Beer Moon Dog The Duke Of Chifley

In typical Moon Dog fashion, when they held a dinner to launch Black Lung X, it wasn't enough for them to pair that double-digit-booziness beer with two of the courses; no, they they offered a sneak peek of an even bigger beer with arguably the star course too. That bigger beer is The Duke Of Chifley, named after the two streets on which you find their breweries – Duke Street in Abbotsford and Chifley Drive in Preston. There's good reason too: the base beer was brewed at the former then brought to the latter to be aged in barrels that had housed Starward's Two-Fold Whisky.

The result is a barleywine that slots into the upper echelon of all the big, barrel-aged beers Moon Dog have made over the years. Starward's familiar honey-tinged richness is very much present amid a swirl of syrupy, treacly maltiness with real depth – a little savoury, a little oaky – in a drink that brings to mind a glass of after-dinner Muscat. I could say more, but, in all honesty, if you're a fan of barleywines then you just need to make sure you don't let the Duke pass you by.

James Smith

NB If you're a fan of their Timothy Tamothy Slamothy Tim Tam-inspired beer, that returns on March 26 too.