Australian 4 pack

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.

Australia and the great Hop shortage

Now maybe I got too much of a good thing while i was in Japan, a hoppy nirvana of US and Japanese beer (and HBJs fantastic Hops of mass destruction with added hops that i chewed on while drinking it!), but I have been less than impressed with the hopping rates used in Aussie beers since being back. In particular one of my favourites, the IPA (which MUST be ‘hoppy’ by definition), has left me with a gooey malt driven mess in my mouth.

Now I have heard rumblings that Aussie brewers are too scared to let the hops truly run free. Whether this is true or not, these brewers simply need to read the history of said brew to realise that this is a highly hopped beer designed to survive the long voyages from the Mother country to the colonies in India in the 19th century. Now before you object, I know that a lot of mainstream British IPAs are sub 5% ABV, but that has nothing to do with Australia, or indeed current brewing revolutions around the World.

Many Aussie brewers have splashed stories across news columns and websites of travelling to America and being stunned by the brews on offer there (which I can attest to), yet come back here and slide in to old habits by bloating their beer with malt. I like hoppy beers. No, I demand Hops in my beer.! I am not a ‘Hop head’. I simply enjoy the pleasures of one of the key ingredients in beer brewing and one that is often misunderstood by the general public. In fairness, i am yet to taste these two,  Murray’s 2IPA and Jamieson ‘The Beast‘, which are meant to be quite hoppy, but otherwise, from Holgate’s ‘Hopinator’ to Mountain Goat’s IPA I have been left rather underwhelmed.

This is a call to arms…Aussie brewers you are on notice!! Otherwise i will pay a premium and send my business elsewhere…there are more and more Imports coming in to Australia, from Rogue, Great Divide and Flying Dog to name a few. I would rather pump the money back in to Australia, but first and foremost is the pursuit of good beer, regardless of origin.

Anyway nuff said…rant over. Happy Jonno is back. Peace and Love to the world!

Aussie Ocker

Well I’m having a few problems uploading pictures to this blog. Anyway, frustrations aside, I am finally getting back in to the swing of Aussie life. Crap customer service, hot winters and fresh air and nature everywhere. Surprisingly there is even a half decent craft beer scene building steam here. Still nowhere near the level of America or even Japan, but much better than when I was last here a year and a half ago.

A few great beers I have tried include -

Matilda Bay Alpha Pale Ale – This is an IPA in all but name. Very aggressive for an Aussie beer and on par with the yanks.

Murrays Pale Ale – Not as aggressive as the MB APA, but at only 4.5% this is the sessionable choice.  Lots of nice hoppy flavours.  Quite outstanding.

Murrays Best Extra Porter – Now this is the best Aussie beer I have ever had and the best porter I have ever had. A winter seasonal, this is bursting with flavour, especially Rum and Raisin (my favourite!). At 8% it’s a big boy, but hides the alcohol well and is incredibly smooth.

I also have an order paced with cloudwine in Melbourne for the following -

Jamieson ‘The Beast’ 4 pack

Epic Pale Ale and Armageddon IPA (from NZ) 500ml

Emerson’s Pilsner and IPA (again NZ) 500ml

Sam Smith Imperial Stout (never tried this)

Schneider & Brooklyner Hopfen-Weisse

Fuller’s 1845

I also have a Holgate Hopinator and Coopers Vintage Strong Ale, Malt Shovel 1020 commemorative ale (nice big DIPA) and one more murrays best extra porter to drink. phew….

Judging by what I’ve tried and the ratings on ratebeer.com, it would seem, at least to me, that Aussies are quite harsh when it comes to rating their own beers. The scores are lower than I would expect. That I  guess is indicative of the culture. ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome‘ is prevalent here and beer is no different.

But onwards and upwards. Lots of good beers to drink and hopefully some homebrewing starting up soon. Prost!