Beer Reviews: August 2015

At the end of each month we are now collecting our beer reviews on one page.  They can be found at our Beer Reviews page.

Our most upto date Australian craft beer reviews can be found on our Instagram and Facebook pages.

For this past month, these are our reviews:

Noisy Minor Brewing Company Eau Rouge (5.0%) – Light clear rose pink colour. Pleasant slight raspberry taste although it’s a bit watery. Good bitter aftertaste. Needs more raspberries or more fermenting time.

 

Feral Brewing Company Karma Citra Black IPA (5.8%) – Dark colour looks enticing, as does the slight fruity aroma, but the thin mouthful feels oily, coating the mouth with pure resin. Very little malt comes through the large hoppy taste and what does tastes like burnt coffee.

 

Akasha Brewing Company Fire Within Amber Ale (5.8%) – The latest beer from the new Sydney brewery Akasha. Nice clear copper colour, that leads into a lemony smell and taste. Good balance on the taste with some sweet caramel flavours. Another Akasha winner.

Coopers Brewery Best Extra Stout (6.3%) – Dark, thick and creamy. Just as a stout should be. Aroma of roasted coffee and chocolate which follows through into the taste with a hint of black cherry.

 

Bridge Road Brewers Little Bling IPA (3.5%) – It may be mid strength but this is full of flavour. The hop aroma is strong but not over powering. Great taste balance between the hops and malt with a smooth mouthfeel. Very drinkable.

 

4 Pines Brewing Company American Style Pale Ale (5.1%) – The strong deep red colour lets you know that this is going to have a lovely strong malt flavour. Balanced nicely by enough hops to have a delicate piney aroma and refreshing bitter finish. Really easy to drink.

 

Two Birds Brewing Taco Beer (5.2%) – Slightly cloudy golden coloured beer with a tight long lasting frothy head. Subtle aroma of hops and coriander that does come through in the taste if you look for it. This gives a very refreshing bitter tang.

 

Temple Brewing Company Hazy Dayz Hefeweizen (4.8%) – Despite the word “hazy” in the name, this Hefe is very clear. The aroma has the usual delicate bananaryness with a hint of orange. Taste is full on banana. Tastes great but doesn’t quite look right.

 

Coopers Brewery Aged Sparkling Ale (5.8%) served from a handpump – The ageing and the handpump add an extra level of deliciousness to this classic and wonderful beer. No need to say more than it has a great balance of fruit and malty tastes.

 

Noisy Minor Brewing Company Admiral Akbar Anti-Imperial Red Ale (8.4%) – It’s deep, dark red colouring, and creamy head let you know that this is going to be a big smooth drinking beer. Some hop bitterness, but the sweet toffee caramel tastes dominate. Now available in bottles for more people to see what all the fuss is about.

Brewboys Hoppapotamus (7.0%) – A nice big IPA. Tropical and pine aromas with a firm bitterness and a strong malt presence. A well balanced and solid beer that gets bolder as it warms up. Also available in 330ml and 650ml bottles. Drink it fresh.

 

Young Henrys Real Ale (4.0%) – Always great to try this one again. The crisp malt flavour balances perfectly with the subtle bitter hop aftertaste. A good version of a proper English bitter – even the tight strong frothy head laced all the way down the glass.

 

4 Pines Brewing Company Keller Door Hazelnut Brown Ale (5.5%) – Gorgeous deep red colour with a toasted, bready malt taste. The hazelnut taste comes through nicely as the aftertaste. Strong hazelnut aroma.

 

Mountain Goat Beer Seedy Goat Coffee Porter (6.2%) – Tried on tap at the brewery. Strong smooth roasted coffee aroma which follows through to the taste. Slight smooth chocolate aftertaste rounds out a great beer. Would be nice if this became a core beer.

 

Sunshine Coast Brewery Coal Miner Dark Mild (2.5%) and Porter (4.8%) – The Mild with its caramel and hints of chocolate next to the bigger, thicker, toasty, chocolatey Porter. Very few hops in either.

