James Squire Broken Shackles
Malt Shovel Brewery

 

James Squires is one of those Aussie beers that sort of sit in the middle of good and bad. Once a craft brewery, the malt shovel brewery is now owned by the Lion group, so it falls into that ‘faux-craft/macro range. I’ve never had this broken shackles lager beer before, will be interesting to see if it’s half decent or just another macro swill beer,

Vessel: 345ml glass bottle. Best before is 1/6/23, so it’s a little over 6 months out of date. This was purchased at the Glenfield bottleshop in Sydney Australia. I do like supporting small businesses over your BWS/Dan Murphys, however I do find this bottle shop does sell a lot of expired beer, so I feel like they don’t really move a great deal of stock, probably other than your VB/Carlton Daughter/Tooheys New swill, which is disappointing,

Appearance: Classic Golden Aussie lager look. Completely filtered,Chou can see right through the beer of the glass. Thick soapy white head, with a few carbonation bottle streaming to the top of the beer. It looks like your stereotypical, run of the mill lager. Nothing overly exciting at all, however the soapy head has left some residue and lacing on the glass, so that’s something as guess,

Aroma: Smells like your typical Aussie lager, with some added citrus hops. There’s Pride of Ringwood hops, it has that classic grassy lemon aroma, some pale malt. Does smell more refreshing than the big two macro swill lagers, but only marginally so.

Taste: Sweet pale malt with a smooth citrus hop presence, There is a slight bitterness throughout the sip which cuts through the malty profile. Definetely cleaner than the run of the mill macro lagers,

Feel: it’s smooth, and a little watery. It’s not very offensive. I gave it a pretty rough poor, and carbonation is quite low. Although it is 6 months out of date as previously mentioned, so that may be the reason.

Overall: it’s nothing special, and nothing too exciting. It’s a pretty smooth drop, a little bland, and easy drinking, I would drink it over the mass produced Aussie macro stalwarts, but unless it was free at a party or they were literally giving it away for free, I wouldn’t go searching out for it.

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$16.45 AUD per 6x345ml pack at a beer store in Cairns, Australia.

Typical hum-drum budget lager with some faint caramel/breadiness and minerality but ultimately a pretty neutral overall flavour. A beer for drinking in the heat, but not good for much else.

C / AVERAGE