The Last month and a half in Beer - 13th of February to 25th of March

Hey all, been just shy of a month since my last blog post, and what a month it's been. First weekend, Melo was in town from over in the UK, so we had a bit of a Craft Beer Binge at the Union over in Newtown that's probably worthy of it's own blog post...

A veritable smorgasboard of amazing beer

The following weekend, I jetted down to Melbourne for a family birthday, but had to make a stop in at my favourite little craft brewery, Moon Dog, where they had a new, black summer ale in tap, as well as some of the coolest tap heads this side of the Pacific

I only wish every brewery had tapheads this cool

Where I also picked up one of the grooviest growlers I've ever seen, full of delicious Love Tap

Classy place for a photo

And more recently, Jen and I had a little getaway to Hawk's Nest on the far side of Port Stephens. This meant we had to pop into Murray's on our way home for a couple of sneaky beers, as well as a chat with the man himself!

And of course across all of these weeks, I've been making sure to try some of the latest and greatest craft beers, so without any more about my personal life, I've got a plethora of reviews lined up for this post.

Firstly, I have to get a plug in for the latest beer we've released at work, the Hop Thief 7. It's the latest variant in a long line of American Pale ales, where we change the hop and malt profile every ~6 months. In this latest variant, our feature hops are Galaxy and Mosiac, and the body is noticeably lighter than in the previous variant.

Where'd I get the matching glassware from? Secret I swear

Due to this lighter body, the hop high notes seem to come through much more readily, leading to a far fruitier flavour profile. This in turn has also made it easier to drink than the 6, which at times could be a bit heavy.

Definitely very palatable and worth tracking down to try, at this stage it should be available just about everywhere.

Overall: 3.5/5

Secondly, the latest from Moon Dog, a very experimental beer to say the least, we have the Bad Boy Bubbly - Barley Champagne 

Barley Champagne or Barely Champagne?

Clocking in at a whopping 13.1%, as soon as you pop the cap it's obvious this isn't a standard beer, or even a beer at all. Doesn't quite have the 'pop' that a champagne bottle does, but once you pour it you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd opened the wrong bottle

On the palate, it's somewhat of a cross between a semi-dry champagne and a fruity pale ale, though without the bitterness. Flavours of melon and citrus mix with a slight yeasty tinge to create an extremely unique "beer". 

Overall: 4.5/5

Next up, we have a remix of an old favourite, Mikkeller's "Wheat is the new Hops", but in it's barrel aged form:

I'm seriously overuse this glass don't I?

I've previously had the non Barrel-ages version and was a big fan, so I was glad to taste that this version is very similar, yet still different enough to warrant the effort of barrel aging.

Pours a clear golden colour with a good bit of off-white head. Nose is sorta funky, hint of brettanomyces and some subdued grassy notes. Flavour wise there's an immediate malt sweetness that fades into a slightly sour body, a little bit of citrus and plenty of acidity. Slight grape flavour is evident throughout from the chardonnay barrels too. Overall a very complex beer, maybe even too much so considering the existign complexity in the non barrel-aged version.

Overall: 4/5

Finally, we come to my favourite beer of the last 6 weeks, Shenanigans Brewing Co's Imperial Winston. Brewed as a celebration of their first anniversary, it's a massively hopped double IPA that's more fruity than bitter, and that's perfect for me.

I think I technically had this before the street release... don't tell anyone though

Right away when you open the bottle, there's tropical fruit aromas pouring out. Pours a slightly hazy golden orange with thick white head. Aroma is mainly tropical fruits, alongside some more piney notes and other fruits like peach. 

On the palate it's sweet but not cloying, with very real flavours of fruit to match the aroma coming through on every sip. Slight bitterness is evident but mostly overpowered, and there's no sign of alcohol in the flavour profile despite it being over 9%

Overall an amazing DIPA, especially when as fresh as this bottle was. If you're keen to try it, I'd recommend tracking one 

Overall: 5/5


Thanks for reading, and sorry I didn't manage to write anything for 6 weeks, life's been busy with... Watching the Cricket and... watching more cricket and rugby and... I'm just lazy

Tune in next time for some more beers and me getting Hyped up for GABS 2015, which I just bought tickets for!!

