Category Archives: Beer

Hopping mad at Red Hill, Mornington

25 February 2009BeerChris Shanahan

As well as being top pinot noir and chardonnay country, Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula (separating Westernport Bay from Port Phillip Bay) appears to be in a sweet spot for growing hops as well.

Back in 2005 Karen and David Golding opened the Red Hill Brewery on the peninsula after a long battle with local planning authorities. By this time they’d been growing hops for several years, thus creating the agricultural land use required for the approvals.

Karen says that they’re self-reliant in hops and currently have Tettnanger, Hallertau, Willamette and Goldings varieties in production – though what toll the recent heat wave took is unclear.

She reports some leaf burn problems and expects this to reduce the crop – though the extent of damage won’t be known until flowering, now underway, is complete.

David Golding brews three main beers – Golden Ale (in Cologne’s Kölsch style), Wheat Beer (Bavarian style) and a sweet, malty Scotch Ale – and a range of seasonal specialties.

I’ll be reviewing the beers in coming weeks. But if you’re headed south, they’re available in Melbourne, at the Red Hill Brewery and Restaurant and at restaurants around the Mornington district.

No, I said Belgian beer

18 February 2009BeerChris Shanahan

Did you hear the one about the bloke who walked into Kingston’s Belgian beer café on 31 January and asked for a Hoegaarden. “Sorry mate”, said the barman, “only got Aussie beers. Left over from straya day. Don’t have any Belgian beer”.

Bloke double-checked the signs –Yep ‘Belgium Beer Café’ and ‘Little Brussels’. Must be the right place. Hey, he thought hopefully, this fella’s pulling my leg. Look at those beautiful, frosty beer taps – Hoegaarden, Chimay, Stella Artois, Leffe – Belgian as chocolate, consummate branding, makes your mouth water just looking at ‘em.

Uh oh, he thought, moving closer, what’re those paper scraps sticky-taped on the taps? Jeez, crappy handwriting, but that one says Cooper’s Pale Ale and bloody hell, there’s Snowy Mountains Hefeweizen on the Hoegaarden spout.

It’s not a bloody joke at all thought the bloke. It’s a modern Monty Python sketch. Relenting, he said to wife, it’s 36 outside. I’m bloody thirsty. You’re bloody thirsty. Let’s have a beer. So they sipped Cooper’s from a Stella Artois glass and Snowy Mountains from a Hoegaarden glass.

The bloke loved Belgian beer, admired InBev’s superlative marketing and wondered what head office might make of this Aussie freelancing.

Wig & Pen — beer worth bottling

4 February 2009BeerChris Shanahan

After years of maybe-we-will, maybe-we-won’t, Canberra’s Wig & Pen Pub Brewery plans to offer bottled beer this year. Brewer Richard Watkins says they’ll kick off with a ‘regional ale’ made in Cologne’s Kölsch style – traditionally a pale coloured, cold-conditioned brew.

But it’ll probably be April or May before it’s released. They’re developing the packaging now. When it’s ready Richard will make and bottle the beer at Mildura Brewery. It’ll be the same as Kamberra Kölsch, one of the Wig’s most popular tap beers, aptly described as a ‘very drinkable lager like ale’ on their website.

The beer will initially be offered at the Wig & Pen – regulars, including Bruce, have been asking for it for years – but owner Lachlan McOmish expects to have it in one or two specialty retail outlets before too long.

Meanwhile the Wig has a couple of week’s supply left of its two summer ales, both Belgian inspired – Framboise, a lambic style, pitting raspberry sweetness against lactic acid sourness; and Saisson (season), a full, rich ale fermented by a specialty Belgian yeast.

And with the Tasmania hop harvest approaching, Richard has three special hop-focussed beers planned. For one of them he’s building a new ‘hopinator’ – a device for passing beer across fresh hops flowers en route to the glass.

Hard times ain’t what they used to be

28 January 2009BeerChris Shanahan

According to South Australia’s Coopers Brewery, increasing sales of home-brew kits are a litmus of tough economic conditions. But hard times ain’t what they used to be.

