Riders Brewery - XPA Strong Pale Ale

Hazy  gold, dense head. Smells perfumey and tropical to start. Medium malty body to carry the densely bitter finish (good balance). Almost savoury as the bitterness kicks in. As it warms, the aroma becomes baked quince-like. Yummy.

Castlemaine Gold - Sparkling Ale

Smells like carob and caramel, with some stewed veg and lemon undertones. Moderate to high fizz, thin head which falls away fast. Malty sweet up front, which moves to phenolic and frothy. Dry and medium bitter finish.

Feels very similar to the now defunct Bridge Road Brewers Australian Ale, which makes me wonder if they use the same yeast; it's not a good thing, with those phenolic/clovey flavours. Could of course be poor sanitation, in the form of a wild yeast contamination -although the beer wasn't overcarbonated, which would be a sure sign.

A bit of a shame, but small regional brewers are always a crapshoot!

Two weeks with the Queen...

Well, I haven't blogged in ages, which is silly, because nothing annoys me more than checking my favourite blogs on an almost daily basis when they are only updated once a month or so. Not that it really matters, because I'm pretty sure no one reads this blog anyway. Which makes this the online equivalent of whispering my heart's desire into a seashell...

Anyway, the reason I haven't written anything in ages is that I went overseas for a fortnight. Which isn't very long, and I haven't updated in almost 5 weeks, but since I returned I haven't been sure where to start, and in typical slacker fashion simply haven't written anything at all. But carpe diem and all that, or rather, put off looking for a job by doing something else much less important! Quick(ish) details of my trip were as follows:

Depart Melbourne, change at Hong Kong, arrive London. Take the train to Paddington, try to call my mum on her UK number. Find out she emailed it to me incorrectly, lose a few pounds to the pay phone, sit on my bag and wonder what to do. Luckily, as in much of the civilised world, there are not one, but two pubs inside Paddington station. So naturally, I bought myself a genuine flat warm UK ale, and tried to work out what to do. The answer was simple. Go see what ales the other pub had on offer. Fast forward an hour and two slow pints; brainwave. Go to an internet cafe, get in touch with family via the interwebs. Bingo – their hotel is just up the road, crisis averted.

Go out to dinner at an Indian joint with the worst service ever, go to sleep. Wake up, catch Eurostar to Paris. Paris is brilliant, but not very beer related – although I will include at least one French beer review. Return to the UK three days later, hang out with my sister in her apartment in Brixton for 3 or 4 days – sightsee etc. during the day, start drinking ale as soon as the big and little hands are on the 12!

After a few days of catching buses and trains around London, decide we will hire a car and drive to Edinburgh, via the moors, then back down the west coast returning to London. I get to choose the place we will spend the night of my birthday – and of course choose a microbrewery/B'n'B, in Cropton (review to follow, it was brilliant.)

Tensions are running high by the final night of the car trip, especially when I lose us for 90 minutes in Birmingham's nightmare road tunnel system. Back in London for two nights, bum around Brixton and such, then back to Paddington, train to Heathrow, London to Hong Kong to Melbourne, and I'm back in my own house, in my own town, wondering whether blowing my savings on two weeks overseas while unemployed was a good choice (answer: yes – and I'd do it again, again I tell you mwuhahahahaha....)

So in a nutshell that was my trip – although of course there was so much detail, so many beers (and some whiskey too,) I've skimmed over. Next post: Paris by beer.  

Single Batch

Well, as I stated in my write up of 2 brothers Chief, Marzen seems to be the flavour of the day among Australian micro-brewers, and the new Little Creatures Single Batch doesn't buck the trend. Available on tap and in 568ml “Imperial” pint bottles, this one was from the bottle. Apologies in advance for comparing it with the 2 brothers so often, but this is the only other example of the style I've had which excited me (canned Paulaner? Yuck).

Inside the house, the pour looked a mid amber, but outside in the sun, where I “sampled” (enjoyed) it, the glass came alive with flaming coppers and deep reds - a fantastic colour.

The loose head went past beige, adding more yellows to a colour I would attribute to a manilla folder, but sadly didn't hang round long. A deep inhalation started off lager-sulphury, moved through bready malt and into earthy hops before finishing with a slight alcohol burn. The hop aroma is certainly more noticeable than the 2 brothers take on the style, and the earthy, almost mushroom-like aroma came close to Ranga Red Ale, although not nearly as strong.

I was for sure intrigued, and the taste was no let down. Sweet up front, the same earthy hop flavour as aroma in the middle with a short burst of fairly intense (by my modest standards) hop bitterness cut off by just the faintest hint of warming booze. It's funny that this beer is actually lower in alcohol than 2 brothers, but finishes with a more boozy flavour. I'm itching to get my pins down to the Little Creatures dining hall on Brunswick St to give a draught pint a bash, but thoroughly impressed nonetheless.  

3 Ravens Uber Blond

Just a quick review for now, as I'm off to get ready for Boogie. Nuff said. So, 3 Ravens Uber Blond huh? Described as a "Sticke Alt*" pouring into my 500ml straight sided Zywiec glass shows a deep orange-copper body, fizzing from fairly high condition, and needing care thanks to an immense loose off-white head which falls back to a comfy 5-8mm ring.

