What's wetting the whistle P.4

Finn is quality. Feral just keeping hitting them out of the park.

Went to the Pirate Life tap takeover at Petition on the weekend:

The AIBA NEIPA - pretty good, nice balance of flavours and easy to drink. Wasn't overly memorable though.

PL Mosaic - Had this in the can before and the Keg was also outstanding. This is just a beautifully balanced IPA (DIPA?) that brings the hops to the forefront. Loved it!

Transpacific Ale - PL x Ballast Point Pale Ale. Super clean and fresh pale with a restrained malt bill. Really good.

PL Vanilla Malt Thickshake - Super hyped beer. Not really my thing though. Nitro beer in which the vanilla was far too strong and sweet. Was kind of like a white stout(?!). Didn't finish my glass.

 

@Narkee ( or anyone who wants it really) I have a free ticket to the Perth Royal Beer show tasting this Saturday at Claremont show ground if you want it, its a great time, starts at 12midday

 

Mate, I would love to but have a bottle share with some mates from 5pm. I owuld like to get through some of those bottles without falling over lol.

Really appreciate the offer though!

 

Fresh batch of Epic Stone Hammer IPA really excites the palate. Nice bright hops. Wowza

Also had Great Divide Yeti Imperial Stout for the first time. Acland Cellars have it atm. Pretty hoppy for an Imperial Stout! - borderline Black IPA to me but more complex than most. Seriously tasty.

 

Yeah, plenty of hops in Yeti. One of those when a little time is good IMHO. Maybe that's why I really like the oak-aged one.

Acland has some fun things in and combined with other places I've tried a bunch of old/new favourite IPAs. Mostly it's a reminder of what a broad church IPA is (even before getting into the murky stuff). The Alpine ones (Acland) are kind of simple and rely on the charm of a hop combination. They're really good. De Molen's Vuur and Vlaam has always been a bit up and down but a real seamless trip when on. In cans (Slowbeer) it was a big disappointment this time. Firestone Walker's new fangled IIPA didn't quite do it for me, but Union Jack (Dan's) is still a great, big bitter wallop. I went to Dan's and there were haf a dozen really good IPAs to choose from. Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis, particularly if you got a trolley on the way in. Bell's Two Hearted, I hear, is thought a bit old fashioned. Still about my favourite American IPA. Quite light and almost delicate, yet punchily floral. What a lovely, lovely beer.

I liked Bell's Kalamazoo Stout too, although I think a bottle or two more might sell me further. Two more somewhat surprising stouts of note: Dougall's Session Stout (Blackheart's) is _really_ good for 4.2% - almost St Ambroise Oatmeal Stout quality - and seems to be from a Spanish brewpub. And Bruny Island Stoutfast sounds gimmicky (porridge, raspberries, leatherwood honey, coffee) but is somehow still mostly stout - I had it in Tassie but really want more.

Old Pumping Station was mentioned somewhere above. I drank mine. I think I'd take it just above Nail's Clout Stout and the first Red Hill BA IS as my favourite Australian stout so far - but I'd still wait until next winter had I another bottle.

 

Had a few Speedway cans in the last month. The cans are noticeably fresher than the bottles we used to get. The coffee has a significant presence in the can which was not there in the bottles. Fresh Speedway is a thing of wonder.

 

I had a couple of the 2011 Mega blends from Acland Cellars. I haven't seen them since, despite some of the other fancier Boon stuff coming here.

 

Firestone Walker DBA - love this beer and the restraint it exhibits. Great mix of English and American brewing traditions. Would love to have a consistent flow of free beer from FW.

 

had the exact same experience 6-12 months ago and im pretty sure it was the same vintage. that beer sucked. Still have a bottle of the Rye version and haven't tried it, hopefully it's superior.

 

at least one vintage of HORAL was definitely distributed here and sat around on shelves for quite a while at around $30. Wish I'd bought more as I remember it being very good. I'm actually not sure which vintage it was, if I guessed I wouldn't be confident.

 

need to drink my can of speedway.

tonight I had the WOTW Scotch Ale- Raisin Kilts. Not bad for a scotch ale but didn't live up to the promise.

Wild Thing Vanilla- one of the best versions of this beer I've had (not saying much, a notoriously inconsistent and disappointing beer which has missed more often than it hit, particularly post-2011. same with most of Murray's beers) Got a fruity/flowery thing going on. It's still not exactly a world-class beer, but could hold its own.

 

paradox islay- a further reminder to not waste money on crap. doesn't offer complexity or subtlety at all, just a terrible version of a stout. Way too sweet, the cask barely comes across at all apart from a sooty finish. Drinks like an excessively sweet dopplebock but without even the yeasty complexity that that offers. Obviously tries to imitate Black Tuesday in style but captures all of its bad qualities and none of its good. Paying $30 for crap like this is why people get sick of "craft".

 

Omnipollo pecan chocolate mudcake available in sydney at the moment. Picked up 2 bottles. Probably the most chocolatey stout ive ever had. I loved it.

 

Nah just the normal one. Would love to try double barrell.

 

Cloudwater Centennial IIPA thanks to Rohan.

Fucking great beer. Pineapple, tropical, melon, lychee mint. Great silky mouthfeel and expertly balanced.

 

Omnipollo Mazarin. Quite possibly the best pale ale ive ever had.

 

Cracking some of this, very impressed.


8 Wired Brewing - Lord of the Atlas Oak Aged Barleywine by imbibehour, on Flickr

Cheers!

 

Buckets of homebrew. latest batch of special bitter came out a treat, sank the keg far too quickly.

