Buckleys Bitter Ale
Yarra Flats Brewery

Hmm super conflicted again. Love Brett beers but wasn't expecting it here. Not quite as nice of a Brett beer as there "Pilsner" but still quite a lot of Brett character. Nice dry finish. The Brett was kind of a nice surprise! I wonder if this is what the brewer intended. No English hop or malt character at all.

Pours dark amber with a small, fading, off-white head.
Nose shows spices, some nutty malt, subtle sweet malt. Pretty restrained.
Restrained flavours too. Some bready malt and grainy notes alongside faint spicy hops.
Body feels watery.
Needs a bit of work.

 

A very interesting experience,

I believe the bottle has undergone some lacto secondary... opening the bottle gave a whiff of pungeant cheese.... not promising.

My mate reckoned it was off... I thought "yeah maybe" but pressed on anyway...

After a couple of minutes to let the offness aromas dissipate, it poured amber with a good frothy head...

Faint notes of stinky cheese / off milk... but supplanted with pineapple, herbs (sage ?), cedar tones... I don't care what's happened to it in-bottle... the nose is very interesting, and worth pondering....

The flavour is a complex mix.... subtle buttermilk and acid tang gives support to the lacto theory.... but this is more than balanced by the strong essential oil elements... Cineol/eucalyptol.... tea tree oil.... some green weed notes, and an overall effect of Swedish/Campari bitters. Plus some good malt profile....

More bitter than your classic English bitter... a beer for hop lovers... and also for "wild" beer lovers, depending on bottle condition.

Quite dark and cloudy if , like me you dump the sediment into the glass.
The smell and taste have a distinctive herbaceous aniseed quality , which was not unpleasant but a bit overpowering by the end of the glass.It reminded me a little of cough medicine and I wonder if this may be the Tetthanger hops that are part of the mix. There are also Fuggles in ther , but I've never picked up the aniseed flacours with them before.
A nice change and variety but I couldnt drink very much of it

I had a bottle at the Healsville Hotel just up the road from the brewery (which appears to be a shed). Truthfully I wasn't expecting a whole lot from the beer, since I've never had an Australian "Bitter" that was actually, well, bitter.
The beer poured a nice rich dark golden color, similar to Sam Adams back in the States. Aroma definately had a bit of hop punchiness to it, which is something I've not come to expect from many Aussie beers. The beer was smooth going down with a little sweetness that ended with a clean hop finish. Not a bad beer at all. Good job.

Not a big fan of this, though it is OK, a bit thin and lacking flavour, still it is quite bitter, but it isn't well rounded, in my opinion. Also had a bit of a funny "off" character which i couldn't put my finger on, not unpleasant, just a bit funny.