 

Little Bang Brewing Company Beard Fiction APA (5.6%) – The deep amber colour gives off pineapple and mango aromas. Tastes of tropical pineapple and oranges, with some subtle sweet malt in the background. This APA is sweet and fruit driven.  The decal is actually a short Mills and Boonish book with an inspired tale of beard love in treacherous times.

ALL INN BREWING Co. Penny Pale Ale (5.0%) – at the brewery in Banyo on the outskirts of Brisbane. Not too far from the airport if you are passing through. Great clean, refreshing, bitter hoppy pale that’s very easy drinking. All Inn beers are certainly hitting the mark now.

 

Two Birds Brewing tasting paddle at the brewery in Melbourne. Featuring Golden Ale (4.4%), Sunset Ale (4.6%), Taco Beer (5.2%), and the new Blacker Shade of Pale (5.2%) which is “not a porter stout or an IPA” but is “kinda like a pale ale but blacker”

 

The six The Alehouse Project 3rd Birthday beers in Melbourne: 7 cent Brewery Delmunted: The Real IPA (9.4%) – Imperial West Coast IPA, Black Dog Brewery Bad to the Bone (8.4%) – Imperial American Brown Ale, BrewCult Red Stripe (8.0%) – Imperial Blood Orange Chilli IPA, Bridge Road Brewery Arnold’s Bucket of Maximum Abandonment (8.0%) – Imperial Hoppy Coffee Schwarzbier, Homestead Brewery The Hail Mary (9.4%) – Oak Fermented Imperial Belgian Golden Ale, Moon Dog Craft Brewery Blumengeschäft Schlange (9.7%) – Imperial Black Forest Porter.  All Interesting!

ALL INN BREWING Co. Betty Porter (4.8%) at the brewery – served on handpump.  And tasting glorious. The delicate chocolate aroma is followed by soft, smooth roasted coffee flavours throughout. Always great to stop in on the way to the airport, and even better now there’s a handpump. A weekend in Melbourne awaits.

James Squire The Charming Squire 4 Hens Australian Lager (5.8%) – Another of the recent beers brewed by the brewpub solely for the venue in Brisbane. This one was served very cloudy, and again had a strong sweet flavour.

 

James Squire The Charming Squire Good Yarn American Brown Ale (5.0%) – One of the recent brews from the brewpub in Brisbane solely for the venue. A heavily malt driven beer with high sweetness levels not overly balanced by the hops.

 

Wheaty Brewing Corps Non Corps Promise (7.3%), Corps Blimey (4.5%) and, Anaphylaxis (7.4%) at the Wheatsheaf Hotel, Adelaide – The Non Corps Promise is a lovely strong spicy tasting Rye IPA with more than enough hops to provide the balance. The Corps Blimey is a perfect London Porter: full bodied, with just the right amount of chocolate and subtle roastyness. Very moreish. The Anaphylaxis is a collaboration with Doctors Orders Brewing to produce a Manuka Smoked Chipotle Black IPA! The use of chipotle, coupled with smoked malt gives it a distinctive smoky, spicy aroma that carries through in the taste with a slight peppery burn. The very intense flavours certainly make it unusual.

James Squire Dark Side Cherry Stout (6.8%) – A limited release for winter. It’s hard to ruin a stout, but I think they’ve managed it. The aroma was blandly sweet with no clear chocolate or roast smell. Whilst the taste was cloyingly oversweet with only the briefest of brief hints of cherry.

 

BrewCult Hop Zone (5.0%) – And it is all about the hops. Initial fruity aroma with the usual Brewcult bitterness and dry finish.

 

 

Sunshine Coast Brewery Golden Elixir (4.5%) and Strawberry Sour (4.5%) – only available for a short time at the brewery – Both use the same base aged sour beer. The Golden Elixir with added orange and white pepper which both come through clearly in the aroma and taste. There’s also a dash of saffron on the aftertaste. It’s the more tart of the two. The Strawberry uses local produce with 3kg per 20 litres and actually has the real taste of fresh fruit rather than the usual syrupy taste of similar beers. Slightly sweeter but still tart and dry. Great to try side by side showing the difference of fruit additions.