Brunehaut Amber

Brunehaut Amber

Belgium

6.5% alc/vol

$8.50

When I first poured this beer it had that look and smell of Chimay Blue, but when I had my first sip it took me straight back to Coopers Vintage. Really fruit cake and spice on the nose but a lean dry finish. Very elegant too, obviously made with the idea of having more than one at a time, unlike Chimay Blue which I find too heavy and gluggy.

I was wondering why I had never heard of these beers considering the brewery was started in 1890, so I did some research and Belgium has more than 130 breweries making some 600+ beers. No wonder that a few of them escape my notice.

If you can find it, enjoy

Graham

timmermans kriek

This tastes like really good quality medicine (although i think in some way, that's what beer is...). It has that flavour of macerated cherries that was used to disguise the taste of cough medicine when you were a kid.

Lambic beers are not the sort of thing i like to have more than one of at a time. Very rich strong flavour and nothing subtle about it.

So its made with sour cherries which explains the taste. This is straight from Wiki... 'A traditional kriek made from a lambic base beer is sour and dry as well. The cherries are left in for a period of several months, causing a refermentation of the additional sugar. Typically no sugar will be left so there will be a fruit flavour without sweetness'

At the end of the day its not the beer for me but to my surprise my wife loved it and suggested it a good match for a fruit cake... so nice to see her enthusiastic about beer.

Dan

Kirin draft

One of the best draft style lagers just got better. It now comes to Australia in a 500ml can.

If you are one of the few people still drinking the xxxx version of kirin now is the time to change up!

The best thing about this beer is the malt flavour. Like most Japanese beers there is a nice smooth, round malt flavour. Its not rich and over powering its just right. The finish is still fresh and dry without the steely acidity of the kirin lager.

The lager is the perfect beer for after a mow (of the lawn) and the draught is the one you have after that.

Good beer, good size, brewed for good times!

D

Deus - Brut des Flanders

Cuvee Prestige 2006
750ml
$55
France/Belgium

I had this on Saturday night with a few friends and it really split the room. Quite a unique style of beer, made in Belgium in the top fermenting style then taken to France (the Flanders region) to be aged on yeast lees like a champagne. The notes on the bottle don't say how long it spends ageing in their cellars but by the taste I would suspect it was at least 12 months.

On the nose it offers a really heady sweet orange and scents of hay. The yeasty bready notes are really dominant and ou get almost wheaty cardamom smell.
Really fine bubble and if you pour it too quickly it gets a really mean head on it. The palate offers much the same with an almost sour back palate like a Belian gueuze beer.

Not my favourite beer in the world but well worth a try and probably better when matched with food. I'd like to try another vintage to see whether like wine they are vintage varient.

Graham

The German Club of Brisbane and Franziskarner Dunkel

I went to the German Club of Brisbane the other week with some good buggers, we drank some brilliant beer while our wives had a meal in the dinning area. Very good, simple, well cooked food. I had a pigs knuckle, which you can see above. It tasted a lot like a lamb shank but with heaps more crusty fat. Once you pushed the crust off, there was some beautifully slow cooked meat and the potatoes were great.

We drank (tried) many different beers this nigh, all on tap! Erdinger, Schneider, Fischers and Franziskarner Dunkel. The last of these (FD) left the biggest impact, just the right amount of caramel and burt butterscotch and a genuinely driving, Vegemite taste. Real warm molasses with a good dry finish.

Love the German Club. Membership is only $5.00

Dan

Coopers Vintage 2004-2008 ( A Retrospective)

Recently Dan & I got together and tasted our way through four vintages of Coopers Vintage. Oh and what a night it was, discussions were had, points were made and whole lot of shit was spoken.

The following are tasting notes we made through the night and we take no responsibility for the mess our notes ended up in by the end of the night. Bearing in mind that the older the ale the stronger the alcohol.

The night was started with......

2008 Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale

Beautifully disguised alcohol, champagne, ruby, tobacco, light yeast and vegemite, great muddy colour, marmalade and cumquat

2007 Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale

Richer than the '08, slightly more fizz (ie the bubbles seemed bigger), caramel and licorice, not nearly as impressive as the rest of the beers

2006 Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale

Getting a lot of residue and shit in the bottom, it's now occurred to us that we have no idea how long yeast can live, more apricot and sweet fruit than the '07, Dan think's it's a link

between the older the beer the more it tends to taste like a really good Trappist beer.

