Having foraged for inspiration and native ingredients for their recent Bush Tucker Brew, the brewers at the Endeavour Tap Rooms have looked towards locals of a different sort for their latest release.
It stems from a trip that head brewer JB took to the home of NSW maltster Voyager, where he’d picked up the malt that went into a dark saison that appeared at the brewery over summer. A reciprocal visit from the Voyager team to The Rocks in February saw them hauling bags of a new "Super Munich" malt to try out at the little brewery. The recipe they chose to test it in is a mid-strength red ale that is, to most intents and purposes, a SMASH beer: single malt and single hop, with the hop in question being Galaxy – though a touch of Ella was added at the end too.
For a 3 percent ABV beer there’s a lot packed into its slight, bright red frame. At first, on the aroma front, you’re met with notes of passionfruit and just a hint of what’s to come on the malt front. Deliberately brewed to be low in carbonation, it takes on much of the feel of a traditional English style ale with a pleasing caramel sweetness and full body that belies the fact it’s so low in alcohol that it barely troubles the breathalyser. Add some spicy and earthy touches at the end, courtesy of the Ella hops, and it’s a genuinely interesting wee beer.
It’s also, hopefully, the first of more beers to come from the Endeavour and Voyager teams as they look to explore new space together; V.E.R.D stands for Voyager Endeavour Red Dwarf, the acronym summing up the various elements of discovery, requisite branding, colour, beer size and a bonus punny reference to space-based comedy.
Nick O
Published March 2, 2018 2018-03-02 00:00:00
