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!

Bendigo Beer

4 Pines & Golden Road Dingo Pup Trans-Pacific Pale

Tapped February 11th, 2020
You don’t have to go to Manly to find a Norfolk Island Pine - the mast-making trees can be found all around Australia. Likewise, you don’t have to go to Manly to find 4 Pines beer - the brand has made its way into fridges across our great land and, as of 2019, in the US as well. So perhaps it was only a matter of time before fellow AB InBev acquisitions, beachy 4 Pines and coastal Golden Road, collaborated on a beer that would equally suit the sunny climes of California and the Northern Beaches…… Read more
Style
Pale Ale
ABV
5.0%
Bitterness
33 IBU

Mismatch Brewing Not Your Average Plum Gose

Tapped February 11th, 2020
If you've ventured to the home of Mismatch Brewing at Lot 100 in the Adelaide Hills, you'll know their restaurant serves up a distinctive menu featuring rustic Italian cuisine with a native Australian twist. For Mismatch’s latest release, this native Australian twist spilled into the brewery, where they used head chef Shannon Fleming’s knowledge of the Davidson plum to their advantage. The flesh of the fruit takes on a deep Burgundy appearance and is quite acidic, hence a gose was order of the… Read more
Style
Plum Gose
ABV
5.6%

Wildflower & Jester King Nothing Fancy

Tapped February 10th, 2020
“Yeah, I’ll just have Nothing Fancy, thanks mate,” he says, after leaving work early and walking through torrential rain to get to an old iron foundry, in an industrial area, specifically to appreciate a limited release, barrel-aged wild ale in a stemmed glass. At the launch of this Wildflower collaboration with US farmhouse superstars Jester King, Wildflower doyen Topher Boehm radiated an aura of utter contentment. Five years ago, Topher interned at the Jester King brewery, nestled amongst… Read more
Style
Wild Ale
ABV
5.0%

Future Mountain Beyond The Horizon

Tapped February 9th, 2020
If you've visited Future Mountain's brewery venue in Reservoir, you probably noticed the room behind a glass door called Culture Club. Aside from being another of the very many musical references that permeate all things Future Mountain, it's home to their growing bank of mixed cultures. At time of writing this numbered more than half a dozen, to which they've been assigning names and which they like to use within certain beer styles. In the case of Beyond The Horizon, it's Roslyn – named after… Read more
Style
Barrel Aged Spiced Witbier
ABV
5.9%

Hawkers Late To The Hazy Party Hazy IPA

Tapped February 8th, 2020
It's not like Hawkers have shied away from the world of the IPA. Their core range has always featured one or two since they launched five years ago this month, they've released single hop IPAs, multiple IIPAs, hold the AIBA trophy for the world's best and also released one of the finest of 2019 (in the opinion of the Crafty team) in the shape of Tom Needs New Friends. But, as the title of this new release puts it, they've been late to the party when it comes to a hazy IPA. Now that one has arrived,… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
7.0%

Nowhereman Feel Good Summer IPA

Tapped February 7th, 2020
Nowhereman’s first addition to their IPA program for 2020 – the fourth in the series – dials into “music based punk rockery”. While the NWM team can’t decide if this is QOTSA or SCABZ inspired, perhaps it’s a little of both: the former’s breakthrough late 90s chant finished with "alcohol", the latter’s lead singer shares a surname with, although isn't related, with Pia Poynton, the brewery’s business development manager. Tenuous? YEP! Acronyms are fun though, RT? And… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
7.0%
Stockists

Launching at the brewery on Feb 7, with other WA venues to follow.

Feral Brewing BFH (Barrel Fermented Hog) 2020

Tapped February 6th, 2020
BFH is an Old Money beer but for many this will be a new Feral release, seemingly perfectly positioned for the zeitgeist. In cans? Check! Cool label? Check! French oak fermented? Check! Milkshake IPA vibes? Check! But without any lactose – I checked. BFH almost centres a marketing Venn diagram of what’s hot right now, yet the reality is that innovation brewer Will Irving has been making it at the Swan Valley brewpub since 2011. BFH is Old Money, but it won’t be for long. Originally, BFH was… Read more
Style
Oak Fermented Pale Ale
ABV
5.8%
Stockists

