Australian Ale

Ben’s first beer under the Bridge Road banner remains an accessible starting point to his range. A balance of sweet malt and hop flavours give way to a slightly fruity finish for an eminently sessionable beer.

Style: Golden Ale
Strength: 4.4%

Beechworth Pale Ale

A fine example of the modern Australian take on Pale Ales. Inspired by the hoppier variations to come out of the States, it’s big on piney, citrusy hops that give it an enticing floral aroma and contribute to a gently lingering bitter finish. Bridge Road’s benchmark beer, it’s a good match for spicy or oily dishes.

Style: Pale Ale
Strength: 4.8%

Celtic Red Ale

Originally brewed as a one-off for Beechworth’s annual Celtic Festival, it proved such a hit Ben had no choice but to make it a year round addition to his range. This rich, deep red ale in the Celtic tradition has a powerful malt body displaying both roasted and toffee characteristics with a hint of nuttiness. It’s topped off with minimal bitterness from noble hop varieties.

Style: Celtic Ale
Strength: 5.3%

Bling IPA

A big, brash number crammed full of modified malts and hops in Bridge Road’s recreation of the classic British style. It pours a hearty, rich brown and immediately assaults the senses with its powerful aroma. By going big with both malt and hops, it retains its balance and is a great accompaniment to spicy foods.

Style: India Pale Ale
Strength: 5.8%

Robust Porter

A delicious combination of mocha and chocolate flavours and aromas make Bridge Road’s Robust Porter a great beer for the colder months – or as an accompaniment to sweet desserts. It’s big without being heavy and, if you’re feeling brave, the brewer recommends trying it with freshly shucked oysters.

Style: Robust Porter
Strength: 5.2%

Chestnut Pilsner

An experimental batch of lager featuring chestnuts grown locally to the brewery in 2009 proved successful enough for a new variant to return a year later as a permanent fixture on the Bridge Road lineup in 2010, this time as the Chestnut Pilsner. Clean and crisp, in part thanks to the Galaxy hops also grown locally in the Ovens Valley but also the three months this beer spends conditioning before release, it’s a traditional beer style given a subtle nutty twist.

Style: Pilsner

Chevalier Saison

A superb recreation of the classic Belgian farmhouse style, this captures all of the delicate spices and fruit essences you would want in a Saison and was deservedly shortlisted for Best Victorian Beer at the 2010 Australian International Beer Awards. Its part citrusy, part spicy aroma comes from the particular yeast strain used as well as the addition of different fruits, including – on occasion – locally farmed quince. Fantastically refreshing and with a tart, dry finish, it’s great with a wide range of foods – even breakfast!

Style: Saison
Strength: 6%

Chevalier Dunkel Hefeweizen

Having traced his family roots back to Germany, it was only right that Ben Kraus should create some of its beer styles. This one, from the southern state of Bavaria, has enjoyed a renaissance in its homeland in recent years with young Germans discovering a taste for its full aroma and flavour. With big wafts of clove and banana on the nose paving the way for a rich, roasted choc-banana flavour followed by a lingering roast bitterness

Style: Dunkel Hefeweizen
Strength: 5.2%

Chevalier Biere De Garde

Another take on a fairly rare European style, this is comfortably the biggest beer in the Bridge Road range, other than occasional specials. Loosely based on a traditional French / Belgian farmhouse ale, it contains spices that bounce off the hefty malt backbone to create a dried fruit aroma with hints of star anise and clove, all in combination with fruity esters from the yeast strain. A complex beer that shows its full range as it warms, it’s a good match for game dishes and desserts.

