Well I really want to start praising the efforts of Aussie brewers a bit more here at WHCFYWAC (what a mouthful!), so with that in mind I drunk four aussie brewed beers on a quiet Saturday night. Ordered from Slowbeer they were all pretty decent.
Moo Brew Pale Ale (4.9%)
Australia (Tasmania)
Per Style (American Pale Ale) – 8
Rating – 7
Really well made. The malt body was spot on with a nice citric/floral hop finish. Could use a bit more hops to really balance it out, but otherwise well recommended. I imagine on tap at the brewery would be sublime.
Brew Boys Maiden Ale (4.9%)
Australia (Adelaide)
Per Style (Pale Ale) – 7
Rating – 6.5
Malt centric Pale, maybe a hybrid of English and American styles. Maybe an Australian Pale Ale? Solid drinking, just slightly one-dimensional. Still I would drink again on a hot day round a BBQ.
Red Duck Bengal IPA (7%)
Australia (Victoria)
Per Style (IPA) - 7
Rating – 7.5
Really nice. Big malty body and at 60IBUs pretty damn hoppy. Gets more malty as it warms with could be a plus or a minus depending on how you look at it. The old man liked it.
Holgate Double Trouble (8%)
Australia (Victoria)
Per Style (Dubbel) – 4
Rating – 6
Mmmm. Points for trying a difficult style, but this didn’t really work for me. Big raisin and plumy type flavours, but doesn’t quite gel in to a workable finished product. Not bad by any stretch, just a bit sloppy (like my posts sometimes).
I really enjoyed these beers. To some the ratings might not reflect that, but perhaps my standards are a bit high. To give you an idea of how much I enjoyed them here is a rating of xxxx…
Castlemaine xxxx bitter ( 4.8%)
Australia (Queensland)
Per Style (Pale Lager) – 6
Rating – 2
No such thing as a ‘bad’ beer, but this is pretty lowest common denominator. Skunky hop nose, mouth is light with off flavours and mild bitter finish.
None of these craft beers were mind blowing, but they were all good drinking and there wasn’t a beer I didn’t enjoy drinking, even the Holgate. Will try to rate more Aussie beers down the line, as the scene is growing and developing and producing some very good beer.
