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!
T-Bone Brewing Bloody Helles & Big Old Stout
Tapped August 9th, 2019
If the name and can design didn't give it away, it doesn't take long for T-Bone's latest fruity number to reveal itself. No sooner had liquid hit glass a foot away than sweet blood orange aromas were burrowing their way up nostrils like excited rabbits. The fruit addition lends Bloody Helles an Irn Bru-esque appearance, while the lightness of the helles lager style base beer allows the fruit to dominate on the palate too in a crystalline, almost cordial like manner, as opposed to anything approaching… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Blood Orange Lager & Russian Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 5.2% & 8.5%
Deeds Brewing Festivus & Dark Deeds Double Lamington
Tapped August 9th, 2019
We've said it before and we'll say it again. But if you get the chance to try a new beer without having much idea of what it is, do it. It's like a partial blind tasting and is the approach I take, where possible, when sampling new arrivals. In part, it's to allow the senses to go to work without preconceptions; in part, it's to see if I agree with the brewers. And it can lead to fun experiences like one with Deeds Brewing's Festivus. I knew it was a bock before pouring, but that only led to a somewhat… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Spiced Bock & Imperial Brown Ale
- ABV
- 6.0% & 8.5%
Moon Dog How Now Brown Cacao?
Tapped August 9th, 2019
Think nitro in a beer and you'll likely think stout. Think cacao in a beer and you'll be in roughly the same space. Think brown in relation to beer and you'll think, well, brown. So what is How Now Brown Cacao? A pale golden cream ale, of course. In something of a change of tack for Moon Dog, here the beer is actually less odd than the name would have you believe; if anything, it's quite normal in the way a comfortable tweed suit would be to an English gent. Why that image? Well, once it's been given… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Nitro Cream Ale with Cacao
- ABV
- 6.0%
- Stockists
-
Launching at the Abbotsford brewery on August 9
Sauce & Bar Pop Isolation Island NEIPA
Tapped August 8th, 2019
Western Australia loves its East Coast IPAs - must be something about the IPA always being juicier on the other side. So, for the 2019 Perth Craft Beer Festival, Sauce Brewing showed the isolated city some love by making a collaboration beer just for them; they hung onto some kegs and shared a few with Brisbane and Melbourne venues, but the tinnies are exclusive to those out west. It’s not hard to see why this was dubbed an “Island NEIPA”. With a radiant yellow like the island sun, and a fluffy… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- NEIPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
- Stockists
-
Some kegs appearing at Sauce's brewery and at East Coast venues.
Cans at WA retailers only.
Aether Brewing Creature Of The Night Peanut Butter Stout
Tapped August 8th, 2019
We’ve seen a few peanut butter dessert beers in recent times, and often they’re sticky and syrupy, and fattened with lactose. If you’ve a sweet tooth, they may be just the thing you’re looking for. But what if you want the peanuts, you want the chocolate, you want the thick mouthfeel… but you want to ease off the sweetness? This is where Creature of the Night comes in. It’s thick - the dark head rises in slow motion, because even air struggles to wend its way through the viscous body.… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Peanut Butter Stout
- ABV
- 7.0%
Aether Brewing Dryad Pét-Nat Sour
Tapped August 8th, 2019
There’s a skill in blending sours to achieve a rich complexity of flavours, and there’s a skill in achieving complexity without blending. Here, Aether has nailed the latter with a beer-wine hybrid that holds layers and layers. Dryad began with a malt bill made up of half Golden Promise and half Australian wheat, then was spontaneously soured with 1,000 litres of freshly picked and pressed pét-nat riesling juice from Latta Vino in Victoria. While it didn’t spend any time in barrels, the dark… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Beer-Wine Hybrid
- ABV
- 7.0%
Balter Brewing Lager
Tapped August 7th, 2019
The people have spoken. A while back, the team at Balter's Gold Coast brewery decided to try a wee experiment. They put their Pilsner on tap alongside a new, more approachable lager they'd been working on to see how the two would fare. The latter proved waaaay more popular with visitors than the former, so it's farewell to the Pilsner (which is a shame as the Crafty crew were big fans...). Still, when you're in the business of selling lots of beer, you're going to want to sell lots of beer. And Lager… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Lager
