Category Archives: Beer

Schultz – almost a Canberra brewer

10 September 2014BeerChris Shanahan

If you brew beer outside Canberra but offer it through your own Canberra hotel, does that make you a local craft brewer – or an honorary one at least?

If its does, then Sydney’s Jerry Schwarz deserves a place of honour alongside Canberra’s home-grown craft brewers, the Wig and Pen, Zierholz and the BentSpoke.

Schwartz owns the Mercure, Braddon, and with little fanfare offers draft and packaged beer from the two breweries he owns – the Schwartz Brewery Hotel in Surry Hills, Sydney, and the Lovedale Brewery at the Crowne Plaza in the lower Hunter Valley.

The Mercure currently offers on tap Paddo Pale, Newtown Bitter, Darlo Dark and Sydney Cider from the Surry Hills brewery and Lovedale Lager from the Hunter.

The same brews are also available in 1.89-litre refillable, take-away “growlers”. And the bottle shop carries a smaller range of 330ml bottles from Schwartz’s two breweries.

Zierholz Brewery eyes Kingston

27 August 2014BeerChris Shanahan

Brewer Christoph Zierholz hopes to move his Fyshwick brewery and bar to the planned new arts precinct adjacent to Kingston’s busy bus depot markets.

Zierholz describes the proposed move, currently under negotiation, as “an exciting prospect”.

Should the move come to fruition, Zierholz hopes to establish with the brewery a beer hall where he can, “showcase not just my beers, but others from Canberra and surrounding regions”.

The ideal location, he says, suits brewing on the quiet days, Monday to Wednesday, with the prospect of large visitor numbers later in the week – especially over the weekend when the bus depot markets opens.

Zierholz’s plans come on top of a busy year for Canberra craft brewers. Lachlan McOmish’s Wig and Pen expects to move from the city to Llewellyn Hall in September and Richard Watkins’ BentSpoke opened in Braddon in June.

Matso’s – Kimberley brewer

13 August 2014Beer, Beer review, PeopleChris Shanahan

Matso's brewer, Marcus Muller. Photo Chris Shanahan — Matso’s brewer, Marcus Muller. Photo Chris Shanahan

Our long and dusty drive from Kununurra to Broome, via the Gibb River Road, finished tasting beer on the veranda of Matso’s brewery Broome.

This remarkable business produces several familiar beer styles – Hit the Toad Lager, Smokey Bishop Dark Lager and Pearler’s Pale. But its quirkier brews, including the very popular ginger beer, appear to be exciting drinkers all across Australia.

Brewer Marcus Muller makes all of the draught beers on site in Broome. And there’s no better place to try them. The delicious ginger “beer”, incidentally, is actually a blend of white wine, ginger essence and water.

However, on the back of increasing success, owners Martin and Kim Pierson-Jones now have the packaged versions brewed under contract by the partially Woolworths-owned Gage Roads Brewery, Perth.

The couple also own accommodation across the Kimberley region, including the recently opened, luxurious (and remote) Berkeley River Lodge.

Matso’s Chilli Beer 330ml 6-pack $22
The frosted glass brimmed with lemon-gold, white-foamed beer. What could be more appealing on a hot Broome day, far from frigid Canberra? A first impression of lemony freshness retreated before the fiery chilli onslaught. Another sip might quell the fire? Yes, then no, as the chilli triumphed. What a thrilling, quirky, beer.

Matso’s Smokey Bishop Dark Lager 330ml 6-pack $22
Smokey Bishop, inspired by Belgium’s dark lagers, provides medium-bodied, easy drinking – with the freshness of lager and chocolate- and toffee-like flavours of roasted malt. A light and slightly bitter chocolate-like flavour lingers, giving a dry, refreshing finish. It’s an attractive lager, with the various flavour components in harmony.

Wig and Pen expects spring move to Llewellyn Hall

30 July 2014BeerChris Shanahan

Proprietor Lachie McOmish expects to move the Wig and Pen brewpub from its birthplace in Civic to Llewellyn Hall in early spring 2014.

McOmish says he has to vacate the current premises during September and hopes the pub will be out of action during the move for, “no more than a few weeks”.

McOmish says the bar will be about the same size as it is now, though the brewing area will be a little larger. The brewery will be on the same level as the bar, with a grain mill and storage space downstairs.

Before his departure to set up the BentSpoke brewpub in Braddon, brewer Richard Watkins trained Dr Tom Lillicrap as the Wig’s new brewer.

McOmish says Lillicrap’s winter offerings at the old site include five stouts: Mexican chocolate and chilli, spice and truffle infused, Russian imperial, velvet cream and double chocolate.

Drinkers rate their top beers of 2013

12 March 2014BeerChris Shanahan

Each year The Local Taphouse polls beer drinkers to decide the hottest 100 Australian craft beers of the year. They announced the rankings for 2013 on Australia Day this year

While Australia’s two biggest brewers, Fosters and Lion (both foreign owned), enjoy a strong presence in the craft segment, independent brewers dominated this year’s top 100. However, the big brewers also won favour with voters.

Feral Brewing Company Hop Hog seized the top spot this year, repeating last year’s performance. Stone and Wood Brewing Co Pacific Ale came second and Lion-owned Little Creatures Pale Ale secured third spot.

Little Creatures took out fifth place, too with its India Pale Ale. But independent brewers held eight of the ten top spots. See the hottest 100.

Brews from Byron Bay and Okinawa

19 February 2014Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

Two contrasting summer brews landed on the tasting bench this week – one from Stone and Wood Brewing Company, Byron Bay, the other from Orion Brewery, Okinawa, Japan.

