A few short years ago, Traralgon could be a bit of a craft beer desert, with the sizeable Gippsland town offering little diversity when it came to beer choice. Then along came Good Land Brewing to turn it into a fertile spring of hazy, hoppy, fruited, fresh and dark beers and in the case of Desert Haze, the indie brewer have looked at some favourite hops through a DDH Hazy IPA lens. To make it, the Good Land crew started things off with some regenerative-grown malted barley, before throwing Citra into the whirlpool and dry hopping with that same hop plus Peacharine and Nelson Sauvin. Pouring an incredibly pale straw with a dense haze, it's a beer that's packed with tropical aromas of mango, melon and paw paw which carry through on the flavour front and joined by peach, mandarin and pear.
Departing the wild west takes us to Spaceships which blasts off into stout territory. To be more specific, it's an oatmeal breakfast milk stout made with coffee from Fat Cat Coffee Roasters. Good Land certainly doesn't seem to have gone light on the coffee beans either with rich, layered and expressive espresso notes apparent from the first crack of the can and lasting on the palate well after the beers gone. Along for the ride is sweet chocolate milk and a whole load of bitter, roasted elements.
Will Ziebell
Published May 3, 2024 2024-05-03 00:00:00