In a press release earlier this month the company said that sales of home brew products began moving up last March ‘when interest rates reached 7.25%’ and have surged again as the volume of bad economic news increased.

As the world’s leading producer of malt extract used by many home brewers, and a manufacturer of home brew kits, Coopers is perhaps better positioned than any brewery to spot the trend.

In earlier recessions people turned to basic home brewing to save money. While saving money remains a motivator, it seems that today’s home brewers demand upmarket international beer styles.

Presumably they enjoyed premium beers during the good times and are determined to keep the habit even if it means brewing it themselves.

Coopers says it currently offers 19 different beer styles for home brewing and plans to increase the range to meet the new demand.

Beer writer Willy Simpson turns to brewing, mead making

21 January 2009Beer, PeopleChris Shanahan

Willie Simpson, beer columnist for our sister publication, The Sydney Morning Herald, and author of The Beer Bible, recently opened a brewery and meadery in Tasmania.

A few months before the opening I’d come across a gum-booted Willie lending a hand – and perhaps getting a few pointers from brewer Richard Watkins – in the cellar at Canberra’s Wig & Pen Pub Brewery.
At the time Willie said that he and his partner Catherine Stark intended to grow their own hops for their beer and to use local honey for their cider.

The dream crystallised with the opening of Seven Sheds Brewery, Meadery and Hop Garden in May 2008. It’s located at 22 Crockers Street, Railton, Tasmania, not far off the Bass Highway connecting Devonport to Launceston. You can get a birds-eye view using www.maps.google.com

If you’re heading that way it’s a short drive south of Devonport and could be a good starting point in discovering Tassie drinks and food. You can taste Willie and Catherine’s cider and mead at the cellar door and enjoy a tour of the cellars – and perhaps a look at the hops garden in season.
See www.sevensheds.com for more information.

Byron Bay’s Stone & Wood beer released

14 January 2009BeerChris Shanahan

If you’re headed up the NSW north coast this summer, keep an eye out for the new Stone & Wood Draught Ale in pubs around Byron Bay. This is the first batch of beer from the new brewery set up in Byron by industry veterans Brad Rogers, Ross Jurisich and Jamie Cook.

I’ve not tried the beer, but given Brand Rogers’ distinguished brewing background, it’s likely to be outstanding. Brad’s been in the game a long time, most recently at the Foster’s owned Matilda Bay.
Brad headed the brewing team. And as well as overseeing production of larger-scale products like Redback, he developed numerous, brilliant, small-production specialties – such as Alpha Pale Ale and Naked Ale (for Chloe’s bar at Young & Jackson’s hotel, Melbourne) at the company’s microbrewery in Dandenong.

Because they’re distributing only locally, the Stone & Wood Ale goes straight from vat to keg without filtration or pasteurisation. And that means drinkers can experience the full, ultra-fresh flavour that only brewers usually experience – assuming fast stock turnover.

Wood & Stone Draught Ale is currently available at The Rails and Great Northern Hotels, Byron Bay, Bangalow Hotel and the Pacific Hotel, Yamba.

Changing Aussie beer tastes

10 December 2008BeerChris Shanahan

Per capita beer consumption in Australia is in decline according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. While the apparent total consumption of beer increased marginally from 1.748 billion litres to 1.790 billion litres between 2005 and 2007, per capita consumption declined by one litre, from 107.6 litres to 106.6 litres.

But increasing consumption of mid and full strength beer, at the expense of low-alcohol beer, meant that Australia’s per capita consumption of alcohol from beer remained steady at 4.7 litres. At the same time consumption of alcohol from all sources increased almost immeasurably from 9.85 litres to 9.88 litres.

Whether looked at in absolute litres (1.790 billion) or litres of alcohol (76.8 million), beer remains Australia’s number one alcoholic beverage by a country mile. Wine comes second on 490.3 million litres total and 51.3 million litres of alcohol. Spirits and ready-to-drinks run neck and neck for a distant third and fourth behind beer and wine.