The aroma consists of semi-sweet malt, dusty pear drops and caramel. The first sip is probably a bit cold for much to show, so I wander off and leave it for 5 minutes or so. The second sip gives a full, bready malt front, yeasty/doughy middle and rounded bitter finish (with a slight carbonic bite - it's pretty fizzy stuff.) The lingering after-taste plays between vanilla caramel and hop bitterness, no alcohol to speak of, which is interesting given it's approaching 7%ABV (bigger than average by Aussie standards). Finishes fairly dry. I always give 3 Ravens a go, given they're just up the road, and I'm glad I did once again. That said, I wouldn't have another pint - it just isn't 'sessionable' by my standards.

*Sticke apparently means 'special' in German, and breweries would provide Sticke versions of their beers to reward their customers with more alcohol and flavour - you had to know to ask though. Alt is a German ale style meaning 'old' as opposed to 'new', which would be lager.

Dis-A-Pointing

Someone, I forget who (or perhaps I'm making it up) once said there are no bad beers, just disappointing ones. And boy, have I been thoroughly disappointed today. I am in fact still being disappointed as I write, as I haven't yet got through an entire pint of the source of my disappointment. Felinfoel Double Dragon. I bought this when I was at Blackheart and Sparrows, North Fitzroy, handing in my resume in the (probably) vain hope of getting a job there. But of course, I also had to see what beers were there. On a shelf out the back was a new (to me) line-up of UK ales, all in delightful 500ml bottles – which are my favourite kind for re-filling with my own homebrew – and after picking each one up in turn and cursing the fact I'm not solvent enough to buy them all, picked out the Felinfoel. 

4.2%ABV, “The national ale of Wales benwathy prooharhar cyrngngngflgh” or some such. Pouring into a Nonic pint, it looks the goods, a coppery amber with moderate carbonation and a pretty tight head. But what's this, I think, as I go in for the sniff – a metallic tang of blood or copper is pretty much the only discernible aroma on first draw, although the second brings out a hint of fairly typical UK toffee, albeit somewhat tempered by what I can only sum up as iodine. A sip brings me back 6 months or more to the last of my kit+kilo homebrews, combining the good and bad aspects of aroma with a watery body and somewhat acid finish. There is also hints of a flavour I struggle to put into words, other than having something of the character of cheap red wine. Ugh, a real let down.

Of Lager and Snobbery

Like most drinkers of my generation (and probably others), the beers of my teens and early twenties were pale lagers; either the local swill (VB, Carlton, Toohey's New) or on a good day, imports and “imports” like Stella or Amstel. And so, as I began my journey to enlightenment, I tended to look down on the bottom fermenting beer family as a whole with some disdain. Even premium or craft lagers, pilsner style in the main, were off my radar unless splitting a slab with less pretentious drinkers, although dopplebock occasionaly made it through.

Recently though, three lager beers broke through my self-righteous barrier and grabbed me by the throat. The first was courtesy of Biero's $5 pint Wednesday nights. After going with my little brother to see Iron Maiden for his 18^th, we went to Biero for a few celebratory draughts. And I battled my inner self to look at the list of delicious pints on offer and boldly go where my tastebuds hadn't gone before, despite Jamison's “Beast” and Holgate's “Temptress” being listed. So I tried a Weltenburger “Hell”. 'Whoahmygod, this is truly the drink of kings' was my first thought. A spicy noble hop aroma just peeped out from under a sweet malt nose, and there was a thin but tight head on the copper-amber body. The first sip was what I could only describe as 'balance'. Not too much hop flavour, not too much cloying malt, not to long or harsh a bitterness. (And after noting the name, I have been searching the internet for which variety of Weltenburger this glorious pint was, but I'm at a dead end, since they have both Urtyp Hell and Barock Hell on ratebeer.com. I'm leaning towards Barock by other peoples' descriptions, but who knows? Certainly not the Biero barstaff unfortunately.)

The next glorious lager to cross my path was 2 Brothers' “Chief” Märzen /Oktoberfest, which my mate Stew and I found on tap at Fitzroy's trendy Gasometer, which is a place well worth visiting if you're in the area. A former tacky 'Oirish Teme Pob' it's now a pretty classy joint where the Vice set go to compare tatts and drink their woes away. The beer in question was every inch as good as the Weltenburger, with a slight boozy kick and a little more malt, with a touch more bitterness to balance. Plus 2 Brothers have a great habit of not only producing sweet tap badges (classy enameled goodness,) but whacky tap handles as well. Their American Brown “Growler” is often pulled via a model chainsaw, and “Chief” comes courtesy of a stone headed tomahawk! Classy packaging can make all the difference.

Thirdly I have been taking advantage of both Blackheart & Sparrows and Bar Fred to get my hands on Budějovický Budvar “Dark Lager”, which is pretty much described by the name. I first chose it to go with a meal at my favourite local BYO Indian joint (that's BYO alcohol, not BYO Indian!) - Kaki Di Hatti, which as luck would have it is almost opposite Blackheart & Sparrows on Lygon Street. After reading how pale beers are often lost with hot food, I went the Budvar because it wasn't pale, and a 500ml bottle was only ~$5, which is a bargain! (At Bar Fred, a sweet little bar and pizza joint on Nicholson St, the 500ml Dark is the same price as a 330ml of standard Budvar: $6.50 – what a sweet deal!) It's a pretty great drop, the toasty roasty Lindt choc aroma of stout mingled with hops, a mildy tannic caramel flavour and the refreshing crisp finish of lager.

So there it is, a little look at the three beers which recently made me drop my ale-centric pose and look a little further into lagers. And with a few more local breweries rumoured to be dropping Oktoberfest styled brews in the near future, I just can't wait.