New Beers
Barely a day goes by without another seasonal or one-off special flying out of an Australian brewery (if not ten). Here and in our weekly newsletter, we'll bring you news and, if we've sampled them, our take on as many of them as possible. Happy hunting!
Stone & Wood Counter Culture: G3 Hazy DIPA
Tapped April 3rd, 2020
Stone & Wood define their Counter Culture releases as beers that "go against the grain". When you're looking at a fruity imperial Berliner Weisse, French toast in a glass or a Berocca-aping beer (not Hydralyte as I said in the write up...), you can see where they're coming from. But a hazy double IPA? Swimming with the tide, you might say. Although, in this case, maybe it's that the brewers have got something against the grain? After all, they are asking it to do some pretty heavy lifting,… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Hazy DIPA
- ABV
- 7.6%
- Bitterness
- 72 IBU
- Stockists
-
Find the beer here
Mountain Goat Rare Breed: Pineapple & Coconut Berliner Weisse & P.O.G. IPA
Tapped April 3rd, 2020
A warm breeze ripples through the palm fronds overhead, causing the lanterns to rock gently back and forth. From one side comes the sound of waves breaking on the sands; from the other, Manu Chao is singing of his Bongo Bong. From the glass in front of you rise distinctive tropical fruit and coconut aromas. Yes, it's time to imagine you're whiling away a night at a Thai beachside bar. Because, let's face it, imagining such a scene is the closest you're going to get for some time yet (unless you're… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Fruited Berliner Weisse & Fruit IPA
- ABV
- 6.5% & 7.0%
- Bitterness
- 70 IBU & 5 IBU
- Stockists
-
Both available nationwide
One Drop Brewing Hazy IPA & Castaway IPA
Tapped April 3rd, 2020
Late last year, One Drop released a New World IPA, and described it as being "brewed like a West Coast but hopped like an East Coast”. But, in the interest of doing isolation well, they’ve now separated the West Coast from the East Coast, making two beers from the one. Their Hazy IPA is bursting with summer fruit hop notes, boasting pineapple, mango and stonefruit on the nose. But it’s the texture from the wheat and oats that really amps this one up - it’s like drinking a blanket fort… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Hazy IPA & West Coast IPA
- ABV
- 7.2% & 6.0%
Pikes Beer Co Lemon Verbena & Ginger Gose
Tapped April 3rd, 2020
Pikes' fourth limited release for 2020 ventures into sour territory in the shape of a lemon verbena and ginger gose. The beer was kettle soured with the lemon verbena and ginger added late in the boil. The former is a plant native to South America that imparts subtle lemon flavours and is often used in cooking or in warm tea. Here, it complements a load of ginger, presumably aiding our health while it tickles our taste buds. The ginger aroma is powerful and demands your attention from the first… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Spiced Gose
- ABV
- 4.0%
Moon Dog Jean-Strawb Van Damme Sour Ale
Tapped April 2nd, 2020
We've given Moon Dog's Magnificent Mullets series credit in the past for being somewhat ahead of the game in terms of the Aussie beer scene, even popping them into our Beers of the 2010s feature at the end of 2019, back when we thought that year was shithouse. Given our current predicament, it may well be they're prescient in more ways than one. After all, who among us hasn't considered the ways in which we can take advantage of enforced isolation from the rest of society? While mullets were briefly… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Fruit Cream Sour
- ABV
- 4.5%
Bright Brewery Belgian Golden Ale & Kiwi Sweetart Sour Ale
Tapped April 2nd, 2020
Strong Belgian style ales were once the sort of beer a brewery would have in their lineup – usually as a seasonal – as a radical point of difference, the sort of place occupied today by, say, a high ABV, fruit and lactose hazy double IPA. Despite the vast changes in the beer world and rapidly evolving tastes, strong Belgian styles are, if anything, less prevalent – at least in terms of a percentage of local beers on tap and in fridges – and more of a throwback option. From their very earliest… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Fruit Sour & Belgian Golden Ale
- ABV
- 4.3% & 8.2%
- Stockists
-
Golden Ale only available online
Parkhill Cellars
More stockists...
