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!
Red Hill Brewery Long Live The King
Published Yesterday
It's been a big few weeks for the collaborators behind this beer. Red Hill founders Karen and Dave Golding announced they were looking to sell the business almost 25 years after they started hatching a plan to open a brewery, and Dan Rickard (the caricature on the labels) is celebrating ten years since he launched his Calibre distribution business in Brisbane. Red Hill were his first Victorian clients and remain with him to this day, which has led to a suitably celebratory beer: an imperial pilsner… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Imperial Pilsner
- ABV
- 7.8%
Hop Nation x Garage Project What's In The Box?
Published Yesterday
What’s In The Box? A thiol-rich experience of has is what’s in the box. The beer is a collaboration between Hop Nation and Garage Project and is one of the first in Australia to make use of Phantasm. We’ll take a deeper dive into the brewing powder soon but basically, it’s an extract developed by Garage Project’s cofounder Jos Ruffell to boost thiols in beer to add more juicy or tropical aromatics. It’s a complex side of the world of brewing but you don’t need to understand the science… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 7.4%
Blackman's Barrel Farm: Lemon Sorbet Sour
Published Yesterday
Blackman’s Barrel Farm series has often seen the brewery work closely with their mates and neighbours on the Surf Coast but Lemon Sorbet Sour started life a little closer to home. To brew it, brewery founder Renn Blackman popped around to his family’s home to grab some lemons from his mum’s tree before peeling them to add along with some of Torquay’s famous seawater. Without turning up uninvited, I think I can comfortably say that Renn’s mum knows how to grow lemons thanks to the beer’s… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Fruited Kettle Sour
- ABV
- 4.4%
Molly Rose Gaterale
Published Yesterday
Summer is here and if you’re eager for some post-workout refreshment (and maybe to add back in the kilojoules you just lost), Molly Rose have the beer for you. Gaterale is a barrel-fermented lemon and lime gose that first poured at a Good Beer Week Gala and at the time, was very warmly received. Now it’s back for the end of 2022 and it brings a really refreshing mix of tart and fragrant citrus and a touch of salinity. If Melbourne becomes as humid as Brisbane, then I’d want this beer to join… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Lemon Lime Gose
- ABV
- 4.5%
Wolf of the Willows Crisp Lager
Published Yesterday
They’ve always felt pretty chilled out at Wolf of the Willows and as 2022 started winding down, they released a beer for life’s lighter moments. Crisp Lager is a low-calorie and low-carb beer they say is built for moments like a post-hike refreshment or to wash down the bowl of chips you’ve ordered in a sunny beer garden. Pouring a particularly pale gold, the beer’s certainly true to its name, with a light body, crisp finish, little-to-know bitterness and the softest touches of citrus. But… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Lager
- ABV
- 4.2%
Dainton Beer Cherry Cola & Barrel-Aged Choctail
Published Yesterday
After releasing a ginger beer and alcohol-free XPA in quick succession, you might have wondered if Dainton were going to approach brewing a little differently. Well, these two suggest you would have been wrong. Cherry Cola has certainly hit the nail on the head when it comes to turning a soft drink into beer, with the sour filled with fancy flavours of cola with a touch of juicy cherry and a tart finish. Meanwhile, the brewery say Barrel-Aged Choctail is among their most indulgent releases yet and… Read more
Black
- Style
- Cola Sour & Barrel-Aged Stout
- ABV
- 4.3% & 11.4%
Five Barrel Flipside, Big Nipper & Norvell Belgian Christmas Ale
Published Yesterday
A koala*, a crab and a reindeer walk into a brewery… Flipside is a rush of fruit to the head. This hazy IPA is a showcase of Galaxy and Aussie Eclipse hops. It starts with aromas of peach and that fresh-but-sticky smell of rockmelon, and moves to lush citrus and tropical fruit flavours that come across dry in the mouth. But the beautiful full body is what really got my attention. You know those float tanks designed to be exactly the right softness so the sensation is gentle on your skin? It’s… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Hazy IPAs & Christmas Ale
- ABV
- 6.5% & 8.0% & 7.3%
- Bitterness
- 40 & 40 & 35 IBU
Fixation Brewing Freshly Hatched: 24 Hr Mini Golf
Published Yesterday
Who doesn't love a spot of mini-golf, that great leveller where a four-year-old seems to have as much chance of nailing a hole-in-one as a seasoned pro. That said, take one look at the cans on this Freshly Hatched release from Fixation and it probably should have gone with the crazy golf moniker. The blazed hop monsters bring to mind some of the golf tournaments I’ve heard about during beer weeks, during which players make their way through a can with each hole with results you can imagine. So,… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Oat Cream DIPA
- ABV
- 8.4%
Aether Brewing Twisted Vine Blood Orange Passionfruit NEIPA
Published Yesterday
Jump in a time machine and go back to the early days of Aether Brewing, and you’ll find Twisted Vine… but a little bit different. The year? 2017. The event? Beer InCider. The ABV? 8.5 percent. The passionfruit and blood orange NEIPA was a huge hit at the festival, which led to Aether re-releasing it in cans. But as they did so, they toyed around with the recipe and brought the crowd pleaser down to a more 4-pack friendly ABV - 5.5 percent. Today’s iteration is more in line with that second… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Fruited NEIPA
- ABV
- 5.5%
- Bitterness
- 20 IBU
Block 'n Tackle Kinny Lager
Published December 1, 2022
Australian towns seem to have a disposition towards making some sort of claim to fame. A lot of them go down the "big things" route – which, being honest, are disappointing about half the time – but only the great towns get a beer named after them. That’s why Block ‘n Tackle Brewery, from Kincumber on the NSW Central Coast, have launched Kinny Lager to put their town on the frothy map – complete with cans designed by Biffy Brentano featuring the town's boardwalk memorial to its… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Pale Lager
