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!
Holgate Brewhouse Millennium Falcon 2014
Published March 9, 2014
The beer originally created for Holgate's 1,000th brew is back. The Star Wars-inspired Millennium Falcon is the brewery's hoppiest beer, sitting atop a hierarchy of pale ales that starts with their Mt Macedon Ale and continues through the Road Trip IPA and Hopinator to this Imperial (or Empirial) IPA. Continuing the Star Wars theme throughout the beer, it features Millennium, Falconer's Flight and Galaxy hops. Plenty of them too, with the beer registering 10 percent ABV and 100 IBU (a measure of… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Imperial IPA
- ABV
- 10%
- Stockists
-
Others TBC
More stockists...
Feral Brewing Watermelon Warhead
Published March 7, 2014
The rise of sour beers in Australia hasn't been as rapid as many might have expected. It is understandable; when you're playing with bugs and barrels and wild beasties ' and something that, like love for Phil Collins, can't be hurried ' you're in a different ballpark than the relatively simple water, hops, malt and yeast scenario. However, the sour that has caused most excitement over the past couple of years is back. Watermelon Warhead made its bow at the 2012 Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular,… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Berliner-Weisse
- ABV
- 2.9%
- Awards
GABS 2012 People's Choice
CBA Champion Craft Beer 2015
Prickly Moses Commander IPA
Published March 7, 2014
We're about to enter the time of year where, even more than usual in the current climate, there is a particular focus on hops. Home experimenters with their own handful of plants, small breweries with a few rows of bines and the country's major hop growers are all in the process of, or about to start, harvesting this year's crop. Yet Prickly Moses' latest, despite being an IPA with plenty of all-Aussie hops contain within, is keen for us to focus on another ingredient. It is named Commander after… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Australian IPA
- ABV
- 5.8%
- Stockists
-
Hop Factory
New Brighton Hotel
Pourhouse
Petersham Bowling Club
Quarrymans Hotel
More stockists...[The Local Taphouse D
Nail Brewing Brown Ale (Dunn Brown)
Published March 7, 2014
Step-by-step, well over a decade after starting out as a craft brewer, the pieces are falling into place for Nail Brewing and its founder John Stallwood. As one half of the BrewCorp project (Feral is the other half) with a sizeable brewery capable of supplying Australia's eager beer lovers, the means has been there to brew plenty of beer and now, with distributors lined up in the eastern states (Heron Towers will receive the first Nail delivery to Victoria this March), the means to deliver that beer… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Brown Ale
- Stockists
-
At good craft beer stockists
Anyone in Vic wishing to get their hands on Nail beers should contact Heron Towers
Riverside Brewing 777 Imperial IPA
Published March 6, 2014
At the tail end of 2013, Parramatta's Riverside Brewing Company quietly released a new beer. It was just a small test batch but, characteristically for the hop-heavy brewery, made up for it by being a very big beer: the 777 Imperial IPA. It was also notable for the disproportionately large impact it had on Sydney hop-heads, sending their hearts all a quiver and being lauded by the lucky few to get their hands on some. So it's very welcome news that the 777 has returned; bigger, with more bitterness,… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Imperial IPA
- ABV
- 9.2%
Bright Brewery Spiced Cloudy Apple Ale & Pilot Light
Published February 28, 2014
Just recently, we had our first experience of cult Aussie classic, Billy B's Golden Malted Apple Beer from Thorogood's in South Australia. We've been foisting it onto all and sundry ' heck, The Alehouse Project has even gone and ordered some to pop in its fridge. And now a Victorian brewery has announced an apple beer collaboration too. Bright brewer Jon Seltin has joined forces with craft cider producer Batlow Cider to create an experimental apple ale, the Spiced Cloudy Apple Ale. Using a Strong… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Spiced Apple Beer & English IPA
- ABV
- 6.45% & 2.9%
- Stockists
Barossa Valley Brewing The Barossa Threesome
Published February 26, 2014
The brewers at Barossa Valley Brewing have brought in the expertise of their local winemakers before. Yet they have never got their great-loving neighbours involved to quite the same extent as with their latest beer, The Barossa Threesome. Pitched as "a fusion of the best of the Barossa", the beer takes a hefeweizen base then adds Semillon and Riesling wines. The result, we're told, is a beer with "a beautiful hefe nose of banana" in which "the wines' acidity changes the… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Krystalweizen with wine
- ABV
- 4.5%
- Stockists
Grifter Brewing Co Acid Drop
Published February 24, 2014
What do dynamite, Post-Its and penicillin have in common with this beer from the Grifter Brewing Company? The answer is they all came about by accident. When the boys were brewing up a recipe for a Steam Ale, they experienced a bit of misfortune in the form of a dead burner, meaning they were stuck with 1400 litres of wort they were unable to boil. Because they hadn't yet mashed out the spent grain, they kept their wits about them and did what anyone should in that situation: call for The Doctor.… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Berliner-Weisse
- ABV
- 4.2%
- Stockists
Six String Brewing Bobby Brown
Published February 18, 2014
The name 'Bobby Brown' means different things to different people. If your formative years included the late 1970s, it might conjure up memories of Frank Zappa's confused sexual deviant. A decade later, the infamy of the name passed to another Bobby Brown whose prerogative was apparently excessive use of drugs and drop crotch pants. With those sorts of associations, you might expect a beer called Bobby Brown to be similarly twisted. But what's in a name, right? The Bobby Brown Ale from Six String… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- American Brown Ale
- ABV
- 5.1%
- Stockists
-
Spooning Goats
Quarrymans Hotel
Forest Lodge Hotel
More stockists...
