GABS 2015 Part 2 - Saturday, Sunday and Shortlist!

Hey all, picking up where we left off in the last post, it's now Saturday morning and we're all slightly worse for wear. If you missed Part 1 of the GABS blog, Click Here

Day 2 - Saturday 23/5

After a second night out on the town, we weren't all quite as spry and eager as we were on Friday morning. After a session of blue powerade, we headed over to Hardware lane for a big old cafe breakfast to perk us up. Some carbs and grease later, we were back on the case, starting Container B!

Tony post-recover breakfast and powerade

Our pace was perhaps a little slower than in the first session, though this was mainly due to the humungous queues to get beers, being a Saturday and all. While we waited for each round of beers, we were entertained by the roaming band busting out some true classics

As you may be able to tell, ripping out some Careless Whisper here

As well as by people playing Giant Jenga while acrobats tried their absolute best to distract them, resulting in some pretty hilarious failures

They actually played Jenga like this later on 

We also needed a couple of breaks to get up and wander around, where I was reunited with my old buddy Milo

Apparently not in super drivable condition any more =(

But eventually we powered through Container B and reached the elusive 118th beer, Young Henrys' "Midnight In the Carpark of Good And Evil", a bizarre blend of a rum barrel-aged cherry Flanders ale, and a velvety chocolate Stout, resulting in a real 'sweet and sour' beer that was at once intriguing and confusing. 

Thanks Gator

Container B also turned up a number of highlights:

Personal Highlights from Container B:

62 - Kevin Hingston (Homebrewer) - Membrillo Hefeweizen
Subtlety is the first word that comes to mind with this beer. A delicious hoppy hefe base with juicy fruit flavours floating over the top make this an exceptional beer

64 - La Sirene Brewing - Bebe Rouge
My pick from the show, Bebe Rouge is somewhere between a tart red ale, and a glass of ribena if it were made from redcurrants. Amazing mix of sweet and sour flavours that have sent me on a sour beer kick for the last week. A Must Try

73 - Mismatch Brewing Co - Banoffee Pie Dessert Ale
Tony's favourite beer of the festival, and definitely my pick for best sweet beer, we have a super sweet brown ale layered with flavours of rich caramel and banana. If you're after a sweet beer, this is the one!

74 - Moa Brewing Company - Feijoa Sour
And over on the other end of the flavour spectrum, we have my favourite sour of the festival, Moa's Feijoa Lambic. It's not overly sour, rather extremely well balanced against the feioja's fruit notes and the barrelly notes that come through.

77 - Moon Dog - Spotted Dick with Custard
Moon Dog have always been one of my favourites, and they definitely didn't disappoint with this year's offering, I'd almost describe it as bread and butter pudding in a glass, with a mix of raisin, bready and custardy notes all swirling together to cover the 9% alcohol backbone

80 - Mountain Goat Brewery - Nightcap
Rounding up my favourites from Container B we have a Russian Imperial Stout from Mountain Goat. Super rich through the body, with robust, roasty black malt flavours complimented well by the rich burst of real coffee through the body. Hides it's strength (12.3%) very well!

Following the session, we were in need of a huge feed, and the All you can eat dumpling place we went to definitely didn't skimp on quantity, though the quality was... suspect at best. And there was a rogue dumpling on the roof. No comment

Spider dumpling, spider dumpling, does whatever a spider dumpling can

As I'm sure you can guess, we went out again, this time starting at Madame Brussels for some jugs/teapots of delicious cocktail, then headed out to Prahran for some Lucky Coq/Vodka Borscht and Tears action. Was home... at a time

Day 3 - Sunday 24/5

Final day of the festival and we were amped up! Having completed the 118 beer gauntlet, we were now free to wander around checking out the stalls, and re-sample any beers that were on the shortlist and in need of a re-taste

Silly hat day! And we forgot hats! Noooooo

Quite a few stalls had fairly unique setups, with my personal favourite being Panhead, they had a set of bike exhausts as their taps and an awesome beer petrol pump (sadly non-operational)

Trying my best to get beer to come out

The final shortlist came down to 5; 4 main contenders and a Wildcard:
5 - 8 Wired Brewing - Hippy Berliner (Wildcard)
18 - Big Shed Brewing - Golden Stout Time
64 - La Sirene Brewing - Bebe Rouge
73 - Mismatch Brewing Co - Banoffee Pie Dessert Ale
74 - Moa Brewing Company - Feijoa Sour

Final round: Sudden death

After extensive tasting, and a process of elimination, we came down to a final 2; 64 - Bebe Rouge and 73 - Banoffee Pie Dessert Ale. Tony backed the Banoffee, I was sold on Bebe Rouge, so we settled on a tie

Evidently one of us liked our beer more than the other...