2004 Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale

Dirty brown, caramel and burnt apricot, really flat, no carbonation left, which really detracts from the flavour

So summing up, I (graham) really liked the first 3 beers but my clear favourite was the 2006 for all of the balance and rich flavour it offered.

Dan - the thing I enjoyed the most from this experience was understanding the way flavours change in beer as it ages, I think beers made in this bottle conditioned style are exciting to experience through a tasting where you get to see young and old side by side, and the best thing for me was the ability to see the change from a light black ale into a rich stewed apricot festival of a beer.

Cheers

Chimay Red

The 'Red' Chimay sits between the full, rich stewy fruit of the 'Blue' and the sour acid in the White (triple), its refreshing while being full and rich. There are hints of current and apricot but the bitterness is still there. Perfect! I have said many times how much i respect Trappist monks and this is just another reason why. I love that the alcohol is a manageable 7%. The warmth is just right for winter but its not too full on.

Chimay Red uses Top Fermenting Yeast (as do all ales). The yeast performs better under warm conditions and tolerates higher alcohol. Top fermenting yeast also (i just learnt this on the beer advocate) cannot break down all sugar allowing for the development of real fruit flovour.

Brilliant, i repeat 'brilliant' beer which has set the mark for so many others to follow.

Dan

 

stone and wood pale lager

I cant believe i am even drinking this beer, let alone reviewing it.

I brew my own beer at a micro brewery out at Brendale. When you have access to temperature controlled brewing kettles and basic ingredients you realise just how easy it is to brew basic beer. I am so sick of all these 'boutique' micro breweries claiming to have great beers. 

I must admit i have never seen a pale lager before. The word 'pale' is usually something i see before the words 'India' or 'Ale', not lager. Lager is a light fresh style of beer, why you would want to make it pale is beyond me.....

This beer is light in flavour. It is thin and dull. The bitterness you would normally receive at the end of a mouthful of beer is replaced by an almost shandy like experience.

I would like to say more but there is nothing to say.... Its a very basic, sad little beer.

Dan

Seven Sheds Kentish Ale

Seven Sheds Kentish Ale
5.2% alc/vol
$9.70 - 750ml
Railton, Tasmania

whilst in Tasmania recently my new wife and I stopped at the Ashgrove cheese shop and while she was trying her way through the cheese I was drooling at the selection of beers from around Tasmania they had on offer. Needless to say it was our first fight, whether to spend more money on beer or cheese!

This is one of the beers I picked up, a Kentish Ale (bottle conditioned - so a nice yeasty smell greets you when you open the bottle) I wasnt too sure when I first opened it, but the smell of one of my old home brews blew off and it was rich fruit cake and molasses on the nose, it pours with a formidable head that really lasts.
On the palate it is a beer that lingers, strong coffee and chocolate are the primary flavours with a really floral palate. Not too heavy and a really good balance with the sweetness.

Seven Shed tips themselves as a brewery/meadery and hop garden with the head brewery writing a beer bible in 2006, so you'd hope he knew what he was doing.

Graham
On the palate it

Cascade First Harvest 09

Cascade beers have suffered a bit of a hit lately. The Tasmanian brewery, founded in 1824 and claiming to be the oldest in Australia (James Squire started the Malt Shovel Tavern in 1806), started serving up the popular Cascade Premium in a smaller bottle at the same price. In a win for the people, who do notice these things, Cascade lost a huge amount of the market share in premium Australian beers and were forced to 'upsize' the beer back to its original 375ml (from 330). Frankly i think its to late. Its good beer but no body lakes it when you take the piss....

However i am supposed to be talking about the First Harvest, which i think is a great beer!

This is a seasonal beer with a limited release every year. In the past, i have not been a big fan, it has been far too over the top with 'green hop' flavour but this year it is more subtle. Hop flavour in beer is a wonderful thing, in this case it delivers a delicate balance between floral and sour acid. Its not punchy but it has enough. Nice dry finish, astringent bitterness and low carbon place it somewhere between a light pilsener and an American style pale ale.

Very successful year for the First Harvest, cant say the same for the Premium.

Dan 

 

mikkeller simcoe single hop ipa

Big apologies for the time between blogs. My camera has been replaced and i am back into the beer. And this is a good one to come back with.

