It’s official. Canberra’s amateur brewers are the best in Australia. Craig Webber, president of Canberra Brewers, says local contestants won the Australian amateur brewing championship, held recently in Canberra, by a wide margin.

And the qualities that took us there showed in a later taste-off of fifteen local beers, each previously judged the best of its style. I was one of four judges for the Wig & Pen trophy, assessing the diverse line up of international styles – English standard pub ale, Bohemian pilzen, Vienna lager, bock, Munich helles lager, English extra special bitter, American brown ale, robust porter, Russian imperial stout, English-style India pale ale, American barley wine, Belgian triple, German hefeweizen, Flanders red ale and rauchbier.

After much sipping and discussion we narrowed the field down to four brews, each an outstanding example of its style – the English standard pub ale, the extra special bitter, the robust porter and the Rauchbier.

The ballot produced a clear trophy winner – Mike Day’s extra special bitter, an appealing deep-amber ale with distinctive, zesty hops. Mike also won second place for his gentle, refreshing English style pub ale.

Mike’s winning ale recipe will now be brewed by Richard Watkins and offered over the bar at the Wig & Pen in the new year.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Drinkers at Jindabyne’s Banjo Paterson Inn know part owner, Gavin Patton, as pumpkin – a nickname soon to be immortalised on tap.
Last week Chuck Hahn pitched the yeast into the first batch of pumpkin ale – a true witches kettle of malted barley, roasted pumpkin, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, cinnamon and Pride of Ringwood and Summer Saaz hops.

Pumpkin plays a dual role says Chuck – together with the malted barley it provides sugar for fermentation (and hence alcohol) and also adds a distinct flavour.

Pride of Ringwood hops give bitterness (but not too much), while the Summer Saaz and spices, added late, during the whirl-pooling process, contribute aromatics and flavour.

It’s bubbling away in the Banjo’s cauldron as I write. Chuck says fermentation will take a week. Then there’ll be a week’s maturation before it goes on tap in the bar. There’ll be a small picture of pumpkin Patton on the logo, Chuck says, adding “we’ve got a big one, too, but we want to sell some beer”.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

There’s an echo of Little Creatures in the new White Rabbit Dark Ale, from Healesville, Victoria. It’s in the pervasive hops aroma and flavour – a thumbprint of the Little Creatures’ style, courtesy of the ‘hop back’, a sack of fresh hops seeped in the brew.

White Rabbit’s burrow might be thousands of kilometres from Freemantle, Little Creatures’ home. But it’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Little Creatures and has as its next door neighbour Phil Sexton’s Giant Steps winery.

Phil, a founder of both Matilda Bay (now owned by Fosters) and Little Creatures (now part owned by Lion Nathan), consults to Little Creatures and the new White Rabbit operation.

Apart from the family hops signature, White Rabbit Dark Ale, the only brew currently available, is far removed from the Little Creatures’ style. Its dark, nutty, roasted-malt flavours and strikingly dry palate are unique – and perhaps partly attributable to the open fermenters used by brewer Jeremy Holse, a Matilda Bay veteran.

And little Creatures hasn’t limited its expansion to Victoria. It recently acquired a twenty per cent stake, and national distribution rights, in the Byron Bay brewery, Stone and Wood – which counts former Little Creatures and Matilda Bay brewer, Brad Rogers, among its four other shareholders.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Have the Rogue Brewery guys visited our Ettamogah pub? Or is the pick up truck on their tin roof in Oregon, USA, a parallel invention? We may never know. But at least we know the crows there don’t fly backward – because they’d be headed straight to the beautifully made, idiosyncratic beers.

I’ve been working my way through some of the range, including the Hazelnut Brown Nectar reviewed a few weeks back, and the delicious Morimoto Black Obi Soba Ale below. My only quibble is that they’re a little pricey here in Australia. But that, the guys at Plonk tell me, is because it wanders the world a little before arriving here.

That caveat aside, the range is exciting and worth a premium, even if we explore it by the bottle, not the six-pack. I’ve yet to discover Rogue’s signature brew, Dead Guy Ale and it’s companion, Double Dead Guy.

Dead Guy is based on Germany’s opulent, alcoholic maibock style and Double Dead Guy, on spec, looks to be a revved up version, higher in alcohol, with malt in overdrive.

Plonk, Fyshwick, carries some of the range and www.internationalbeershop.com.au offers delivery (it’s a site worth visiting in any event).

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Kilderkins and firkins sound like something out of Diagon Alley and the Leakey Cauldron. But they’re really muggle’s inventions for something readers of this column love passionately – beer kegs. Just for the record, in case you didn’t pay attention at school, two firkins (careful how you say that) equal one kilderkin, the good old 18-gallon keg.

But the peculiar beer names don’t stop there. If you’ve visited new Zealand you’ve possibly enjoyed a rigger – but most likely only with a local. As an outsider, how would you know that you can fill your own two-litre bottle with draft ale at the local bottle-o?

Apparently, it’s done in parts of the USA, too, where they call it a growler. But it’s not something I’ve seen in Australia. The idea conjures images of foam all over – as surely self-filled riggers suit New Zealand’s low-gas ales better than our vigorous lagers.

So it’ll be a first for Canberra when the Wig & Pen begins filling take-away two-litre bottles from its ale taps in the near future – probably early in the new year.