After casting our votes and having some last beers/ciders/cheese platters, we realised it was time to run if we were ever going to make it to the airport for our flight home, so we headed out of the exhibition hall, and started on our way back home.

This is around the time we organised "the signal"

And like that, it was over. The plane ride home was short and uneventful, with the exit row seats proving to be worth every extra cent paid. We boarded the train, bid our farewells, and went our separate ways. Never to be seen again. until GABS Sydney this weekend.

Anyway, thanks for reading guys, hope you enjoyed, and now you have a nice little shortlist of beers to try this weekend!

GABS 2015 Part 1 - Thursday, Friday and everything in between

Hey all, welcome to a special GABS edition of the blog, covering our trip to Melbourne, GABS, and everything else inbetween. This will be a long, rambling post so I'm just warning you all in advance!

It's that time of the year again!

The trip started on Thursday afternoon, with everyone training over to the Airport. A couple of drinks and some dinner later, were were aboard our 8:30 flight to Melbourne. A quick bag drop/check-in later, we were off to Whiskey and Alement to start our adventure proper with some drinks

Professional flash blocking there

After a few boilermakers and cocktails later, we had to make the first of many brief souvlaki stops at Stalactites

The face of TRUE happiness

Before heading out for a night of Shenanigans that stretched well into the early hours of the next morning...

Day 1 - Friday 22/5

After a late awakening directly attributable to the previous night's shenanigans, we woke up and had a delish brekky at Trunk Diner before walking on up to Carlton Gardens

Still the nicest building I've been to a festival in

The queue this year wasn't too bad, and they even had ticket sellers circulating around outside so you could prebuy tickets... We decided that 2 pages should be sufficient to start off

Just a couple of sneaky pages

Inside, we grabbed a table in a prime spot next to Container A, and began our quest to drink every festival beer from 1-118. We started off with 2 Brothers "Hazella", a hazelnut brown, which is extremely fitting in hindsight considering the sheer number of nut beers/brown and black beers that were on show this year

The first 5 of 118 to come... Spilt all over the table already

Everyone put in a solid effort for the first day, all bright eyed and bushy tailed in spite of our solid drinking effort the night before

World's most staged photo

After completing 1-30 (half of Container A), we decided it was time to have a wander around the festival and check out some of the other beers on offer. 

Garage Project was definitely a highlight, with all 6 of their beers on show nothing short of exquisite. Sea of Green fresh hop pilsener was my pick, narrowly edging out the Two Tap Flat White that had beer crema!

Paddle +1, no shame there

After a good feed courtesy of Meat Mother, we sat back down to continue our journey to the end of Container A

By this point we'd wised up and nicked a chux to protect our guides from the sea of beer on the table

We finished up on the James Squire Brewers 2050 - a fruity Schwarzbier that was nice, but not quite as interesting as I'd hoped. However there were plenty of great beers at the first container;

Personal Highlights from Container A:

5 - 8 Wired Brewing - Hippy Berliner
A delicious, fresh berlinerweiss with plenty of fruit and wine character, the big hit of hops in the middle really pushed it up to my shortlist

12 - Baird Sour Puss
A super fruity and fresh IPA with plenty of lemony flavour from both lemon peel and the hops, like a lemon warhead IPA

18 - Big Shed Brewing - Golden Stout Time
The first of many sweet stouts, but definitely in the top 2, this tasted like a Golden Gaytime in a glass with a whole lot of extra roast for good measure

23 - Blackhorse Brewhouse - Finger Lime Ale
A hoppy pale ale that's been loaded with finger limes, it was my favourite pale ale of the festival due to the sheet deliciousness of the zesty lime, blending with the really well balanced hop profile

30 - Burleigh Brewing Company - Peach Saison
A real easy-drinking fruit saison, the mix of real peach and 'peachy' hops created a super smooth, delicious fruit saison

We'll be coming back to a few of these on the shortlist later!

