Betoota Bitter
Yulli's Brews

From Yulli’s Brews, the guys that make Fat Nerd Vanilla Porter, comes Betoota Bitter. Named of course after Betoota Queensland – Australia's smallest town with a population of 0 that has also given its name to an Australian satirical news site The Betoota Advocate (TBA) – which if you haven’t read any of their articles I suggest you check them out as they’re pretty funny much like The Onion. This Yulli’s Brew is obviously a nod to TBA with their lyrebird logo emblazoned on the front of the can. My stock in Yulli’s Brews has gone up considering they have a decent sense of humour, which admittedly could be seen in their naming of beers, but it’s clear now that they’ve teamed up with TBA [I Googled it while writing this, me clever now].

Poured from a 375ml can into a nonic pint.

A: Now I suspect this beer is the Australian version of an English Bitter (i.e. a Lager such as Melbourne Bitter, Victoria Bitter, XXXX Bitter, etc…) the colour is not changing this viewpoint: clear golden body, white head that fizzles out quickly. I’ll adjust my review accordingly. 6/10.

S: Grainy malt to the fore, pride of ringwood hops on the nose, sweet barley grains, water, not much else. Funny, if I was going to make a joke beer I would have made a surprisingly good one – sort of a big “haha!” to all the crap Macro Lagers out there, instead so far this brew is coming off a bit like them. 5/10.

T: Not all that bad given the aroma, flavour is on the sweeter side, and grainy with a light grassy hop back end. Pretty inoffensive flavour TBH, bit on the plain side, but then again it’s only 4.5% ABV. Nothing like a real English Bitter, but also not a Lager either, stylistically I don’t know what I’m drinking right here. Touch of green apple in there as well, light sour note, bitterness just enough in the aftertaste to cut through the sweetness… this isn’t that bad actually, bit boring but still drinkable. 7/10.

M: Mid to light bodied, a tad watery, with a lively carbonation that produced more than a few burps. 7/10.

D: I reckon this is a joke beer secretly marketed towards the people that it’s mocking, which is quite appropriate for a TBA beer. Question is why Yulli’s went in this direction instead of making a joke English Bitter that was totally a real English Bitter, like something that could have easily come out of Yorkshire, that would have been a funnier joke IMO. As it is we’ve got this not-Macro Aussie Lager but not a real Bitter either, something in between. It’s ok, I suppose. 6/10.

Food match: Fish, with a squeeze of lemon, and chips.