Category Archives: Beer

Stout and porter time – Red Duck and Malt Shovel

8 June 2011Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

At Schloss Shanahan we up our stout and porter buying in winter, leaning towards slightly higher-than-normal alcohol content. That little extra seems to boost the aroma and warm generosity of these generous, warming beer styles.

We’ve tried a few lately and particularly like Malt Shovel’s one-off seasonal brew – Mad Brewers Stout Noir, made at the Malt Shovel Brewery, Camperdown, Sydney, by Chuck Hahn and Tony Jones.

It’s a big, complex ale of many parts: three different malts (pale chocolate, dark crystal and wheat), two hop varieties (Australian Super Pride and New Zealand Alpha) and a dash of liquorice root (gycyrrhiza glabra).

The liquorice root, says Hahn and Jones, “adds a rich complexity to the satisfying hoppy finish”. We love it because the diverse flavour elements work together, delivering a smokey, rich, brisk, complex and very drinkable stout.

Red Duck Unfiltered Porter 330ml $4.75
Red Duck, a strong dark ale from Camperdown, Victoria, presents the gentle side of porter – though at 6.4 per cent alcohol it packs a kick. It’s dark but not opaque, deep brown rather than black, and fruity and opulent, but soft, with lingering malty rather than hops aftertaste.

Malt Shovel Mad Brewers Stout Noir 640ml $9.99
The ebullient, persistent foam sets the tone for stout noir. A slightly smokey, roasted coffee bean aroma leads to a luxuriously malty, seven-per-cent alcohol palate. Zesty acidity cuts the very complex, chocolaty, roasted malt flavours. And hops bitterness subtly, and barely, counters the smooth, sweetening influence of liquorice root.

Wig & Pen blitzes Australian International Beer Awards

1 June 2011BeerChris Shanahan

Canberra’s Wig and Pen Brewery once again punched above its weight at the 2011 Australian International Beer Awards, winning 12 medals from 12 entries.

Led by former Foster’s chief brewer, Peter Manders, several teams of local and international judges tasted 1,195 draft and packaged beers from 241 breweries in 34 countries.

With gold medals at a premium this year, the Wig and Pen was one of only five Australian brewers to succeed at this level – winning golds for Venom (a specialty hop season ale) and The Bald Headed Stagger, a barrel-aged Belgian-style strong ale, modelled on Duvel.

The Wig won silver medals for Kemberry, Big Brown Beaver, Lunch with the Monks, Staggered through the Tulips and Bob’s Armpit. And it won bronze medals for Kemberry, Cilly Saisson, Kiandra Gold, Phoenix Golden and The Judges are old Codgers. See the full results at www.beerawards.com

Brewer adds “terroir” to the beer dictionary

25 May 2011Beer, PeopleChris Shanahan

At www.beerandbrewer.com winemaker-turned-brewer, Brad Rogers, introduces the French wine concept of “terroir” into the beer dictionary.

Rogers, a partner at Stone and Wood Brewery, Byron Bay, writes of the pale ale style and “how we’re making it our own”.

He describes how pale ales, across a wide range of styles, can’t be beaten at revealing the complex world of hops. He mentions uber hoppy American pale ale, the highly aromatic Little Creatures from Australia and English and Indian versions.

He introduces wine’s “terroir” concept, writing, “with hops different conditions do translate to different flavours. The Cascade hops grown in the Pacific Northwest and the Cascade hops grown in Tasmania’s Bushy Park… display different attributes”.

The growing numbers of hop-season beers released are a practical revelation of hop varieties and hop “terroirs”.

Wig and Pen on the block

4 May 2011Beer, PeopleChris Shanahan

It’s been a Canberra institution since 1993, but the for-sale ad read simply, “Serious expressions of interest are sought for the purchase of the Wig and Pen Tavern and Brewery, Canberra. Retirement looms”.

Owner Lachie McOmish recalls starting the Wig with a barely-used second hand brewery from Sydney – offering five real ales on tap. “It was cutting edge stuff”, he says, offering beers that may have seemed peculiar at first taste.

But over time the sheer quality brewed by Richard Pass, then Richard Watkins for the last fifteen years, introduced clientele to an extraordinary range of unique styles – the latest being the sensational barrel-aged Belgian ales covered in last week’s column.

McOmish sees the Wig as unique – a place that connects people because they can just sit and talk without the intrusion of pokies, television, pool or bright lights.

Creative genius at Canberra’s Wig & Pen

20 April 2011Beer, PeopleChris Shanahan

The creative genius of brewer Richard Watkins puts Canberra’s Wig and Pen brewpub in a category of its own. Few small breweries in the world could match the diversity and quality of beer currently on tap there.

On a recent visit, the Wig offered 15 beers and an apple cider, all made in the tiny cellars.

To the core of regular beers, Watkins frequently adds seasonal specialties. Most excitingly, there’s a growing range of specialty ales fermented and matured in oak barrels – inspired partly by Watkins’ recent visit to classic European breweries.

The three just released “Brewer’s Stash” ales, all served in brandy balloons, are simply sensational – albeit idiosyncratic styles to sip and admire.

