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!
Wheaty Brewing Corps Sir Bob (Gladfield) & Sir Bob (Weyermann)
Tapped October 21st, 2015
Staying true to their promise to play around with Sir Bob, the classic pils style beer they originally created with former Mountain Goat co-owner Dave Bonighton, Wheaty Brewing Corps has created two new versions using malt from two different suppliers in different parts of the world. The basic idea for the beer remains the same – read about the original here – but the plan is to switch in different hops and malts. This pair features, respectively, malt form New Zealand's Gladfield and Germany's… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Pilsner
- ABV
- 5.2%
- Bitterness
- 30 IBU
- Stockists
Wheaty Brewing Corps Black Pils
Tapped October 21st, 2015
Brewer's notes: Black: or thereabouts, with just a shaft of red when held up to the light. Pils: most definitely. Lean, herbal, spicy and dry with that telltale strawlike malt character for which pils is renowned. A clean and cool fermentation with our favourite lager yeast gives this beer a gentle mineral backbone, while the malt lends a soft, subtle roast character. Spicy hop notes round out the mix making this a straight-up Pils; except it’s black... Another misnomer – that makes perfect sense. Looks… Read more
Black
- Style
- Black Pilsner
- ABV
- 5.4%
- Bitterness
- 25 IBU
- Stockists
Hargreaves Hill & Frankie's Pizza Schwarzbier / Iron Eagle
Tapped October 20th, 2015
During 2015's Sydney Craft Beer Week, Frankie's Pizza went collaborating with many of its brewing buddies. Among those to take part was Hargreaves Hill, with the result of their meeting of minds a black lager that went on tap at Frankie's as the Iron Eagle but has been tagged the more Hargreaves like Schwarzbier for its wider release by the brewery. The brewers looked to stay true to the style's German origins, lining up "notes of chocolate, coffee and vanilla derived from roasted malt",… Read more
Black
- Style
- Schwarzbier
- ABV
- 4.9%
Stone & Wood Mash Collective: Dead East Ale
Tapped October 19th, 2015
The Mash Collective is Stone & Wood's side project that sees them unite their brewers with colourful, creative characters who call their part of the world home. For the fifth release – following last year's epic Heartbreaker – the guest collaborators were artist Paul McNeil, surfer Asher Pacey and restaurateur Jeff Bennett, who sat down with the brewers in Byron Bay, worked their way through a broad range of beers, decided what they'd like to encapsulate their brew, and ended up with Dead… Read more
Red
- Style
- Amber Ale
- ABV
- 5.0%
- Bitterness
- 30-35 IBU
- Stockists
-
Find stockists here
Cavalier & Raccoon Club Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster
Tapped October 18th, 2015
In The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is described as the "Best Drink In Existence" and similar to "having your brains smashed in by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick". Now, while we're not saying the latest collaboration to come out of Cavalier's brewery is going to have quite that impact, it's certainly a big mother of a beer. Sure, at 7.5 percent, it's far from the biggest double IPA you'll come across in terms of booze, but… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Double IPA
- ABV
- 7.5%
- Stockists
-
Raccoon Club
And other good beer stockists in NSW, QLD, SA and WA
More stockists...
