Hobart Brewing Co were among many breweries and other indie beer businesses to turn ten in 2024, and celebrated the occasion with a quartet of celebratory beers. Two saw them take the beer with which they launched to new places; the others are very much of this time in Australian craft beer.
Let's start at the beginning – or at least the new versions of the beer that marked the brewery's beginning when founders Brendan Parnell and Scott Overdorf took to the city's harbour in a wooden boat with Harbour Master. The tenth anniversary versions are Double Harbour Master and a barrel-aged version of that beer. That said, I spent a fair while turning the can for the former around and around to make sure it wasn't barrel-aged too, such is the abundance of flavour beckoning you to wallow within each sip.
It comes across like a souped-up wee heavy with layers of treacly malts and dried fruits – even dried bananas – and lashings of Milka chocolate-coated toffee bananas on the nose. In fact, you can find similarities with weizenbocks and Belgian dubbels in this chestnut-coloured drop too. Perhaps Brendan and Scott never stopped paddling and ended up on the opposite side of the planet... As for Barrel-Aged Double Harbour Master – BADHaM to its friends – it's picked up additional booze yet ended up a little thinner on the palate, lower in carbonation, and with an additional spirituous top note as well something I became convinced was beetroot. But I was onto my second high ABV can...
Of the brand new releases, Waiting For A Mate is a 60-day pilsner as good as any pilsner you'll taste from a local brewer. Indeed, the fact they sent four led me into a three-way fight at the campsite over Christmas with my wife and a mate to decide who got the last of them. Pouring a vibrant copper with a touch of haze, you might pick up a touch of light citrusy / spicy hops but really this is a showcase of malts. They have remarkable depth, the bread crust sweetness laced with an earthy / spicy bitterness, all while delivering a quenching, crisp finish. An absolute cracker well worth the wait.
As for Punch Drunk WC IPA, on the one hand it offers much that's about as West Coast IPA as you could want a West Coast IPA to be, on the other you can see why they've put a tropical beach scene on the cans. It's pale gold with a light haze you soon start assigning to all the hops in the mix: texturally, they seem to sit between oils and resins, deep and lingering and rindy and piney without ever getting overly bitter, despite creative a distinctive bitterness – if that makes sense. Atop that baseline and finish there’s plenty of candied fruits too, as if Juicy Fruit-meets-blackcurrant new world hops are there to do the dancing while older varieties keep the rhythm.
James Smith
NB While there are kegs on at various places where you find their beers, if you want cans you need to buy a mixed case via the brewery. If you're not too late, you won't regret it.
Published January 6, 2025 2025-01-06 00:00:00