Following the day session, we decided we'd probably had enough GABS for one day, and needed to do something a bit different... So we went bar/brewery hopping!

First stop was the Little Creatures Dining Hall in Fitzroy, where the only photos I managed to take were of the ATM. It's inside a fridge. 

Surely not...

Yup.

We were treated to a couple of rounds of free drinks courtesy of our sneaky Lion contacts, had a tasty dinner, then jumped into a squad of waiting Ubers to head to our second stop for the night, Mountain Goat Brewery

Definitely has a cool vibe from outside

Here, we got to try a whole bunch of special and one-off brews, including the Abbey Collabbey 5, and their AIBA Gold-medal winning Barrel Breed Barley Wine... super delicious

That photobomb tho

Next up, we had a nice brisk walk through the cold night over to the Moon Dog Brewery - half the group were convinced I was leading them down an alley to murder them - where we crashed down onto a set of sofas to work through a few weird and wonderful beers, including a peanut porter, a jammy dodger, and a Splice IPA that could almost be mistaken for the actual icecream!

The fact that this is the best photo I have from Moon Dog says a lot...

This culminated in us meeting up with our old mate Sammy B, then heading back into town to hit Rooftop and Toff, once again until the heinous hours of the morning...

Thanks for reading guys, also check out Part 2 for the second half and conclusion to our adventure!

The last few weeks in Beer - 21st January - 12th February

Hey all, I'm back again after a few weeks not writing, had a few hectic weekends in a row and kept putting it off. At least I have plenty to write about today!

First of all, I've managed to put together a solid group to go down to Melbourne for GABS, which is pretty exciting! We have ~8 people locked in and ready to take the challenge of trying every festival beer, and I'm looking forward to seeing how many people actually make it this year!

I've made it out to a few bars in the last couple of weeks, including an old favourite "The SG", where there's always a few interesting beers on tap:

Great taps + always a few curveballs in bottles

I sampled the 2 summer ales on tap, Angstrom's Hadron summer saison, and Batch's Watermelon summer. While the watermelon was nice, I couldn't help but be a bit overwhelmed by the watermelon flavour, while the summer saison was a little more balanced.

I also ended up in Wollongong for a weekend to go to a family birthday, so I had to stop in at the Illawarra brewery bar and have a couple of paddles!

Cheap flights of great beer, what a bar

Managed to make it through 90% of their beers, standouts were the Nitro milk stout and the Cherry Lambic, both of which are definitely worth a try if you can track them down!

I've also had a few notable beers in the last few weeks, so I've decided to review 5 of them. All five of our beers this week are from Aussie brewers, so a bit of a departure from my normal US imports.

To start off, we have Lord Nelson Brewery's latest seasonal, a summer ale called Quayle ale:

Actually drank this on a hot summer's day!

Pours a cloudy golden colour with minimal head (surprising given the style), aroma is a mix of herbal and floral notes. On the palate there's some fruity notes to accompany the herbal saaz hops, but the body is a little lacking, even for a summer ale. Just missing a bit of guts in my opinion.

Overall: 2.5/5

Next up, we have the latest In-Breed from Mountain Goat, "The Delmont" West Coast IPA. Brewed in homage to the Crafty Pint's founder Tom Delmont, it's been brewed to emulate a 'San Diego' IPA style.

No angle was particularly flattering for the label

Immediately when I opened the bottle, a familiar aroma was present, that of a Mountain Goat summer ale. Seems this IPA has a similar hop profile. The resiny/citrusy hop mix is definitely more prevalent here than the summer ale.

On the palate, a biscuity body underlies a clean, resinous bitterness, with some grapefruit and orange notes. Probably not quite as complex as expected, but still a great West Coast IPA.

Overall: 4/5

Next up, the first bottled beer from Doctor's Orders that I've tried, Prescription 12:

Wish my doctor actually prescribed beer

Pours a deep brown colour with light tan head. Aroma is roasty malt, slight coffee, mixed with a slightly tropical hop aroma, an odd combination.

On the tongue it's a slightly syrupy feel - quite rich - and the flavour is a battle between roasty malt and belgian yeast character, with hints of fruity hops but no defining hop character.

Overall, not quite what I expected, having had this on tap before. I have to assume this is either an older bottle, or the draught variant is hoppier.

