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!
All Hands Rouseabout Pale Ale
Tapped June 12th, 2019
In a market where NEIPAs are winning our hearts and mid-strengths are on the rise, All Hands Brewing House have brought out a core range mid that hits a sweet spot. While Rouseabout is labelled as a pale ale, I’d happily call it a session NEIPA: with the alcohol content of a mid, and the explosive flavours of an East Coast IPA. Rouseabout pours bright with a lasting white head, and gives off the kind of aromas and flavours that’ll stick with you in your dreams. A trio of New Zealand hops (Rakau,… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Mid-Strength
- ABV
- 4.0%
- Bitterness
- 30 IBU
BentSpoke Brewing Co Descent 19
Tapped June 11th, 2019
Given his history at the Wig & Pen, there would have been an expectation when BentSpoke opened in Canberra that Richard Watkins would be set free to unleash an array of the experimental and the unlikely upon drinkers. Yet, while visitors to the brewery's Braddon HQ have been able to try a multitude of styles on tap, when it's come to the beers sent further afield they've tended to be of the contemporary and hop forward variety, from Barley Griffin to Crankshaft, Sprocket, Red Nut and Cluster… Read more
Black
- Style
- Bourbon Barrel-Aged Russian Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 10.0%
- Stockists
-
More stockists...
And other stockists here
Nowhereman AlphaRon 65000
Tapped June 11th, 2019
Nowhereman owner Reece Wheadon’s dad, Ron, had been asking for this for years. He’d even suggested a name: Alpha Dog, a solid name for a winter stout – something honest and dependable to represent a classic beer style. Except the brewery team thought it would be way funnier to name it AlphaRon, add 65000 for more hilarity, then put Ron’s head in a glass jar on the decal in a Futurama-like expression. Have children, they said… It’ll enrich your life, they said… AlphaRon 65000 is a… Read more
Black
- Style
- Export Stout
- ABV
- 6.5%
- Stockists
-
Nowhereman
And select WA venues
Stone & Wood Stone Beer 2019
Tapped June 10th, 2019
For many people whose good beer awakenings were rooted in the early 2010s, Stone & Wood's Stone Beer would have been their first introduction to a true seasonal. As we approach the 2020s, in an age of beers brewed with bodily yeasts and fried chicken or inside amphorae and taxidermy roadkill, using mere red hot volcanic rocks certainly seems passé. And compared to their most recent Counter Culture release, a sticky mango IPA, a wood-fired porter in 2019 feels positively wholesome. You probably… Read more
Black
- Style
- Smoked Porter
- ABV
- 7.2%
- Stockists
-
Find yours from June 10 via Stone & Wood's beer finder
Temple Brewing Dia-Brux & Weston Street IPA
Tapped June 8th, 2019
Just before winter kicked into gear, Temple Brewing released two new IPA cans that couldn’t be much further apart in nature from each other. The first, Dia-Brux, was brewed for GABS 2019 and, in true festival fashion, it’s a sour IPA making full use of some of the most hyped brewing ingredients du jour. Hopped with Mosaic, kettle soured with lactobacillus and featuring Belgian yeast strain Saccharomyces Bruxellensis Trois, one that’s used for funkier ferments, it ticks all the right boxes to… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Sour IPA & West Coast IPA
- ABV
- 6.8%
Temple Brewing New World Order Stout (Cans)
Tapped June 8th, 2019
New World Order is a stout that’s been a regular released from Temple for years, originally created by the stout-loving former head brewer Glenn Harrison, a man who's been known to claim he'd love little more than to open a stout-only brewery. Opaque, and American-influenced (in other words, more heavily and punchily hopped than your traditional stout), it joined the brewery’s core range when the lineup was revamped. And, like the rest of Temple's range, it's been moved into cans ready for winter… Read more
Black
- Style
- American Stout
- ABV
- 6.5%
Mr Banks Distraction In A Barrel Triple IPA
Tapped June 8th, 2019
Aside from running one of the most inviting brewery venues in Victoria and being delightful people, the thing the Mr Banks crew have become known for more than anything else is their love of IPAs. And, while they've brewed all manner of them, they have a particular penchant for hazy ones. Their Wheeze The Haze is one of the best NEIPAs around and, to mark turning three, they took that concept and, well, turned it up to three. With a name that's another reference to Chris Farmer's beloved Mighty Ducks,… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Triple Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 10.0%
La Sirène & Bannockburn Vineyards Convergence
