New Beers
There has never been a time like now: more breweries releasing more new beers than ever before. Here, in The Crafty Cuppa, and in our weekly newsletter, we'll bring you details – and, if we've sampled them, our honest, independent take – on as many of them as possible. Enjoy!
Bucketty's X Choirboys Run To Paradise XPA
Published Yesterday
In this job not a lot surprises me. I’ve had a chicken salt gose, a souvlaki ale and just the other day a blonde designed by AI, so there isn’t much that shocks me anymore. Yet this morning when I opened up a parcel from Bucketty’s and saw their new XPA titled Run To Paradise was made in collaboration with the actual Choirboys, I'll admit I had some trouble finding my words. Thoughts gathered and beer sampled, what should you expect from this Northern Beaches beer/rock mashup celebrating 35… Read more
Golden
- Style
- XPA
- ABV
- 5.0%
- Stockists
-
Order direct from the brewery here
Hawkers Beer Sheer Terroir
Published January 27, 2023
Now, this is exciting. Sheer Terroir is a trio of beers that’s kicking off Hawkers Beer’s Experimental Series and their release follows a long journey. For years, brewery founder Mazen Hajjar has spoken passionately about hops and more specifically, where they're grown. Sure, Mosaic might be a single hop variety but compare it with Mosaic farmed elsewhere and you might find that the hop you think you know and love can taste a little different. In the world of wine, terroir is spoken about endlessly… Read more
Golden
- Style
- West Coast IPAs
- ABV
- All 6.5%
Blackman's Brewery Happy Pants
Published January 27, 2023
Happy pants might no longer be fashionable but Blackman’s Brewery’s love for West Coast IPAs has never disappeared. Given the fact such beers have continued to find success even in the face of juicier juggernauts, maybe the future is bright for fun but unfashionable pants too? Maybe you're holding onto a pair of torn-up pants from the 90s waiting for their day to come but it's quite likely the best time to try them is now as you crack a West Coast. Indeed, Happy Pants is about as classic a West… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- West Coast IPA
- ABV
- 7.2%
Green Gully Island Beer Australian Table Saison
Published January 27, 2023
It's little secret that, for the most part, the Aussie beer world is one heck of a collaborative place. And this beer is a good example of that. Farmhouse ale lover Luke Smith of Green Gully Brewing was approached by Al Tippett, the founder of AC Hops – a small operation growing hops nearby in Dean we wrote about in April 2021 – at last year's Ballarat Beer Festival. Al mentioned Dollar Bill had used his hops in the past, Luke asked for his product list, spotted he had Red Earth – a varietal… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Table Saison
- ABV
- 5.2%
The Mill Brewery Tiki Lounge
Published January 26, 2023
They’ve never been afraid of big flavours at The Mill Brewery and while Tiki Lounge might be here for long lazy afternoons, there’s a lot to unpack as you unwind. The sour takes the tropical tones of mango, passionfruit, guava and lime and while multiple fruits can at times get lost within a beer, here none of them do. Sure, the lime might be a little lighter than the mango, passionfruit and guava but it adds a zest to the beer’s tartness to keep the sweeter fruits nicely balanced. Fruited… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- 4.5%
- ABV
- Tropical Salted Sour
Rocky Ridge's January 2023 Quintet
Published January 25, 2023
Rocky Ridge have made a habit of releasing motley collections of beers in rapid-fire succession and their first foray in 2023 is no different: it features a quintet of beers ranging from a large format sour and a hybrid to a 12 percent ABV old ale and an ode to one of the cinematic world’s biggest moments. Starting light is Hybrid Beery, a sour IPA that gives off very refreshing green mango and grapefruit vibes. Exceptionally clean with bold sweet/sour character, Hybrid Beery is in a class of its… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Various Styles As Indicated
- ABV
- 6.5% & 4.5% & 12.0% & 5.55 & 6.4%
T Bone Brewing Tropical Sour & Party Punch
Published January 25, 2023