Style: Biere De Garde
Strength: 7.5%

Bridge Road / Mikkeller Dark Harvest

When we cracked our sample of Dark Harvest, the reaction was instant. “Chocolate orange!” we cried. Then we thought that might be a stupid thing to think. But we told Ben at Bridge Road anyway, opening ourselves up to the risk of being unmasked as utter charlatans. Thankfully word came back that “the hops were a research variety that showed huge orange and mandarin characters in the paddock. Good that you got some choc orange, that was the plan.” Phew! Dodged that bullet. So, what else do you need to know? Ben had said hops picked from his local hop farm at Rostrevor and delivered instantly to his brewery at the same time as he flew Mikkel into town. Dark because it’s dark and was brewed at night and Harvest, because, well, the hops had just been harvested, the malt bill is all the Dane’s doing, lending the beer “that dark, rich and wholesome character so typical of his dark beers” according to Ben. It’s lovely, multi-layered and pretty darn hoppy too boot, reminding us at Crafty Towers a little of the Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black in many ways. There’s not much around either, so grab it while you can.

Available:

Bridge Road
Josie Bones
and other venues TBC

Style: Hoppy Dark Harvest Ale

Bridge Road Pride of Ringwood IPA

It either says we’ve got a long way to go to develop our nasal skills or that even the much-maligned Pride of Ringwood hop can get fruity when given the chance to shine. The traditional Aussie hop used for bitterness in many mainstream beers – and more craft ones than you might imagine – is viewed by some in the local beer world as the equivalent of a Dutch oven – and not the thick-walled one used for cooking. Yet it’s been undergoing something of a revival, with Temple using it and (almost) nothing else in its Temple Brunswick Draught, for example. Up in Beechworth, Ben Kraus decided to see what would happen when given the treatment thus far meted out to the far trendier Galaxy, Stella and Summer varieties – ie used by the truckload in a single hop IPA. As for our nasal prowess, when a pot of it was first plonked in front of us by the brewer alongside one of the other IPAs, we had a double take as to which was the Pride. Turns out the ugly duckling actually possesses some rather pungent citrusy, even tropical fruit notes. Tis only later in the affair that the rather rough, earthy bitterness rides into town to remind you just who you’re dealing with.

Available:

Bridge Road
The Local Taphouse Darlo
The Local Taphouse St Kilda

Style: IPA
Strength: 4.8%

Bridge Road Summer IPA

The Bridge Road crew are getting together a nice line in single Aussie hop IPAs, with the Summer following the hugely popular Galaxy and relative newcomer Stella off the rank – and with the unlikely Pride of Ringwood IPA to follow. Summer is a hop variety formerly known as Summer Saaz and has been developed by Hop Products Australia. Those who’ve ploughed into the Galaxy and Stella IPAs will find this one much more subtle; don’t expect to be blown away by pungent aromas, instead it’s a gentler, floral aroma, slightly earthy. There’s a pretty full body too and a bitterness that works its way gently, but persistently, across your palate.

Available:

Bridge Road
Slowbeer
Purvis Cellars
Blackhearts & Sparrows
Purvis Beer Richmond
Smith Street Cellars
Local Bottle Store & Provisions
McCoppins

Style: IPA
Strength: 5.0%

Bridge Road / Nøgne Ø India Saison (Oz)

The first version of the Bridge Road / Nøgne Ø collaboration to hit the shelves Down Under is the one brewed by Ben Kraus on his return from Norway, using the same recipe as that concocted with Kjetil Jikiun earlier in the year. The story is that the pair of saison lovers decided to make one with a bunch of Aussie hops that weren’t available in Europe at the time of the brew. Hop Products Australia sent Stella and Galaxy varieties over and both were used to create a highly hopped, high alcohol “India Saison”. The original should be here soon. For now, you can tuck into the Aussie version and be blown away by the huge tropical fruit aromas. It’s as pungently hoppy an aroma as you could wish for, and the hop character carries on in the mouth before the saison yeast pops its head up to say a gently spicy “Hello!” and remind you it’s there. The saison character becomes more prominent as it warms, becoming almost two beers in one, two beers that seem to get on really rather well.