Green Beacon Grappler New World Pilsner
Tapped October 16th, 2015
Well, it is Spring, after all: the time for rebirths and all that jazz. And the latest release from Brisbane's Green Beacon is just that. Having recently decided to reinvent their Whaler as a blood orange IPA (it was previously a zesty golden ale), they've now decided to rework their Grappler. The beer was originally an India Pale Lager (a lager hopped to the level you'd expect of an IPA) and, if memory serves correctly, was one of the standout beers on our first visit to the brewery a couple of… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- New World Pilsner
- ABV
- 5.2%
- Stockists
-
Green Beacon Brewery
Good beer venues across South East Queensland
Red Hill Brewery Red Rooster
Tapped October 15th, 2015
Red Hill has reached the halfway mark in its mission to create ten, one-off red beers to mark its decade of brewing on the Mornington Peninsula. Once again, they look to Europe for inspiration, as they have for the previous four, with number five – Red Rooster – the third to take the beers of France / Belgium as a starting point. Having brewed a plum saison for number one and a red tripel for number two (which was also Brew 1000), this time around it's a biere de garde. This close relation of… Read more
Red
- Style
- Biere de Garde
- ABV
- 7.0%
Exit Brewing #010 West Coast IPA – SOLD OUT
Tapped October 15th, 2015
As a means of judging whether the Crafty palate is travelling OK or in need of some serious fine-tuning (or, perhaps, a career change), there's a policy within the Towers of first sampling a beer without reference to any label or brewer's notes, if at all possible. This way, notes can be made upon the basis of nothing more than the senses, then compared with the intentions and descriptions of the brewer. In the case of Exit's West Coast IPA, said sampling notes were short and to the point: "Pale,… Read more
Golden
- Style
- West Coast IPA
- ABV
- 7.1%
Dainton Family Brewery Red Eye Rye 2015
Tapped October 14th, 2015
The forthcoming Dainton Family Brewery brewery may be sat around waiting to be installed, but the new look beers keep coming. The latest beer to receive an update is Dan's first ever release, Red Eye Rye. It now comes with another of artist Dan Fabris' portentous labels featuring a satanic Red Riding Hood and glimmering red hops, not to mention some more dark poetry from brewer Dan Dainton. The beer itself is a little different to previous batches, mainly in that it's down to 4.8 per cent ABV from… Read more
Red
- Style
- Rye Red Ale
- ABV
- 4.8%
- Bitterness
- 29 IBU
Holgate Brewhouse Tank 9: Crosby Idaho Experimental #4
Tapped October 14th, 2015
Now isn't that a name that rolls off the tongue: Crosby Idaho Experimental #4. It's the sort of name Aphex Twin would give to a track featuring his mother singing lullabies, her voice mangled through a handful of homemade vocoders then merged with the sound of a pneumatic drill pounding the deep end of an abandoned swimming pool recorded on an old spy microphone from inside a bird hide. Remarkably, however, it isn't that. It's the latest small batch, draught only beer from Holgate. The reason for… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Single Hop Pale Ale
- ABV
- 5.2%
- Bitterness
- 50 IBU
- Stockists
-
Holgate Brewhouse
Taps, The Valley, QLD
Brewski, QLD
Stables, QLD
More stockists...
Moon Dog Love Tap – RETIRED
Tapped October 14th, 2015
The evolution of Moon Dog's first ever "core" beer reaches its third (or is that fourth) and possibly final stage. The beer that started out as a double lager at 7.1 percent ABV and that, in its first iteration, we likened to drinking hop goo, was initially brought down to a more repeatable 5.9 percent ABV when first bottled. From 2015, its draught incarnation has been turning out as an even more sessionable 5 percent ABV, thus appearing as many a crafty pub's happy hour offering. And,… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Lager
- ABV
- 5.0%
Modus Operandi Cream of the Hop #3
Tapped October 13th, 2015
Timed rather nicely for the onset of a spell of warm weather, Modus Operandi have released the third in their Cream of the Hop series. As with previous efforts, it’s built on a wheat pale ale base and has had experimental hops added. The first used the still-in-development Australian hop HPA35, the second used American Azacca and this third builds on that theme, but in a slightly more celestial sense, by using Equinox hops from the USA. Considering it’s a new hop to the people who brewed the… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Single Hop Pale Ale
- ABV
- 5.6%
- Stockists
-
Modus Operandi Brewery
Vale Brewing Amber
Tapped October 13th, 2015
Having brought brewery ownership back into the family and rebranded the business as Vale Brewing, the brothers running the former McLaren Vale Beer Company set about renaming and repackaging one of their beers too. The DRK – or dark lager – became the Amber, and described on the label as an "American amber lager". What's inside didn't changed, which is a good thing as it's always been the pick of Vale's core range here at Crafty Towers. Presumably, the "American" tag refers… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Dark Lager
Young Henrys Bier Noir
Tapped October 12th, 2015
Many of the things people love about craft beer – think independence, challenging the norms and encouraging interest in local production – are the very same things you could attribute to local filmmaking. It’s therefore not difficult to imagine that synergy played a part in Young Henrys being invited to brew a beer for the 2015 SUFF (Sydney Underground Film Festival) which took place towards the end of September. Now, following the festival, the beer – and no doubt some of the films – will… Read more
Black
- Style
- Dark Lager
- ABV
- 4.6%
Seven Sheds Sooty Porter
Tapped October 7th, 2015
The team at Tasmania's Seven Sheds continues to showcase the talents of the island's diverse craftsmen and women with its latest one-off release. Sooty Porter was created in partnership with Adam Bones of the Tasmanian Cask Company, which re-models bourbon, port and muscat barrels for the island's growing number of distillers. But this was no "pop a beer into a cask and see what develops" occasion; this was something entirely different. Willie Simpson and his brewers obtained wood shavings… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Smoked Porter
- ABV
- 6.0%
- Stockists
-
Seven Sheds cellar door (or via ordering online)
New Sydney Hotel
Westend Pumphouse
More stockists...