A truly sour, astringent India pale ale. This is the way i like them. The nose is a touch floral and the hop smell is strong, without being sweet. It is a cloudy, dirty colour with a nice white/brown head.

I was a bit taken back by the rich, amber bitterness then i checked the alc....... 6.9%. I have never had an IPA with this much alcohol and by the end of the beer it is more evident, almost heavy but the sour, pale taste brings it back in the same way an Orval does.

Gentle carbonation and a brilliant dry finish.

Great beer. 

Get it in Australia because of a company called innspire and their commitment to importing great beer (like Meantime).

Cheers

Dan

Red Angus Pilsener

Red Angus Pilsener
alc 4.8%
price - ??
From - Yarra Valley, VIC

I really like pilsner as a style (or should that be pilsener?) I only noticed this today, supposedly it's just a preference thing as to how you spell it, nothing to do with style.

Anyway, this is a really nice style, quite a fruity nose with a slight bitter green edge. On the palate it's maybe a bit too fruity, it reminds me of an IPA. But the more I drink the more it starts to grow on me. The flavour just keeps going, it's definatley a beer that screams for food, not the type of beer you'd just want to sit down and polish off a 6 pack.

Although the label says it's made by the William Bull Brewery, it's actually a De Bortoli venture, and good on them. According to the website over half of the malt comes from Bamberg in Germany which is alot of effort to put in, and I for one appreciate their effort.

Graham

Flying Dog - Snake Dog IPA

Flying Dog Brewery
Snake Dog India Pale Ale
Maryland, USA
approx $7 per stubbie

Now you've probably guessed that I'm a huge fan of the IPA style. I just love that mean hoppiness and really rich fruity mouth feel.

This beer doesn't disappoint, it's a little milder on the hop bite but that works extremely well. It's chock full of fruit cake spice with a really long lasting taste. I'm sure I could still taste this the next day.

I really like the quirky packaging on these beers, not many people do, I suppose it's a bit garish. And I don't know about putting the token Hunter S Thompson quote on the bottle just because you're using David Steadman pics on the labels.
Whether you like the label or not these are all great beers.
Graham

XXXX Bitter 750ml

This is about as aussie, aussie, aussie as I get.  It's been a long time since I've had a XXXX bitter in a tallie, or in any other format for that matter.  But it is after all a Qld icon and it would be somewhat remiss if I didn't at least refresh my taste buds.

So, as I was a little frightened, I chilled the tallie to near frozen just in case I couldn't handle the Qld bitter.  

This is a truly Australian taste.  I don't think I have tasted beer like this from any other country. It truly is.........simple beer.  However, with a very cold edge and a touch of nostalgia it's really not too bad. The hops, quite frankly, taste cheap and there's no real signs of any complex fruit or fine bead but it is a reasonable and refreshing beer when it's served icy cold on a Friday night.

Using words like crisp, fresh, fruit, hops (and all the other things we like to say on this site) are really not necessary. This is just BEER, simple, cheap and i would have one over a crown lager or a VB any day. Heres to big pineapples, hail storms and the Broncos.

Cheers.

Dan

Meantime London Pale Ale

There is something about a 500ml bottle which i find so attractive..... i guess its the fact that there is a lot of beer in it..... These English 'pub style' beers always come in the big bottles (like Ruddles county ale, anyone know where i can get one?) I think the reason for the big bottle is the fact that it always takes i while for you to get used to the taste. 

This London Pale from Meantime (best modern brewery in the world) starts off pretty aggressively.  It's 5.4%. Its an ugly brown amber colour and it tastes very carbonic. It takes a while for the thing to settle down, and release some wonderful flavours. Its got some stewy fruit, but not in a creamy Belgian sort of way, more a thin, burnt yeasty kind of way, tasty but a bit serious for me.

It really took me a while to get into this beer and it wasn't until i had the last sip that i got the hang of it.

Meantime don't have any tasting notes on their web site for this beer.

Dan

Guinness Draught

Guinness Draught
alc - 4.2% alc/vol
price - $4 can, $15 4pk

I thought I'd review Guinness seeing as it's St Patrick's Day.
And really what more can be said about Guinness other than it's a big pint of liquid food. Many times I remember when I was younger putting off buying food and instead buying a few cans of Guinness.