 

Going through these Omnipollo beers, and i just keep getting impressed. This is a blueberry cheesecake imperial stout. The nose on this beer is incredible, and it tastes like thick chocolatey blueberries. It just works so well.

 

All I can think of when the words blueberry and stout are used is Lizard of Koz which I found ghastly. Drain poured it after half a glass.

 

If you liked that, try Kereru Black Ruby raspberry imperial stout (NZ). I expected the raspberry to be cloying but it was a delightful afternote. Cherry on top!

 

despite this being ostensibly winter, this is the first time I've actually wanted to hammer some high ABV stouts/barleywines (and we're almost at the end of winter, apparently. maybe i can make up for lost time).

Kereru Night Spirit- top tier southern hemisphere BA stout. Reserved nose which gave rocky road but this body is perfect, like an Alaska Brewing/Midnight Sun beer. This was endlessly smashable and would definitely deceive with the ABV.

Boatrocker Banshee first release- even better. After a few years the fig BA purity has diluted into a sour plum and apricot jam with mild kiwi/strawberries. Porty and the dilution and a hint of sourness adds endless deliciousness. I really, really rate this beer.

8 wired Batch 2.18- lovely smokiness, still loads of body but some oxidation notes. 8 Wired are literally really skilled stout brewers and their IPAs and sours have always been competent to very good too. Not quite as good as the original Batch 18 with age but this is still great. 8 wired have an abundance of brewing skill and could legit brew some serious wales if they tried. still haven't cracked my bottle of bumaye from back in the day but i'm curious to see how that goes too.

 

Imperial Biscotti - very very good imperial stout. Not as much on the nose as i thought, and not sweet like i imagined it would be. But very tasty. Reminded me a bit of kbs.

Sumatra brown - literally exactly like drinking cold drip coffee. Not sweet, a little thin, but expected for a brown ale. Im not a big cold drip coffee guy, but was still pretty good.

Jaf ipa - definitely the haziest aussie new england ipa ive had. Very fresh at only a couple weeks old. Was expecting it to be much jucier to be honest. It was nice, but not as hoppy as i thought it would be. Only had 2 aussie new england styles, and the one from Akasha was much much better.

 

Good to know. Managed to grab a bottle and looking forward to trying it!

 

any idea where I can get one @Narkee and is there any Imperial Biscotti break left here in WA?

Oh and I hear Mane licker are opening a store and brewery in Leederville?

 

My bro-in-law got it for me from Melbourne somewhere. Got me a Mountie too

Yeah Elliot and another guy are opening what I believe to be a similar concept to Carwyn Cellars/ Beermash in West Leederville.

 

You can always buy it online and have it shipped to WA. Beer Cartel and oak barrel have it.

 

Cmon boys! So us what you're drinking!



Murrays vanilla wild thing - enjoying this one. Not a whole lot on the nose, and not much vanilla, but a big beautiful thick mouthfeel. Very nice. I rated it a 3.5 on untapped, but its really growing on me. Probably should have given a 4/5.

 

Kereru - Night spirit. Delicious thick chocolatey imperial stout with a nice bourbon kick on the end.

 

OK, recent things:
Prairie Standard - fine quaffing saisonish beer, very food friendly;
Feral Biggie Juice - I'm still not sure of the NEIPA thing, but if this is one it's pretty good without the yeastie bite or "just alcoholic fruit juice" vibe of some;
Moon Dog Black Lung vii - lower key than previous versions and more coherent. Fairly peaty though. Apparently I've tried 51 different Moon Dog beers - I liked this best of them;
Stone Xoco - I keep buying more of this stout with random stuff chucked in it. Must mean something;
Epic Hysteria (Yey) and Chromium (Buh?);
2017 Chimay Blue - I know some people prefer this old, but IMHO it goes bad slowly. Yum.
Modus Black Lab Stout - not convinced. I'd say maybe dark is not their thing, but I loved their BIPA;
Pink Boots Purl - v interesting gruit things going on. Would be a taker for bottles;
Old Wives Bruce Dragonfruit Dark Sour - not obviously dragonfruit, deep, tasty;
Canned Moo Brew Pilsner - still impressed with this - IMHO an underrated beer from an underrated brewery.

 

JW Lees Harvest 2002
#nuffsaid
#doesnthappeneverynight

 

Really diggin this one.

 

I've been imbibing a few Australasian imperial stouts, and I've settled on Edge Brewing Project's Stagger Lee and 8 Wired's iStout (despite lousy name) as my two faves. Edge are a little Melbourne-based gypsy brewing operation. Their Stagger Lee is gi-normous, and everything an imp stout should be: a massive 90 IBU of hops, somehow balanced with a huge, roasty grain bill. Plus a little wattle seed and toasted coconut for afters. 8 Wired iStout is like an imp stout with a double IPA chaser. Cheeky! Shouldn't work but does.
What I'd really like, though, is some help with regular stout recommendations. What are some inexpensive and easy to find regular stouts that'll give me that big imp stout complexity and mouthfeel, without getting me super buzzed? Most taste too thin and lacking in the palette for my liking. Any suggestions?

 

Had the Founders breakfast stout and really liked it. And I'm headed to the US in November so will make a point of trying Old Rasputin, thanks for the tip.
But these are still high ABV in my book. Re build and tolerance, I dare say I'm quite a bit lower than many BA regulars on both counts! So I'm thinking in the region of 5-6% ABV...

 

Rogue shakespear stout, Rogue Chocolate stout, Samuel Smith Oatmeal stout, Sierra Nevada stout. All really good regular stouts. Unfortunately theres not too many really good quality Aussie regular stouts around.