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 couple of weeks in Beer - January 12th - 21st

Hey all, welcome back to our regular programming, had a short break over Xmas but now it's business as usual. To start off, I bought a few new beers!

Moon Dog & Rogue, Sierra Nevada, Brooklyn, Doctor's Orders and Mikkeller. Heaven

Pretty excited for all of the above, the Narwhal and Hand & Seal have gone into my cellar to age a bit, while the other 4 are now waiting in my fridge for someone to crack them open... Can't wait.

I also got a couple of other beers last week, including 2 huge double IPAs, one from the boys at Moon Dog, and one Air-freighted directly from the US to Aus so it'd still be fresh. Reviews of both forthcoming below, as well as a couple of nice dark beers I've had to try and get through this freezing, rainy summer.

To start off, we'll go with the Jammy, fruity IPA from Moon Dog, Marmajuke Double IPA:

I feel like "Marmaduke" normally has a D... But that's none of my business

Aroma is sweet and kinda jammy, real orange aroma comes through. On the palate it's similar, with a sweet orange layer over the top of a base that tastes very similar to Jukebox Hero, Moon Dog's regular IPA. In this case, the orange really adds to the beer, contrasting the piney and herbaceous hop notes and creating a really tasty double IPA! The sweetness also helps to hide the alcohol, there's no way you'd pick this as 8.4%

Overall: 4.5/5

Next up, we have one of the most absurdly pricy beers I've ever bought, although I think it almost might have been worth it... Introducing Stone's Enjoy By 02.14.15 (14th of Feb for people who use proper date formats) IPA.

I have until the 2nd of Smarch to drink it, awesome!

As soon as the bottle is open, and even more son once it's in the glass, this beer smells hugely of pine resin with a hint of grapefruit. 
Flavour wise it's a big, bold Double IPA, the pine and grapefruit notes come through as strongly as in the aroma, with a big dry hop bitterness coming through at the end to balance it all.
A really fantastic example of a double IPA, possible the best I've ever had. If we're going to be getting more beers like this express airfreight from the US l'll be a very happy man!

Overall: 5/5

Now onto the dark beers, we'll start off with an old favourite of mine that I've finally decided to review, then onto a beer that's spent the better part of the last 12 months in my cellar, waiting, always waiting.

So first up, we have Founders Brewing Breakfast Stout - Double Chocolate, Coffee and Oatmeal Stout:

Apparently this label has been banned in parts of America for having a child on it... 

Pours from the bottle a opaque, pitch black. Aroma is super roasty with notes of black malt, coffee and chocolate all melding together. Body is extremely thick, almost chewable. Flavour is a real bittersweet blend of the roasty, tannic coffee and malt notes contrasting the sweetness from the chocolate and oats. 
Fantastic stout with some great sweet notes, worth picking up for any lover of dark beers!

Overall: 4.5/5

Finally, we have a bottle of moderately aged Brooklyn Black Ops. Hidden in the depths of my cellar for a year, I had to pull it out to make space for some new arrivals and decided a freezing cold summer weekend was as good a time as any.

This beer doesn't actually exist. You never saw it.

In the glass, a black-brown colour with ample brown head. Aroma is far more savoury that the above breakfast stout, roasty dark malt mixed with an oaky vanilla and maybe even slight leather.
Body is silky smooth, more savoury than sweet, a little more leather mixed with bourbony vanilla and oak all on top of a bittersweet black malt backbone make for a tantalizingly complex stout!

Overall: 5/5

Thanks for reading everyone! Ill be back again soon, having tried a few more bottles from the wonderful collection of beer that is my fridge.

Xmas 2014 in Beer - The quest to find a Furphy

Hey all, so rather than writing my usual set of beer tasting notes, I've decided today to do a recount of my epic quest to track down the elusive 'Furphy' beer that I'd been selling for months but had never seen nor tasted, and I wasn't OK with that at all! 

