First there was Eu-Bundy IPA in 2020. Then there was Eu-Bundy Black Rum & Plum Christmas Pudding Ale in 2021. Now in 2022, Eu-Bundy Spiced Rum Lager has landed, and I reckon it’s nosed in front as the winner of the three.
When I first cracked this collab between Eumundi Brewery and Bundaberg Rum, I took a sniff and assumed it was a Euro-style pilsner.* There was a sweetness (“From the malt, of course.”) and a spiciness (“That’ll be noble hops.”) that didn’t surprise me at all. But then I took a sip, and my assumptions were immediately corrected. Because this this isn’t a Euro lager; it’s an Aussie lager (in the words of Eumundi head brewer Chris Sheehan: “a lagery lager”) dosed with spiced rum.
Vanilla rushed over my tongue and the character of the spices shifted. From there, I went back and had another sniff, and my tastebuds had unlocked something: suddenly the vanilla was so obvious on the nose, with a little brown sugar sweetness, and the spices were more like a Christmas cookie than noble hops.
Drink it around the tree on Christmas night when the temperature’s still 35 degrees.
Mick Wüst
**I hadn’t read the notes before tasting it. Was this a professional dedication to approaching the beer with as much objectivity as possible, or the result of an impatience that led to an uninformed tasting? You’ll never know.
- Style
- Spiced Rum Lager
- ABV
- 5.0%
