Despite Australia being #4 for traffic within the last 30 days, I noticed that no one has posted in this forum for months. Thought I'd check in and see what everyone is drinking these days. Hope you're all healthy and doing well. Cheers!
As winter is approaching its time to move off the lighter styles and into the dark ales and stout. I have been drinking 4 Pines Nitro Stout, Panhead Hartail Harry Oat Stout, White Rabbit Dark Ale, and for something a bit lighter Little Creatures IPA and Leffe Blond.
Capital Brewing released and incredible IIPA that was just too limited a release and was gone too quickly. Modus Operandi has a really nice Espresso Martini Dark Lager out as well. Otherwise been sticking to my regulars from Capital and Modus, Sonic Prayer, Former Tenant and Rock Hopper.
I've been drinking a lot of the darker ales and stouts from local craft breweries. Devil's Elbow, Dubbo (Black Horn dark ale, Nosey Bob red ale) Badlands Brewery, Orange (Darkness London porter, Draughty Kilt Scottish Ale, Brewbacca kolsch) Mudgee Brewing Company, Mudgee (Mudgee Mud imperial stout, Mudgee Porter) And I've been drinking a lot of my old favourite, Sheaf Stout.
Clausthaller Original. I no longer consume alcohol (been a couple of years now) but I am addicted to malt hop beverages. Not many on the shelves here so Clausthaller it is.
Coopers Sparking. Little Creatures Pale Ale. Modus Operandi Sonic Prayer and Former Tenant. Wildflower Amber. Various homebrewed hefes, saisons, porter.
Here in the "wild west" I have discovered a group of Kiwis who are producing many fine brews out of Bassendean, Perth. 'Freestyle Brewery' have cans in 500ml size. - check 'em out on Facebook. They open to the public on Saturdays 10.00 am until 4.00 pm. There are free tastings usually, but this has not been possible due to Covid19 regulations at the present time
Hi Todd, Unfortunately the full range of Founders hasn't reached our shores!! For local independent brews I love a Crankshaft IPA (by Bentspoke) and a staple Stone & Wood Pacific Ale fan. Big and hoppy. My own brews feature galaxy, simcoe, chinook and citra.
Tonight Bruery Offshoot Unwind Pils - solid but not enough noble hops Akasha Shape of Hops to Come - good, get lots of mandarin (pick of the night) Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout - have not had in a while, quite good, blueberry and bitter coffee Black Hops South Coast IPA - candied pawpaw and feijoa Black Hops - North Coast IPA - big caramel
Of late I have been exploring the releases by Deed's Brewing and am finding myself mostly impressed. They have a lot of different styles and I would rate most as good and more than drinkworthy. Now winter has arrived I am also revisiting the big Belgian's :-))) I did recently explore a few big brews from Akasha (Red Ale / Black IPA / Triple) but found I would not drink these again. They were OK just not up to my strandards
I drank four beers from Watts River Brewing last night and not an ounce of drinking pleasure to be had. There is a wine industry term Flabby. Flabby means little mouthfeel, not much on the nose and no lingering flavours. This term summed up those four admirably. 60 seconds after the pour all signs of carbonation were gone, NO head retention, subtle malt flavour dominated even the pale and IP ales. NO lingering flavours whatsoever. What a wasted effort that was.
My go to Breweries are, Mr Banks, Range and Mountain Culture. They release weekly beers and get a good variety. Any coffee stouts go down a treat. At the moment
Mr Banks you say - I sit here with a Mr Banks Extra Pale Ale poured from can into glass and less than 60 seconds later - all signs of carbonation gone and head receding. Some lace left on glass walls admittedly but carbonation now non existent. packing date March 2020. I have a couple of other Banks beers now chilled but hold little hope of finding any drinking pleasure based on this experience.
Hi Todd Yes we are still alive and well here my friend. As you probably know its winter here so we are deep into stout season ! I must admit the Australian forum is a little quiet these days, however ther are still plenty of reviewers. I have been pretty active over the last few weeks on here and have been posting quite a few beer pics. I'll be posting a review of Daiton Violent Crumble stout a little later so be sure to check that out, Apparently its a ripper stout ! Cheers
Lately I've just been smashing the Mountain Culture beers. I felt their medium ABV Oat Cream beers in particular Lightspeed and Tomorrow Noon are very much world class. "692" (the name of the beer) was also a cracking west coast style DIPA. But hard to go wrong with their beers anyway. Also had the Rye Barrel Aged Viva La Beaver from Belching Beaver which was absolutely world class, potentially one of the best BA beers I've ever had. Also been smashing some Baladins. Terre 2012 was a tasty red wine-esque treat which was only outdone by the 2015 Xyauyu Gold which is an absolute stunner: waffles, maple syrup and spun sugar for days. I swear I should still have some bottles of Xyauyu Fume around somewhere which should be getting some decent age on them now also, if I can find them.
