Well last night I hit up Biero once again. If you haven't been, drop what you're doing and go there now. After the boring, but free, pale fizzy lager we'd been quaffing at the gallery opening prior, I figured we couldn't go wrong. The barkeeps may not all know their stuff, but they'll hand you a taster of anything you haven't had before. Which for me included Otway Estate Blueberry Hefeweizen , Burleigh 28 Pale and Mountain Goat's Skipping Girl.
The blueberry hefe left me cold, a typical novelty beer too clever for it's own good. Or as my drinking buddy put it “Mmmn, liquid muffin. I wouldn't want a pint of that...” She did however go for the Skipping Girl, which had a very floral fruity aroma, light body and a short dry finish. I had a pint of something I hadn't sipped in a while – 2 Brothers' Growler. It's a great example of my favourite breed of beer, the sessionable brown. Chock full of choccy malts, with just enough new world hop flavour and bitterness to back it up, it's not cloying or dense. A real winner.
My round was a Kooinda Pale Ale for me, and a Mildura Storm for her. The Kooinda may bill itself as an APA, but I couldn't find much American style wise. A nice sweet bread maltiness aroma and flavour cut short of cloying by a very bitter finish, another brew I could do a fair few pints of. Maybe it was the Skipping Girl preceding, but the Mildura just didn't provide much interest for either of us. Although the tasters we had put it ahead of Burleigh's 28, which had a distinct steely metallic twist to the hop flavour.
