The Caveman
Murray's Craft Brewing Co.

Pours a slightly dark mahogany colour, a lot more pale than I would expect. Cream-coloured head, sparse and dissipating fairly steadily. Not bad.

Taste is strange, and not at all what I expected. No smoke at all on this, and actually quite a yeasty composition. Sweet, bready, grainy. Not particularly exciting.

Taste is dark, fair amount of spice to it. Roasty notes with a nice blend of clove, licorice and coriander. Slight phenolic finish and slightly dry. Decent flavours, but not really getting any smoke at all. Disappointing.

Nice body and texture though, it's clearly been put together well even if the flavours aren't hitting me.

 

A "smoked Belgo dark ale" from Murray's brewed for the GABS festival in Melbourne, which is where I tried it on-tap.

Pours a hazed brown colour with some weight in the glass, but remaining quite fluid. Head is a full film, rather creamy and light. Lace forms in pleasant rings. Some noticeable carbonation when tilted. It looks pretty good.

Bit phenolic on the nose with a big snappy bite. Some pepper spice comes through and just a hint of char smoke. There's also a strange vegetative character, that seems maybe to come from the malt more than the hops. It's strange.

Light round entry on the palate. A little seltzer bite to launch into some spicier characters: pepper, slight phenols, and a smooth rounded Belgian mid-palate. Some smoke is noticeable on the back, but it's just smoke, not the meaty, bacon-y smoked character you sometimes get. Finish is a little dry and a little watery.

Feel is light but quite filling. Not bad.

It's decent enough, but it's not hugely flavoured or hugely exciting. I've certainly seen better and more exciting beers from Murray's in the past.