Murray's Retro Rocket
Murray's Craft Brewing Co.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hazy golden colour with a big, fluffy off-white head. Great lacing.

Slightly herbal and citrusy hop aroma with a mild nutty undertone.

Big bold bitterness given the light body with a citrusy hop flavour coming through as well. Nice clean malt. I’d personally like a bit more substance to this.

Light body with high carbonation. Crisp and refreshing but almost a bit too light.

A solid session ale with plenty of flavour and a light crisp body. I can see this appealing to the macro drinker wanting to step up and it serves its purpose well. It just doesn’t tick all the boxes for me.

Poura a one finger head that stays. Copper colour, lacing stays.

Aromas - no - served too cold. And yes I do understand that Murrays are putting on taps that will serve warmer beer, but just not yet...

Taste - hoppy and citrus like a pale ale, tho not like an IPA. Good, truly can't believe such a low ABV.

Mouthfeel is light and drinkable - could drink all day long, as you would at this ABV

Overall - a great lite beer.

A - Pours an orangey/light copper with a 2cm off white head that falls slowly.
S - Herbal, slightly grassy initially with some nutty and slight caramel malt notes.
T - Also herbal in the taste with touches of citrus along with the nutty and light caramel taste.
M - Quite light bodied, low to medium carbonation levels and a noticeable bitterness.
O - Was expecting more hop aroma/flavour and would have prefered if what was there was more fruity. Still, a decent, worthwhile and drinkable low ABV% beer from one of Australias better craft brewers.

Oh Murray's, you do tease. After releasing two beers in the thinly-veiled FBB series, they come out with a 2.8%, heavily hopped beer they claim is "Australia's Smallest IPA". Ho ho.

Pours a bright burnished, reddish gold colour, with decent clarity. Head is fine and white, and the body has some heft to it, pleasantly. Lacing is patch. Looks good, especially the colour.

Really surprisingly sweet on the nose, partially from hop fragrance, but also with a thick golden syrup aroma, and a bit of buttery bread--it reminds me of naan. Really quite sweet, which I'm quite surprised about.

Taste is clean and light, with a decent bitterness, but not an overwhelming one--more of a light green organic character. Afterpalate again has that buttery character, this time reminding me of cinema popcorn. Very little body, as might be expected, although I thought the extra sweetness might be the result of a prematurely halted fermentation.

Quite drinkable and, unsurprisingly, light. It's a weird experiment, but Murray's, you guys are weird.

Pours a red-tinged, murky brown with decent head when poured, sunk to a thin crown of beige bubbles. Nice clumps of lacing. Colour is not 'pretty' but it's otherwsie decent.

Smells quite decently fresh and fruity with good citric hop aroma. Lots of woody notes, especially late with slight resinous pine fragrance. It's pretty much all hops here; I like, but it's par for the hop course with nothing too complex or interesting.

Taste is not bad at all; lots of citrus forward hops providing plenty of flavour. Lemon with some thyme and pine flavours as well, mostly on the front and mid-palate. Slight grainy flavour late, with a touch of puffed rice- then a bitter finish which is aggressive in character yet mild in intensity. Trust Murrays to rewrite the rulebook for 2.8% beers. As far as light beers go this is really quite tasty.

Mouthfeel is understandably thin but not flat and not too thin, plenty going on and easy to drink of course.

I think the real strength here is in this beer's restraint. As evinced by Billabong Brewing's misguided 4 Hop Ale, it's easy to really strangle a small body with too many hops. I think most of the hop additions here have come late so it all goes to flavour and aroma, but as @smithflipper said it's not big and hoppy enough to call itself an IPA. What you've got here is a beer that showcases pleasant hop character without any real body or punch to it. Ultimately anyone can throw hops in a light-bodied wort and make it fairly tasty.

So then, what's the point? Well knowing Murray and his philosophy I can only assume they've gone ahead and made this beer as a statement, a further attempt to encourage people to demand more from their beer; even at 2.8%. And while I'd still like more body since I never have any need to drink light beer, if there were a chance they could mass-produce this and flog it off to cricket arenas everywhere I'd be the first one in line to clamour from the rooftops.

Now having tried this excellent-for-what-it-is beer, what I'd really like to see is Murray's take on the light lager.

Pours a lovely golden amber, with 3cm of rocky white head which rapidly disappears.

Plenty of malt in the aroma, then a whiff of herbaceous hop. Bready, caramely. I expected a bit more hop.

Good malt character on the palate, similar to aroma. Then late, and i mean really late, a whack of hop bitterness.

For 2.8 percent, its surprisingly full bodied.

At 2.8%! You can drink this all day, in the sun, and still play a game of cricket.

I was expecting more of a hop blast from this. Still, a very sessionable beer. They call it an IPA, but with the ABV of a mild. It's not really either. Too hoppy for a mild, not hoppy enough for an IPA.