Available:

The Local Taphouse St Kilda
The Dispensary Enoteca
McCoppins
Local Bottle Store & Provisions
Purvis Beer Richmond
Slowbeer
Bridge Road
Blackhearts & Sparrows
Warners at the Bay
Purvis Cellars
Platinum Liquor, Sydney
Cookie
Royston
Penny Blue
Biero
Young & Jackson's
Oscar’s Alehouse
Olinda Cellars
Harvest Wine and Liquor
Healesville Hotel
Archive, West End

Style: Highly hopped saison
Strength: 7.5%

Bridge Road Single Hop IPAs (bottled)

A handful of bars around Australia have offered their punter the chance to educate themselves hoppily courtesy of Bridge Road’s single hop IPAs and now you can do it from the comfort of your favourite armchair / hammock / ditch. We doubt you need telling about Galaxy, the big cheese of Hop Products Australia’s development program in recent years that’s doing its thing in beers across Oz, while Stella is described as its stepsister – a cross between an Aussie and European variety. The former is all about the tropical fruit aromas, the latter combines them with a herbal twist. Both are jam-packed with hops, giving your bitter part of your palate a solid workout. You’ll soon be able to try them three ways too, as the Bridge Road / Nøgne Ø collaboration India Saison that used both is making its way to Oz right now, while another batch is set to be brewed at the Beechworth brewery any day now.

Available:

Bridge Road
Slowbeer
Purvis Beer
Purvis Beer Richmond
Local Bottle Store & Provisions

Style: IPA
Strength: 4.8%

Bridge Road Stella IPA

The odd keg (and one cask) of this beer have been floating around for the past week or so, but we thought we’d fire it up on Crafty on International IPA Day, on which it is being featured at a number of venues. The beer takes the concept of Bridge Road’s Galaxy IPA, which has been brewed fairly regularly over the past 18 months, but uses a new hop variety developed in Tassie. From start to finish, nothing but Stella is used, allowing the beer to be a showcase for a hop described by Hop Products Australia as “reminiscent of, yet distinctly different in character to noble European varieties”. They say it displays “subtle hints of anise and a satisfying fullness of palate” and “provides a contrast to the citrus and tropical fruit characters of many modern hops”. Expected to be the next star of the Aussie hop scene after Galaxy, this is as good a chance as any to see what it’s all about.

Available:

Bridge Road
The Local Taphouse Darlo
The Local Taphouse St Kilda
Biero
Harts Pub
Beer DeLuxe

Style: IPA

Bridge Road Saison Noir

Bridge Road founder Ben Kraus is making a nice habit of pulling something special out of the bag to mark his brewery’s anniversaries. And with this – a beer which suggests that while the first half of 2011 belonged to black IPAs the second will belong to black saisons, what with Doctor’s Orders Synapse having appeared already – that tradition continues. You can plot the evolution that’s led Ben here, from the spectacular Oak-Aged Imperial Porter of the fourth anniversary through last year’s mightily impressive B2 Bomber. It’s not just that the malt bill has been the same for all three; the effect of the Belgian yeast that made last year’s B2 increasingly funky as it aged is multiplied here. This time it’s the yeast from his Chevalier Saison, a strain that’s prominent enough in its fruits and spices to dominate the aroma, leaving the roast and chocolate malts to add heft to a rewardingly complex beer with layers of flavour as dense as its tan head and as slinky as its packaging. The black IPA is dead. Long live the black saison?

Available:

Bridge Road
The Local Taphouse St Kilda

Style: Black Saison
Strength: 6.5%

Bridge Road Dog's Breakfast (Brew 500)

A beer that could have been called the kitchen sink, this is Bridge Road’s 500th brew – a milestone marked with a beer created in tribute to one of the brewers' favourite parts of the day: breakfast. Although black pudding, bacon and eggs were rejected as ingredients, little else was. In went fruit toast, muesli, coffee beans, loose tea, maple syrup, honey. And the result? Less crazy than one might imagine. A deep, dark brown beer, the smoked malts added to create a hint of bacon aroma are there but subtle, with the flavour dominated by toasty dark malts without veering far into sharper roasted territory. Instead of the jumble you might have expected given its genesis, it’s actually a nicely rounded dark lager with plenty going on but in harmony. Happy 500th Bridge Road!

