Aside from the sole, heavy-lidded eye peering out from the cans, there's little of the kaiju / monster iconography to be found on KAIJU!'s summer 2023 addition to their core range. Indeed, in joining the ranks of Aussie brewers putting out a Mexican pale lager-inspired beer, or cerveza, you could argue there's little to link the beer with those that coloured the brewery's first decade.
Yet, measured against a background of changed circumstances in the wider world that have many people looking for more affordable beer options and, in some cases, simpler pleasures, this marker in co-owner and head brewer Nat Reeves' ongoing exploration of the world of lager makes sense. So, what's inside the monster-less cans with the obligatory colour yellow-and-blue colour scheme found on such beers?
The Crafty team got to taste a couple of pilot batch evolutions of this beer due to a KAIJU! presence on our recent blind tasting panels and it’s fair to say it's come a long way: squeezed into a tighter package until there’s little – at least when compared to the beers the brewery is best known for – left. Crystal clear and pale golden, there's cracker-like malts to the fore and nothing to speak of in terms of fruit or spice on the nose where instead there's some familiarly lager-esque esters at play. Flavours are of the soft, cereal sort, leaving you with a little sweetness amid the dry, yes, lager-like finish, as well as the question: how do you drink it from the can once you’ve shoved a slice of lime into the opening?
James Smith
NB If you're reading this in time, we're giving away cases of Cerveza to members of our beer club. More details here.
Published December 8, 2023 2023-12-08 00:00:00
