A Lot of beers over the Long Weekend plus Thursday, some better and/or fresher than others, but all pretty good. Altbier is a fantastic style, very happy to have discovered it.

Little Bang – Geezer Pleaser, ESB. 5.5% 375ml can. First beer from this brewery. Canned in Feb, but shouldn’t be an issue for an ESB. Nice colour, decent carbonation. Caramel malt and some kind of hops on the nose. Taste is nice straight bittering hops, thats where this shines, and caramel malts rounding it out. Takes a bit of warming up, obviously, to really shine. Its straight up and nice. 2.5/5

Rocky Ridge – Mel’s Gin, Sour Ale. 4% 375ml can. – Packaged in March so I was expecting this to not be great, but I do try and try all Rocky Ridge stuff I can find. Its surprisingly still minty on the first few sips. No melon, no gin. Its a kettle sour (or however they do the short and stopped sours these days), so it has that particular character of sourness. The mint is definitely there and its strange possibly unnatural, at first, but the sourness eventually removes it from being detected anymore. I would like to know what this was like fresh. 2/5.

Mash Brewing – Red Cat, Red IPA. 6.5% 375ml can. – Nice colour, very nice head that becomes real cloudy and lumpy. Smell is a big malty, sweet, super fruity, IPA. Taste, Its a big malty almost cloying IPA with that red malt bite crossed with that big piney resinous hops. All the things I dislike. Dont usually expect to encounter a IPA like this in 2022 outside of like Sierra Nevada Torpedo. Its really not that bad. Its well made, hits all the points for style and more. I just unfortunately cant handle 375ml of this style of beer anymore. Its 2.5/5 because its good, possibly very good, despite my dislike.

Black Brewing – Bad Boy BaoBao, Milk Stout. 4.5% 375ml. – I can smell the cherry, and the choc, a Cherry Ripe, theres no hops or malt in the smell. The Taste is a Cherry ripe, sweet and tart, its all on the sides of the tongue. There is dark, and black malts that slowly appear and overpower the cherry and chocolate. Its viscous and tart and sweet all around the sides, but with a dryness down the centre of the tongue. Nice, different, 2.5/5

Artisan Brewing – Great Southern, Belgian Style Table Beer. 3.5% 375ml can. – This is nice. Big fluffy head, nice zesty yeasty smell, cloudy golden almost orange colour. The taste is mild but enough, mainly yeast character; Belgian-y, spicy, peppery. A slight hop bitterness is balanced well with the yeast. There is little to no malt taste. A very soft mouthfeel. A real nice little beer. 2/5

Slow Lane Brewing – Altogether, Altbier, 5% 375ml can. – Insane thick tan head. Smells like a lager, but slightly fruity. Brown-coppery colour, rather hazy. This is nice, and I dont think I have ever had this style before. Like a British Mild but with higher carbonation, and more yeast character. Slightly more hopping, too. Its fruity yeast esters up front and a nice traditional hop bitterness. The malt character is mild, but both dark and sweet malts are detectable. Crisp and clean enough. Nice beer, great style. 2.5/5

Slow Lane Brewing – Simpicity, Helles German Lager. 5% 375ml can. – Cloudy, very light amber, golden colour. Small light head. Smell is light colour malts, slightly bready, kind of fruity? Great bitterness, very defined and clean, all bittering hops. The malt character is very light. There’s a little bit of fruitiness, too. Nice. 2/5.

Mismatch – Dark Ale. 5.5% 375ml can. – I have never seen this one before. Color is brown/dark read and clear, nice tan head. Smell is fruity dark malt, clean yeast. Taste is a very clean, rather crisp dark ale with a nice amount of bittering hops. Good. 2/5.