T Bone Brewing’s Huntingdale production brewery has clearly ensured they could approach summer with no shortage of hot weather-ready beer. Tropical Sour is just that, with the 3.0 per cent ABV beer starring watermelon, pineapple, passionfruit and strawberry. Sure, they might not actually have tropical beaches in Tasmania but sit by one of the island's stunning coasts and crack into the beer and surely the tropical tang from that mix of fruits will turn up the temperature and humidity. Party Punch… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Sour & Fruited Beer
- ABV
- 3.0% & 4.4%
Tallboy & Moose Dankosaurus
Published January 24, 2023
If you’ve been drinking craft beer for some time and that interest was brought on by a love of resinous and piney IPAs, then you might well feel like a dinosaur in the modern age. You’re standing in a bottleshop, engulfed in a sea of juice bombs, pastry stouts and lagers with the word "draught" on them and you're wondering why everyone got rid of The Dank. Tallboy & Moose have just the beer to take you back in time with Dankosaurus a classic West Coast IPA recipe plucked from a… Read more
Golden
- Style
- West Coast IPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
Bonehead Brewing Business Time & Elation 2023
Published January 21, 2023
There’s always a lot of cheer and celebration taking place at Bonehead Brewing but it looks like there’s that little bit more at the moment. Business Time is a celebration New Zealand, its hops and one of its greatest pop culture exports: Flight of the Conchords. If you don’t know the song and scene, here it is, whereas the hops are the much-loved Motueka, Moutere and Nelson Sauvin. Those hops bring a mix of grapefruit and gooseberry with further citrus zest part of proceedings, while the beer’s… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- NZ Pilsner & Barrel Aged Sour
- ABV
- 5.4% & 5.5%
Sunday Road Summer Samba Guava & Czech Pilsner & Figure 8
Published January 20, 2023
Another fruity sour from Sunday Road, with this entrant in the Summer Samba series is a little simpler than the previous ones, with the guava purée bringing a just bump of its flavour to the tart base. I’ve always found guava to be quite an understated fruit, and it is so here: expect a floral tang rather than a fruity blast. Don’t be fooled by the colour of the can, which is the same pink as the flamingos that have become the mascot of this series. Summer Samba Guava pours a cloudy apricot-orange… Read more
Red
- Style
- Fruit Sour & Czech Pilsner & Hazy DIPA
- ABV
- 5.0% & 5.3% & 8.0%
Molly Rose Not Wasted #2
Published January 20, 2023
They’re not wasting a second at Molly Rose. As they’ve been steadily revealing, they’re hard at work getting their expansion ready for people to enjoy - you can read more about it here. But while the day they welcome people inside the new space isn’t quite here yet, what is ready is Not Wasted #2. The series is dedicated to saving surplus fruit from rotting away with this beer using pineapple pulp and skins from Market Juice. Those were added to a low-alcohol, barrel-fermented sour for ten… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Pineapple Sour
- ABV
- 3.9%
Bodriggy Brewing Give Us A Spell
Published January 20, 2023
A lot of beers are designed to be shared by Give Us A Spell seems destined to be stolen. Well, maybe not quite stolen, but taken with a smile as you lean over to an esky that isn’t yours and look a dear friend in the eyes and say “give us a spell would ya?”. The beer in question is a citrus IPA without any of the citrus, with Give Us A Spell steeped in whole Eclipse flowers in the hopback before being dry hopped with further Eclipse, Citra Cryo and Comet. It’s a hoppy combination that’s… Read more
Golden
- Style
- IPA
- ABV
- 5.8%
Reckless Brewing GSD, Central West IPA & Double Gin & Tonic Sour
Published January 19, 2023
How thoughtful of Reckless to make a beer that’d help us get stuff done! If you weren’t aware, GSD is a clever little play on GTD, the Getting Things Done personal productivity methodology (gosh, that’s a mouthful). I’m not sure if GSD actually helps you to be more productive, but, I mean… it’s worth a try, right? This session ale is certainly putting in the effort: efficient use of malt gives it a nice biscuit character, it achieves plenty of orange sherbet aroma, there’s a proactive… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Session Ale & West Coast IPA & Gin Sour&
- ABV
- 3.5% & 6.5% & 6.0%
Aether Brewing American Pale Ale
Published January 19, 2023
