St Patrick’s Day has a long history in Australia and goes back to when some of the very first Australian convicts arrived. For Paddy’s Day 2023, BentSpoke brewing have brought a bit of Dublin history to Australia with their “Tandem” collab with Teeling Whiskey. The distillery opened in the heart of Dublin in 2015 - a stone’s throw from Guinness - and while it was the first new distillery in the city in more than 125 years, the Teeling name is deeply tied to the city’s whiskey-making past.
Meanwhile. the Brewers’ Share name takes inspiration from the term angels' share which refers to the spirit lost as it ages in barrels. The beer started out as a classic Irish stout that was then aged in Teeling barrels for six months only to be infused with the whiskey and steeped coffee beans (because why not?) before being blended with a younger stout. To further capture the spirit of Dublin, the cans come dosed with nitro so it feels safe to at this point say there's a lot going on. But at 7.0 percent ABV, it’s by no means a huge imperial stout and like any beer with Richard Watkins’ fingerprints on it, it’s fundamentally balanced. The whiskey flavour washes across the creamy beer and brings notes of plum, dried fruit and brown sugar with further roasted malt characters and rich espresso coffee tying nicely to a bitter finish. Given both stout and whiskey share a long history in Ireland and Australia, Brewers' Share feels like a timely beery reminder that it's always good to take tradition somewhere new.
Will Ziebell
- Style
- Whiskey Infused Stout
- ABV
- 7.0%
