Category Archives: Beer

Zierholz goes to uni

1 February 2012Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

If the god’s of bureaucracy and fate smile on Christoph Zierholz, Canberra University may have its own brewpub by the time you read this. Well, it’ll have the pub, and lots of beer, but it’ll be a little while before the brewery arrives.

In mid-January, Zierholz said he expected to open the pub in time for O week (30 January to 3 February) and supply it from his existing brewpub at Fyshwick.

However, he plans to install a brewery this year and supplement the Fyshwick-brewed products with “unique house beers” brewed on site.

The bar will initially offer 18 beers and a couple of ciders, including Gundaroo’s Jolly Miller.

The university outlet – located at the hub in building 1, Kirinari Street – features a wood fired pizza, grill and some of the German-style dishes created originally for the Fyshwick brewpub.

Zierholz Pils 5-litre keg $40
The recyclable keg, purchased at Zierholz Brewery Fyshwick, opened easily, poured reliably and delivered the true, fresh-draft experience. The cloudy, light golden colour promises wholemeal goodness and delivers deliciously, with a pure, rich, malty flavour and lovely, clean lingering bitterness (for those that like hops).

Matilda Bay opens Melbourne brewpub

25 January 2012BeerChris Shanahan

In December, Foster’s announced plans to shift its Matilda Bay brewery from Dandenong to Port Melbourne and open a café bar on site. The brewery’s already operational, with the café due to open shortly.

In some ways the move takes Matilda back to its Western Australians origins in 1984, when it brewed small batches for direct sale through the Sail and Anchor Hotel.

Carlton and United Breweries (now part of Foster’s) bought Matilda Bay twenty-odd years ago and later moved the brewing east, to Cascade, Hobart, with, from 2005, the small-batch “garage brewery” at Dandenong.

The opening of Port Melbourne reconnects the brewery with a direct outlet – much as rival brewer Lion Nathan has done with its James Squire brand. James Squire began at Camperdown, Sydney, but now has brew houses making and serving its beers in Melbourne City, Melbourne Dockland and Perth.

Crown Ambassador de Luxe Lager — layers of flavour

14 December 2011Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Australia’s largest brewer, Fosters, makes one of Australia’s finest craft beers – Crown Ambassador de Luxe Lager. Ambassador measures up as “craft” on all fronts – quality, small production (4,000 to 7,000 bottles annually) and hands-on production by John Cozens and two brewing colleagues.

This year Cozens released the 2011 vintage, fourth in this series of high-alcohol, bottle-conditioned lagers.

It builds on the four previous vintages, adding what Cozens calls “layers of flavour” as he tweaks the style each year. In 2009 he introduced crystal malt to the blend, to add caramel and toffee notes. In 2010, a couple of hand-me-down oak barrels from Foster’s wine division added complexity, as well some unwanted characters to the blend.

This year’s release, incorporating handpicked galaxy hops from Bright, and a portion fermented new French oak, seems the most layered, pleasing brew yet.

Crown Ambassador Reserve Lager 2011 $90
Dark, cloudy, golden-amber Crown pours with a dense head and enticing aroma of floral-citrus hops and sweet caramel. Over an hour or as so it warms from fridge to room temperature, the silky textured brew s reveals layers of caramel and toffee malt flavours, spicy notes and both the flavour and bitterness of hops.

Fosters releases fourth Crown Ambassador

7 December 2011BeerChris Shanahan

Fosters released its fourth Crown Ambassador Reserve Lager in mid November. At $89.99 a 750ml bottle, it’s surely Australia’s most expensive beer. But then it’s an extraordinary brew, built for cellaring, Fosters makes only five to seven thousand bottles of it, and it’s positioned to market the Crown Lager brand, not slake a hard-earned thirst.

For the first time in 2011 vintage, brewer John Cozens matured a small portion of the beer in new French oak barrels from one of France’s great cooperages, Dargaud et Jaegle.

The oxidative environment of the barrels and direct flavour inputs from the new oak are certain to influence this year’s beer, despite making up just a few per cent of the final blend.

Like the earlier vintages, it’s high in alcohol (10.2 per cent) and contains fresh-picked galaxy hops from Myrtleford, Victoria. The latter adds distinctive aromas and flavours, and the former boosts the beer’s body and long-term cellaring prospects.

It’s likely to be served in upmarket restaurants and available in some retailers. Past vintages have been outstanding. We’ll report on the 2011 next week.

Growlers seen in Fyshwick

30 November 2011Beer, Beer review, CiderChris Shanahan

Plonk, at Fyshwick markets, now offers “growlers” – two-litre bottles filled on demand from 30-litre kegs. Growlers became a big part of America’s craft beer scene years ago, but made their Australian debut only last year in Melbourne.

Growlers give drinkers access to fresh, take-home draft beer from small brewers. For small brewers they mean a new route to market. Or, for those reluctant to take on the expense of bottling their product, growlers could be their only take-home offering.

Plonk owner, Anthony Young, says he sells the empty growlers for $10 each. Staff fill the bottles and buyers return with washed bottles for refills.

In late November, Plonk offered growlers of Bridge Road Brewers Galaxy IPA at $20 (compared to $4.90 for a 330-ml bottle – equivalent to $29.70 per two litres). Young intends to expand the range of beers available.

Bridge Road Brewers Galaxy Single Hop IPA 330ml $4.90
India Pale Ale (IPA) – originally a robust, generously hopped ale built for the journey, in cask, from England to India – remains a favourite and widely interpreted style. Brewer Ben Kraus’s version leads with the pleasantly pungent, resiny aroma of galaxy hops. The hops flavour cut through the smooth, rich, intensely palate.