Overall: 3.5/5

To finish up, we have a pair of barleywines from Moon Dog; one new and one that's been living in my cellar for quite a while that I decided I should pop out and try alongside their latest offering. 

So to start, we have their latest barleywine, The Beard Downunder, a smoked barley wine, aged in whisky and rum barrels. A collaboration with Rogue, I had high expectations going into this beer, and it definitely didn't disappoint.

Possibly the world's sussest beard name

In the glass it's a deep amber colour, with sparing off-white head. Aroma is some alcohol heat wrapped around notes of currant and vanilla. 

Quite rich on the tongue, caramel from the malt blends with brown fruit flavours to create a very rich body, punctuated by some hints of oak and vanilla. Definite rum character that's a great match to a more traditional barleywine body.

Probably helped by it's low alcohol for a barleywine (9%), but one of the most balanced barleywines I've had from an Australian brewer.

Overall: 5/5

Finally, we have what I think may have been Moon Dog's first ever Barelywine, the Nordic Saddle Buffer. Also a collaboration, this time with Kissmeyer, it's a Shiraz barrel aged English-style barleywine, and with the amount of ageing it's had I expected something quite subdued.

Still not sure how old this bad boy was

Poured a cloudy dark orange/brown colour, with large amounts of yeast throughout, tried to minimise with the pour to no avail. Closest aroma I can pick is a traditional barleywine (caramel, dark fruit) with hints of benedictine, a slight fortified wine smell.

On the palate it's surprisingly dry, with a little more of the fortified wine character coming through alongside a slightly spicy malt body, flavours of raisin and biscuit throughout, and a mild to moderate alcohol burn underneath.

Clocking in at just shy of 15% ABV (14.6), it's no wonder this was more punchy than the Rogue collaboration. Has definitely aged well, maintaining some of the earthy hop notes to help keep it balanced.

Overall: 4/5

Thanks again for reading, I'll be making a big trip to Beer Cartel to pick up piles of beer in the coming weeks so should have plenty of new bottles to drink and review in the near future. 

Last Fortnight in Beer - 8th to 19th of December

Hey all, I'm back with a new blog, won't be quite as long as last week's giant essay, it's been mental at work and at home the last couple of weeks so I haven't had TOO many fun beers...

First, a shoutout to my Reddit Secret Santa, I recieved a big box of craft beer from them! Lots of great new beers to try!!

I figure how better to start this week's post than by sampling one of the beers I just recieved, so we'll begin with the Elysian "Superfuzz" Blood Orange Pale Ale:

If nothing else, a cool label

Pours a hazy, light orange colour. Aroma is of Apricot and citrus with a hint of pine, very standard American hops. On the palate, it's dominated by the apricot flavour from the hops, as opposed to the promised blood orange flavour, which is very slight. A lingering citrusy bitterness after the main flavour is long gone, which could well be from the Blood Orange. A very enjoyable pale ale, just not quite what I expected

Overall: 3.5/5

Next up, a newish beer from the team over at Stone and Wood. I've always been a big fan of the Stone Beer, and their Garden ale was great this year, so when I saw another limited release I was super keen, and while it didn't disappoint, I wasn't super impressed either

Metric pint bottle, imperial pint glass... D'oh!

Pours a clear, deep amber colour. Tropical fruity aroma that leads you to believe it'll be hoppy, but on the palate it's a bit lacking flavourwise. It's not bad by any means, but it's kinda... Bland and inoffensive with minimal hop bitterness. I guess it'd be a good entry level craft beer for someone used to macrobrew. Decent but nothing special

Overall: 3/5

Finally, I promised last week I'd review a couple of La Sirene's beers, so to start off we have La Sirene's Super Saison

One of the prettiest labels I've ever seen

Pours a clear golden colour with ample white head. Aroma is interesting, notes of citrus and saison yeast, along with some earthy hop spicyness. On the palate, a mix of sweet orange peel and spicy pepper/clove notes that fade into a rounded, earthy finish. As the beer reached room temperature, a little more of a wheaty character came through as well, giving it a seriously smooth finish. Highly recommended, great example of a saison!

Overall: 4.5/5

And to wrap up this week's reviews, we have an absolute cracker of a beer, this year's winner of Best Festival Beer at GABS, La Sirene's Praline

Like the aforementioned pretty label but holographic!