It's blacker than night with a off white head. Smells of dark coffee with slightly peaty dirty hints. On the palate it's much the same with coffee and roasted malt being the driving force. It seems a lot lighter than I remember, maybe that's just the canned version but it's still an enjoyable drink. Not sure if I'd be able to put away as many as I used to but I sure would try.

Just on a side note there are a few countries around the world that are allowed to brew Guinness under licence, Australia is one of them and so is Nigeria. When I worked in Scotland I was fortunate enough to come across the Nigerian version which was an absolute ball buster rating in at around 7.9% alcohol, if you ever get the chance to try one you would be doing yourself a favour.

Graham

Meantime Union

alc - 4.9% abv

origin - Greenwich, London

cost - $5 approx

Now I am a big fan of meantime and those crazy lads know how to brew a beer. I have to say the label is a shocker, it puts customers off buying it so much that I had to buy the last two bottles of this beer even though I think it's really really good.

The label says it is a unique fusion of lager and dark beer, on the nose I get lots of roasted coffee, malty notes that suggest dark beer. Good. But where is the lager part...on the palate it has very light choco-coffee notes, but absolutely no lager-esque qualities.

The more I taste this the more I really like it, it could be the cooler weather of late that is swaying me but it's really enjoyable. I haven't seen this balance of maltiness and drinkability in an Aussie dark beer, I guess now it's cooling down, winter may have to be a time to drink more so I can support more Australian brewers. 

And yet again....well done Meantime!!

Graham

I agree with Graham. Its a funny beer. The lack of bitterness and 'full on' blackness of this beer left me a bit confused at first, but by the time i finished the bottle it had really grown on me. It would be great for winter...... if Graham had not bought the last of it, i could have one!

The boys (and possibly girls) at Meantime keep giving. I just tried their 'London Pale Ale' which i will blog in a couple of days.

Dan

Grolsch

Grolsch is everywhere at the moment. I got a case for $38 from one of those generic, whatever, boring bottle shops we are so blessed to have on every street corner in Brisbane... 

The packaging has changed a bit and i thought to my self ' i wonder if those clever people at Fosters are brewing it under licence in Australia?' They have ruined so many other beers why stop now. Thankfully these are fully imported and cheep!

The first sip reminded me of a Peroni. Fresh and crisp, a really refreshing style beer which can quench a thirst (i could drink about 30 of these). But its got a bit more rounded flavour. It reminds me of what Stella used to taste like before Fosters screwed it up (did i just make another dig at Fosters??).

There is a bit of citrus and the hop flavour is very soft with a wonderful dry finish. This really is a good easy drinking beer.

Hitting the spot right now.

Cheers

Dan

Sapporo draught

Sapporo is a wonderful beer. In Brisbane you can get it in a can (650ml) or you can get it in a bottle (334ml). The bottle is the real deal, brewed in Japan and the can is a filthy impostor! The can  (like so many beers now) is not made in it's country of origin, it comes from Canada. Now i love Canada. I have spent a bit of time there and drank some really good beer, especially from Quebec but this beer is not Sapporo. The difference between the can and the bottle is MASSIVE!

I am not going to write about the can version i just wanted to warn you.

I am going to call the bottle version 'draught' because that's what it says on the bottle. This is a very clean, fresh crisp beer. There is, like most Japanese beers a nice rounded malt flavour but it is very well balanced and so damn crisp. The bitterness is perfect and the finish dry without being clawing. There are signs of fruit and hop but its all so subtle and well put together that's its hard to taste anything other than refreshment.

I dare you to drink just one of these. I also dare you to start drinking beer that comes from its country of origin because no matter how exact the ingredients are, the water (which is 90% of the beer) is never the same and the taste is always dramatically different. Beware of Stella, Becks, Asahi, Kirrin, Heinekin just to name a few!!

Dan

Schneider Edel Weisie

Can i start by saying how satisfying it is that we get so many good beers in this country these days! You don't have to drink Pure Blonde... in fact, if you do, you should be ashamed of your self. I mean that, i am so sick of shit beer.

Edel Weiss used to be the only organic beer getting around, which made it special to a loyal following of hippie types. Now there are a few, but this one is still the bench mark for me.

There is nothing attractive about the pour. Dirty is a word which sums it up. Its cloudy and ugly. The smell is, however beautiful....... clove is the big sniff. Cloves and roses and all things pretty. The taste is thick, i can never have more than one of these. It is nice to find a beer which you don't have to drink many of. The finish is flabby and sweet but somehow holds itself together.