The quest started on December 28th, the day after Boxing day. After having our big Cowell family Xmas lunch the day before, the ladies of the family had run off to go shopping, leaving the blokes to sit around and watch day 2 of the Boxing Day test:

Pictured: Us clinching the series with a decisive... draw

When we hit lunch, I decided it was time for us to leave Queenscliff, and make the journey over to Geelong to track down the Little Creatures brewery, and the treasure, Furphy. 30 minutes later, we were there

Yes I was too lazy to get out of the car, thanks for asking

From a distance, the brewery is pretty unassuming, having been built in the old Wool factory, but the main chimney stands up high and is visible from miles away!

We headed along the walkway from our car to the brewery, stopping along the way to check out some of the cool decoration, until we found ourselves in a lovely leafy courtyard

I checked inside for Furphy but found only rust. Sadness

I think the pot to the left is watching me...

The rest of the family grabbed a table, but I headed inside to check out the bar. The setup they have is quite cool, a joint dining hall and bar that even has a 50L brewing system installed in one of the walls!

A pretty nice bar setup if I do say so myself

I would kill for a system this good

I finally got to the front of the queue at the bar, when I saw it; Furphy on tap! I grabbed a round and headed outside to sample Furphy for the first time!

Couldn't help having a sip before the photo... oops

In the glass, Furphy is a pale golden orange colour with ample white head and solid lacing. Aroma is a mix of floral and fruity notes with a little bit of sweetness. 
Bodywise, it's very light and only lightly carbonated.
On the palate, it's initially light, floral and a tad grassy before the hops come through, showing some stone-fruit flavours and adding a solid amount of bitterness. 
Overall, a fantastic Kolsch-style beer that's flavoursome but still light and super sessionable.

Overall: 4/5

I soon realised I wouldn't be happy just having one of these awesome beers, so I headed inside to search for pack beer. At first it seemed hopeless, there was literally every other Creatures beer available except for Furphy...

All the beer in the world but no Furphy...

Until I realised I'm completely blind and it was sitting in the entranceway to the bar the whole time.

Victory is mine!

I grabbed a case and headed back to Queenscliff victorious. However it turns out that no matter how hard you try, you can't fit an entire case of beer in a piece of carry-on luggage. 2 6-packs made the trip back to Sydney with me, while the other 2 went to family members who I know were eager to enjoy a fairly unique beer!

I'm hoping I can bring a 6-pack into work and run a small tasting for anyone who's keen in the near future, Lion People, keep an eye on this space!

Thanks for reading guys, I'll try to get back to my normal bi-weekly blogs starting now, so keep an eye out for my next post!

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 2 Weeks in Beer - 24th of November to 8th December

Hey All, long time no Blog. We're firmly in our peak period at work now and it's super hectic. But that doesn't mean I haven't had time to try plenty of awesome beers!

First up, I have to talk about the Warner's by the Bay Beer festival. I had the privilege of being asked to work at the James Squire stall for the festival, letting people try our small-batch summer ale, the Close Shave

Not pictured: The Blutack holding our jockeybox together

A single-hop summer ale using El Dorado hops, it's pretty damn tasty, but super exclusive, only being on tap at the brewery itself and our Newcastle bar, the Squire's Maiden.

Overall the festival was great, I made it my goal to try a beer from the majority of the stalls, and also really enjoyed working alongside members of our Craft Beer teams, including the National Craft Beer Ambassador and a couple of the Brewers from Malt Shovel. 

Early in the day, before the chaos really began

Festival aside, over the last few weeks I've bought an absolute stockpile of craft beer. I got a crate in from Beer Cartel, I bought another box of beers at Warner's Bottleshop, then I received my quarterly "Posse" case from Bridge Road, all in the space of about 2 weeks. 

Hence I had to try and drink my way through as much of my current stockpile as possible... if only to make room for new beers to fit into my fridge!

First off, we have one of the latest efforts out of Garage Project, a special project they've been working on called Hop Trial No 1 - IPA

World's most unassuming can

The boys over at Garage project collaborated with the New Zealand Plant and Food Research institute to cultivate a new hop, then brewed up a batch of IPA with it and sent it out across NZ and Australia for tasting.