Ocho & Deeds Woolly Mammoth Double IPA
Tapped April 1st, 2020
Just a couple of weeks before travel into Tasmania was brought to a halt, Ned from Quiet Deeds called in to see Stu from Ocho at his Miner’s Gold brewery home. Of course, they brewed a beer together and, of course, it is a double IPA. With all the juice style IPAs on the market at the moment, it's refreshing to dip into a double IPA that serves up a thick, resin-filled back palate. Whilst light on the malts and driven by a hop forward front palate, the pleasant dry warmth you get at the end –… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Double IPA
- ABV
- 8.0%
- Stockists
-
Order direct from Ocho, where you can pick up special lockdown mixed packs too
King River Brewing Blueberry & Mango Berliner Weisse
Tapped April 1st, 2020
Nathan Munt from King River Brewing has been busy throwing fruit into his beers recently, with two Berliner Weisse style beers available from the brewery this April. For Blueberry Berliner Weisse, he sourced local blueberries so he could throw them atop a kettle soured wheat ale base. The skin of those berries give the beer a fantastic pink, slightly purple hue while the flavour they contribute is unmistakable, while the tart finish, to my mind, brought to mind chomping on blueberries straight from… Read more
Red
- Style
- Fruit Berliner Weisse
- ABV
- 3.5% % 3.8%
- Stockists
-
If you buy them from King River's new online store use the code CRAFTYPINTS for a 10 percent discount!
Cheeky Monkey Guillotines East Coast IPA
Tapped April 1st, 2020
Following the Supertubes collab from pre-shutdown 2020, Cheeky Monkey’s Guillotines keeps the swell pumping in the hazy surf break series with this one is named after a Wilyabrup reef break. Although the nomenclature is recent, the build towards it stretches back into 2019 when a limited release IPA trio explored various shades of haze. The lessons learned then have given the openers to this clutch a substantial advantage, particularly in terms of palate structure. Here, Guillotines opens with… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- East Coast IPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
- Stockists
-
Available from the Vasse brewery and WA retailers.
The Caves Road brewery is currently closed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
More stockists...
Cheeky Monkey Imperial Monk 2020 & Great White Raspberry
Tapped April 1st, 2020
It’s a delicious dichotomy: in one can, the return of a much loved and highly rated imperial red IPA and, in the other, the debut of hard seltzer in a can from an Australian craft brewery. Being a beer publication, let’s start there. Cheeky’s Imperial Monk began as a scaled-up version on the now defunct Travelling Monk mid-strength red ale, and has become an iterative, annual release. Where 2019’s was more of an imperial American red ale, 2020 is a straight ahead imperial red IPA. It’s… Read more
Red
- Style
- Imperial RIPA & Hard Seltzer
- ABV
- 8.3% & 4.0%
- Stockists
-
Available now from the Vasse brewery and WA retailers.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Caves Road brewery is currently closed.
More stockists...
Hawkers Right On Schedule Hazy IPA
Tapped March 31st, 2020
They might have come late to the hazy party but it would appear the Hawkers brewers took a fancy to what they saw as they've tagged along with their hosts, cleared their diaries (haven't we all) and rocked up to the next one as the doors open, arms laden with another IPA that's even bigger than their first, albeit one that slips down easier. The reasons for this bigger-in-booze yet easier-to-dispatch one-two punch can presumably be put down to a few things. The sweet-bitter balance leans more heavily… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 8.5%
White Rabbit & Pana Organic Chocolate Stout 2020
Tapped March 30th, 2020
It feels like Easter, as with pretty much everything else other than adjusting temporarily to a new way of life, is cancelled for 2020. But if you feel like getting in the mood (well, the mood that involves chocolate, bunnies and hunts rather than murder and alleged resurrection, at least) then there are still brewers out there keen to lend a hand. White Rabbit have been putting out a chocolate stout in cahoots with Pana Organic for a few years now and their 2020 version – brewed with cacao from… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Chocolate Stout
- ABV
- 5.6%
La Sirène What The Farmhouse & Beer With Jeff & Blueberry Noir
Tapped March 29th, 2020
Given the limited amounts of each that have been released and the fact we've taken a little while to post this, this trio might require a bit of hunting down. But none is the sort of beer with which you want to sample just enough to put together a write up and pour the rest away; they all warrant time dedicated to them. What The Farmhouse is another La Sirène beer featuring both spontaneous fermentation and a spot of blending, with a young, acid forward farmhouse ale coming together with a wild… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Oak-Aged Wild Ales
- ABV
- 5.0% & 7.2% & 6.0%
- Stockists
-
La Sirène Cellar Door (open Saturdays)
Or online store
And select good bottleshops
More stockists...