Available:

Josie Bones
Cookie
Biero
The Local Taphouse St Kilda
Beer DeLuxe
The Local Taphouse Darlo
Bridge Road
Slowbeer
Blackhearts & Sparrows

Style: Dark lager

Bridge Road's The Harvest (2011)

When a brewer makes it clear he’s adding a truckload of wet hops to his hop harvest beer – and not allowing anything but wet hops anywhere near the brew – you’ve got to assume he’s aiming for a beer that encapsulates as best as possible the experience of grabbing a handful of hop cones straight from the vine. And from the moment you pop Bridge Road’s third annual Harvest into a glass, that’s what you get. Just like drinking a fresh Stone & Wood Pacific Ale is like sticking your face into a bag of Galaxy hops, here the experience is akin to rubbing a fresh flower between your fingers and holding them to your nose. The hop variety in question doesn’t yet have a name (it’s an experimental one from Rostrevor just down the road from the Bridge Road brewery), but it certainly appears to have the potential to be developed commercially. At first, it’s all about the lemon aromas, with a hint of candy sweetness on the nose, and develops into something akin to an English summer ale with a tropical twist. It’s paler than pale, with the malts offering up a touch of honey but really only there to allow the hop characters to shine in the mouth too: resinous grapefruity zest with a surprisingly creamy mouthfeel created by its gentle carbonation. The resultant bitterness is far from intense, but does linger, as if you’ve taken those sticky fingers from rubbing the hop cone and licked them clean.

Available:

Bridge Road
Slowbeer
Beer DeLuxe
Josie Bones
Blackhearts & Sparrows

Style: Hop Harvest Ale
Strength: 4.6%

Bridge Road Chevalier Dunkelweizen

With so much attention lavished on the other two members of the Chevalier range – the Saison and Biere de Garde – the Dunkel’s been shunned a little: it’s like the Beechworth Cinderella that’s picked on and kept out of sight by her ugly sisters (although we’re not suggesting there’s anything ugly about either of those beers – quite the opposite). But just as Cinderella had her little glass slipper, so the Dunkelweizen has a little trick up its sleeve, in the form of a brand new recipe from brewer Ben Kraus. (This analogy has gone far enough now, Crafty) Whereas before the beer was a blend of others, now it’s a brand new one built from scratch. Pouring a deep mahogany brown – opaque like a chocolate liqueur – there’s plenty of foam banana and some malty sweetness rising from its thick brown head. In the mouth, there’s milk chocolate, cola, some burnt toffee and, of course, more of those bananas. There’s plenty to chew on in a pretty creamy mouthfeel too, all rounded off with a smidgeon of gently lingering roast bitterness. But no pumpkin – not even a magic one. (Oi!)

Available:

Courthouse Hotel
Bridge Road

Style: Dunkelweizen
Strength: 5.2%

Bridge Road Saison de Printemps

For their second variation on the Saison theme, the Bridge Road brew team has added elderflower and blueberries to their highly rated beer to create a one-off “Spring Saison”, having twice experimented with quince. Once again, both additional ingredients are sourced locally – the elderflower at the brewery itself – and once again it’s a markedly different beer to its parent. It’s cloudier in appearance and has something of a blood orange tinge compared to the original’s light straw colour, while the new additions also give something of a herbacious edge to it. There’s some lemon mingled with the traditional fruity, spicy saison notes plus a fair amount of added funk. To taste, it’s no less complex, with a hint of sugar sweetness amid the tartness, a sharp snap of plum-like bitterness and a perfumey aftertaste. Intriguing!

