What's wetting the whistle P.4

Boston Brewery Devilslide Red IPA is well worth a look, much better than their other pretty crappy offerings, its like 90% as good as Cheeky monkey Imperial monk,
with a 1%abv less and quite well priced at $30 a sixer ( atleast herein WA)

 

Anything worthwhile that's bottled or canned in NSW at the moment? Wife is heading over for work this weekend.

 

St Henry at Wildflower. The latest Amber is also fantastic.

 

I'm not a big fan of the current trend of brewers trying to make imperial stouts taste like a dessert or coffee rather than a beer by adding all sorts of adjuncts but the Prairie/Evil Twin Bible Belt Imp Stout that is doing the rounds at the moment is amazing and successfully avoids this trend.

Tastes like a big, decadent and complex imp stout but with a balanced and subtle use of cocoa nibs, chilli, coffee, vanilla, so it still tastes like a stout and avoids being too sweet. Drinks way easier than 13%

Bought a can of Liberty 'Yakima Monster' pale ale today and noticed the can said it was brewed in Australia. You guys may already know but I found it interesting that New Zealand brewery Liberty are now brewing beers from Hawkers brewery in Reservoir, Victoria!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=id%3D1954272634604585%3Btype%3Dpost%3Buser%3Dlibertybrewingcompany

 

Sixpoint's Alpenflo and the Weihenstephaner/Sierra Nevada collab. Both outstanding.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, really enjoyed this.

 

Is the Weihenstephaner / Sierra Nevada Braupakt going to be a permanent addition to the range? It seems widely available. Didn't love it myself, but I can see why people would.

I've wondered a bit where Where Strides the Behemoth has been, but it is back and in cans. Still fun.

A few hazy and hoppy things I've liked recently: Collective Arts The Mothership, Revision Gimme da Loot, Dainton Blood Orange New England Rye IPA. Not at all sure that the Dainton one is an IPA of any sort let alone a NEIPA, but it's a lovely drop.

A couple of recent disappointments: Little Creatures The Fuggle is Real is gutless; BrewDog Indie Pale Ale is a credibility buster.

A few things I liked - a couple of pricey small glasses of Hill Farmstead/ Grassroots saisonish things were enough to convince me that yes, they are pretty good. And the De Ranke Vielle Provision (their component of Cuvee de Ranke) and their unusual Back to Black (it's strong, dark, sour, woody and bitter) were very lovely.

Bridge Rd continues to crank out lots of beers, most of which I think are pretty good and quite interesting.

 

Mornington Imperial stout is one of my go to local RIS'. It hits all the marks of a RIS without focusing too much on one aspect.

Could not agree more on Hawkers' BBA RIS. Huge let down last year.

 

I thought the Fuggle is real was ok, I was expecting worse,

 

Cool that Carwyn got in bottles of Hill Farmstead. I was at their event for GBW and it was ridiculously good. Will be hard to have a better line up of beer in Australia ever again imo.

 

Guys get your hands on Buxton/ommipollo yellow belly sundae if possible. Absolutely incredible desert beer. Expensive, but well worth it.

 

They sold out very quickly, but they had notified those on their mailing lists early. I passed on the bottles. The tap Hill Farmstead/ Grassroots beers hung around a while (more than a week) ~$15 for 150ml will do that. The rest of the taplist wouldn't have been compelling enough for me to drive across town (but I am a homebody who thinks there is not a lot of signal in high ratings for strong American beers).

 

Just drinking the braupakt now. Enjoying it.

Also liked the Akasha Sequioa and the (Hawkers? brewed) Yakima Monster

 

Yes and yes.

 

Enjoying the 4 pines El Dorado...

 

the West Coast Red Rye IPA is rather good too...

 

Akasha The Mountain is also good...

 

Hop Nation sure know how to make an IPA...

Probably closest thing you're going to get to a modern IPA in Aus to be honest, hoppy aromas but sweet and full body.

(The Chop)

There's a reason Americans like this style

 

Couldn't agree with you more on Hop Nation. The Chop is a fantastic beer!