Mountain Goat In Breed: The Naz
Tapped October 2nd, 2015
It's been a big week at Mountain Goat, monumental some might say, with the ripples sure to be felt for a while longer. But whatever the takeover by Asahi ultimately means, when it comes down to it, Mountain Goat has been in the business of making beer for 18 years and will continue to be in the business of making beer. One of those making beer there for longer than most is Naz, or Shane Edwards to his mum and dad, who joined as a pizza maker and barman before leaping across the floor to the brewery… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Scotch Ale
- ABV
- 6.5%
- Bitterness
- 30 IBU
- Stockists
-
Mountain Goat Brewery (launched by The Naz Oct 2)
Then keg and bottle at good beer stockists nationwide
More stockists...
Two Birds & Royal Albert Lemongrass Tea IPA
Tapped October 1st, 2015
For the second collaboration in the pub's history, the team from the Royal Albert Hotel was invited to travel down to the Two Birds Nest in Melbourne for a brew day and the product of their collective toil is a Lemongrass Tea IPA. The beer is an appropriate ode to Spring: a celebration of things emerging from months in the dark which suddenly burst into the light bringing colour, flavour, joy and life. Perhaps the most important detail to grasp from the off is that this beer was infused with lemongrass… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Spiced IPA
- ABV
- 6.4%
- Stockists
-
Two Birds Nest
Bridge Road Craft Beer Variety Pack
Tapped September 29th, 2015
It was on a trip to the States in 2014 for a festival at Firestone Walker that Bridge Road's Ben Kraus conceived yet another idea for educating the masses about craft beer. The man who has already launched IPA packs both in the form of IPAs packaged with an IPA glass and Hops packs featuring four different single Aussie hop IPAs* spotted variety packs on sale in the craft beer sections of supermarkets and figured he'd launch his own. The toughest part, he says, was deciding which beers to put in… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Various
- ABV
- Various
- Stockists
-
NB: As of the day this is posted, packs were still on their way to venues. Expect to find them on shelves from early October
Two Birds Brewing Blacker Shade Of Pale
Tapped September 29th, 2015
The Birds are not long back from the UK, where they once again took part in the Wetherspoons Real Ale Festival. They were one of two Aussie representatives in the UK this year, Young Henrys being the other, creating a real ale version of their Sunset Ale at Everards, following the success they enjoyed with a real ale version of their Golden Ale last year. Before heading over, they sent a locally brewed limited release out to Aussie venues called Blacker Shade of Pale. As the name suggests, it's a… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Dark Ale
- ABV
- 5.2%
Little Creatures Dog Days Summer Beer
Tapped September 28th, 2015
As an opening salvo for its new Seasonal series, Little Creatures came out all guns blazing with Return of the Dread, the foreign export stout we fully expect will be among many people's favourite beers of the year. Now, as the mercury starts to rise in earnest, they're back with number two: a beer that is pretty much the polar opposite of the Dread. Where the Dread was relatively high in alcohol, Dog Days measures an easy-going 4.4 percent ABV. Where Dread was a dense, malt driven beast, Dog Days… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Summer Ale
- ABV
- 4.4%
- Bitterness
- 30 IBU
- Stockists
-
Available widely across Australia throughout summer 2015/16