Holgate Brewhouse Road Trip IPA (Cans)
Tapped March 27th, 2020
These days, IPAs are found everywhere and in every shape and size. Go back a decade and they were pretty rare. You might see the odd one as a specialty release, but the industry was still trying to convince drinkers 4.5 percent ABV pale ales weren't confronting. Yet it was at the start of the last decade Holgate first released their Road Trip IPA, inspired by a road trip through the States, and it soon became a core beer, making them one of the first local breweries to back an IPA as a year round… Read more
Golden
- Style
- IPA
- ABV
- 6.0%
- Bitterness
- 80 IBU
3 Ravens Guava Juicy & Pacific Red Ale
Tapped March 27th, 2020
The Juicy train rolls around again at 3 Ravens, with a return to fruit additions this time. Guava is the weapon of choice here and, boy, can you tell. It looks like a fruit juice in your glass and the fruit purée comes out on top in its arm wrestle with the New World hops. Indeed, such is the guava's potency, there's a tartness reminiscent of a fruit sour in place of the soft bitterness you'll have found in most of its Juicy predecessors. Leaving the Thornbury brewery around the same time is the… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Fruit IPA & Red Ale
- ABV
- 6.0%
Otherside Brewing Co Juicy West Coast IIPA & Russian Imperial Stout
Tapped March 26th, 2020
The Otherside experimentals continue with a flurry. Not only is there this massive duo but, as you read this, there’s also an AUS/NZ DDH Oat Cream IPA on the way plus some more shelf stable styles on the horizon. The DDH Juicy West Coast Hazy IPA is a hybrid of sorts, and one which is finding increasing favour with brewers looking to best express New World hops. A decade or more ago, the three Cs may have abrasively dominant, nowadays more juicy offerings showcase hops. And that's the case here.… Read more
Black
- Style
- IIPA & Russian Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 8.4% & 9.8%
- Stockists
-
Available from the Myaree brewery, their web store, and other Otherside stockists
Temple Brewing Last Train To Boston & Pineapple Seltzer
Tapped March 26th, 2020
Temple Brewing’s twin tinnie release sees the Brunswick brewery arrive a little late to one party but nice and early to the seltzer soirée. Last Train To Boston is a NEIPA - the brewery’s first to get a wide release – and one that’s triple dry-hopped, thus enabling the brewery to give the beer an extra dash of modernity by calling it a TDH NEIPA. That heavy hopping regime also gives the beer a big hit of orange, along with mango and nectarine, in a soft, thick and entirely opaque beer. … Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- TDH NEIPA & Fruit Seltzer
- ABV
- 6.4% & 4.7%
Bad Shepherd Poseidon IIPA
Tapped March 25th, 2020
The Almighty has long been one of Bad Shepherd's most sought after and top notch releases, a bold yet balanced double IPA bearing a hoppy, bearded god figure on the cans. But now it turns out there's someone more almighty than The Almighty as Poseidon, a triple IPA, makes his way from the brewery – all 10 percent ABV of him – after proving popular as a single keg trial at a past event. There's a danger with such high octane beers, particularly where the brewers look to keep the malt character… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- IIIPA
- ABV
- 10.0%
Moon Dog Leon's IPA
Tapped March 24th, 2020
They may have had to shut their venues for a while but the new releases are set to keep on coming from Moon Dog, with Leon's IPA the latest in their Doggo IPA series paying tribute to their staff's canine buddies. In the case of Leon (which you may have had the chance to try on tap at their venues pre-shutdown before batch two was packaged), they've stepped into NEIPAland and held little back. At a time when many hazy IPAs are reining in the depth of haze, this is turbid AF; it's almost as if hop… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- NEIPA
- ABV
- 6.4%
- Bitterness
- 55 IBU
Newstead & Loop Growers Salt of the Earth Pickled Pilsner
Tapped March 23rd, 2020
We all need to eat more vegies. We know that. So putting veggies in our beer makes as much sense as anything else. But this isn’t the primary reason Newstead joined up with Loop Growers; the brewery has jumped on board with the small farm’s sustainable ethos of closed loop farming. They send spent grain and food scraps to the farm to be used as compost and they purchase produce for use in their venues - and, sometimes, their beers. Salt of the Earth Pickled Pilsner is the fourth beer Newstead… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Pickled Pilsner
- ABV
- 4.5%
