Category Archives: Beer

Grape and grain together — Saltram Pepperjack Ale

5 September 2007Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

A few years back Saltram Barossa Valley winemaker Nigel Dolan rang his brewing mate Brad Rogers. Could they get together on a brewing project, Nigel wondered?

By mid 2006 they’d commenced trial brews at Matilda Bay’s Dandenong brewery. But there were some tricks to incorporating shiraz into beer making. And, admits Brad, ‘we buggered a few up of them up’ before hitting on the right formula.

In February this year the pair completed the first commercial batch of Saltram Pepperjack Ale – a fruity, pungently hoppy beer containing a good dollop of 2007 vintage Barossa shiraz juice, added as concentrate towards the end of the boil.

The concentrate accounted for about one third of the brew’s fermentable sugars and contributed subtly to its colour and crisp acidity.

Nigel believes that the natural grape acids account, in part, for the beer’s crispness and lifts the fruity notes contributed by Amarillo hops – an assertive component of the ale.

Saltram Pepperjack Handcrafted Ale 330ml 6-pack $17.99
There’s Barossa shiraz in the brew, but does it look or taste like wine? Apart from a faint redness to the hue and a slight acid tang on the palate, the answer’s no. But it’s a wonderfully fruity ale with a keynote of resinous, bitter, Amarillo hops and a truly dry, refreshing finish.

Berliner weisse — the working person’s Champagne

15 August 2007BeerChris Shanahan

Beer offers some wacky and wonderful flavours like the sour taste of Belgian lambic or Germany’s even rarer Berliner weisse.

Any decent liquor store carries at least one lambic beer. But I’ve not seen Berliner weisse at all in Australia nor tasted any local attempts at brewing the style. Even a search on Perth’s encyclopaedic internationalbeershop.com.au drew a blank.

I’ve come it across judging at the International Beer Awards and have tried it in several Berlin cafés. There it’s generally served with a dash of raspberry or woodruff syrup, giving an alarming red or green hue.

The sweetness of the syrup offsets the sourness of lactic acid, produced deliberately by the use of lactobacillus culture during fermentation.

As a top-fermented wheat beer it would have lighter body and higher acid than traditional beers even without the lactic element. The tart combination earned it the soubriquet arbeiter sekt – working man’s champagne.

Another vintage beer story

8 August 2007Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Where vintage wines reflect seasonal variations on grape flavour, a vintage date on a beer signals the brewer’s intent to give us a robust, age-worthy brew rather than seasonal flavour impact.

And the difference in flavours between vintage beers reflects the brewer’s imagination and ingredient selection rather than, say, the regional differences that we might see in wine.

The Cooper’s and Matilda Bay 2007 vintage ales reviewed this week and last illustrate the impact that brewing decisions makes on the beers we drink.

Cooper’s opts for a high-alcohol (7.5 per cent) all-barley beer. The result is an opulent, rounded beer with heady fruit-like esters. To keep these in check the brewers create countering herbal aromas, flavours and bitterness with a liberal addition of hops.

The less alcoholic Matilda Bay, by using wheat malt as well as barley, has a drier, less rounded palate, more apparent fruitiness and the distinctive acidity of wheat ales.

Matilda Bay Grayston Reserve 07 750ml $17
Brad Rogers’s second vintage ale is bottle-conditioned and built to last. It’s a wheat ale combining five different barley and wheat malts. The combination gives Grayston a rich, chocolate-like flavour. But the wheat components add a spiciness and lift to the estery, fruity aroma and a vibrance and crisp acidity to the palate.

Cooper’s 2007 — a vintage drop

1 August 2007Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Cooper’s Vintage Ale 2007 hit retail shelves recently, prompting a call to brewer, John Hood to find out what makes ‘vintage’ beer age-worthy.

The biggest element, said John, is the bottle conditioning process – where a secondary fermentation produces carbon dioxide and absorbs oxygen. This in turn reduces oxidation of the beer.

Subsequently the high alcohol, opulent malt flavours and assertive hopping tend to mask oxidative character that might show more in a lighter beer.

John says that successive vintage have taught the brewers that some things seem to work better than others.

For example, all that alcohol and body requires a counterfoil. Robust hops treatment provides bitterness to balance the malt sweetness and a pungent aroma to match the fruity esters.

Vintage 2007 has a little more crystal malt for its red hue and caramel/toffee flavour as well as increased hopping to increase the bitterness – as this tends to decline with age.

Cooper’s Extra Strong Vintage Ale 2007 $375ml $3.75
The family resemblance between Cooper’s 2006 and 2007 ales is a high 7.5 per cent alcohol and robust malt and hops flavours. But a year’s bottle age sees the 2006’s flavour balance shifting towards sweet, toffee-like malt and away from hops. The ultra-fresh 2007 still delivers both in abundance – and harmony.

Redoak heads down the beer-with-food track

25 July 2007BeerChris Shanahan

Siblings David and Janet Hollyoak own Sydney’s Redoak Boutique Beer Café. Located in Clarence Street, it offers an extraordinary range of beer styles brewed by David.

Somehow its existence slipped our radar until Frank Samios, of Café della Piazza, produced a bottle of David’s Rauch beer – a truly exotic style modelled on the originals from Bamberg, Germany.

I’ve not visited Redoak Café, but a look at the beer offerings surely puts it in a league of its own and makes it a must visit.

Rauch beer (made from beechwood-smoked malted barley) is exotic enough, but the current beer lists offers, as well, an eclectic and tempting range, including Framboise Froment, Hefeweizen, Bavarian Pilsner, Vienna Lager, Bock, Blackberry Hefeweizen, Organic Pale Ale and Belgium Choc-Cherry Stout.
The food and educational offering – including degustation menus and master classes – takes a leaf out of the fine-wine marketing books. See redoak.com.au for details.