Heading nationwide from Feb 7, 2020, in limited

Stone & Wood Counter Culture: REINVIGAM8

Tapped February 5th, 2020
HEXAGONS=SCIENCE. Brewed with all the important sounding compounds... Directions for use that include: "Lift can to pouted lips, set approximately 1cm apart." There's always been an element of fun and humour at play with Stone & Wood's Counter Culture series, whether in the concept or the way the beers are named and presented. Sure, the brewers take the process of meeting their brief and delivering quality beers seriously, but how can a beer called Killer Kween or one based on French… Read more
Style
Hydralyte Beer
ABV
2.7%
Stockists

Find the beer here

Barrel Farm By Blackman's Sours

Tapped February 5th, 2020
Since the latter part of 2019, Blackman's have been releasing a steady stream of sours under their Barrel Farm banner. Somehow, we never got around to writing about a couple of them upon release but with three now available and just one more to come we can at least play catch up... They're pretty distinct too, with the Raspberry & Acai Sour reminiscent of a healthy brekkie bowl or a superfoods smoothie thanks to its somewhat gelatinous texture. Prior to hitting the palate, it opens with red berries,… Read more
Style
Various Sours
ABV
5.2% & 4.5% & 6.0%

Burnley Brewing Mandarin Gose

Tapped February 5th, 2020
Anyone who’s visited Burnley Brewing’s Bridge Road home will know the brewery is no stranger to loading beers with fruit. Peaches, mangos, cucumbers, raspberries and juniper berries have all made it into their sours, IPAs and lagers and here, for their first limited release can of 2020, Burnley have dipped into the brewpub back catalogue and returned with Mandarin Gose. The mandarin-filled sour was hopped with a mix of Amarillo and Mandarina Bavaria to push the citrus flavours a little further… Read more
Style
Gose
ABV
4.2%

Tumut River Brewing Deliverance Red IPA

Tapped February 4th, 2020
Deliverance is a red IPA the team at Tumut River Brewing like to brew a few times a year; a fact that suggests a boat trip down the Tumut River may well be akin to taking a canoe down the Cahulawassee. What is clear, however, is the heady mix of tropical fruit – papaya, melon and mango – the beer serves up against its sweet malt body. Sitting at 8 percent ABV, there’s a warming booziness in there too, while a round 100 IBU count tells you this isn't for the faint-hearted. Just like a trip down… Read more
Style
Red IPA
ABV
8.0%
Bitterness
100 IBU

Hargreaves Hill Pursuit Of Hoppiness No.4

Tapped February 3rd, 2020
We're told Hargreaves Hill's Pursuit Of Hoppiness series will be making something of a change in direction when No.5 rolls around. Before that happens, No.4 continues to plough the furrow of its predecessors and does so in a manner I reckon is the most enjoyable of the quartet to date. Tagged a "Double Dry-Hopped Tropical IPA", it's brewed with Mosaic, Galaxy, Azacca and Amarillo, split evenly across each addition. And, while the rate of hopping is down significantly from some of the other… Read more
Style
DDH Tropical IPA
ABV
6.5%
Stockists

Beer DeLuxe

Grain Store

Hopheads

Purvis Beer Online

Purvis Beer Richmond

Purvis Cellars Surrey Hills

And in limited volume from good Hargreaves Hill stockists nationwide

More stockists...

Heads of Noosa IPL

Tapped February 1st, 2020
Many a lager drinker has walked into a craft brewery to find there were no lagers on tap. Are Heads of Noosa now going to get revenge on IPA drinkers by not offering anything for hopheads? Thankfully, they’re not that petty, making an India Pale Lager to appeal to those who walk into the taproom looking for something hoppy. For a filtered lager - that is, one that’s been stripped of much of the dry-hopping content - the IPL is bursting with hop character. A clean malt body acts as a blank canvas… Read more
Style
IPL
ABV
6.0%

Nomad Brewing Freshie Fruit Bowl Gose & Berry Sour IPA & Saltpan Cerveza Lime Lager

Tapped January 31st, 2020
The first of this trio of limited releases from the prolific Noman brings more than a bowl of fruit - it brings a veritable Mariana Trench of the stuff. Thick passionfruit is the dominant aroma that squeezes into your nose, but the guava is hardly camouflaged. As you begin to sink this cephalopodic beverage - or rather, as it begins to sink you - a touch of grapefruit acidity shows itself. The salinity and the low carbonation make this beer a creature of the deep, disappearing below the surface in… Read more
Style
Fruit Sours & Mexican Lager
ABV
4.5% & 5.0% & 5.0%

