Drinks

4 Drinks

Wolf of the Willows – The S’Mores Man Toasted Marshmallow Nitro Amber Ale. 6.2% 355ml can. Biscuit malts, real roasted marshmallows, vanilla, Mork organic cacao nibs.
Dark amber kind of cloudy colour, a big head because I should have used a pint glass. Caramel slightly biscuit malt and “lagery” yeast smell.
Taste is slightly sweet and vanilla, great biscuity flavor, not cloying in anyway, extremely smooth. The biscuit character is just fantastic. More vanilla/marshmallow, and maybe cacao arrives in the aftertaste as you sip. The biscuit character is the winner here. Very nice.

Dainton Brewery – Fudge Dredd Double Choc Fudge Porter. 8% 355ml can. No ingredients listed.
Big thick brown head, viscous pour, smells like molasses and roasted malts. Taste is a big dark malt hit, slight burnt black malt character, cocoa more than chocolate, a sweetness like molassess, slightly boozy. Theres bitterness but its balanced with the darkest malt flavors and the alcohol. This is big and very rich, not as sweet as I expected from the fudge in the title. Nice.

Brookvale Union – Spiced Rum Ginger Beer & Vodka Peach Iced Tea. 4% and 330ml cans each.

Brookvale Union is 4 Pines Brewing making pre-mixed drinks, and they aren’t bad according to these two.
The spiced rum ginger beer is not bad, could do with more spice and ginger beer heat. The rum isnt very noticable after a while but seems apparent on the first few sips. Extremely drinkable.

The Vodka Peach Iced Tea though is excellent, it is exactly like Liptonice Peach Iced Tea but carbonated, the peach flavour is strong and good, you can really taste it and also smell it from a distance, the tea is there just like it is in Liptonice, and you cant taste the alcohol. This was excellent and I hope they make more Ice Tea varieties. Again, extremely drinkable.



Food

Shrimp Boil

Take 1 not enough Old Bay

Take 2: A LOT better, a lot more Old Bay and also added some crushed chilli

Drinks

Some beers

Black Brewing – Bao Bao Milk Stout.
This is in cans now, and it doesnt seem as viscous and milk-stouty as before. The back of the can says its “sessionable”, not sure if that was on the bottle, so maybe they changed the recipe? (pretty sure they have). Regardless, it is still a very nice beer, and for the flavour – there is some sweetness, good bitterness, some very dark, black and even peaty malts going on – it is actually quite “sessionable”. (Bottled 28/5/20)

Green Beacon – Cafe Creme Brulee
An Imperial Pastry Stout with coffee, vanilla and lactose. This is very nice, not as cloying and sweet as I expect from a pastry beer. Very boozy. Very rich. Unsure when this was canned, I have had this once before and there was a bit more vanilla, more forward “lively” coffee flavours, nose is mainly dark malts and cocoa now, and was a bit sweeter. This is very much like a boozy dubbel or something now, strong on the booze but it works well with the dark bitter malts and still very nice. 8.5%.

Green Beacon – ESB
This is a bit stronger than a “normal” ESB I think? 5.7%. Its very nice and has a great bitterness, I dont think its the standard UK hops though, not as crisp. Good malt character, and good balance. Nice biscuity malt and slightly dank nose. Its a pretty great beer I have had a few times now.

Drinks

La Sirene – Praline

Finally got one of these. Brewed 12/5/20, drinking on 13/6/20, so unsure how much effect that has.

Praline – Oak aged cacao, hazelnut and vanilla stout. 5.8%

La Sirene lists this as Colour 5/5, Bitterness 1/5 and Decadence 5/5.

Its…interesting. On first sip I was not impressed, but this just keeps developing. Its a dark, very dark, opaque and turbid pour, with a small tan head, very light carbonation. The nose is cocoa, dark roasty malts and a hint of wild yeast funk. The taste is initially cocoa but followed up very fast with a noticeable wild sourness I assume from the barrels, that is melding with the dark malt bitterness. No noticeable hops. Theres vanilla that hangs around and after a few more sips the woody and rather dry barrel character comes out. The more sips the more the sourness transforms or is overtaken by the barrel and a red wine-like oakey dryness even on the lips. Still cocoa, still this lingering vanilla, still dark malts, all the aroma still there, but its a big red wine cabernet-like dry puckering oakeyness. I imagine super-fresh there would be more chocolate and vanilla character, but this was still very nice.

What a strange but enjoyable beer.

Brewing, Drinks

Bitter

The last of my Bitter(?) Ale.

About 80% Golden Promise, 20% Shepheards Delight, A heap of Cluster for bittering, then Styrian Golding and Cluster through the boil and also for dry hopping. Used Kveik yeast slurry from a previous beer. Cloudy, unfiltered or cold-crashed.

This was a dry crisp, almost pucking from the bitterness, not overly bitter like pine resin or tastebud destroying IPA, just a good strong bitterness like a extra powerful UK or Aussie ale. Some lemon/citrus from the kveik, some woody ashyness as well. Sweetness and bready malt, a dry cola taste? Very good, very interesting and complex.

Food

Amazing Chicken!

Little Lebanon (I believe the area is officially Joondana, but its across the road from Dogswamp)

Just fucking awesome chicken. grilled over coals, its smokey, juicy, seasoned awesomely, has a nice sauce on it. God damn this is great chicken!!’

Food

Things I ate March #1

Hungry Jacks GRILL MASTERS SPICY CHIPOTLE ANGUS.
Eh, this was ok, pretty minimal burger, the battered and fried jalapenos were a nice touch. LOOKS LIKE CRAP!

Charcoal Chicken Place Tuart Hill – 1/2 Spicy Chicken and 1/2 Ribs & chips.
This was good, probably not as hot and fresh as from Dianella which has such insane turn-over, but still really good.