calendar offer rich pickings. These include a beer and pie tasting paddle – four beers; four pies – at Spooning Goats. A little more adventurously, The Welcome Hotel of Rozelle, offers beers created collaboratively by well-known craft brewers and “some of Australia’s best culinary minds”, says the event website.

On another tack altogether, women from Hunter Brewing and Two Birds Brewing are hosting a Ladies High Tea at Harts Pub. The two brewers will match “an array of beers with some amazing hand crafted pastries”. For details of all events see sydneycraftbeerweek.com

Hydrating beer no cure for hangovers

11 September 2013BeerChris Shanahan

We were once told we could avoid dehydration and hangovers if we followed every alcoholic drink with a glass of water. It didn’t work. Nor did any of the other folk remedies, or even Berocca tablets when they became popular in the eighties.

So we read recent reports of a hydrating beer with scepticism. Researchers, led by Griffith University’s associate professor Ben Desbrow, added electrolytes to two commercial beers, one regular strength, the other low alcohol. They found low-alcohol beer with electrolytes hydrated drinkers one third better than a normal beer.

Desbrow commented that the findings might result in beer that reduced one of the risks of unsafe drinking – dehydration. Some commentators drew a connection between hydration, or lack of it, and hangovers.

This raised hopes of a hangover-free beer. But if ever there is one, it’ll be available exclusively from the tooth fairy.

Beer can be just peachy

4 September 2013Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Brewers infuse specialty beers with many ingredients other than hops. The list, potentially as long as the number of edible plants, includes cherries, fig, banana, chilli, chocolate, coffee, cinnamon, truffle and cardamon.

The latest across the tasting bench, infused with peach and tea, comes under David Burns and Elly Meltzer’s Kwencher label, brewed to their recipe at Southern Bay Brewery, Geelong.

Burns and Meltzer got the idea while travelling in Morocco, drinking peach tea and local beer.

They make two beers – a pale ale, broadly in the malty, hoppy American style and the peach and tea infused lager.

The beers are available at beerstore.com.au, though it should be in Canberra outlets before long. Burns and Meltzer will release draught versions of the beers during spring.

Kwencher Pale Ale 24X330ml $81.99
Kwencher Pale Ale, brewed in Geelong, begins and ends with hops – although, rich, smooth smalt flavours feature on the way through. Fruity, citrusy hops aromas lead to the rich palate. Then the hops kick in again, giving resiny flavours and a firm, intensely bitter finish.

Kwencher Clingstone Peach Lager 16X330ml $59.99
Brewers infuse beer with many things, in this instance with Darjeeling tea and peach. Sweet, peach aromas suggest a sweet drink to follow. On the brisk, lean palate, peach flavours rise above the maltiness, but the palate remains dry and fresh, with a pleasantly tart grip – derived from tea tannins, the brewer’s notes suggest.

Coopers makes waves in a flat beer market

28 August 2013BeerChris Shanahan

In the dark days of the 1992–93 recession, South Australian based Coopers sold just 10.8 million litres of beer, “our lowest level since 1985”, says Managing Director, Dr Tim Cooper.

But the company exploded out of the recession, averaging 9.8 per cent annual growth for the next 20 years. Dr Cooper says the company sold 69.7 million litres of beer in 2012–13, “accounting for around 4.5 per cent of the total Australian beer market”. He expects to gain more market share in coming years.

Despite the introduction of lagers in recent years, and contract brewing of Sapporo and Carlsberg beers, Coopers success continues to rely largely on its traditional ales.

These, including Pale Ale, Sparkling Ale, Mild Ale and Stout make up around 80 per cent of production, says Dr Cooper.

Tap King a beauty, but why pay more for the same beer?

21 August 2013Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Sales of Lion’s Tap King home draught beer dispenser got off to a roaring start. But, in the long run, will beer drinkers continue paying a premium for draught versions of existing packaged products?

At Dan Murphys, for example, James Squire Golden Ale costs $7.97 a litre in Tap King 3.2 litre kegs – an eight per cent premium over the $7.37 a litre price of 345ml bottles.

The unit works well. In a recent test, a friend assembled the unit and poured the first beer within 90 seconds. We then compared draught and stubby versions, noting a better head and slightly fresher taste of the keg beer. Otherwise, the flavours were identical.

A former Vintage Cellars colleague believes Lion risks disaffection when users realise they’re paying more for the same beer. Lion missed the opportunity to hang their hat on a better product, he says.

James Squire The Chancer Golden Ale 345ml 6-pack $18.99
We recently compared Squire Gold Ale from stubby and the new 3.2 litre Tap King keg version. They’re identical beers, but the keg version held a better head and tasted slightly fresher. Amarillo hops adds apricot-like notes to the aroma and flavour of a lively beer designed for easy drinking.