 

Old Stock 2014

Ye Ole Oxidised Figs and Brown Sugar. Works well though.

 

tackling the 4 pines imperial ipa

apple-y, quite boozy. preferred the el dorado and west coast rye.

 

hope super juicy

surprisingly good even though it's no longer summer (seems to be a relatively fresh batch though)

 

I guess that would. I meant to keep some but am weak. Is there no North Coast here now?

I didn't mind the Hope Super Juicy either. I still find it impossible to tell ahead of time (even by looking at what other people think) whether I'm going to like these NEIPAs.

Anyone have any reports/ opinions on the next fad down the block: Brut IPA? I had the Wolf of the Willows/ Ale of a Time one and didn't much care for it but thought it kind of matched descriptions of the sub-style.

Recent much-liked (+ new to me):
Goose Island Gillian - sweetish strong saison but nice
Modus Op Silent Knight - nicely-weighted no-tricks porter
Moon Dog Black Lung and Truffled porter - just when you think they're out...
2 Birds Bright Copper Kettles - coiled, witty, skilled.
Boatrocker House Red - very plausibly Flemish
Oatmeal Yeti - could be something in these variants
Garage Project Unconditional Love -not new, but v good and fresh clean bitter IPA
Modern Times Avalon - a NEIPA I _really_ liked.

 

Had Hop Nation " The kalash" 2018
thought it was pretty thin and boozy, seem most aussie RIS are too thin to me

I had the Wolf of willows Brut ipa,
I guess it was what it said it would be,but cant find much to like about it.

 

Stomping Ground keep kicking goals. Their RIS is prettying tastey. A little flat at the end but has good body and a great entry.

 

Sucks to hear.

On the flip side, I had a Red Hill Imperial Stout a couple of months back and this is one of the finest Australian examples of the style. Velvety mouthfeel with lots of chocolate and nice balancing roast. I find a lot of imperial stouts have an intense roasty bitterness at the back of the palate but this was perfectly balanced. I would happily take this overseas for people to try.

 

Had Cheeky Monkey Silverback RIS , and barrel variants
overall thought the Cabernet barrel was the best,still think the base beer itself a bit too thin,
but the flavours where pretty good,the Spiced rum version wasn't great.
Had recent Jedi Juice, tasted far too Grapefruity for me,not like the ones I drank around xmas
Colonial Inquest Imp porter: really tasty, like a huge black ipa, and well priced
Rocky ridge: ISCREAM,
not quite sure what it was but seemed like a nice hoppy summer pale,
really tasty, I assumed from the name it had lactose in it,but its not mentioned on the lable..
Nail Red: not had one in years,not bad,but soupy
Billabong brewing "Blazed" hemp seed black IPA, bloody delicious
21st amend beers from DTC: stale AF...must not buy imprted IPA's...its not 2002 anymore....
also from DTC 2 crows brett saision form nova Scotia, bloody excellent

 

just had a CBS - waaaaay better than this years' KBS - really not sure what happened with KBS this time round - backed up by how long it stayed on the shelves...

 

had Growling Jack a Belgian IPA from White rabbit,
was really enjoyable

 

It was everything I didn't expect from White Rabbit - both good and bad. It's punchy but for me a little crude.

I was going to try something else hoppy tonight but just had Toppling Goliath PseudoSue. So that would be quite unfair (even though it was canned late May). I got from Purvis, it has a new to me WA importer.

Magic Rock Human Cannonball was another very good (albeit strong) hoppy pale.

Gradually working my way through the Bridge Rd Bling de Wilde series - the Giaconda one was great.

I had thought I'd had Rebelse Strop but it turns out I'd had the non-Brett version and this is rather more intriguing.

It'd been a long time since I had De Molen Tsarina Estra (what _is_ an imperial porter anyway?) and his BA beers tend to be overbearing, but the Woodford Reserve version was right up my street.

 

More than a month at a guess. Varies by can. I bought one and while it was good, it seemed far from at it's best (granted I haven't had one fresh).