As a home brewer of many years and, more recently, one of the publicans involved in the Yarra Hotel in Abbotsford, Mick Thomas of Weddings, Parties, Anything was the perfect fit for this year's Good Beer Week Rockstar Brews. And, when hooking up with Goat, he had plenty of ideas about the beer he was after. A fan of darker brews, he opted for an English style Brown Ale, with the result being the Eastern Brown. For the most part, it's a sensible beer, at least when compared to the Wagons' PB&J: aromas of chocolate and caramel, some subtle spicy British hop character. However, given it was created for the Rockstar Brews series, there had to be a little flourish, so late on the beer was run through Andy - Mountain Goat's bigger brother to Randy the Hopinator - a unit in the brewery that allows them to circulate beer through extra ingredients before kegging / bottling. Andy was filled with nutmeg and cassia bark at the time to add an Aussie twist to the otherwise English beer before the Eastern Brown was sent out into the world.
Published June 10, 2013 2013-06-10 00:00:00
