Vale Dry
McLaren Vale Beer Company

Bottle: standard brown 330mL bottle, semi-macro label with a touch of classic minimalism. Stylish.

Appearance: pours a slightly hazy golden colour with a fluffy head that dissipates quickly to a ring. Reasonable.

Aroma: orchard fruits and light hops with a metallic flavour behind. A touch of caramel malts also.

Taste: the orchard fruits and caramels take centre stage here, but a bit too sharp with a metallic carbonation flavour.

Aftertaste: some hop bitterness comes through afterward, with the orchard fruits and caramels fading out.

Mouth feel: light- to-moderate in feel, with a carbonation that is a touch too sharp.

Overall: not a bad beer, but neither is it great. It certainly isn't worth the AU$75 a case of 24 x 330mL. There are much better beers than this with a much lower price tag.

A: Pours a hazy straw color with a small head that fades quickly with no real lacing.

S: Aroma of citrus, fruit and musty grain.

T: Taste has a citrus bit with a trace of malt sweetness and grain. Has an acidic bitterness that just seems to linger.

F: Light body and crisp but not well balanced.

O: I suspect this beer is well beyond its "best by" date.

 

330 ML Bottle

A-- Pours a clear straw yellow. Obvious carbonation with lots of bubbles. One finger bright white head that builds to three fingers on swirling. Fades very quickly and leaves web like lacing.

S-- Slight sweet malt, metallic hops, and some lemon sorbet. Not that bad really.

T-- Metallic at first and changes to a sour lemon. More like a carbonated soda water.

M-- Heavily over carbonated with lemon tartness. Finishes with a dry sour lemon kick. Too much like flavored mineral water.

O-- Too much carbonation and too lemon metallic. Otherwise decent.

Wow - pours a massive five finger coarse head, over a straw body. Bubbles like crazy.

Aromas of sherbet, malts, more wit like.

Flavour burst of dull sherbert on tongue due to sky-high carbonation. Fades quickly. Difficult to pinpoint a taste actually, it dies so quickly to leave a tiny hop bitter aftertaste. Metallic notes build. I keep thinking of mineral water or alka-seltzer. I should be thinking of beer.

I normally like well carbonated beers. This one is just plain strange.

Huh. I wasn't expecting this to be bottle conditioned, but there's the sediment at the bottom of the bottle, and because of a lackadaisical pour, in my glass too. It adds only a slight haze to the otherwise quite clear beer; a dullish golden colour, with a fizzy head of large white bubbles that only form in patches on the top and as a ring around the edge. Very light bodied, with alsmot no lace retention. Looks acceptable, I guess.

Nose is rather pleasant, with a crisp metallic hoppiness that turns a little rusty as it warms. Slightly sweet fruit characters, and very little in the way of true, bright green sharp hoppiness. Some touches of juicy malt sweetness, giving a warm caramel note. Not bad—it's nothing new or exciting, but it's decent enough.

Similarly with the taste: it's decent enough. Some more of that slight caramel malt character, which dips out on the back, so it at least pays a little lip service to the "dry" in its name. Some woody hop character that makes me think Pride of Ringwood, and a very thin body. I mean, it's all a bit dull, but it's pretty much what I expected from the beer.

It's not a great beer—at least, far from being a really exciting beer—but it's light enough and has a few pleasant characters to it. It's just... dull. It just lets you forget about it really quickly, and perhaps even makes you question its existence in the first place. It's not a glowing endorsement.

This pours a cloudy bright golden colour with a finger of bright white head.

Some spiciness on the nose and an unpleasant sharp note that I just can't pinpoint.

Grainy flavours with a bit of fruitiness. Not much going on.

Over the top carbonation. Very Italian mineral water like. Spritzy. Unpleasant.

Other than the carbonation it's an ok lager but there are better ones out there.

Had on tap at the Union Hotel, Newtown. Tap bore the legend "voted no. 1 Lager in Australia" well let's see what the 'fuss' is about.

Pours a very cloudy, very pale gold colour; almost opaque. Head is modest, thin film, not much lace. Not sure what to make of this, it's interesting enough but nothing great.

Nose smacks of POR, earthy and slightly sour. Touch of wet grain that has a slight sweetness to it, but not much else. Pretty much meh.

Tastes similar, nice complex graininess upfront with pearl barley and cereal notes. Nicely grounded and earthy but doesn't go anywhere. Some spicy POR grittiness midway that dries it out and sends it into bitter territory, but it's very mild, and inoffensive. Bland, nothing special.

Light body, gentle carbonation fizz, not bad.

In some ways I can see why people might vote for this but ONLY if they've tried about four or five Aussie craft beers and don't venture beyond them. If you don't have much of a range to pick from, this is a very decent-looking session beer. But in the larger picture, bland lager like this shouldn't even be on your 'top beer' radar. SA, do yourselves a favour, take a trip to Melbourne and get yourselves some badly needed perspective.