Otway Organic Lager

Made with raw ingredients that are all certified organic and rainwater harvested at the brewery, this crisp, refreshing lager is one of the greenest beers in Australia.

Style: Lager

Otway Stout

A deeply dark beer with a crema like head, this dry stout has a gentle roast and treacle aroma that merely hints at the flavours within. Dark chocolate with a touch of burnt caramel gives way to a pleasantly lingering mild bitterness from the roasted malts. A classic winter beer.

Awards: People's Choice Winner - Stouts, Federation Square Microbreweries Showcase 2009 and 2010. Silver medal - Australian International Beer Awards 2010

Style: Dry Stout
Strength: 5%

Otway Ale

A clear, light amber ale with a white head that clings to the side of your glass, the Otway Ale is subtly complex. The nose mixes an almost sherbet like sweetness with a touch of malt and the grassy, floral bouquet of classic English hops. Upfront caramel flavours soon give way to a steadily building hop bitterness reflecting the mixture of varieties used in the boil to create the sort of beer enjoyed in English pub gardens for years.

Style: Pale Ale
Strength: 4.9%

Otway Pilsner

Using fresh rainwater captured at Otway Estates is perfect for this style of beer, a light Bohemian pilsner which demands subtlety of flavour. It pours with a bright white, lingering head and has a gentle floral aroma from the use of traditional European Saaz hops, which also lend the beer a soft, dry finish. An eminently sessionable, thirst quenching lager.

Style: Bohemian Pilsner
Strength: 4.8%

Otway Red Ale

The Red Ale is a traditional Irish ale, meaning the emphasis is firmly on the malt character. The blend of malts includes some roasted barley which give the beer an element of roasted nut, even a hint of woodiness. The distinctive earthy aroma and flavour of English Goldings hops add balance.

Style: Irish Red
Strength: 5%

Otway Wheat

This cloudy, light gold beer is Otway’s take on the Belgian witbier (White Beer) style, which means citrus and coriander on the nose and the palate. A refreshing beer in which the use of unmalted wheat adds a touch of nuttiness, it’s also only 4.3% so won’t knock you out while quenching your thirst on a hot summer day. It pours with a creamy white head, a creaminess that’s matched in the mouthfeel.

Awards: AIBI Bronze Medal 2009 & 2010 Peoples' Choice Award for Best Wheat Beer at 2010 Fed Square Microbreweries Showcase

Style: Witbier
Strength: 4.3%

Prickly Moses / Odyssey Tavern Hop Series

All being well, in the near future the Odyssey Tavern & Brewery will become fully what it says on the tin: a tavern and a brewery. In the meantime, as work continues to get the in-house brewery up and running, the team there are having a bit of fun with one of the region’s brewers, Prickly Moses. Taking advantage of the venue’s hand pump, Prickly’s head brewer Luke Scott has been playing around with his Otway Ale and a few hop varieties to deliver a range of tiny batch beers. Thus far, the Otway Ale has been given a twist with Mosaic hops, a new variety from the States, also known as the son of Simcoe, which Luke says delivers some lovely floral aromas. Specifically, he says he gets lavender, but he says others disagree… The other hop to have been used so far is the British Bramling Cross, which took the Otway ale in an ESB direction. The plan is to keep throwing these small kegs in Odyssey’s direction, so there should be something to try when ever you pop in.

Available:

Odyssey Tavern

Style: Various

Prickly Moses ChainSAW

It’s not that long ago that heads were turned and palates were pricked by the Bridge Road / Nøgne Ø India Saison for its combination of big, punchy Aussie hops and funky saison yeast – a combination of opposing styles that worked so well both brewers continue to make the beer for their respective markets. It wasn’t the first beer to meld styles you wouldn’t necessarily put together in a glass but was one that really got people talking. Since then, there’s been a wave of white IPAs, hoppy hefes and the like that throw hopping regimes more usually associated with strong pale ales into the mix with base beers in which hops are usually more of a supporting cast member, the bit part actor without any lines. The ChainSAW, which was originally trialled at this year’s GABS, fits into that lineage, a wheat beer using one of the most powerful of the new wave of Aussie hops, Stella, to create a beer that’s got big tropical (and herbal) aromas and a sizeable bitterness playing with the flavours and body you might expect in a wheat beer. There are some sweet malt flavours in its cloudy yellow mix too, while the bitterness blends with a dryness to create what’s akin to a summer refresher on steroids.