Been a long while since I checked in on BA! I've really pulled back on my consumption of beer over recent months, but the other night I gave the immensely overpriced SPON (Cab Franc/Zinfandel) from Jester King a go - a super solid American Wild Ale (even though it was listed as a Fruit Lambic and apparently went through similar processes). Gorgeous cherry/strawberry red colour, some loose bubbles that hung around for a bit. Not much to the nose - light prickly tart grape and hints of cherry. It was quite a bit thinner than I'd anticipated (though not watery), very subdued sourness with little funk or complexity, maybe a little like a standard dry red just without the lingering tannins. Nicely balanced and definitely drinkable and thirst quenching. Maybe for <$20 I'd reccy it.
tonight I had two mountain culture IPAs, a big shed barleywine, a one drop oat cream IPA and chimay blue. All were awesome. I'd rate em all 4.25/5 (which I did) which is a pretty generous rating for me. Cbf with tasting notes cause no-one reads this forum anyway.
You're right about no-one reading this. But surely there are Aussies that regularly visit BA. If you're not posting here, where are you posting?
Oi! Been away for a while. Lets see... my go-to pale these days is Stomping Ground Gipps St My go-to IPA these days is Colonial (though I miss their wide mouth cans) I've gotten a lot of Exit Brewing's beers delivered through the Melbourne lockdown And I seem to have a weakness for the Fox Hat Red Pelt ... I love my reds!
I mostly just check-in on untappd nowadays. Just tried some of quiet deeds new releases, the saison (calculated risk) and hold the cream. I enjoyed the saison, reminded me a little of saison dupont and had multiple dimensions to it. Hold the cream was quite potent, pineappley with a bit of booze in the finish. Drinking an aecht schlerlenka urbock now. Going to try mountain culture's new releases later on.
I agree that's likely what most of us do, but other than some Reddit threads I don't know where Aussies are talking about beer on the interwebs. I suppose there's Facey groups, and I was in a heap of them once, but I don't use it anymore. Maybe it's me that's doing it wrong! Bought one just the other day! Look forward to drinking it once I get to it. Drank an Augustine Weissbier last night and I must've had a bad one because it tasted of metal, with a slight sourness and even a hint of fish oil. Checked Ratebeer (am I allowed to say that here? ) and came across a couple of reviews that mentioned similar but they were very much in the minority. Cheers Cheers
Its 27 December as I type, Australia v India crackles away in the background and the warmer weather means that this list differs from what it would have been when this string was started. Okocim lager, Hofbrau Hefe Weizen, Castle Lager and Kloud Korean lager. Kloud is a surprise packet, 5.0% alcohol and much more to it in taste, mouthfeel and impact than typical Asian lagers. I'm not such a craft beer fan, but Newstead Brewing Co Tragic India Black Ale was also a pleasant surprise, lots of malty, deep flavour, and not just a mouthful of tangy hops.
Beerfarm Royal Haze NEIPA. A great beer this one so buy it if you see it. This brewery continues to impress whilst surrounded by ordinary Breweries. We gotta keep this site going. Untapped is for lazy people this was one of the very first Beer appeciation websites and it needs some input from us all. Please contribute.
Still drinking Stomping Ground Gipps St Pale and also Stomping Ground's IPA a lot. The Colonial seemed to lose out in their later batches. SGBC seems to have became the 'go-to' beer in my house as they both have a good strong hop flavour.
Bentspoke ... Big & Hoppy, Red Nut Mountain Culture ... Garden Snake (fresh hops), Hot Wax, Tonya, Nancy, etc. etc. Bracket ... all of their NEIPAs are excellent Sierra Nevada ... barrel-aged Narwhal
My fave beers apart from home brew are anything by Capital brewing or Bent Spoke, from Canberra. Both breweries make consistently excellent beers,especially hoppy beers
Bent Spoke Crankshaft too out the #1 on the GABs countdown. I myself prefer Capital Hop Rocker and love their Evil Eye Red. I still drink Stomping Ground but their pale has lost out to their laneway Lager. My Pale of choice these days is Hard Road 'Righty's Pale'.
I do love me Red IPAs. Thought it appropriate to pour one of the best Aussie Red IPAs into a Big Al's glass we nicked from their brewpub back in 2015. Been having some high uric acid issues of late so have to treat myself to them these days.
Thanks for resurrecting this thread @Arassuil! Today's beer is Lion Stout by Lion Brewing Ceylon. A bloody nice beer, reviewed and also cross-posted over at today's general WBAYDN. Cheers!
I may have been a little harsh in my review of it 15 years ago. Especially since most of what I said was in a positive vein. Glad you enjoyed it.
I had a Newcastle Brown the other night and I don't think I can be harsh enough in the review I'll post sometime soon. Hopefully in 15 years I'll have changed my opinion of it too! Cheers