They could be metaphors for the national stereotypes. Loud and cheery Stone and Wood Garden Ale, slaps you on the back, calls you maaaate, and pounds your palate with exuberant, brash (and delicious) hoppiness. And a comparatively low 3.8 per cent alcohol invites perhaps just one more stubby, maaate.

Orion bows discretely, lightly and politely onto the palate. Belying its five per cent alcohol, it offers delicate, refreshing flavours and softness – suggesting a fair slug of rice malt in the brew. It finishes bone dry and refreshing in the distinctive Japanese style. (It’s available at asianbeeronline.com.au).

Stone and Wood Limited Release Garden Ale 500ml
Reduce beer’s alcohol content and the flavour falls away; increase it and everything rises with it. In 3.8 per-cent-alcohol Garden Ale, the brewers very cleverly use Tasmanian Ella hops to fill the low-alcohol flavour gap. The hops add a striking citrus flavour and bitterness to accompany the lovely malt and dry finish.

Orion Premium Draft Beer 24-344ml bottles $74.90
Orion “is sure to satisfy Australian pallets this summer”, crows the press release. From Okinawa, Orion is light coloured and light bodied in the crisp, delicate, dry Japanese style. The low bitterness may surprise drinkers of mainstream lager, but it’s part and parcel of the style and well suited to delicate Japanese cuisine.

Cooper’s introduces new lager

5 February 2014BeerChris Shanahan

Ale specialist, Coopers, recently extended its push into the lager market with the introduction of Thomas Cooper’s Selection Artisan Reserve.

The new beer joins two other full-strength lagers in the company’s product list – Premium Lager and 62 Pilsner.

Artisan Reserve, however, promises to differentiate itself from mainstream Australian lagers – and in doing so appears more consistent with Cooper’s quirky image, built on its cloudy, bottle-conditioned ales.

The new brew weighs in at a higher than normal 5.5 per cent alcohol and is brewed entirely from malted barley – without the addition of sugar or other fermentable adjuncts.

Tim Cooper says the beer’s strong malt flavour, with its residual sweetness, and high alcohol content call for significant, balancing hops bitterness.

The beer is also unpasteurised, in keeping, says Cooper, with the company’s bottle-conditioned ales.

The proof of the lager, however, will be in the tasting. Hopefully, I’ll have a bottle in time for next week’s reviews.

Canberra’s new brewery takes shape

22 January 2014BeerChris Shanahan

That almost complete new building on the corner of Mort and Elouera Streets Braddon houses Canberra’s newest pub brewery – the BentSpoke. Inside, it’s all concrete and dust at present. But on a visit there before Christmas, the racks of stainless steel brewing tanks gleamed enticingly, waiting for Richard Watkins to fill them with the good stuff.

Watkins, former Wig and Pen Brewer, expects BentSpoke to open on schedule in late March or early April. He plans to launch with the six beers and one cider that’ll be part of the regular offerings. Over the following months he intends to introduce 12 specialty ales.

Brewing will take place on both levels, with all the brewing gear right in the face of customers. The downstairs pub spills out to a spacious courtyard, with the kitchen, sit-down-dining and another bar upstairs.

Little Creatures opens Geelong brewery

15 January 2014BeerChris Shanahan

In December, Lion, owned by Japan’s Kirin, opened its $60-million Little Creatures brewery and hospitality facility in Geelong. The facility incorporates historic building in the 1920s art-deco style former Valley Worsted Mill.

The hospitality centre emulates Little Creatures’ highly successful brewery-bar-restaurant facility in Fremantle, Western Australia – making it a must-visit for anyone heading down Geelong way during the holiday period.

Lion plans to brew around 1.25 million cases of beer in the, principally for east coast markets.

While craft beer accounts for a little over three per cent of Australia’s beer market, the category is growing at about 13 per cent a year. Industry sources puts Lion’s share of the market at around 50 per cent, mainly through its James Squire and Little Creatures brands. Now that’s a lion’s share, and I reckon they won’t let go of it.

A feast of Christmas beers

18 December 2013Beer, Beer reviewChris Shanahan

The global explosion of craft brewing, aided by our strong dollar, gives us an amazing choice of Christmas beer styles – ranging from merely cold and wet, to complex, or even challenging.

Over the year I’ve tasted many outstanding beers. Some were seasonal offerings, now sold out. But the five-star brews recommended below should still be available at specialist outlets, like Plonk, Fyshwick markets.

For an irresistible American take on the classic, malty, bitter Czech Pilsen style, savour Samuel Adams Noble Pils (355ml $8.40). Also from America, and pole-vaulting to the hoppiest of hoppy heights, is Sierra Nevada Hoptimum Whole-cone IPA (355ml $7.70).

Fullers Golden Pride (500ml $8.40) offers sumptuous maltiness and satisfying bitterness, while fellow Englishman, Taddy Porter (550ml $7.40), provides robust, velvet smooth, sensuous drinking. And below, find one favourite each from Australia and New Zealand.

Coopers Thomas Cooper’s Selection Celebration Ale 355ml 6-pack $18–$20
The party goes on. The commemorative ale Tim and Glenn Cooper released last year to mark Cooper’s 150th anniversary has become a regular offering. The ale is reddish coloured, fruity, with citrusy hops high notes, generously flavoured and finishing hoppy and lingeringly bitter.

8 Wired Brew Co Saison Sauvin 500ml $10
This is a Kiwi take, from the heart of Marlborough sauvignon blanc country, on a traditional Belgian seasonal brew. Pungent, spicy sauvin hops from Nelson, to the west of Marlborough, permeates the rich, smooth, high-alcohol palate, leaving a lingeringly bitter, spicy, hoppy aftertaste. What a classy beer – big and assertive but well balanced.