Beer Blackman's Brewery Needs More Mosaic

We're a few days late writing about this beer. Given the Blackman's team go to the effort of making Crafty Towers one of the stops on their "pack-and-deliver-on-the-same-day" mission, we feel we should do our best to taste that day and post the next. But, given they only learned I was in Canberra when the beers had already been deposited, here we are. That said, if my day six sampling is anything to go by, as long as you can find some, you're not going to be wishing for more hop character.

The best-looking of the Needs More... IPA series to date, thanks to the whitest of fine bead heads, Mosaic explodes with pungent candied fruits – orange citrus, passionfruit and ripe red berries. To be honest, it’s a wall – or mosaic – of sweet, hop-derived fruitiness, like dipping your head into a blender full of the stuff or shoving an entire pack of juicy fruit gum in your mouth at once. The well-judged, lingering west Coast bitterness completes the picture in what's another winning IPA from the Torquay crew.

James Smith

This is one of the beers featured in our upcoming All The Hops! Crafty Cabal event at their new brewery. It's not too late to book tickets to come along – but you do need to be a Cabal member. Those Cabalistas who can't make it can join in for the tasting via livestream; we'll send the link out closer to the night.