Great beer... organic.... big bottle... 7.4%.... all the things i love.

Dan

Paulaner Original Munchner Hell

alc - 4.9%

origin - Germany

price - $3.20 single/ $19 6pk

Thought I'd better review a German beer seeing as we have quite a few in the shop.

A classic golden orange colour, with not much of a head, but I'm probably not drinking this out of the right glass so I'll ignore that for now.

Clean fruit driven flavours are abundant on the nose, primarily a bit of peach and a distinct hay smell.

Very clean palate with more hay and a steely edge with slight hoppy bitterness on the finish.

A little bit simple for my liking, but still a very good lager that would do the trick on a hot sunny day.

Graham

Tripel Karmeliet

The first time i tasted this beer was about 8 years ago (back when you couldn't get it in this country). My brother carried a 750ml bottle with two glasses in a timber crate all the way but from Belgium, for me. A very good man!

Beautiful colour, genuinely golden and clear. The head is stunning, fine little beads moving like they would with a champagne and into a beautiful white foam.

There is a lot of alcohol in this brew 8.4% and you can really taste it. There is a strong, lingering warmth from the 8.4%. The flavours are caramel and apricot which are petty standard for this type of beer but there is also a little soft butter scotch and some hints of banana giving some sweetness.... beautifully balanced. The finish is not dry but it is rich and a tinny little bit astringent but mostly its very smooth (apart from the alcohol).

Karmelite is a very attractive beer which looks great in the glass with some wonderful, typically Belgian characters but boy does is have a strong warm finish which is perhaps better suited to winter.

Dan 

Coopers Extra Strong Vintage Ale

Vintage - 2008

alc/vol - 7.5%

price - $4.65 single/ $90 carton

I've been absolutely hanging out for this to be released so I could review it. Every year (almost) Coopers release the Extra Strong Vintage Ale, I have vintages going back to 2004 and I will review them all over the next few weeks to give you an idea what they look like with a few years age.

Based on the fantastic Chimay Grande Reserve (blue), the vintage ale has a secondary bottle fermentation, which means the beer gets stronger and more complex with age.

A fantastic golden brown colour with very little head when poured. A nice spicy fruit cake nose, with chocolate and mocha notes.

A fine bead when you first taste it, like the Eisenbahn beers the 7.5% alcohol doesn't seem apparent. I would really like to know what they have done differently to the last few vintages, this has a strange steeliness on the front palate, following through with more mocha and slight bitter finish. I can almost see a bit of asparagus green edge (which funnily enough I don't mind)

As always I'll be buying a carton to put in the cellar, but somehow I don't see this as being the best vintage I've tried of this beer. As I said before I'll pull a few bottles of old vintages out of the cellar and write a few reviews over the next couple of weeks.

Graham

Orval

Orval.... what can you say. This is the beer which i have called my favourite more than any other. I have a lot of 'favourite' beers but this is really it.

My upbringing in the world of beer drinking/appreciation has left me with one clear thought, something which never changes. That is... Monks make the best beer and Belgian Trappist monks are the best at it. This may not be true but it is the mantra which i have chosen to live by.

There are seven breweries in the world which are allowed to call themselves 'Trappist', they are.... Chimay, Rochefort, Westmalle, Westvleteren, Ashelse Kluis, Koningshoeven and Orval. I thought that Leffe, Duval, Kawk and a few others were also on that list, which goes to show you should never trust bottle shop gossip (unless you hear it at the Cru Cellar).

I have only tried five of the seven and of that five Orval is my favourite.

Orval is always a challenge. It is very strong, very astringent,  very sour and full of Gin like herbal grassiness. Drinking Orval is like finding the best orange just so you can taste the zest in the rind.

Orval is harder to drink than the likes of Chimmay Premier (red). Chimay is full of stewy apricot, perfectly sweet caramel and just the right amount of alcohol... but for me Orval is more interesting.

If i was to go to a desert island and only be allowed to take one beer (i hope that never happens) but if it did, i would take an Orval and drink it very slowly.

Trappist breweries are not for profit and they all sustain themselves financially, in part by selling beer. The beers are all top fermented ales mostly bottle conditioned.

I realise that there is a lot of ranting going on and not a lot of information about the actual flavours of the beer. The only real way to find out (as with all beers) of to try one, in a chalice or a wine glass.

Dan