Right off the bat when you pop the cap, there's a mellow, chocolatey aroma. It only intensifies when poured into a glass, with some nutty notes coming through alongside the cocoa. Pours a dark, opaque brown, almost black, with ample, frothy, light brown head.

On first sip, it's almost immediately cloyingly sweet, like drinking melted chocolate icecream, but as it sits in your mouth some dry, roasty notes come through alongside an earthy hop bitterness to help balance out the flavour.

Overall the closest flavour I can compare to is that it's like drinking a choc-hazelnut mousse, it's absolutely delicious and perfect alongside a bowl of vanilla icecream.

Overall: 5/5

That's all for this week folks, next blog likely coming just before the new year, detailing many more of the beers that I've been drinking, as well as a bit on my trip to the Little Creatures Brewery in Geelong. 

Until next time!

Last Weekend in Beer 21st - 23rd of November

Hey all, I'm back this week with a few reviews, first up we have a pair of pairs of beers, then a couple of exceptional beers I had while trying to free up room in my fridge for my latest box of happiness:

Packing peanuts don't taste very good... Beer does though

Complete list of what I bought this month can be seen here:

New Moon Dog + Garage Project Collab!? OMG!

I'm sure I'll be reviewing a whole lot of these over the coming month.

So without further ado, onto the first pair of reviews!

I decided to try something a little different this week, these caught my eye in the Vintage Cellars catalogue this week because they just sounded... Intriguing. Introducing Brown Brothers Grape Tree, a drink that's somewhere between a white wine and a cider:

And while not strictly a beer, it's basically a cider and I've reviewed a few of them in the past, plus this is my blog and I do what I want!

Starting with the Original:

Pretends to be wine unlike the Red Berry

You'd be forgiven for thinking I'd poured a glass of sparkling white, it looks like a lightly sparkling white wine, and smells like Sauv Blanc. Flavour wise however it's a soft, fruity white wine with a very cideresque level of carbonation. Still has a little bit of tartness to remind you it's made from grapes. Overall quite refreshing and great on a hot day.

Overall: 3.5/5

Moving on to the Red, which immediately out of the bottle smelt more like an RTD than a wine:

This is basically boozy cordial

Smell was very sweet, assorted red fruit aromas but cranberry the strongest. Flavourwise you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd picked up a vodka cranberry, very sweet and fruity with only a hint of the tartness displayed in the original. This one was a little sweet for my tastes, but still interesting.

Overall: 2.5/5

Next up, we're back onto beer with a pair all the way from Scotland, brewed especially for the Holiday Season, Brew Dog's Hoppy Christmas and Santa Paws!

These puns are Terribeer...

The Hoppy Christmas is a big, full bodied Festive Pale Ale at 7.2%, with the hops to back it up:

Christmas is the hoppiest time of the Beer... ahahahahahaah

Pours a clear, golden colour with a small amount of white head. Inviting pine hop aroma, really evokes that Christmas tree pine scent that I'm sure they were aiming for.

Full body with light carbonation, a fairly dry initial malt flavour with citrusy hop notes. Quite bitter to help combat the high alcohol, which definitely works. An aftertaste combination of earthy yeast flavours and hop bitterness that lingers on the palate for a while.

Overall the aroma is definitely evocative of Christmas, even if the flavour isn't so much.

Overall: 4/5

Next up it's brother, Santa Paws is a Christmas Scotch Ale that sits at a much more conservative 4.5%.

I can barley stand all these terrible puns

Pours a deep brown with a fleeting light brown head. Aroma of roasty coffee and a slight honey sweetness, little to no hop aroma.

Medium bodied and silky in mouthfeel, flavours of iced coffee with some chocolate and spice fade into a honey sweetness with a touch of noble hop bitterness that helps round out the overall taste from being too rich. Also a slight smokiness lingers after the rest of the flavour has dissipated.

Overall quite nice, but I would have preferred a more full body and perhaps higher alcohol content to help break up the body. Still highly recommended though, especially at the price they're selling for at Vintage Cellars at the moment!

Overall: 3.5/5

Finally, a couple of awesome beers that had been in my fridge for long enough that I decided they 100% had to be drunk this week. Also I needed some space for my new arrivals... What can I say.