- ABV
- 4.8%
- Stockists
-
Find Lager here
Temple Brewing Nitro Espresso Stoutini
Tapped August 7th, 2019
The recent playfulness continues at Temple Brewing in both the concept and design of this winter 2019 specialty. Nitro Espresso Stoutini is, as the name suggests, their spin on an espresso martini. To reach that point, they took a stout recipe, added Commonfolk coffee beans in the mash and a dash of Stache House Martini (cold extract coffee) in the fermenter, then shot the beer through with nitrogen to recreate the texture of the cocktail's creamy head. The cans come with handy instructions stuck… Read more
Black
- Style
- Nitro Stout
- ABV
- 6.1%
Boatrocker Ramjet 2019
Tapped August 7th, 2019
Of all the beers released in Australia each year, there are few that need an introduction less than Boatrocker's Ramjet. So let's cut straight to the chase with the 2019 version of the Starward barrel-aged imperial stout. On the booze front, it's been reined in from last year's 13.4 percent ABV monster to a practically sessionable 11.5; on the other hand, it also feels like they've loosened the reins a little when it comes to setting the whisky character free, allowing as much Starward character… Read more
Black
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 11.5%
Boatrocker Coffee Brown
Tapped August 7th, 2019
They already have plenty of stouts in their oeuvre so when adding another dark beer to their winter 2019 offering Boatrocker looked elsewhere. Their gaze landed up England, specifically the country's brown ales. They also infused the beer with whole roasted coffee beans, but it's the English hops and malts that give Coffee Brown its distinctive character, not least because you so rarely meet a beer brewed with English hops in a starring role on these shores today. Sure, there's a little fruity coffee… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Coffee Brown Ale
- ABV
- 5.5%
The Craft & Co Tropical XPA
Tapped August 7th, 2019
The Craft & Co in Collingwood is many things: restaurant; bar; deli; function space; distillery; brewery. The team there also release wines alongside their beers and spirits and, as of winter 2019, they're looking to bring all their booze offerings into a recognisable family courtesy of a new look. With the new look comes new beers, including a Tropical XPA previously only available on tap. They've plumped for four fruity hop varieties to do the heavy lifting – Galaxy, Vic Secret, El Dorado… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- XPA
- ABV
- 5.0%
- Bitterness
- 30 IBU
Hop Nation Dreamfeed Hazy IPA
Tapped August 6th, 2019
They were one of the first local operations to explore (intentionally) the world of hazy IPAs, have released more than their fair share and, in Jedi Juice, have one of the most popular. So expectations are going to be high when Hop Nation release another into the world. And expectations will likely be met with Dreamfeed, a beer that shows what can come from working within a style over and over. Unlike, say, their spiced Market IPA, there's little out of the ordinary here, other than, you might argue,… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
Hop Nation Site Fermentation Project Red Rabbit 2018
Tapped August 6th, 2019
The transition of the Site Fermentation Project beers by Hop Nation from bottle to can continues with Red Rabbit, a beer that owes something to their La Jeunesse Flanders style red and the Lapin Cherry Sour Blonde that was its immediate predecessor. It's a red ale that was initially aged in an oak foedre before being re-fermented on the very same cherries that lent their character to the Lapin. Inspired by Rodenbach's Alexander, Red Rabbit might have a claim to being the most intense experience found… Read more
Red
- Style
- Sour Red Ale
- ABV
- 6.5%
Hawkers Pale Ale 2019
Tapped August 6th, 2019
The first beer with which Hawkers are reinventing their lineup is their new Pale Ale. Not only is it the first to feature the new look, but it's a rather different beast to the one with which they launched the brewery in 2015. The brewers have stripped out all caramel malts to reduce sweetness and upped the load of American hops (Amarillo, Centennial, Mosaic, Citra and Chinook) to a not inconsiderable eight grams per litre. The outcome is a pale yellow beer that explodes with predominantly tropically… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Pale Ale
