It’s probably no great surprise that I’m a sucker for seasonal beers: they’re a key diversion for the neophiliac drinker. They give brewers the chance to bring their wilder experiments to market without the threat of destroying the good name of a brewery. If they’re a disastrous mistake, at least it is fleeting. If the… Continue reading Monteith’s Doppelbock Winter Ale
Tag: Beer
ACA goes after faux import beer
Guess what? Blogging can change the food system. A few months back I wrote about faux import beer: the beer that looks imported but is actually brewed locally or by some third party. Yesterday, in The Age: The Australian Consumers Association is demanding clearer, more prominent labels on bottles of foreign beer made locally under… Continue reading ACA goes after faux import beer
Fremantle microbreweries
In 1871, the Australian state of Victoria contained 126 breweries. By 1987, there was effectively one. For all the new micro-brewed beer that has lubricated the gullets of Australians in the subsequent twenty years from 1987, at present two breweries control 90% of the Australian beer market. There are microbreweries who chip at the edges… Continue reading Fremantle microbreweries
Little Creatures Brewery, Fremantle
Had I forgotten something from the menu at Little Creatures Dining Hall in Fitzroy? Had I made an unfair comparison to its Western Australian brewery progenitor? In the interests of factual accuracy, I flew across the country to Perth to find out. Click the image to see full panoramic glory On the westside, Little Creatures… Continue reading Little Creatures Brewery, Fremantle
Little Creatures, Fitzroy: Invasion from the West
There is only one thing that can turn me off the citrus-y and floral pale ales of Little Creatures Brewery and that is the music of Collette Roberts. Her ode to campanology was blaring across the industrial Viking beer hall that brewery Little Creatures have infested in Fitzroy in Melbourne as I entered. When did… Continue reading Little Creatures, Fitzroy: Invasion from the West
Taieri George
Spiced beers generally fit alongside those other joke beers like chili beer or a perfectly-skunked Corona. In the official judging guidelines, they’re relegated to the category of “Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer” to languish amongst the beers that simply don’t work elsewhere. At best, they get passed off as a Belgian specialty ale, a beer… Continue reading Taieri George
Beer Flaw Tasting
“T” is for Taint If there is one thing that evaluating beer in Cambodia has primed my tastebuds for, it is tasting bad beer. I never particularly dwelt upon the reasons behind their badness because I was too busy trying to find synonyms for “watery”. I had never approached badness in a systematic way. So… Continue reading Beer Flaw Tasting
Jolly Shandy
“Brewer”: Carlsberg Before people had the option of deadening their palate while getting their booze on with a premixed wine cooler, there was shandy, half beer mixed with half lemonade. It is one of those drinks manages to ruin two otherwise perfect drinks when you make it. I’d first heard of the shandy premix from… Continue reading Jolly Shandy