First up we have one of the strangest concept beers I've ever tried, coming from Rogue brewing, the Beard Beer.

This beard was literally brewed using yeast that was trapped in the head brewer's beard, dusted out, cultured and put in the fermenter. Kinda gross when you think about it.

Pours a slightly hazy golden orange with thick off-white head. Fruity aroma, distinct note of peach, and also some musky, funky elements blending in.

Initially a dry, bready flavour, some peach hops notes combine with again some musk elements to create an odd dichotomy of sweet musk against the dry body. Very interesting body though.

Overall: 4/5

And finally, another bizarre beer from Rogue; their new dessert beer - Voodoo Donut 3: Chocolate, Raspberry and Pretzel Ale.

I would not wanna mess with that donut man

I decided to have this one alongside some dessert, as it's a dessert beer and the bottle even has a food pairing recommendation of donuts and/or ice-cream. I settled on a chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream.

Mmmm Brownie

Pours an opaque black-brown with a tiny bit of dark brown head that dissipates quickly.

Aroma wise, overwhelming chocolate and coffee notes from the abundant chocolate malt that makes up the backbone, with a slight raspberry ester.

On the palate, a rich chocolate malt backbone, with a fruity (artificial) raspberry note cutting through, and a smoky, salty flavour that supposedly comes from the pretzels in the fermenter.

Against the dessert, the chocolate from each was complementary, and the smoky, salty pretzel flavour helped cut through the richness of brownie + icecream.

The raspberry also added an element of tartness to contrast all the sweetness.  Overall, a fantastic, highly recommended combo, though the beer on it's own may leave a little to be desired.

Overall: 3.5/5

Thanks for for reading guys, tune in next time when I'll have reviewed some of the new beers mentioned above!

The Last Month in Beer - 20th October to 22nd November

So it's been a hectic month at the office, haven't had too much time to go and buy and/or taste craft beers... But I've had enough that I can definitely write a blog post!

First up, we have a perfect beer for the 40 degree days we've been having lately, Anchor Steam Summer Beer

Plus the free Pint glass I got with the 6pack!

Not too much to say about this obne, pours a light hay colour with off-white head. Grassy aroma with a bit of citrus behind it. Light and refreshing body with a bit of bitterness, hard to pull too much flavour from other than light biscuity wheat and grassy hop. 

Nothing too exciting, but a beer you could definitely drink a 6pack of out in the sun on a hot day

Overall: 2.5/5

Next up, we have Brasserie de Saint Sylvestre - 3 Monts Biere de Flandre.

Most intense part of this beer was getting it open...

Pours a pale golden colour with thick, foamy white head. Aroma of lemony hops and biscuity malt with a slightly funky element.

Body is medium to light, acidic with some citrus notes. Towards the end, and a definite element of sourness

Interesting but not amazing, but definitely worth the $10 price of entry

Overall: 3.5/5

Next, we go back to America for a beer from Rogue. But this is no ordinary beer... It's possibly one of the biggest beers I've ever had. Rogue's New Crustacean Barleywineish Imperial IPA Sorta

Kinda goodish sorta tasty like

From the moment I opened the bottle, a strong hop aroma was clear, a mix of more tropical, fruity notes and some more floral ones, as well as an underlying heat from the alcohol.

Pours a hazy orange colour with a little bit of off-white head. On closer examination the aroma has clear notes of peach and pine. One the palate, a syrupy, fruity body leads to a strongly bitter final hit, letting you know all about the beer's 88 IBU.

Highly recommended for anyone who likes Barleywine or big hoppy IPAs

Overall: 4/5

Finally, the latest release Single Batch from the boys over in Manly at 4Pines, an Imperial India Brown Ale

Closest thing I've had to a jaffa in a bottle

Poured a clear, reddy brown with light brown head. Low carbonation, and what little there is is very small bubble. Aroma of chocolatey malt against tropical hops with a nutty element.

Silky on the palate, with a chocolate malt bittersweetness, and a real orangey hop flavour combining to create a "jaffa" flavour of sorts. Tapers off into a more resinous flavour as it fades

Highly recommended as a more accessible dark beer, light and fruity yet dark and stormy.

Overall: 4/5

Thanks for reading guys! I'll try to update more often, but work's heading into peak so we'll see...