Big Ass Barley Wine (one year in barrel) offers sumptuous, toffee-like malt flavours balanced by hops bitterness. Lunch with the Monks (six months in barrel), inspired by Belgium’s Triple style, is complex, sweet-malt and buoyantly fruity. And Bob’s Armpit (eight months in barrel), modelled on Orval, is an intriguing sweet and sour beer brewed with yeast and a cocktail of bacteria.

Smoked beer

13 April 2011BeerChris Shanahan

Rauchbier’s an idiosyncratic style that originated centuries ago in Bamberg, Germany. ‘Rauch’ means ‘smoked’ and refers to beechwood smoking of barley during the malting process.

The smoked barley gives the beer a distinct, smoked-meat character. While Rauchbier can be seen as an idiosyncratic curio, it’s absolutely delicious enjoyed with local Bamberg food, like noodle soup with rich liver dumplings – an experience we’ve enjoyed but once.

These days smoked beer finds many expressions beyond Bamberg, including some made in the past or currently by Australian breweries. These include 3 Ravens Dark, Melbourne, Matso’s Smokey Bishop, Broome, and a memorable Wig and Pen, Canberra, Wobbly Boot Smoked Hefeweizen.

Two particularly interesting styles discovered recently at Plonk, were the opulent De Molen Belgian imperial stout – made using peated malt from Scotland’s Bruichladdich distillery; and HaandByrggeriet Royk Uten Ild, a dark but subtle version from Norway.

Zierholz launches five-litre, take-away beer keg

30 March 2011Beer, PeopleChris Shanahan

Brewpubs tempted to package take-away beer face the dilemma of how to do it without degrading quality. While bottles seem an obvious choice, it’s a risky option, requiring expensive equipment and new processes, often beyond the resources of small operators.

Canberra’s Wig and Pen, for example, brews, kegs and serves its delicious beers on site in the city, but makes and packages its only bottled product, Kemberry Ale, at De Bortoli’s William Bull brewery in Griffith, New South Wales.

Taking another tack, Zierholz brewpub, Fyshwick, recently launched take-away five-litre steel kegs. Brewer Christoph Zierholz packages these on site presents few difficulties.

He offers the full range of Zierholz beers in the kegs at the brewery. And the Local Liquor chain offers Zierholz German Ale through about 15 of its outlets. Zierholz hopes soon to widen distribution through independent retailers.

Chateau Shanahan successfully road tested five-litre kegs of Zierholz German Ale and Pilsner for this column.

Beer drinkers take to cider

23 March 2011Beer, CiderChris Shanahan

Watch out beer, is cider stealing your fans? In March 2010 AC Nielsen reported cider as the “fastest growing liquor category in 2009” with the value of sales jumping by 37.2 per cent in the December 2009 quarter alone.

Cider’s growth continued in 2010 and in the cool summer of 2010–11 may have stolen sales from beer. Both Foster’s and Coca Cola Amatil’s brewing arms recently attributed slow sales to the cool summer.

But in an interview for the Adelaide Advertiser, Coopers Brewery chairman, Glen Cooper, said his company was trying to assess whether cider is “robbing from beer 100 per cent or is it robbing from wine or alcopops”.

Then in the same article cider maker Steve Dorman said he believed cider growth came from beer drinkers having “a cider as a spacer”.

Whatever the truth, there’s no denying the increase in numbers of ciders on retail shelves and on tap in bars.

Toasting beer chemistry

16 March 2011BeerChris Shanahan

It’s the international year of chemistry, said the brewers’ press release. So I asked Bill Taylor, Lion Nathan head brewer, for one really big thing this means for all of us.

“The major breakthrough, something all brewers work with every day”, said Taylor, “is the understanding of naturally occurring enzymes”.

Since ancient times, Taylor explained, brewers knew that varying temperatures of barley-malt solution (the mash) produced beers of different flavour, alcohol content and body (residual carbohydrates).

But they didn’t understand the mechanism. The discovery of a spectrum of enzymes (many of them similar to those in our saliva) and their sensitivity to temperature finally gave brewers greater control of their craft.

Just as our saliva breaks down starch in bread, different enzymes break down starch in the mash to a range of sugars.

By turning enzymes on or off with temperature, brewers control the level of fermentable sugars, ultimately determining the alcohol level, body and complexity of flavours in a beer.

Spicing up beer flavour

9 March 2011BeerChris Shanahan

Brewers love tinkering with flavours. Indeed the natural additives they use goes way beyond the traditional ingredient list of malt, water, hops and yeast.

Some flavoured beers go back centuries. Belgium Lambic beers, for example, originated as natural ferments of beer with blackberry (cassis), raspberry (Framboise), cherry (kriek) or peach (peche) – a process described by one brewer as a tag-team of microbes producing a palatable, if idiosyncratic, sweet and sour sipping beer.

And in northern Germany, Berliner Weisse, dating probably from the sixteenth century, remains popular. It’s a low alcohol wheat beer with a sour, lactic flavour, usually served pre-mixed with raspberry or woodruff cordial.

While some additives, like Stilton, chilli and pizza sound positively weird, others, carefully handled, produce interesting, tasty beers. The list includes banana, ginger, Australian pepper berry, chocolate, coffee, shiraz, various herbs and spices and even fresh truffle.