Henney’s Vintage 2010 Still Cider 500ml $7.50
As cider’s popularity grows, we’re seeing many more high-quality versions made entirely from apples – in this case from cider varieties grown in Herefordshire, England. Made in autumn and stored over the winter, Henney’s delivers the full, ripe, mellow slightly rustic flavour of apples with a firm, dry finish.

Hops on the hill

23 November 2011Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

In 2005 Karen and David Golding established hops at Red Hill on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. This satisfied local regulations requiring would-be liquor licence holders to be primary producers.

They harvest the four varieties – Hallertau, Tettnanger, Golding and Willamette – around March each year for use in their Red Hill Brewery products.

These include three beers produced year round (Golden Ale, Wheat Beer and Scotch Ale) and seasonal specialties like the upcoming releases, Bohemian Pilsner and Christmas Ale, reviewed below, and Temptation, a seriously good strong Belgian blonde style.

Wheat Beer shows the classic fruity esters of this delicate style with a subtle, lovely tang of estate-grown Tettnanger hops.

Golden Ale delivers complex, refreshing, full flavours, cut through with the delicate flavour and soft bitterness of Hallertau and Tettnanger hops.

And big, bold, chocolaty Scotch Ale benefits from a lick of goldings and Willamette hops.

Red Hill Brewery Bohemian Pilsner 330ml $5.50
Red Hill takes a distinctive approach to this classic, full-bodied, hoppy, Czech style. It’s a little stronger than normal at 5.9 per cent, it’s unfiltered (and therefore has a yeast haze) and utterly delicious. From nose to finish, pungent hops wrestle with opulent, sweet, malt flavours, finishing strong, bitter and alcoholic.

Red Hill Brewery Christmas Ale 330ml $7
This ale salutes Chimay Red, one of the great Belgian abbey beers. It combines full, malty body with high alcohol (7.5 per cent) and a strong aroma input from hallertau and tettnanger hops flowers. It’s a sip and savour style, its opulence and silky texture a good much for Christmas cake or pudding.

Craft brewers to join forces

16 November 2011Beer, PeopleChris Shanahan

Australia’s craft brewers are at last to have a national body to promote their product, liaise with government and advocate their interests.

Unlike the wine industry with its strong national promotional and representative bodies, craft brewers have been a fragmented lot despite their growing presence in the market.

Brewers behind the new national body (with state chapters) began working on the project in May and in July circulated a draft prospectus to the industry. In November they established Craft Beer Limited and called on brewers to join the association and participate in the election of a board.

The brewers behind the initiative are Brad Rogers and Jamie Cooke (Stone and Wood Brewing, Byron Bay), Brendan Varis (Feral Brewing Company, Swan Valley), Dave Bonighton (Mountain Goat Beer, Richmond Victoria), Miles Hull (Little Creatures, Fremantle), Owen Johnston (Moo Brew, Hobart) and Adam Trippe-Smith and Bruce Peachey (McLaren Vale Beer Company.

Stone brewed in Byron Bay

2 November 2011Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Each year Byron Bay’s Stone and Wood brewery makes a batch of “stone” beer, emulating a technique from the middle ages. The brewers heats large stones on a wood fire, then drops the stones into the kettle.

Brewer Brad Rogers writes, “apart from the obvious heating effects, the brewing stones also caramelised the brew to create subtle but rich toffee-like flavours”.

Rogers adds that as they make just one batch of stone beer a year, “you have a long time to contemplate the results of your efforts, and take those learnings and start to formulate what evolutionary steps the next year’s creation will involve”.

The evolutionary steps in 2011 included variations to the malt selection, boosting the toffee character, and adjustments to the hopping regime (Tettnang and Hallertau varieties), countering the extra maltiness. It worked. See the review below.

Stone and Wood Stone Beer 2011 500ml $9.90
This small-batch, one-off, copper-coloured brew leads with toffee, roasted grain and spicy hops aroma. The smoothly textured palate reflects the aroma, delivering rich, toffee-like malt flavours with a roasted grain edge and assertive, but well balanced, clean hops bitterness.

Unravelling beer and cider lore

26 October 2011BeerChris Shanahan

For an overview of the world’s beer, mead and cider styles, America’s Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) offers a comprehensive style guide through its website, bjcp.org, and free iPhone app, BJCP styles.

As BJCP exists to train and certify beer judges, the guide uses brewing jargon liberally and assumes some knowledge of beer – so it helps to Google the terms. But even if you don’t, the guide still delivers a clear overall impression, history and commercial examples of 23 major beer families.

These include pilsner, bock, English and American pale ale, porter, stout, India pale ale, German and Belgian wheat beers and specialties like fruit, spice and smoked beers.

The section on mead may attract fewer readers. But the overview of apple and pear cider styles seems pertinent given their exploding popularity in Australia.

Local brewing champ’s beer at Wig & Pen

19 October 2011BeerChris Shanahan

Keenan Fahy won the keenly contested ‘brewer of the year’ award at the 2011 ACT Amateur Brewing Championship. The annual award goes to the brewer with the highest aggregate score for four beers.

To give further recognition to our top amateur brewers — and a commercial twist – the Wig and Pen offers a trophy for the best beer of the show, then brews and sells a batch of the winning tipple.

This year the judges examined 14 category winners and in a tight contest awarded the top gong to Fahy’s American Brown Ale.

Wig and Pen brewer Richard Watkins says he expects to offer the ale – to be brewed at the Wig with Fahy – in March 2012 following the hop harvest.

Watkins describes the beer as dark coloured, with rich, chocolaty malt flavours and a citrusy hops character.