Available:

Purvis Beer Richmond
Slowbeer
Bridge Road
Courthouse Hotel
Mrs Parma’s
Royston

Style: Fruit-infused Saison
Strength: 6.0%

Bridge Road Galaxy IPA

NOW RELEASED IN BOTTLES! Named after the Australian hop variety that has done much to influence beer styles in Australia in recent years, the Galaxy IPA was first brewed by this Beechworth brewer last year. Using nothing but the Galaxy hop both for bittering and aromatics / flavour, the 2010 variant was unveiled for the first time on the first day of October’s Microbreweries Showcase. This year there’s a higher amount of dry hopping – 12kg in 800l – resulting in a lighter, less bitter beer that’s all about the decorative properties of Galaxy. Fresh, floral and fruity, the nose is mixed citrus fruits, such as grapefruit, plus lemongrass, perhaps even freshly cut grass, with the flavour suitably tropical and refreshing too – just in time for the warmer weather. An IPA in name more than style, it’s nevertheless another quality addition to the Bridge Road roster.

Available:

Bridge Road Brewery
Biero Bar
Mrs Parma’s
Royston
Local Taphouse St Kilda
Courthouse Hotel
Blackhearts & Sparrows
Slowbeer (On growlers too while it lasts)
Purvis Beer
Cookie
The Terminus
Oscar’s Alehouse
Olinda Cellars
Baden Powell
Penny Blue

Style: India Pale Ale

Bridge Road Summer Ale

An exclusive release for members of Bridge Road’s Posse, this is a pale Belgian ale developed as an easy drinking summer beer with a difference. It uses a basic malt recipe of Australian pale malts and two different Belgian yeast strains. According to Ben Kraus, the result is “a mild beer with minimal bitterness and a fruity finish from the yeast strains. The plan was to assess the beer after primary ferment and then decide on a hop regime for dry hopping. We have so far added Centennial and Amarillo hops from the US and also dumped in some Nelson Sauvin from NZ.” The Posse gives members access to exclusive brews, delivery of Bridge Road beers to their door, discounts at the brewery, ‘special treatment’ at beer events and invites to happenings at the brewery. To find out more, head here.

Available:

Posse members only

Style: Belgian Pale Ale
Strength: 4.5%

Bridge Road B2 Bomber

The Bridge Road crew like to make a statement with their anniversary beers and the 2010 special is no exception. A true melding of styles, the B2 Bomber is a Black Belgian IPA, bringing together darker, roasted malt varieties, a swagful of hops and a Belgian yeast variety in a quite intriguing mix. The combination of aromas when the dark-as-night beer first poured from the black-labeled champagne bottle like a huge, foam-headed espresso had Crafty confused: “A bag of rubber bands?” Further investigation revealed all manner of aromas – changing as it warmed: sugar sweetness, hints of roasted malts, some fruitiness from the Belgian yeast – even a suggestion of ripe banana. In the mouth, the “Belgian” and “IPA” elements come and go in a flash, with the dark, roasty, toasty flavours dominating and leading to a long, very dry finish underpinned by the hops. Big and bold – in keeping with the stark labeling – and a fine addition to anyone’s cellar.

Available:

Bridge Road Brewery
Slowbeer (growlers and bottles)
Royston
Beer DeLuxe
Local Taphouse St Kilda
Oscar’s Alehouse

Style: Black Belgian IPA
Strength: 8.5%

Megachile Pluto Braggot

The first brew devised by one of Ben’s fellow brewers, Nardia McGrath, this is a recreation of an incredibly rare beer style dating from Medieval times. A full-bodied, red-blooded honey and ale combo, it mixes a fruity Belgian yeast with UK and European malts, a touch of cinnamon and nutmeg and a serious whack of Red Stringybark honey from Beechworth in a 10% beast of a drink that’s part sweet liqueur, part ale as hinted at by the hop bitterness that picks up when the spicy honey flavour tails off.

Available:

Bridge Road Brewery
Biero Bar
Local Taphouse St Kilda

Style: Braggot
Strength: 10%