Available:

Prickly Moses
Aireys Pub, Aireys Inlet (tap)
Farm Food Birregurra
The Otway Fly – Lavers Hill
Warners at the Bay
Vue Grand, Queenscliff (tap)
Otway Nourished, Beech Forrest
Wye Beach Hotel, Wye River
Annie’s Provedore – Barwon Heads (Bottle)

Style: Australian Wheat Beer
Strength: 4.8%

Prickly Moses Vintage Ale 2012

Back before brewer Hendo (now at Southern Bay) made his brief dalliance with Prickly Moses and set about knocking out some big US-inspired brews, the seasonals coming out from the Otway Ranges tended to be more traditional in origin, notably the trilogy of Saison, Farmhouse Ale and Reserve De Otway. Those three are coming back soon, apparently, but in the meantime there’s this – a rusty coloured, spiced strong ale that’s spent 12 months in pinot noir barrels, something that’s apparent straight up with some light fruity (OK, pinot-y) notes from the off. It’s surprisingly delicate for a beer of its size, with some stewed fruit flavours alongside some malt sweetness and a gentle funky nod in the direction of Belgium, particularly as it warms.

Available:

Prickly Moses
Scratch Bar, Brisbane
Others tbc

Style: Barrel-Aged Strong Ale
Strength: 8.5%

Prickly Moses Tailpipe

Silly Crafty. There we were, happily plodding along in the mistaken belief that the Tailpipe was one of Prickly MOses brewer Hendo’s little playthings only on show at the Taste of Melbourne. But we were wrong, stumbling across it on our last visit to Slowbeer. And glad we were to be wrong, as it’s claim that it’s a “Big Ass Brown Ale” is spot on and Big Ass Brown Ales are always welcome at Crafty Towers. As you’d expect from such a beer, there’s plenty of everything, from the New World hops and nutty roast malts on the nose to fulsome chocolate flavours and a bitterness that’s part resiny hops, part roast in a beer that continues a run of releases from the Otway brewery that’s far removed in conception from its regular range.

Available:

Blackhearts & Sparrows
Slowbeer
Prickly Moses

Style: US Style Brown Ale
Strength: 7.1%

Prickly Moses Oktoberfest Lager

A beer that’s brewed every year for the Otway Estate Oktoberfest is the Prickly Moses' brewers take on malt driven Vienna style lagers. Made with malts and hops grown in the southern German state of Bavaria and, of course, the local Otway rainwater, we’re told to expect “a rich, malty palate with a balanced hop bitterness and aroma with a reddish hue”. It will be flowing at the Otway Oktoberfest on October 22 but has already started to appear elsewhere, after making its bow at The Local Taphouses' own Oktoberfest.

Otway Estate, The local taphouse both venues, Biero

Available from these bottle shops Otway Estate, Black Hearts and Sparrows, Purvis Cellars, Purvis Beer, Corkscrew Cellars Torquay.

Available:

Prickly Moses
Blackhearts & Sparrows
Purvis Cellars
Purvis Beer Richmond
The Local Taphouse Darlo
The Local Taphouse St Kilda
Biero
Corkscrew Cellars, Torquay

Style: Vienna Lager
Strength: 5.2%

Prickly Moses Chocolate Ale

The second new beer to be unveiled during the Prickly Moses showcase at Young & Jackson’s this sees the brewers from the Otway Ranges hooking up with Grounded Pleasures, who have supplied organic fair trade Ugandan Red Cocoa to create a rich, chocolaty ale. According to brewer Hendo: “We created this chocolate ale to highlight the reddish hue of the cocoa in a malt-driven beer.” He says there are subtle mineral yeast tones, designed to accentuate the origins of the cocoa. Some orange peel was added to the boil too. As with the Session Ale that’s also been debuted this month, if the feedback’s good they may be brewed again so if you like what you taste, let them know.

Available:

Young & Jackson’s (tap)
Blackhearts & Sparrows (growler)
Slowbeer (growler)

Style: Chocolate Ale
Strength: 6.2%

Prickly Moses Session Ale

A beer that tells you pretty much all you need to know about it in its name. It’s an ale. From Prickly Moses. Designed for sessioning. However, we’ve got space to fill on the page (and brewer Hendo likes to talk about his babies) so what else might you like to know? Well, it’s the first of two beers they’re debuting during their showcase in the Chloe’s Bar at Young & Jackson’s. It uses lots of the Topaz hop once almost exclusively used for bittering but now being explored for aroma and flavour, here added late in the boil and for dry-hopping (alongside some Centennial). Hendo says that gives you lychee, citrus and musk, apparently. The aim is to show Topaz can make something other than mainstream lagers and, if the beer’s well received during the showcase, it may reappear in keg and bottle down the line.

