Stone & Wood Garden Ale

It's not too often that Stone & Wood release a short run beer, what with having to brew six million litres of Pacific Ale every day to meet demand. But in time for summer comes the Garden Ale, a sub-four per cent ale with its eyes firmly fixed on the post-lawnmower set. Like the Stone Beer, there's inspiration from the past, with juniper berries added to the boil in a nod to pre-hop days when brewers would raid their gardens for ingredients. According to Stone & Wood, the berries are said to: "purify negative energy, guard against disease, strengthen sexual potency, bring good health and even increase psychic powers". So there you go - drink Garden Ale and become an uber-fit, all-seeing sexual god(dess). On your way to superhuman status, you'll encounter a sessionable beer that uses newish Aussie hops Ella and Summer to add floral, grassy and spicy hop characteristics to what's a slightly cloudy, rusty golden-coloured ale with some sweet, caramel aromas and flavours and very gentle bitterness. It's on tap and in bottles with the former seeming the more rounded tipple to us here at Crafty Towers.

Published November 28, 2012 2012-11-28 00:00:00