Tapped June 7th, 2019
One of the advantages of being at the top of your field has to be the relative ease with which doors must open for collaborations. In this case, Costa Nikias got to work with one of his favourite wineries, Bannockburn Vineyards in the Geelong region. The Convergence in question isn't just between beer and wine but between La Sirène's wild house yeast and that of Bannockburn, with the liquid undergoing fermentation in one of the latter's old 500 litre puncheons. It goes without saying when a limited… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Farmhouse Ale
- ABV
- 5.8%
- Stockists
-
Audacious Monk Cellars
Corks Crew Cellars
Decanters By The Bay
More stockists...Small Patch Wines
Valhalla Taproom
Bridge Road Brewers Saisons de Wilde
Tapped June 7th, 2019
When Bridge Road Brewers use the tag "de Wilde", it means you've got a bit of side-by-side experimentation ahead of you. In this case, it's four saisons side by side once you've opened up your four-pack featuring the original Chevalier Saison then three other versions barrel fermented with wild yeasts sourced from active chardonnay ferments at three of the brewery's favourite wineries then aged in oak for 12 months. Chances are you know the original beer well, but what of the others? Let's… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Saison Variants
- ABV
- 5.8%
Little Creatures Stout 2019
Tapped June 7th, 2019
You can set your watch by it. Winter arrives – Little Creatures release a seasonal stout. While that might sound repetitious, it's actually a gentling evolving affair, moving up and down in ABV and floating around the wider realm of the stout world, albeit without doing anything too crazy. In 2019, they've upped the hops although, in choosing English classic Fuggles and newer US variety Loral – which possesses something of the Old and New Worlds about it – to do the heavy lifting on that front,… Read more
Black
- Style
- Stout
- ABV
- 5.8%
- Bitterness
- 58 IBU
- Stockists
-
Available nationwide
Hop Nation The Forager Blueberry NEIPA
Tapped June 6th, 2019
The Forager first made an appearance late in 2018 as another entry in Hop Nation's NEIPA family, in this case adding blueberry to the mix. After receiving feedback on the beer, they decided to give it an overhaul ahead of its reappearance, with raspberry introduced to give the berry side of the beer a little more oomph. What's more, due to the increased acidity from the berries, a little lactose has been added this time around. As brewery co-founder Sam Hambour tells us: "While we are always… Read more
Red
- Style
- Berry NEIPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
Burnley Brewing & Mountain Distilling Botanical Sour
Tapped June 6th, 2019
Presumably brought together by their shared names [Are you really leading off with that, Ziebell? – Editor], soon after meeting Burnley Brewing’s Michael Stanzel and Mountain Distilling’s Michael Harris decided to brew a beer together. Initially released at GABS 2019 and followed up with a wider can release, the collaboration the two Michaels landed on is an attempt to capture the distillery’s gin in a can. To do that, they decided on a Berliner Weisse hopped with Citra and brewed with the… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Botanical Berliner Weisse
- ABV
- 3.5%
- Stockists
-
Join them for the launch on June 6
Bodriggy Brewing Space Milk Vol. 4
Tapped June 6th, 2019
To date, Bodriggy’s Space Milk series has explored a list of ingredients not often traversed in brewing, with the likes of soursop, alphonso mango, cayenne pepper, wild Australian raspberries and coffee skins all added to a beer despite sounding more suited to the menu of a trendy café. For number four in the lineup of lactose sours, the Abbotsford brewery has gone for an Annie apricot, marigold and almond sour. Considering marigold is a flower used to make some margarines, it shouldn’t be surprising… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Fruit Cream Sour
- ABV
- 3.0%
Bright Brewery Off The Wagon Wheel
Tapped June 6th, 2019
The dessert or lolly-inspired beer is as much part of the furniture at GABS as the roving band, circus acts and bell-ringing these days. But that doesn't mean there aren't fresh parts of the fridge or pantry left to be plundered for ideas, with Bright deciding it was time that old classic, the Wagon Wheel, was rolled out in 2019. They set out to bottle the feeling by layering a chocolate porter with vanilla beans, coconut flakes, fresh raspberry purée and cacao nibs. And it's those ingredients you… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Choc Vanilla Raspberry Porter
- ABV
- 6.5%
- Stockists
-
More stockists...
