Drinks

Cool Find – Lichtenhainer

I think I drank this about 3 or so weeks ago, and just forgot to post about it.

Rocky Ridge & 8 Wired – Pflaume, Lichtenhainer Plum Smoked Sour beer. 4.5% 375ml can. This was canned in July, and its one of those rare styles, sometimes considered a “Lost Style”, and such a weird find at my local. Had not heard about this being released at all.
The smell is a nice woody smoke, none of that bacon thing, and some plum and other red berry fruit? Nice big pinkish head on pouring, nice carbonation, hazy/opaque ruby colour. I believe this has some wheat in the grist, which is traditional and I think helps with some of the mouthfeel. The taste is initially a plum taste and sourness, a lighter ripe fruit sour, not overbearing or blunt. The plum also adds some fruit sweetness. Then its the smoke which is a wood smoke character, not the bacon or ham thing you often get in conjunction with a bigger and sweeter malt bill. And then you get a woody dryness from the smoked malts, like a well oaked red wine. The sourness just accentuating it all, making it pop, the whole time. Really really great beer and style. 3/5.

Lichtenhainer info @ the fantastic Milk the Funk wiki

Other

Some beers…

Rocky Ridge – Rock On XPA, 4% 375ml can. This is an XPA, but its not as “weird” and empty tasting as many. It has a nice fruity hop smell, nice piney bitterness, no idea if there’s rice or what grains are used, its also gluten reduced. Nothing over the top, 4% and easy drinking. 2.5/5

Rocky Ridge – Rock Candy Fruit Sour, 5.5& 375ml can. Smells like a sour with some kind of sweet candy-like smell, sherberty. Taste is like a sour sweet fruit, some kind of red fizzy candy. Website says the fruit used is passionfruit, kiwi and strawberry. Real nice 3/5

Garage Project – Pickle Beer Sour, 4.3% 375ml can. This big on dill flavour, and its actually great. Thought this might be a bit gimmicky, or also/otherwise a Gose style, but its not either. Its a nice sourness, some cucumber freshness and a lot of dill flavour. Theres some other things in there which I think are the “pickle spice” listed on the website, unsure what that is. Very enjoyable. 3/5

Rocky Ridge – Karl Requires Clarification West Coast IPA, 5.8% 375ml can. Its a modern West Coast IPA, always a bit lower on the malts than they used to be, the bittering hops are a bit less piney/resinous as well here. Ticks all the boxes for an IPA. Its fine. 2.5/5

Drinks

Some Beers

Bonehead Brewing in Melbourne Victoria, another new brewery for me.
Bonehead Brewing – Sweet Pea M.D.L. Melbourne Dark Lager, 4.8% 375ml can. The style is basically a Schwarzbier. The smell is fantastic big coffee malts and cocoa. The taste complex but not muddled or overpowering, its nice roasty dark malts, bitter cocoa and coffee notes, and it has that cola thing going on that keeps it all open on the tongue. The hopping is very mild and leaves it all up to the dark lingering malts it seems, that or its just well balanced with the malt bitterness and cola-thing. All of this and its still a very crisp, and clean even, very drinkable, super enjoyable dark lager. What a great beer. 3/5

Rocky Ridge – Good Energy V2, West Coast Juicy IPA, 7% 375ml can. Another good colab with my local alcohol purveyor (Copper & Oak). Stinks real big and nice, Hi-C orange juice, mango, guava, passionfruit etc… The more oldschool West Coast IPA elements are there in the pine resin and sweeter malts as a base, but then it has all the big juicy style stuff as well on top, the soft mouthfeel and big rounded out hop bitterness, the crazy fruity juicyness. It works well. Real nice. 2.5/5.

Also, had another Rocky Ridge Door to Helles (3.5/5), and it was again fantastic even after 3 months.

Drinks

Some beers…

Pirate Life – Short Stack, Brown Ale. 8% 355ml can. I just assumed this was a standard Brown ale, it is not. Its 8% to begin with, is dark, viscous and contains maple syrup. This is some kind of big sweet stout. Its really damn nice. Great thick lasting tan head, nice mild carbonation, smells like a sweet, syrupy dark stout, too. 3/5.

Rocky Ridge – The Door to Helles, Helles Lager 4.5% 375ml can. Nice textbook lager smell. Clear clean golden amber colour, nice head on pouring that settles to light speckled lacing. Very clean, very crisp. Minimal, light, with a nice sharp bitterness. Absolutely crushable, quenching, moreish, fantastic. 3.5/5.

Slow Lane Brewing – Definitely Maybe, Maibock 7% 375ml can. Nice old school Euro hop and biscuity, slight caramel malty smells. Taste is lovely malts, biscuity again, toasty, nothing too sweet or “crystal”, with good balanced hop bitterness. Just real nice stuff. A good version of a classic style. 3/5.

Slow Lane Brewing – Rye Sense of Humour, Roggenbier 4.5% 375ml can. A German Rye Ale. This smells funky as heck. A dark red-brown opaque colour. It uses a Heffewiezen yeast so that explains the funk. Has a bit of that rye “spicy” thing too. A very weird ale. Not a fan. I wont rate it because I don’t know other examples, I didn’t like this one too much, though. Not a Heffe fan, so very biased.

Eagle Bay – India Red Lager, 5.8% 375ml can. A colab with Copper & Oak. This is good. Caramel malty smells, taste is fanastic, its a IPL Red Lager. Well balanced, nice bitterness and a bit of dank, a bit of that Nelson Sauvin white wine thing, nice roasted and carmel malt flavours. Its basically like a West Coast IPA but a red ale and lagered and its rounded out and smoother. Its very damn nice. 3/5.