Drinks

Aether Brewing – Earl Grey Crème Brûlée

First beer for me from Aether Brewing in Brisbane

Earl Grey Crème Brûlée’, Dark Creme Ale. 8%ABV, 375ml can. Their GABS ’22 release.
This is quite amazing. The nose is custard/custard powder, caramel, vanilla (not lactose vanilla), Bergamot, honey, other stuff? Nice smooth mouthfeel with good light carbonation. The taste is massive, and very different, initially it seems kind of like Belgian ale style malts (the grist is Pale, wheat, oat and honey malts) with vanilla cream, honey, custard, caramel, there’s a back note of the tea initially that appears a bit more as it warms, a slight citrus note as well from the hops? (Warrior and Wai-iti hops) There’s Belgian candi sugar in here so that probably adds somewhat to the depth and “sweetness” and initial Belgian thoughts. The smell just keeps bringing back all the flavours. The Bergamot is secretly everywhere after a while melding with the honey malt notes. There’s some very mild hop bitterness, a little bit medicinal, far more more citrus/lemony. It calms down a bit after your senses are overpowered and becomes more of a weird cream ale, a milk ale? with honey, Bergamot, tea and citrus/lemon. There’s a lot going on, a lot of depth. Really deserves a long time just sitting and sipping as it warms and changes to enjoy it all. A real cool oddball beer. 4/5

★★★★
I had only just drank some water out of this glass, its clean, honestly!

Aether Brewing

Drinks, Event

What I tried at Froth Town

Small or medium pours of each using the provided I guess its an IPA style beer glass (see image below).

Artisan Brewing
Legacy ’21 Farmhouse Red Saison. Rich, great mouthfeel, malty, a bit of spicyness, a bit funky, great aged saison. Farmhouse Gold ’22 Saison. A real good well balanced Saison, amazing lacing in the glass (see image below). Un Monde Á Nous # 1 Biere de coupage, sour + hoppy. Really funky, bretty, god i miss this stuff, great. Un Monde Á Nous # 3 Biere de coupage, 2 cherry beers. Opaque full of cherry, like a super funky Rodenbach with a hint of balsamic vinegar, so good.

Impi Brewers.
Imperial S’mores White Stout. Belgian-ish forward malt, theres a nice toasted marshmallow taste, great ingredient choices to make that pop.

Black Brewing Co.
Affogato Hazelnut Ice Cream Stout. Like a nice milk stout with a heap of Nuttella added to it? pretty damn good.

Campus Brewing
Happy Birthday Mr Walrus Imperial Birthday Cake Stout. A big nice stout with a lot of lactose but not enough birthday cake.

Feral Bewing Co.
Sky Rocket In Flight Turkish Delight Ale. You can taste the rosewater, its OK.

Wilson Brewing Company
Scurvy Nights Strawberry Sour Dark Ale. A real nice dark sour, really well used sourness and cherry in a well made dark ale.

Rocky Ridge Brewing
Double Dragon Imperial Dragonfruit Sour. Very Dragonfruit and very sour, its a great sour, really nice final beer of the night.

As predicted and not just by number alone the star of the night was all the less common Artisan Brewing stuff. Only thing I really wanted and couldn’t get was the Rocky Ridge Space Donut. Really great well set up event, not over crowded, no lines, heaps of brewers and beer. Great event. 5/5.

Incredible lacing on the Farmhouse Gold ’22 from Artisan Brewing
Wilson Brewing Company, Scurvy Nights Strawberry Sour Dark Ale
Drinks, Event

What I want to try at Froth Town

I’ve steered away from the standards and the 85% or so beers on tap that are just straight Hops Beers because boring. There’s more vendors listed particularly from over east who may have stuff I cant regularly get here (pretty much just Moon Dog Brewing), who knows. Also getting some things in fresh kegs rather than questionable cans might be a thing. Beers listed with ^ are “official” festival only releases.

Far too many, will probably do the the Artisan Brewing stuff, then just the weirdest.

In no particular order…

Artisan Brewing -Farmhouse Gold ’22, Legacy ’21, 1721, Un Monde Á Nous #1 & #3

Black Brewing Co : Hazelnut Affogato Ice Cream Stout^

Rocky Ridge Brewing : Space Donut Vol 1 Maple Bacon Stout. Double Dragon Imperial Dragonfruit Sour.

Campus Brewing : Happy Birthday Mr Walrus Imperial Birthday Cake Stout^. Long Black Lager.

Wilson Brewing : Scurvy Nights Sour Strawberry Dark Ale

Big Shed : Cherry Rhubarb Dark Lager

Wolf of the Willows : Lark Barrel Aged Whiskey Sour

Feral Brewing : Sky Rockets In Flight Turkish Delight Ale^

Impi Brewers : Imperial S’mores White Stout^

Froth Town
Artisan Brewing
Black Brewing Co
Rocky Ridge Brewing
Campus Brewing
Wilson Brewing Co
Big Shed
Wolf of the Willows
Feral Brewing
Impi Brewers

Drinks

Feral X Nail – Nailraiser VJA

Smells like an IPA, fruity like mango, very ripe rockmelon, theres some kind of funkyness i just cant identify to it? Theres some dankness to it as well. Looks like apricot juice, a muted opaque amber colour, head is nice, no real lacing but who cares. The taste is initially a big old style IPA, first hit is straight big bitterness with a really noticeable biscuity? malt character that soon disappears to straight up pine bitterness. And its just pine bitterness from then on. Nail’s VPA meeting Feral’s Biggie Juice, supposedly, and I guess that’s correct, but it still seems vague at what its trying to do character-wise, its not juicy like a NEIPA/Hazy, and its not malty enough for a old style IPA.