What the ABS beer figures don’t reveal, however, is the steady chipping away at the old state-based tribal boundaries as national and international brands monopolise the fast-growing premium beer segment.

Something brewing in the Aussie alps

26 November 2008BeerChris Shanahan

Kevin and Alison O’Neill created the Snowy Mountains Brewery brand in 2004. Although the beer has been brewed at AIB near Camden (and at Geelong and Mildura, too, following its success), the couple always planned to build a brewery in Jindabyne, connecting the ales tangibly with their alpine-inspired names – Crackenback Pale Ale, Bullocks Pilsner, Razorback Red Ale and Charlotte’s Hefeweizen.

But alas for Kevin and Alison, it looks like Chuck Hahn, of Sydney’s Malt Shovel Brewery (owned by Lion Nathan), will be in the Aussie Alps before them.

Chuck expects to be brewing in Jindabyne’s Banjo Paterson Inn between January and March 2009. He says he’s established the Kosciusko Brewing Company and, assuming development and licensing approval, should be serving the first of his Kosciusko beers long before 2009’s first snowflakes appear.

He says the beers will have local names and be brewed to the local taste – kicking off with a refreshing pale ale style and following with something stronger and hoppier for the ski season. Chuck says visitors will be able to see the copper kettles from the bottle shop and to view the beer cellar through portholes in the floor.

Ben Granger-Holcombe of Snowy Mountains Brewery says that his company still hoped to open a brewery in Jindabyne but that plans had not been finalised.

A chat with Chuck Hahn — two birthdays next year

19 November 2008BeerChris Shanahan

Brewer Chuck Hahn says he’s planning for two anniversaries next year. It’ll be 20 years since he launched Hahn Premium from his then independent Camperdown brewery. And it’ll be 10 year since the birth of James Squire Original Amber Ale, made in the same brewery but now owned by Lion Nathan and renamed The Malt Shovel.

Both brews have had a tremendous influence on Aussie beer drinkers. Hahn Premium filled a need, but faltered under private ownership. Then Lion Nathan’s acquired it and went on to build a significant national brand, albeit in a slightly watered down version of the original.

Lion acquired Chuck along with Hahn Premium and the small Camperdown brewery. But after a few years as the group’s chief brewer, Chuck handed the reins to Bill Taylor and returned to Camperdown to brew James Squire.

Over time the range expanded to include a true Pilsen style; a porter; one-off seasonal specialties, like raspberry wheat beer; a porter aged in rum barrels; an ale seasoned with Aussie pepper berries; the now top-selling Golden Ale and the just-released James Squire Sundown Lager.

Chuck’s planning a distinctive ale to mark next year’s double anniversary. And he’ll be opening a new brewery, too. But that’s a story for next week.

Plonk in the middle of Fyshwick markets

12 November 2008BeerChris Shanahan

For a bit of beer excitement check out Anthony Young’s Plonk at Fyshwick markets. With help from champion home brewer, Dan Rayner, he’s quickly assembled what is probably Canberra’s best beer offering.

It’s an impressive range already. But Anthony reckons on having 500 or more beers in stock by Christmas, including soon-to-arrive direct imports from Belgium and England. He says that these will all be beers not previously seen in Canberra, some of them extensions of known brands like Marstons.

The diversity of styles reflects Dan Rayner’s knowledge. So it’s not just another line up of so-called ‘premium’ beers, dominated by lagers. It really reflects beer’s big family, with an already strong showing of classic English, Belgian and German styles alongside top Australian and New Zealand selections.

The latter includes big company craft beers, like James Squire (owned by Lion Nathan) alongside hard-to-find boutiques like Prickly Moses, from Victoria’s Otway Ranges, and 3 Ravens from Melbourne – acknowledging quality wherever it’s found.

There’s even a selection of gluten free beer, including O’Brien’s and Billabong from Australia, Germany’s Schnitzer Brau and Belgium’s Glutaner.

Anthony and Dan run themed tastings every Saturday, hosted by brewers or members of the local home-brewing community. See www.plonk.net.au for more details.