Watkins to leave Wig and Pen, establish new brew pub

14 August 2013BeerChris Shanahan

After 17 years brewing at Civic’s Wig and Pen, Richard Watkins announced plans, with backers, believed to be from Melbourne, to set up a new brewpub in Braddon.

Watkins says he’s currently training Dr Tom Lillicrap as replacement brewer at the Wig and Pen. Lillicrap, a keen amateur brewer, has worked behind the bar at the brewpub for a number of years and also helped out in the brewery.

Watkins says the new brewpub — to be named BentSpoke Brewing Company — will be located on two levels in a building currently under construction on the corner of Mort and Elouera Streets, Braddon. It’s on the site of the former Mitsubishi dealership.

He expects to begin fitting the pub out towards the end of this year and to open it on completion of the building, scheduled for early to mid 2014. He says every element of the brewing will be visible to patrons.

Lobethal beer

7 August 2013Beer, PeopleChris Shanahan

A couple of Alistair Turnbull’s bottled beers enjoyed here in Canberra, prompted a visit to his Lobethal Bierhaus. We’d been in the Barossa, so motored up through Angaston and south along the Mounty Lofty ranges.

Henschke, at Keyneton, doesn’t open Sundays, so we continued south through Springton, Eden Valley and across the invisible border to the Adelaide Hills and its string of lovely villages, including Lobethal.

It’s winter but a balmy 19 degrees, tempting the Bierhaus crowd, largely families with kids, into the beer garden, though the hall inside fills up with lunch time revelers, too.

It’s hard to imagine a friendlier, more relaxed place, offering good local food and soft drinks as well as the exceptionally good beers Turnbull brews on site. It’s a must visit, and an easy drive from Adelaide, or via the scenic route, going to or from the Barossa.

Lobethal Hefeweizen 330ml $4.99
Lobethal Bierhaus makes its wheat beer in the southern Bavarian style, characterised by a highly aromatic fruity character. A yeast haze hangs in the lovely golden liquid, topped by a dense white foam. The generous, creamy textured palate refreshes with its fruity flavour and tangy dry finish.

Lobethal Bierhaus Red Truck Porter 330ml $4.99
Porter sits at the dark end of the ale spectrum, generally a tad lighter coloured than stout, though that distinction doesn’t always hold. The aroma suggests roasted grain, coffee and chocolate – flavours delivered generously on the palate. A subtle hops flavour adds freshness and a mild bitterness that offsets the generous malt flavours.

Cooper’s our number one pale ale

19 June 2013BeerChris Shanahan

While craft brewers attract ever more publicity, one of Australia’s oldest beer brands won this year’s trophy for best Australian pale ale style at the Australian International Beer Awards.

Coopers Sparkling Ale, first produced in the 1860s, took out the top gong. Chief brewer, Dr Tim Cooper, said it was produced originally by the company’s founder, Thomas Cooper, and remains one of the Cooper’s biggest sellers.

Indeed, Sparkling Ale spearheaded the company’s push, albeit as a niche product, into other states from its South Australian base some decades ago.

As its popularity grew, scaling up production of this bottle-fermented brew went hi-tech with the introduction of an Aber Meter. The device, developed at the University of Aberystwyth, precisely controls the number of living yeast cells transferred at high speed from fermentation tank to bottle.

Chuck revives Hahn Premium

29 May 2013Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

In 1988 Chuck Hahn carted from Sydney a keg from his first batch of Hahn Premium Lager for tasting at Farmer Brothers Belconnen. People loved the brew and it went on to become a favourite in Australia’s rapidly expanding premium beer market.

Tooheys, now part of Lion, bought the brand and expanded production. Over time the beer became just another so-called premium, lacking the bitterness or character of the original.

Then a week or two back Chuck Hahn phoned saying he’d been disappointed with the beer, especially in its use of old hops. He intervened late last year, bringing the recipe back to 100 per cent malt (it’d slipped to 80 per cent) and reintroducing fresh German Hersbrucker hops. The hops, especially the late addition, give the beer its vibrant, spicy aroma, says Hahn.

I hosted Hahn for that first tasting in Canberra and welcome its return to form.

Hahn Premium Australian Pilsener 330ml 6-pack $16
You’ll notice Hahn Premium recently changed from “Lager” to “Australian Pilsener”, reflecting a significant tweak to the quality. It’s in the European pilsner style, pale golden in colour with attractive spicy hops aroma and a gentle, fresh, lightly malty palate seasoned with spicy hops flavour – though not particularly bitter.