- ABV
- 4.8%
- Stockists
-
Find the beer here
Wheaty Brewing Corps & Lervig & Deschutes Da Big Lerv
Tapped August 6th, 2019
Collaboration number three to emerge from the 2019 version of Good Beer Wheaty saw Deschutes and Lervig step into The Wheaty’s brewery to brew up a monster. The end result is an 8.6 percent ABV choc raspberry milk stout that conjures nostalgic childhood memories of raspberry lollies, with the conjuring in the brewhouse taking the form of a phone book's worth of malts and oats, which created a bed upon which bucket loads of fresh raspberries could be scattered. Sampled from The Wheaty's hand pump,… Read more
Black
- Style
- Choc Raspberry Milk Stout
- ABV
- 8.6%
- Bitterness
- 26 IBU
- Stockists
Colonial Brewing Co Inquest 2019 – Imperial Stout
Tapped August 5th, 2019
Big, dark and bold – that’s the mandate for the annual Colonial Inquest release, one which allows their 16 brewers to get creative, as was the case with the 2018 release we described as a "Frankenporter". For the final iteration this decade, Inquest returns to the imperial stout style but with a curious twist in the shape of experimental hop HBC 472. A sister of the highly regarded Sabro hop, HBC 472 imparts barrel-aged qualities of oak and coconut as well as tropical notes depending… Read more
Black
- Style
- Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 12.0%
- Stockists
-
Launching from August 5 at both breweries and Colonial stockists nationwide
Hawkers & Carwyn Cellars The Forgotten Casks Imperial Stout 2018
Tapped August 5th, 2019
By their very nature, barrel-aged beers are rarefied beasts, in many cases unique. Even within that rarefied realm, this collaboration between Thornbury venue Carwyn Cellars and Hawkers is – if you'll forgive the tautology – very unique. Why? Well, the barrels used to age a portion of the brewer's 2018 Imperial Stout were the freshly-emptied 17-year-old whisky casks the Carwyn team acquired from Sullivans Cove to launch their spirits range. And not only are there no more such casks left but it… Read more
Black
- Style
- Whisky Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 14.2%
- Stockists
-
Just 600 bottles – available from midday on August 6 from Carwyn Cellars
Wildflower St Phoebe 2019
Tapped August 5th, 2019
Hot on the heels of the cherry-laden Thomas, Wildflower’s St Phoebe is back in all its juicy glory for 2019. Phoebe, co-founder Chris’ daughter, Titaness of Greek Mythology and the second worst character of the second worst sitcom of the 90s, is Wildflower’s annual raspberry wild ale. Phoebe is blend of five Gold barrels and one Pilsner aged on a few hundred kilos of Coffs Harbour raspberries for three months before being packaged and bottle conditioned for a further three-and-a-half months.… Read more
Red
- Style
- Australian Wild Ale with Raspberries
- ABV
- 5.0%
Two Birds Brewing Lock Stock & Dubbel Barrels
Tapped August 2nd, 2019
Look back over the past year's limited releases from Two Birds and you'll find a list dominated by IPAs. But look back over the brewing career of co-founder Jayne Lewis and you'll find a fair few big beers that take inspiration from Belgium too. And it's here the Spotswood based brewers return for their last big bottle winter release for 2019. As the punny name suggests, it's a dubbel – a style that's typically dark in hue and rich in malt and fruity yeast character – and one that's spent time… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Belgian Dubbel
- ABV
- 8.5%
- Stockists
-
Two Birds Nest
West Brunswick Cellars
More stockists...Audacious Monk
Royal Clifton Hill Hotel
Union Wine Store
Kingsville Cellars
Stockade Cellars
Fizz and Hop
Cheapa Wines
Ocean Grove Cellars
Malt and Vine
Chas Cole Cellars
Newport Cellars
Plonk
Page Bottler
Leura Cellars
Glenbrook Cellars
Fritzenberger
Cheeky Monkey IIPA 2019
Tapped August 2nd, 2019
Fresh out of the new Vasse production facility, Cheeky Monkey’s IIPA 2019 is a very modern expression, aggressively late and dry-hopped with Citra and resinous El Dorado – no Old School hops need apply. However, for all the lupulin bravado, this is just really fun. National sales manager Brendan Day pithily describes the design process thus: “We wanted to make a really crushable IIPA” – one that somewhat unbelievably, at least until it’s been tasted, has sessionability at its core. Magic… Read more
Golden
- Style
- IIPA
- ABV
- 8.8%
- Stockists
-
Available from August 2 from good WA retailers and venues
