Red Duck Golden Dragon & Tiger Shark & Brasil

Style
Various styles

You just can't slow the man down. Yes, here's another round of limited release beers from Ballarat's Red Duck Brewery. Admittedly, one of them, the Golden Dragon isn't new, but an old favourite of the brewer's making a reappearance. Tagged a strong Celtic ale, it's all about the sweet, fruity malt, alcohol and yeast characters: within its blood orange depths you'll find sultanas and dates, toffee, treacle, brown sugar and the like. Low carbonation ensures it's a sipper for the sweeter toothed among you.

The Tiger Shark is a beer we're seeing a little more of these days. It's a hoppy red – the sort we featured in our last blind tasting – albeit one that comes across as more of a highly hopped English amber ale. The hops appear late on, creating a steadily building and ultimately lingering earthy, grippy bitterness behind the upfront caramel and toasted malts.

As for Brasil, it's the latest beer from Red Duck to make a feature of coffee, in this case Arabica beans roasted by near neighbours Charisma Coffee, who sourced them from, you guessed it, Brazil. Rather than pair the coffee with a dark beer style, here the idea is to lay it alongside a pale beer base and give the coffee free rein. As has often been Scott's wont throughout a dozen years of experimentation, it makes for an atypical experience: nutty coffee aromas hit first, but there's an almost lactose like sweetness there too, followed by dark honey like malt flavours and little in the way of roast or bitterness.

NB: The Ox imperial stout is also making a comeback after a few years away.

Published August 7, 2017

Name
Red Duck Brewery
Address

11a Michaels Drive
Alfredton
VIC 3350

Phone
(03) 5332 0723
Open Hours

All week: midday to 5pm

Pickled OnMarket
CBCo Goldy

More from Red Duck Brewery

Red Duck Walking On Sunshine & Miss Scarlet
Fruit Sours
5.0% & 5.8%
Red Duck Smokey & The Bear
Smoked Chocolate Stout
7.6%
Red Duck Barrel-Aged Golden Dragon
Barrel-Aged Strong Red Ale
7.8%
Red Duck & B.O.B. Better The Devil
Spiced Red Ale
4.6%
Red Duck Guavas Of The Galaxy
Guava Sour
5.3%
Red Duck Miss Margaux
Raspberry and Blood Plum Kettle Sour
4.8%
Red Duck Ra (2021)
Wild-Fermented Barrel-Aged Sour
7.3%
Red Duck Lazy Sunday, Flight Of The Wolf & Cinnamon Rye Pumpkin Ale
Saison & Double IPL & Spiced Belgian Quad
6.3% & 7.8% & 9.8%
Red Duck Super Normal Lager & Passionfruit Kettle Sour Saison & Ulysses
Various styles
Red Duck Vincent Van Gose & Sunday Saison & Cherry Tart
Gose & Saison & Cherry Sour
4.3% & 4.4% & 4.2%
Red Duck XPA & Orange Mosaic
XPAs
4.2% & 4.4%
Red Duck Make Like A Gooseberry & Low Tide
Berliner Weisse & White Ale
3.7% & 4.6%
Red Duck Mr Tom / Lemon, Lime & Bitters / Great White
Various
Red Duck Duckshund's Munich Lager & Duck Punt Saison
Lager & Saison
Red Duck City of Umber & Ulysses
Brown Ale & Dry Irish Stout
Various
Red Duck Bandicoot & Hammerhead
Light Pale Ale & IPA
2.7% & 6.8%
Red Duck Lord Burton's Breakfast
ESB with Tea
6.4%
Red Duck Double Dragon & Binabadladdie
Double IPA & Scotch Export Ale
8.2% & 4.5%
Red Duck La Foret & Dr F
Biere de Garde & Imperial Stout
6.0% & 10.1%
Red Duck Wolf / Cactus / Bizarre Love Triangle
Various
Various