One Drop Brewing Mango Milkshake IPA

Tapped January 31st, 2020
Some breweries add a little lactose to a hazy IPA and call it a milkshake IPA. One Drop takes it to a whole new level. If you tasted their Kellogg’s Cornflakes Milkshake IPA (are we still allowed to say “cornflakes” and “IPA” in the same sentence?) and enjoyed it, don’t bother reading the following description. Just get this beer. If you didn’t try the collab with The Cereal That Shall Not Be Named (Anymore), then come to this beer expecting face-thwacking creamy fruitiness. In the… Read more
Style
Mango Milkshake IPA
ABV
6.5%

Hawkers Under The Tropical Sun

Tapped January 31st, 2020
Since rebranding last year, Hawkers have been embracing a new look for their limited release beers, with the Melbourne brewery’s Kettle Sour Series filling beers with fruit and covering cans with bold colours. Following on from the berry-heavy Into The Forest I Go, Under The Tropical Sun is a bright mango and pineapple sour with a pattern that would serve well on a shirt at a music festival. The beer itself would work well at that festival too, as it’s one that’s light and in which the mango… Read more
Style
Kettle Sour
ABV
4.0%

Mornington Peninsula Brewery Space Sours

Tapped January 30th, 2020
What is it with the connection between space and low ABV sour beers? You've got Bodriggy with their bonkers Space Milk series and now Mornington Peninsula Brewery taking the beer formerly known as Galaxy Pash and making it part of a new trio of mid-strength, dry-hopped, fruit sours. Comet Crash pairs one of the lesser stars of the US hop industry, Comet, with watermelon, the result of which is a sweet little number, with a light, candy-esque sweetness – in watermelon terms, at the riper end of… Read more
Style
Dry-hopped Fruit Sours
ABV
All 3.5%

Loch Brewery & Distillery Imperial Stouts 2019

Tapped January 30th, 2020
If you’re going to make both beer and whisky under one roof, these two beers feel like something of a logical conclusion. The twin 750ml imperial stouts from Loch Brewery & Distillery both started off identical before one was poured into a cask that had been freshly emptied of Loch’s own whisky. It makes the releases a rarity; while many breweries are barrel-ageing, few can use their own whisky barrels to carry out the ageing process. The unoaked Imperial Stout sits at 8.7 percent ABV and… Read more
Style
Imperial Stouts
ABV
8.7% & 12.7%

Wayward Brewing Funky Pineapple Hand Grenade (Cans)

Tapped January 30th, 2020
Usually when you throw a hand grenade, you don't want it to come back to you. But we're glad to see this grenade return. Wayward has brought back their Funky Pineapple Hand Grenade, finally in the form of tinnies to keep our hot little hands cool. Flavour wise, this beer hasn’t really changed since we wrote about last year’s release, and we at The Crafty Pint feel no shame in linking to our own writings. But since I enjoy the sound of my own voice, I’ll still add my two cents. For all its… Read more
Style
Brett IPA
ABV
6.8%
Bitterness
60 IBU

Fixation Brewing Totally Rad, Don't Brett On It & Paw Paw Pow

Tapped January 29th, 2020
Fixation’s Collingwood home has well and truly been living up to its Incubator name, with head brewer Sam Bethune averaging a new beer every week. So you can’t exactly blame him for contorting his IPAs into all kinds of different shapes. Of the latest trio, let’s start with the lightest and least IPA like of the bunch, *Totally Rad. The 3.2 percent ABV radler started life as a session IPA that was brewed with a mix of mint, thyme and the lemony hops Falconer’s Flight and Citra. The beer… Read more
Style
Radler, Brett IPA, Fruit DIPA
ABV
3.2% & 5.7% & 7.8%
Stockists

The Fixation Incubator

The Crafty Pint is an independent online magazine and resource for anyone interested in craft beer in Australia. We bring an honest, old-fashioned journalistic approach to beer's brave new world, telling stories because they're worth telling not because someone is paying us to write them.

Like many of the people who have changed the face of beer in Australia, we believe in authenticity, integrity, enjoyment and love. We hope to play a role in helping good beer, brewed by good people, find its way into the hands of more drinkers.

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