Personally, I found the body of the beer to be a pretty standard IPA base, and clearly designed to let the hops shine. Aroma wise, I got a mixture of Citrusy and Tropical fruit. Flavour wise, it tasted somewhat tropical, and somewhat 'winey', in a similar way to Nelson Sauvign hops.

The results for this trial were released after I tried it, and looks like I stuck with the pack mainly:

Overall I really enjoyed the beer, and look forward to trying future hop experiments as well as (hopefully) more beer with this mystery hop!

Overall: 4.5/5

Next up, we have Bridge Road's latest offering, their Posse Summer Ale. This year they've gone for a Belgian "Grisette" Style, and it definitely proved a great summer beer!

Kitchen was too busy for a proper photo

I sat down in the sun with my father and a family friend Sunday afternoon and we shared a couple of rounds of these. The consensus was that it was the perfect beer for a hot, muggy day like Sunday was (Prior to the hailstorm at least).

Wow such hail, much ice

So back to the beer. Aroma wise, a mix of Belgian yeast and orange peel, almost saison-esque. On the palate it's similar, though the spicy noble hops come through, and there's a slight hint of bubblegum. Refreshing and accessible, yet interesting for a summer ale.

Overall: 3.5

Next up, one of the more unique beers I've ever had, if only for the oddest adjunct I've seen in a beer, Mikkeller and Napabier's "We Brew Gold" IPA

Ooh Shiny

Immediately out of the bottle, aroma of apricot with a bit of malt sweetness. On the palate it's got a nice sweet malt backbone, with a lingering fruity bitterness, and slight flavors of alcohol. A great IPA, but I expect nothing less from Mikkeller these days...

Plus it's literally loaded with enough gold flakes to almost make you question whether it's a hazard to your digestive tract!

I'm not sure I wanted all that in my body...

Overall: 4/5

Next, sticking with beers from Denmark we have the Garden of Eden Fruit IPA from To Ol. This is one of their typical West Coast IPAs, with an extremely fruity twist.

One of the prettiest beer labels I've ever seen

The best way to describe the aroma of this beer is 'mango smoothie'. Honestly, it smells like you just opened up a nudie juice. The flavour follows suit, with some fantastic fruit flavours that really dominate. You could be forgiven for thinking someone had handed you a glass of juice on your first sip! However after a few sips you start to get a building hop bitterness that helps to balance it out, and prevent the sweetness from becoming cloying

Overall, pretty damn tasty, and would be a great way to introduce someone who's hesitant to try big hoppy beers to IPAs, disguising the hops with some intense fruit flavours!

Overall: 4/5

And sticking with fruit beers from To Ol (Talk about specific!) we have their Fruited Barleywine "I've seen bigger than yours"

Unabashed sexual innuendo aside, the beer itself is actually one of the more interesting Barleywines I've ever had. I find a lot of barelywines kinda samey, the raisin flavours, the alcohol heat, the hints of fruit hops etc.

To Ol have decided to move away from that by fruiting up this Barleywine, adding Orange Peel and Raspberry Juice to the ferment to create something that's really quite unique.

Pours a hazy reddy-brown with light amber head. Aroma is your traditional sweet malt and booze, laced with raspberry and orange fruit aromas that help contrast the normal sweetness. To be honest, it almost smells like a Framboise!

On the palate, a real raspberry fruitiness is the first flavour you taste, which slowly melts away into a more traditional barleywine flavour, though the orange flavour lingers throughout, crating an overall more rounded flavour than I'm used to in the style. It's slightly syrupy, but the carbonation is just heavy enough to keep it from being sticky.

Overall, highly recommended for anyone who's a fan of Barleywines or Fruity beers, it's well worth tracking down a bottle!

Overall: 4.5/5

Stay Tuned for next time, I've got reviews of 2 La Sirene beers coming up including the winner of this year's GABS best in show!

Thanks for reading!

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!