Like any good neighbours, The Mill Brewery and Molly Rose don’t mind borrowing the odd recipe idea from one another, but here the Collingwood brewers have created beers that really represent their collaborative Neighbourwood. First up, the Molly Rose crew headed to The Mill where they brewed a traditional Helles lager with pilsner and Munich malts along with Hersbrucker hops. The Mill then aged it on French oak staves for three months, only for Molly Rose to siphon some off to be refermented on raspberries in ex-chardonnay barrels that had just been filled with mix-culture saison.
Of the two, Oak Aged Helles Lager remains the most connected with the traditional lager style. That time in with oak has left behind plenty of vanilla and some spiced notes, while the Helles remains in the shape of brioche and toasted elements; there's quite a bite of bitterness too.
Barrel-Aged Helles Lager, meanwhile, is a long way from German tradition. Well, by Australian standards, Belgium isn’t really all that far from Germany is it? This side of the collab takes us straight down the autobahn to funky beer territory, with the beer’s bright red hue the first sign that those barrels and berries have done a lot. There are vibrant and fresh raspberry notes that run through the beer, joined by a Brettanomyces-derived layer of funk and a tart finish. Sure, there’s still a touch of the lager remaining in the shape of some bready malt but, by and large, this is a complex sour.
Will Ziebell
If you're reading this in time, you can join the brewers for the launch on July 30 – details here.
Published July 27, 2023 2023-07-27 00:00:00