It’s always nice to try a new take on an existing style; this one deftly dodged my expectations. If the brewers had only added hop varieties Cascade, Centennial and Simcoe, my expectations would have been more or less spot on. But they stacked on Loral, Zappa and Trident as well, and this extended cast introduced all kinds of new elements. I hear "American pale ale" and think "tastes like the early 2010s", but this limited release from Aether does not. In fact, it’s hard to… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- American Pale Ale
- ABV
- 5.0%
Hop Nation x Garage Project Pigdog
Published January 19, 2023
Hop Nation’s famed pilsner, The Rat Dog, has welcomed a fresh new pack member with the arrival of a Kwi spinoff, Pigdog. The New Zealand pilsner is a collaboration between the Melbourne brewery and Garage Project and while it largely follows the same traditional path Rattenhund, there's a modern and antipodean twist brought by Riwaka and Pacifica hops. As someone who knows little about New Zealand culture outside Lord of the Rings and Taika Waititi films, it feels like the name is a tip of the… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- NZ Pilsner
- ABV
- 5.0%
Dainton Beer Tropical Trooper
Published January 18, 2023
Have you watched Andor yet? Watch it – it’s a romp. Sorry, that’s an unusual way to start a sentence about a beer but having already told everybody I know how much I enjoyed the show, I figured I might as well start telling people I’ve never met. Besides, something about the beer's name and design made me think about Star Wars. Anyway, looking beyond this public service announcement and towards beer we have Dainton’s first limited release for 2023, Tropical Trooper. It’s a NEIPA ready… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- NEIPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
Moon Dog Ginger Beer
Published January 17, 2023
Moon Dog first released an alcoholic ginger beer in late 2021; a year or so later a new version appeared with a new look and a tweaked recipe. Of v1 we said it "looks like one of those sports drinks made by dolloping powder into your drink bottle. It doesn't drink like one, however, instead serving up sweet, lemon-tinged ginger on the nose which is joined by something more savoury to taste. Spritzy, a little sweet, a little prickly." So, how's v2? Well, clearly I'd forgotten what I'd written… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Ginger Beer
- ABV
- 4.0%
Noisy Minor ANZUS IPA (2023)
Published January 17, 2023
The year is 2014. Noisy Minor ANZUS IPA catches your attention as it’s just placed in the top ten of the GABS Hottest 100. It’s not that easy to get hold of (unless you head up Tamborine Mountain), but it’s worth keeping an eye out for. It’s a bangin’ IPA. The year is 2023. Noisy Minor ANZUS IPA catches your attention as it’s clear and piney and bitter amid a sea of soft hazy IPAs. It’s fairly easy to access for non-Tamborinians now that it’s also available through Catchment in West… Read more
Golden
- Style
- IPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
Temple Brewing x Ellerslie It's Always Balmy In Brunswick
Published January 16, 2023
Temple Brewing have started a new year paying tribute to their history, with the Brunswick East brewery releasing a collab with their former head brewery, Glenn Harrison. These days, Glenn’s the technical brewer at Ellerslie Australia; a job that sees him test and trial the suppliers' hops and other brewing ingredients to discover how brewers can get the most out of them. For It’s Always Balmy In Brunswick, he brought Trident Salvo along with him to the famous beachside suburb (that’s a joke… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Saison
- ABV
- 6.3%
Eumundi Brewery Market Mist
Published January 16, 2023
I don’t know how the Eumundi markets got so famous; the little hinterland town is known far and wide for them. And, if you’ve been to the sprawling markets, let Market Mist take you back there for a relaxing stroll. Enjoy the golden glow and pretend it’s the morning sun filtering through the leaves above. Inhale the hop aroma like the sweet smell emanating from a juice tent as you walk past: the unmistakeable whiff of fresh fruit, even if no one fruit stands out above the others. Feel the tiny… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy Pale
- ABV
- 5.5%