Edit: 21/8/22 – I had another one of these, and its not bad. I kinda get it, but its still a bit of a mess. Add half a star.

★★★
Drinks

Some beers…

Nowhereman – Fresh Hop Lager, 5.3& 375ml can. A collaboration with a local hop producer. This kind of stuff will always be best on tap at the brewery as fresh as possible, unsure when this was canned but it seems to be about 3 months ago. Regardless, its a nice lager, nice malt character balanced with a real nice crisp bitterness from Victoria hops, they smell orange, mango, passionfruit. Though not as fresh as could be, this is still a real good beer that ticks all the boxes. 2.5/5.

★★★

Garage Project – Epuni Street Bitter, ESB, 5.5% 440ml can. An Extra Special/Strong Bitter. Big thick creamy head like a tap pour, very nice. Colour is amber/brown and and not fully translucent. Smells very malty, wholemeal bread, slightly yeasty with a touch of hops. Taste is biscuity, toasty, some slight sweetness from the malts, but the stand out is a herbal, earthy, very forward hop bitterness. The earthiness of the hops is really nice. This is really good. 3/5.

★★★

Jindabyne Brewing – Ol Black Diamond, Schwarzbier, 5.2% 440ml can. Another nice thick head on this pour. This is dark, opaque, with a nice tan head. Smell is dark roasted malts and lager yeast. Taste is dark and roasty malts, not overpowering, but very clean, as per the style which is basically a Pilsner. Pilsner hop character, obviously, and well balanced against the dark malt. A good Lager with nice dark roast malts that are not over powering, well balanced with a traditional hop character, and a clean finish. Very nice. 3/5

★★★

Sierra Nevada – Celebration, Fresh Hop IPA, 6.8% 355ml can. This was canned in October ’21 and it was still very damn good. An old style IPA with big malt character, the hops had dropped off so far as brightness and big notes, but still good bitterness, clean with only mild oxidization. I dont think I have had one of these for maybe 10 years? Nice. 2.5/5 only because the age doesn’t offer the full fresh hops it should, but the big malts allow for age and it was still very tasty.

★★★
Drinks

Some beers…

Pirate Life – Raspberry Lamington Stout. 6.5% 355ml can. Smells like fake raspberry and coconut, but still has a nice dark malt scent. Tastes like a stout, then an artificial coconut and a cocoa/chocolate flavour, no real raspberry taste except maybe a kind of berry juice sourness which is probably just a dark malt thing. Its weird, its drinkable, but its too artificial for me.

★★

Pirate Life – Stout. 5.8% 355ml can. Its a stout. Really good, too. Not much else to say. 3 stars.

★★★

Rocky Ridge – You Put the Beer in the Coconut, Dry Hopped Sour with Finger Lime and Coconut. 4.0% 375ml can. I haven’t has a sour in so long, and this seems very sour. Theres sourness, maybe some lime sourness but mostly probably lactic acid. And thats about it. Sone lactic funk on the nose. Some hop bitterness is detectable. Its a nice sour drink, sure, but there’s no coconut or way to know its finger limes and not lemon juice or just lactic acid. 2 stars

★★

Rocky Ridge – Rice Crispy, Rice Lager 5.0% 375ml can. Its clean, crisp, slightly sweet malts, lager style smell and hopping/bitterness. A nice clean crisp lager. Good stuff.

★★★

Pirate Life & Eyre Roasted – Coffee Porter. 6.0% 355ml can. Really big coffee. Insane coffee. Hard to say if any of the bitterness is actually hops. Big coffee and some well balanced dark malts. Gets a bit sweeter as it warms up, a bit of cocoa and chocolate in there, gets slightly medicinal, and the hops are there in the residual bitterness.

★★★
Drinks

2x Winter Beers

Finally seeing some winter beers appear on the shelves…Both Rocky Ridge, fantastic brewery in this state.

Rock A Block – Chocolate Stout, 5.5% 375ml can. A nice stout, smells fantastic. Taste is nice dark grains with a nice cocoa element and actual chocolate in some form giving it its chocolate thing. Not really any sweetness and a rather dry finish. Uses Eukanot hops that are extremely well balanced. Pretty straight up and ticks enough boxes for a stout.

Maple Coffee – Milk Stout, 5.5% 375ml can. The smell is real dark which would be the brown malt and a big dark roasty coffee smell. A lot more bitterness from the malts and coffee than the hops it seems, there is a slight sweet milkyness from the lactose and hint of the maple syrup in that. The hops, Eukanot again, are there and balanced well enough, any lightless on the hops lets the grains and coffee do more work. Could be a bit more forward with the maple and lactose, and the smell and taste hint at something far bigger, but nothing is overbearing and it ends up with a surprisingly dry and clean finish. A very drinkable stout.

Considering that oats are used in both of these beers, I’m surprised there isn’t more body and mouth-feel. Both aimed it seems for a dryer cleaner finish and a more easy drinking “sessionable” winter beer instead, though the grain bill and adjuncts hint towards otherwise. See below.

Rock a Block Chocolate Stout
Maple Coffee Milk Stout
Drinks

2X Rock Ridge music themed beers

These are from a few weeks ago…John Denver and Hall & Oates. The John Denver was NOT my style at all and at 10% was far too much. Big West Coast IPA’s I cannot deal with anymore. The Haulin Oats Pale Ale with oats at 5% was far nicer.