- ABV
- 5.0%
Moo Brew Halfway Hazy & Hefeweizen
Published December 1, 2022
As summer hits amid another year in which Aussies remain crazy for hazy, Moo Brew double down with the release of a new, session-friendly hazy and the return of a style sometimes returned to as the original hazy beer. Starting with the newcomer, Halfway Hazy, it's a beer which does what it says on the (rather jazzy by Moo standards) tin. I’d argue the haze is actually more than halfway there – it's as full as many bigger hazy pales – while the mandarin and mango meets stonefruit meets citrus… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Session Hazy & Hefeweizen
- ABV
- 3.3% & 5.1%
- Bitterness
- 20 & 16 IBU
Heaps Normal Half Day Hazy
Published December 1, 2022
December’s hard going if you work in hospo or retail but if you’re job mostly takes place at a desk, it’s the start of a big wind down. As the end of the year gets closer and closer and the weather picks up, how can you be expected to concentrate after midday? At the (highly-likely) risk of this being read by my employer, December’s a time for half days. Knocking off early is precisely what Heaps Normal are celebrating, with the booze-free brewers’ third core range member Half Day Hazy.… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Alcohol-free Hazy Pale
- ABV
- <0.5%
Good Land Brewing Merry Berry Sour
Published December 1, 2022
Good Land Brewing have been building a solid reputation for their heavily-fruited Pastel Neon Sour series and for Christmas 2022, they've taken that approach but given it a tinge of festive cheer. Merry Berry Sour comes covered in Christmas decorations (the tin that is, not the actual liquid) and is filled with a summer trio of boysenberry, blackberry and raspberry. To me, nothing says Christmas dessert like those three berries and here they add a vibrant pink hue to the beer while the combination… Read more
Red
- Style
- Merry Berry Sour
- ABV
- 4.4%
Ocean Reach Witch Doctor II
Published November 30, 2022
First released in 1958, Witch Doctor’s (the song, not this particular beer) appeal surely outlived what anyone expected at the ti,e. The nonsense tune was a number-one hit when released but those wild lyrics might be better known to you from the cover version and even weirder music video by the Cartoons (which is a useful reminder that the 1990s remains the most disturbing decade when it comes to pop culture). It’s a true earworm that sticks around long after the song finishes and although it’s… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- DDH IPA
- ABV
- 7.9%
Brouhaha Life Is Peachy
Published November 30, 2022
‘Life is peachy’? Gosh, that’s a big call after the couple of years we’ve all had! But I’m a sucker for an optimistic outlook, so I’ll jump on board. The fact that this peach sour is an opaque orange tells you Brouhaha didn’t skimp on the fruit in this one. And if you aren’t convinced by that, just have a sniff. Life is Peachy oozes with stone fruit aromas and the signature yoghurty vibe you find in Brouhaha’s sours, courtesy of the Maleny Dairies yoghurt culture the brewers use… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Sour
- ABV
- 5.8% ABV
One Drop Alcoholic Lemonade, Onskiis & Fairy Floss Sour
Published November 29, 2022
With their last spring releases for 2022, One Drop are doing their utmost to usher in a Sydney summer that’s brighter than the last one. I’m neither a professional brewer, nor a meteorologist, so I can’t say for certain that brewing fun, summery beers is likely to have a significant impact on rainfall predictions and cloud cover, but it couldn’t hurt, right? Right?! What can you say about a beer called Alcoholic Lemonade that isn’t immediately obvious just by hearing the name? One Drop… Read more
Red
- Style
- Various Styles As Indicated
- ABV
- 6.0% & 4.7% & 10.4%
Prickly Moses Rolling Mist Hazy IPA
Published November 28, 2022
As one of the elders of the Victorian craft brewing scene, Prickly Moses have been around since the days when you didn't need much more than a pale ale, a wheat beer and a porter or stout to differentiate yourself from the middle of the road. And, while the industry has grown and mutated over the past decade and a half, they've stayed pretty true to their roots: focusing on servicing the wider region around the Great Ocean Road, the Otway Ranges, and the Bellarine Peninsula with beers and ciders… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
Ballistic Beer SWYD Double IPL
Published November 28, 2022
Beer nomenclature is a funny thing. There are some beers that a brewer could name as one of two different styles without changing any ingredients. Ballistic started off referring to their latest Sleep When You’re Dead beer as an imperial New Zealand pilsner – which it is – but ended up labelling it as a double India pale lager – which is also fitting. Personally, I think it’s a good change, simply because it captures the vibe of the beer better. For all their flavour, NZ pilsners are generally… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Double IPL
- ABV
- 8.0%
- Bitterness
- 50 IBU
Jetty Road Lager
Published November 28, 2022
When it comes to Jetty Road’s core range, approachability is always at the heart of the coastal brewery’s beers. Sure their taproom has a range of beers pouring but in terms of permanent fixtures, there's always a sense of post-swim refreshment at play - a fact that was bolstered in 2022 with the addition of the straightforward lager, Lager. Although it’s largely a classic affair with a sparkling golden yellow body, soft bready notes, clean finish and a touch of spice characteristics, it's… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Lager
- ABV
- 4.2%
Nowhereman 3 Speed Session Hazy
Published November 26, 2022
The origins of 3 Speed stretch back to a WA Beer Week collaboration featuring Idaho 7 nearly five years ago. In the time since, this quiet achiever has reappeared regularly, with different artwork and recipe variances along the way – it was once even clear! *gasp*. Now, after a half decade of refinement, the session ale is now bunny-hopping into their core range. Idaho 7’s pomelo and pine shine through 3 Speed's soft focus haze. Juiciness stays in second gear, favouring drinkability over stunts,… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Session Hazy
- ABV
- 3.5%