Bright Brewery
Union Wine Ascot
Bobbie Peels
Ritchies Dromana
Ritchies Carrum
Bentleigh IGA
Hops and Vine
Village Vineyard
Penny Young
The Vin
Independent Wine Store Rye
Bright Brewery Red XPA
Tapped June 6th, 2019
The thought process when sampling this new limited release from Bright went something along the lines of... "What does the Xtra mean here? It can't be pale as the beer is red (well, a rusty, deep amber). Maybe it's booze as, at 6.5 percent ABV, it's certainly packing a punch. But then isn't that taking it out of XPA territory? Maybe it's extra hoppy as, despite weighing in at red IPA strength, it drinks far lighter in terms of palate weight than many such beers, allowing the hops to shine: citrusy… Read more
Red
- Style
- Red IPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
- Stockists
-
Bright Brewery
The Vin
More stockists...Suburban Cellar Door
Independent Wine Store Rye
Bottle O Mooroolbark
Brighton Bay
Parkhill Cellars
Bar Josephine
Homestead Brewery Vanilla Porter
Tapped June 6th, 2019
Homestead Brewery have launched into winter 2019 with a Vanilla Porter that's hit the taps at their Swan Valley home just as the cooler weather sets in. It is a pleasant time of the year as the mercury drops, the fireplaces are lit, and the malts in the brewer's hands turn steadily darker. Here, head brewer Justin Bishop decided to take the traditional porter and jazz it up a little with the addition of vanilla. Smooth, velvety and creamy are words that come to mind as you sip your way through the… Read more
Black
- Style
- Vanilla Porter
- ABV
- 5.3%
Bright Brewery M.I.A. IPA
Tapped June 5th, 2019
This original version of this beer was very nearly its creator's final gift to the world. The day before it was due to be debuted to the world at the Victorian Microbreweries Showcase, then head brewer Jon Seltin went paragliding and had to do an emergency landing atop of Mt Feathertop. It took him six hours just to hike down, meaning he didn't return to the brewery until around 10pm (after being M.I.A. since 2pm), by which stage brewery owner Scott Brandon had called the police to retrieve his body.… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- IPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
- Stockists
-
Alice Rebel's Café & Providore
More stockists...The Vin
Penny Young
Suburban Cellar Door
Brighton Bay
Parkhill Cellars
Kekou
Hops and Vine
Bottle O Mooroolbark
Two Birds Brewing Solstista Black IPA
Tapped June 2nd, 2019
If you said to me at the start of this year: “Black IPAs will make a comeback this year” I would’ve said: “Mate, you are off your rocker”. Yet here we are, June 2019, and there have been stack released in the last few weeks. Now Two Birds are in on the act with the Solstista Black IPA. It uses dehusked, roasted malt, which differs from traditional roasted malt in that it lends colour without much in the way of astringency, along with a trio of American hops. The result is a smooth affair,… Read more
Black
- Style
- Black IPA
- ABV
- 6.0%
- Stockists
-
The Two Birds' Nest
University House
Bar Josephine
The Mallow
Hop Temple
Big Ears
More stockists...Clarendon Hotel
Windsor RSL
Atomic Beer Project IIPA
Tapped June 1st, 2019
Atomic Brewing Project’s debut limited release is a statement of intent, something which says: "This is a hop focused brewery and, to make sure that you know, we’ve put it in a big can." Moreover, the gridded label design implies serious research and development, conjuring images of checklists and people in coats looking into all things hoppy, a promise on which the liquid inside delivers. IIPA can mean a lot of different things and here the emphasis is on a clean, West Coast IPA-leaning… Read more
Golden
- Style
- West Coast IIPA
- ABV
- 8.2%
- Stockists
-
IIPA is available nationally, in limited release, from Atomic Beer Project stockists.
Atomic Beer Project IPA
Tapped June 1st, 2019
Atomic’s second core range beer – Atomic Pale being the OG upon which this new brand is being built – showcases the approachably modern end of the ever-expanding IPA world. As a large swathe of Australian drinkers gradually make the lupulin shift from pale ales into IPAs, this represents an ideal gateway and is likely to be first IPA that many will try, given Gage Roads' broad audience. Simcoe, Amarillo, Columbus hops provide clean citrus with a passionfruit and pine undercurrent on a minimal… Read more
Pale Yellow
