Some Beers – Feb & March

Wychwood Brewery – Hobgoblin Ruby Red ESB 4.5% 500ml can. Bready malts, caramel, dried dark fruits and a little spiciness. All the flavours and aromas really pop as it warms up. A real nice Bitter. Rocky Ridge – Lone Palm, Paloma Pale Ale 5.5% 375ml can. Guava, tropical fruit, lightly malty with a very soft hop bitterness. Has a fuller mouthfeel than a normal Pale ale. Rocky Ridge – Are You A Robot IPA 6.5% 375ml can. Its an modern IPA. Smell is mango, guava, pineapple, the usual suspects. You know the rest. Big modern hop bitterness with a soft hazy hop thing going on. Its fine. Rocky Ridge – Syncopation Pinapple Session IPA 4.5% 375ml can. Taste is very IPA bitter with no back up, very XPA kind of thing. Citrus pith bitterness and a what tastes like a rice XPA. Rocky Ridge – Polski Pivio Grodziskie 4.5% 375ml can. Real nice balanced smokiness. Not overpowering, and Its a good lager, the smoke seems to gives it just a bit more dryness. Nice. Slow Lane Brewing – Like a Chimney Lichtenhainer 4.0% 375ml can. The sour is pretty standard, probably kettle soured, and theres a bit too much of it. The smoke is light and is overpowered and disappears too fast after a couple of sips. Its fine except for that. Slow Lane Brewing – Liquid Bread Doppelbock 8.5% 375ml can.– This is big and boozy. Its rich, dark, fruity, viscous. Almost a port wine. There is a tonne of depth. A great version of a classic style. It is a fantastic beer. Artisan Brewing – Blonde Belgian Ale 5.9% 375ml can. Funky, fruity Abbey ale yeast. Pilsner-like malts. Its quite dry. Its everything missing from modern stronger pale ales and Golden ales. Saaz hops are well balanced. Real nice. Currumbin Valley – Waste Oil Stout 5.8% 375ml can. Looks like actual used motor oil, tastes like pith and ash. First sip you’re like Jesus, thats huge hopping for a Stout, It smells great. Pirate Life – Best Pilsner 4.8% 355ml can. Extremely clear light golden straw colour. Its a lovely beer, nice malts, nice bitterness, the combo of Ahtnahtum and Loral make the bitterness a bit sharp. Its nice. Finlays Brewing – Munich Helles 5.0% 375ml can. Slightly bready malts, nice light bitterness, and quite dry. Quite a lot of yeast esters going on. Its pretty good, could be a bit cleaner, but its good. Slow Lane Brewing – Refectory Beligian Blone Ale 4.8% 375ml can.– Theres little malt character, this is all yeast and hops. Its moderately light, crisp, with depth from a nice bitterness and spicy yeast character. Slow Lane Brewing – Frozen Seas Baltic Porter 8.5% 375ml can. – Pours a dark brown. This is big, rich booze infused dried fruit and port wine. Dry, big oaky dry, maybe the Special B malt. It’s really nice. Slow Lane Brewing – Stanger Danger Kolsch Style Ale 5.0% 375ml can. – Big yeast character, spicy. Its unfiltered. Weirdly Saison Dupont. This is a kolsch? Pirate Life – Lager Italiana Italian Lager 5.2% 355ml can. Its a nice lager. Its pretty much their Best Pilsner with a different hopping and lighter malt character. Rocky Ridge Brewing – M is for Milk Stout Cookies & Cream Milk Stout 5.5% 375ml can. Chocolatey, lactose, cocoa, all the good stuff. Nice!

Drinks

Some beers – Late Jan to mid Feb 2023 beers.

Bayreuther – Hell, Helles Lager, 4.9% 500ml bottle. Nice standard Helles Lager, a little sweet, a little spicy, nice moderate bitterness, clean, crisp. Sierra Nevada – Celebration, 6.8% 375ml can. No idea when this was canned, but still fine, old school stuff, a classic. Hargreaves Hill – ESB, 5.2% 375ml can. Bitter, malty, hits all the marks for style, decent beer. Sudden Death Brewing – Bull Dog Brown, Brown Ale, 4.5% 500ml can. First beer from these guys, surprised its German, canned March of 22 so…Instantly comes across visually and smell as too massive and dark, more like a Porter, on drinking its mild and a decent Brown Ale, nice enough even with the age. Fruh – Kolsch, 4.8% 500ml can. A perfect standard, a great beer. It is what it is every time. Rocky Ridge – Karls Date Turns Sour, Lemon Sherbet Berliner 2,6% 375ml can. Its nice, its a lemony sour, tart and sherbetty.

Drinks

Some Long Weekend+ Beers.

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.

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

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.

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