Redoak Rauch 330ml $7.50 at Café della Piazza
Redback Rauch had the Schloss Shanahan tasting memories drifting back to Bamberg, Germany, and drafts of meaty, smoky Rauchbier served with liver dumpling soup. We’ve not seen an Aussie attempt at this beechwood-smoked style before, but see great promise in Redoak’s less in-your-face version. This is adventurous brewing by David Hollyoak.

Buying exotic beer in Canberra

18 July 2007BeerChris Shanahan

If you believe there’s life after lager and seek diversity, especially amongst the ale family, where do you shop?

I’ve yet to find a bricks-and-mortar retailer offering the diversity of Western Australian based www.internationalbeershop.com.au

But some retailers make an effort. I’ve had some success at Australian Wine Brokers, Braddon, and Canberra Cellars at Belconnen.

BWS Kingston used to carry a wide range but seems to have slipped. Fellow Woolies outlet, Dan Murphy, generally offers more than the independent retailers. And, until recently, I reckon it outgunned archrival First Choice, owned by Coles.

But a recent sample foray into the First Choice, Philip, store unearthed dozens of distinctive beers, mainly ales.

I understand that there’s been a bit of creative freelancing by one of the staff — retail veteran David Owens.

David’s nose for a good drop gives us access to some wonderful brews, including great English ales from Theakston, Shepherd Neame, Fullers and Marston.

Fosters to close Matilda Bay Fremantle brewery

4 July 2007BeerChris Shanahan

All hell’s likely to break loose in the west with Foster’s decision to shut down Matilda Bay’s Fremantle brewery.

As I write this column Foster’s has just broken the news to the Australian stock exchange and to Fremantle staff affected by the decision.

Matilda Bay’s Melbourne-based Chief Brewer, Brad Rogers, tells me that Matilda Bay’s bigger brands, including Redback Wheat Beer and Bohemian Pilsner, will now be brewed at the Foster’s-owned Cascade Brewery, Tasmania.

Brad says that Matilda Bay’s Beez Neez has been brewed by Cascade for just over three years.

It seems the decision is an economic one of bringing production closer to the big east coast markets. But the west will miss its modern beer icon.

Will the beer style change? Probably not. But if they do it’ll be for reasons other than a change of location.

Brad says that Matilda Bay’s small brewery at Dandenong will continue to operate.

Foster’s VB takes on XXXX Gold in mid-strength stakes

27 June 2007BeerChris Shanahan

There’s a serious battle brewing between our giant beer makers, Foster’s and Lion Nathan. Somewhat like the cane toad, Lion’s XXXX Gold – a mid-strength beer – came from nowhere and may now spread to other states.

A year ago this column observed that Queensland’s unique and growing taste for mid-strength beer (3.3 to 3.9 per cent alcohol) was the main driver behind a 7.2 per cent national growth in a category that was all but dead elsewhere.

Sensing a new trend, perhaps, Foster’s recently launched a mid-strength extension of its VB brand, VB Midstrength Lager. Sporting a gold label, but otherwise similar in appearance to the good-old green VB, the new brew weighs in at just 3.5 per cent alcohol – well under the 4.5 to 5 of standard beers.

Should other states develop Queensland’s enthusiasm for mid-strength beer, then VB could be well positioned to capitalise on the trend.

Outback Chilli Beer 330ml $3.75
Ahhhh! Ouch! Ahhhh! Ouch! At last, the beer that creates a need for itself. It has a deep amber colour and a matching, warm opulent, malty palate. That first sweet hit seduces the palate, before a surge of chilli ripples in leaving its pleasantly bitey residue and, alas, a slightly sweet, cloying aftertaste.

Schwelmer Pils Swingtop 330ml $4.20
Imported from the Schwelm brewery, Westphalia, this lovely Pils style lacks only the freshness to earn five stars. It’s a light golden coloured lager, featuring rich malt that’s offset deliciously by assertive but balanced hops. These contribute to the aroma, flavour, and refreshing, bitter, dry finish.

Guide to Victorian micro breweries published

20 June 2007BeerChris Shanahan

Regional Development Victoria recently released the third edition of its guide to Victorian microbreweries. The booklet reveals a vibrant craft-brewing scene of twenty-two brewers concentrated in the east of the state, with one in Mildura to the north west.

While this column covered those within cooee of the Hume Highway and Melbourne earlier this year – at Beechworth, Bright, Rutherglen, Woodend and Dandenong – there’s plenty left to explore in future travels.

There’s an adventurous spirit in these mostly young brewers. And that shows in the extraordinary diversity and individuality on tap – from the most delicate, pale wheat beers to the biggest, burliest stouts.

And, like wine, the best place to discover them is at cellar door where you can chat to the brewer and taste the whole range.

The booklet, The Beer Lovers’ Guide to Victoria’s Microbreweries, is available free from Information Victoria, phone 1300 366 356 or www.information.vic.gov.au

Cold countries drink more beer

13 June 2007BeerChris Shanahan

It’s counter-intuitive, but cold countries tend to drink more beer than hot ones. Amongst the top twenty per capita beer-drinking countries, only Australia (fourth at 109.9 litres a head), Spain (twelfth at 83.8 litres) and Portugal (twentieth at 59.6 litres) could be called warm.

True, the USA, slurping down 81.6 litres per head each year, rates thirteenth. But, in fact, its drinking prowess draws largely from the cooler states. According to beerinfo.com ‘as a rule of thumb, the colder the state, the more beer consumption.

In Europe, at least, as we run down the list – starting at the Czech Republic (156.9 litres) – a long brewing history, probably based on a climate suited to barley but not grape growing – points to the origin of the beer habit.

It’ll be interesting to see if, with growing affluence in future generations, red wine chips away at beer in these frosty climes.