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