Available:

Young & Jackson’s

Style: Australian Ale
Strength: 4.6%

Prickly Moses Black Panther

One of two new beers from the Otway brewery making an appearance for the first time at the Melbourne leg of the Good Food and Wine Show, this dark beast originally reared its head during the Prickly Moses showcase at Young & Jackson’s least year. Now back, it’s an India Black Ale allegedly inspired by the mysterious legend of big black cats that roam the Victorian bush. It’s made with a “generous” addition of North American hops both in the boil and in the fermenter with caramelised black malt used to impart a subtle burnt flavour. According to the brewers, you’ll find “citrus hop notes and strangely enough some aniseed or licorice” plus “a luscious head that holds up well”.

Available:

Otway Estate
Newmarket Hotel
Blackhearts & Sparrows

Style: India Black Ale
Strength: 6.2%

Prickly Moses Raconteur: A Love Story About Hops

For a brewery that knocks out more beers than most over the course of a year, it might come as some surprise that this is Prickly Moses' first IPA. It’s a beer that’s got brewer Hendo hot under the collar, hot enough to describe it as a beer that “tells the classic story of American India Pale Ale with hops the protagonist. A hop driven beer in every way, hops are added throughout the entire brewing process from the mash tun to the kettle and even the fermenter.” The hops in question are the classic “Three Cs” – Centennial, Chinook and Cascade – which he says are balanced by a caramelised malt profile. It’s the hoppiest beer Prickly Moses has produced to date and was created in part as an experiment to see how much hops the brewhouse and their beer handling procedures could handle.

Available:

Otway Estate
Beer DeLuxe
Blackhearts & Sparrows

Style: US IPA
Strength: 6.4%

Otway Estate Wild Hop Organic Ale

One of the more unusual of this year’s crop of hop harvest beers, this saw the Otway Estate brewers track down a field of wild hops on the edge of the Otway Ranges that had once been used to supply the long-defunct Ballarat Brewery. Having filled their truck with Canterbury Goldings, they threw everything – hop flowers and vines – into the mash tun and continued adding more hops right through the process in a beer with a traditional English Special Bitter malt backbone. Brewer Luke Scott says it has “earthy, spicy” hop characters, a “touch of nectary sweetness – peach and apricot – and fresh green hop flower characteristics coming through”. It’s keg only with the first one outside the brewery being tapped at Josie Bones' Hop Harvest Dinner on May 4.

Available:

Otway Estate
Josie Bones
Apollo Bay Hotel
Kelly’s Bar & Kitchen, Olinda
Grumpy’s Green
The Local Taphouse St Kilda
The Local Taphouse Darlo
Biero
Carlton Hotel, Geelong
Young & Jackson’s

Style: Harvest Ale

Otway Estate Red Fred

Getting fruity in time for summer, Otway Estate appears to have combined its beer and cordial-making skills in this organic raspberry beer. A heap of crushed raspberries were added to a base beer with a soft enough flavour profile to allow the fruit to take effect, although it’s in the aroma that they really shine through: it’s like taking a whiff of a fresh punnet. The raspberries' effect on the palate is more subtle, definitely there but not in the manner of a Lindemans Framboise, for example, instead adding a slight tartness to a drink that’s nothing if not refreshing.

Available:

Available from the brewery
Or at the Young & Jackson’s Otway Showcase

Style: Raspberry beer
Strength: 4.8%

Oktoberfest 2010

The Otway Estate team really push the boat out for their annual Oktoberfest, bring in German oompah bands, putting on traditional German fare and games, having souvenir steins produced and, of course, brewing a specialty Oktoberfestbier. Brewed in the traditional Vienna lager style with ingredients imported from Bavaria, the 2010 version pours a bright copper colour with a white foamy head, has a soft malt aroma with a hint of spice from the hops, a biscuity malt-dominated flavour and a long, dry finish. It’s being launched at the Otway Oktoberfest on October 2.

Available:

Otway Estate Brewery

Style: Oktoberfest / Marzen
Strength: 5.2%

Barrel-aged Strong Ale

One of the benefits of having a winery and brewery on the same site is that it allows the brewer to get creative. This is the Prickly Moses Strong Ale after it’s spent a few months in an oak barrel previously used for Otway Estate’s Pinot. The result is a hint of oak on the nose and a smokiness to taste.

Available:

Otway Estate

Style: Barrel-aged beer

Otway Saison 2010

The 2010 vintage of one of Otway Estate’s trio of French and Belgian Farmhouse styles, the Saison pours a hazy golden colour with an effervescent white head. Fruity aromas from the yeast strains mix with soft alcohol notes on the nose and are matched on the palate by initial flavours of dried apricot. A tart, wine-like character comes through – one of the yeast strains used has red wine origins – along with a tingle of warmth from the high alcohol content before finishing with a lingering, astringent dryness not dissimilar to that of a strong French farmhouse cider.

Style: Saison
Strength: 7.2%