Brewer Richard Watkins says it’s all planned, except for the name. Can’t be pinching from the New Zealanders or Americans, can we? Now what might J. K. Rowling call the Aussie growler?

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Canberra’s Wig & Pen Pub Brewery recently released its first bottled beer, Kembrey Regional Ale, after sixteen years serving only draft beer, brewed on-premise.

It sounds simple enough. But in fact it’s a major step presenting significant risks because fresh beer is the best beer. The passage of time, and every step away from the fermentation vessel – including packaging, transportation, handling, storage, and service – increases the risk of spoilage. For tiny brewers like the Wig, the move from fermentation vessel to keg to tap to the customer’s glass is about as efficient and low risk as beer service gets.

Bottling beer is fraught with risks for small brewers, required the right equipment and meticulous attention to detail. Brewer Richard Watkins says that after much research he and owner Lachlan McOmish decided to work with the De the Bortoli family’s Red Angus brewery, Griffith.

Richard made and bottled Kembrey Ale in Griffith with Red Angus brewer, Neil Cameron.

It’s now available at the Wig & Pen for $4 a 330ml bottle, $19 a 6-pack and $68 for a case of 24. Richard says they’ll brew and bottle a few more batches before stepping up production and cautiously expanding distribution.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Olims Hotel, Ainslie, is hosting its second National Capital Craft Beer Festival this coming Saturday and Sunday, from 11am each day.
There’ll be food and music, but most importantly beer. It looks to be underpinned by the craft brewing arms of the big operators ¬– with Matilda Bay representing Fosters and Little Creatures and Macs (New Zealand) representing Lion Nathan. Throw in family owned, sizeable Cooper’s and there’ll be enough beer variety to keep us from early boredom. But there’ll be no surprises in that line up, either.
There’ll be a splash of colour, though, from smaller operators Schwartz Brewery (Sydney based owner of Olims), Zierholz, Barons, Fusion, Red Oak and Sydney’s Lord Nelson Hotel Brewery.
There’ll be food, music and education sessions, including presentations by Canberra Home Brewers on how to brew at home.
Organiser Daniel Gaul says entry fee is $25. This includes a tasting glass and 10 tasting tickets (extra tickets $1 each). You can book at www.outincanberra.com.au

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

I bought the beers for the labels created by Ralph Steadman and featuring quotes from Dr Gonzo – Hunter S. Thomson. But what the hell had the great British artist and American writer to do with America’s Flying Dog Brewery?

A lot it turns out. And the beers are as brilliant and as idiosyncratic as the three old mates behind them. You can read the wonderful story at www.flyingdogales.com – but, in brief, the brewery owner, George Stranahan was a long-time friend of Thomson who introduced him to Steadman.

The label promises (and delivers) “Good beer. No Shit” from a “purposeful, provocative, irreverent brewery”.

The beers range from easy drinking, but still distinctive styles, to some amazingly good, high-alcohol, high-bitterness specialties built for the occasional sip.

They’re available from Plonk, Fyshwick.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Beneath the mass of bland, amber, soft-drink-like American beers there bubbles a vibrant craft brewing industry. But apart from the wonderful Samuel Adams specialties, we seldom glimpse these in Australia, despite the best efforts of a handful of importers.

According to www.beertown.org, at December 2008 craft beer accounted for 4.3% by volume and 6.3% by value of American beer sales. That means America’s 1,482 craft brewers sold 8.6 million barrels of beer (about 1 billion litres) worth $US6.3 billion in 2008 – comparable in value to Australia’s total beer market.

In the first six months of 2009 as overall US beer sales declined 1.3% and imported beers plummeted 9.5%, craft volume and value increased – and that was on top of 5.9% volume and 10.1% value increases in 2008, at the height of the GFC.

While Americans keep most of the best stuff at home (who can blame them for sending Millers, Bud and Coors offshore?), you find good American brews online at www.internationalbeershop.com. And, in Canberra, Plonk (Fyshwick Markets) offers an idiosyncratic range from Rogue Brewery, Oregon, and Flying Dog Brewery, of Colorado and Maryland.

Next week we’ll look at Flying Dog’s quirky offerings – including the rabid 11.5% alcohol, off-the-scale-bitter Double Dog Double Pale Ale.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009

Two just released beers represent opposite ends of the stout spectrum – the mild and malty five-per-cent alcohol Guinness 250 Anniversary Stout; and the chocolate rich, ten-per-cent-alcohol Wig & Pen Russian Imperial Stout.

Although the new Guinness brew is carbonated, not nitrogenated like the popular draught and canned versions, it sits squarely in the familiar Guinness mould – smooth and easy to drink, but at the tame end of the stout spectrum.

If your tastes are more adventurous there are stouts offering more assertive characters – stronger roasted grain flavours, greater hops bitterness, higher alcohol content (after all ‘stout beer’ originally referred to all higher alcohol brews, not just dark ones) or a combination of these flavours.

The Wig’s Russian Imperial, inspired by a late eighteenth century English style exported to the Russian court, combines high alcohol with equally robust roasted malt and hops bitterness. But it’s not a ‘session’ beer like Guinness. One is probably enough. Very sensibly the Wig serves it only in half pints. And brewer Richard Watkins makes Russian Imperial only in winter, the style evolving each year.

Between the two extremes, though, there’s a world of interesting stouts including ‘session’ brews like Cooper’s and Young’s luscious Double Chocolate Stout.

Copyright © Chris Shanahan 2009