Bridge Road & Nogne O Aurora Borealis II
Published February 12, 2014
Given the extraordinary lengths that Bridge Road and their Norwegian brewing buddies went to to create the Aurora Borealis and Aurora Australis beers – involving brews on either side of the planet, and unrefrigerated shipping of said brews from one side of the world to the other in barrels via ship – they will presumably be rather chuffed with their reception. Aurora Australis is currently the highest rated Australian beer ever on Ratebeer and Aurora Borealis scored a top 10 finish in the recent… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Tripel
- ABV
- 9.1%
- Stockists
-
And at good craft beer-supporting bottleshops.
Hargreaves Hill New Season IPA
Published February 9, 2014
The brewers at Hargreaves Hill have been enjoying themselves with hops, particularly new varieties (or varieties new to them), in recent years. There's been the Topaz & Amarillo IPA (A.K.A. Melanie), Admiral Nelson IPA, C4 IPA and the recent Eldorado IPA list a few. With the most recent crop of US hops recently arrived in Australia, their back with another. This time they are showcasing varieties that play an important role in some of their core beers, Pale Ale and Extra Special Bitter. They… Read more
Golden
- Style
- IPA
- ABV
- 6.2%
- Stockists
-
Blackhearts & Sparrows (growler fills)
[Slowb
More stockists...
Grifter Brewing Co Cold War
Published February 7, 2014
There's a war going on in the beer world. It's one of attrition between two fundamentally different attitudes. At the extreme of the Old World thinking is the immovable pillar of the Reinheitsgebot - the German purity law decreeing thou shalt only brew using water, barley and hops. At the opposite extreme is the 'anything goes' policy of the New World, where the blending of styles and use of new ingredients is not only welcomed but encouraged. And somewhere amidst all of this is an invisible line… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hopfenweizen
- ABV
- 5.3%
- Stockists
-
Dove & Olive (For Craft Beer Rising)
Yulli's
Pet
More stockists...
Red Duck Supa Nova / Saison / Saison Bee
Published February 7, 2014
Ballarat's Red Duck is showing no signs of slowing down in 2014. Already, a number of limited release seasonals have hit shelves, with more coming, including sours, barrel-aged beers and the like. The most recent three to appear are the Supa Nova Australian IPA, Saison and Saison Bee. The Supa Nova features just the one hop, the ubiquitous Galaxy, and despite tipping the scales at 7.5% ABV isn't particularly fierce, instead allowing the familiar citrus and tropical hop aromas obtained from the use… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- IPA & Saisons
- ABV
- 7.5% / 6.2% / 5.2%
- Stockists
-
Press Cellars
Swords Select
Olinda Cellars
More stockists...
Mountain Goat India Red Ale
Published January 31, 2014
Time for the first Rare Breed of 2014... Fresh from seeing six beers hit the Hottest 100, with their first can, Summer Ale, hitting the top 10, Mountain Goat has brought back a beer first trialled in kegs last year. This time around, they've given the India Red Ale a boost and a tweak and popped it into suitably bright red Rare Breed bottles too. The ABV has been nudged up to 6.6 per cent and they've done something of a tour of the world for the ingredients, with three different US hops (Athanum,… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- India Red Ale
- ABV
- 6.6%
- Bitterness
- 60 IBU
- Stockists
-
Kegs:
[Gr
More stockists...
Mountain Goat India Red Ale
Published January 31, 2014
Time for the first Rare Breed of 2014... Fresh from seeing six beers hit the Hottest 100, with their first can, Summer Ale, hitting the top 10, Mountain Goat has brought back a beer first trialled in kegs last year. This time around, they've given the India Red Ale a boost and a tweak and popped it into suitably bright red Rare Breed bottles too. The ABV has been nudged up to 6.6 per cent and they've done something of a tour of the world for the ingredients, with three different US hops (Athanum,… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- India Red Ale
- ABV
- 6.6%
- Bitterness
- 60 IBU
- Stockists
-
Kegs:
[Gr
More stockists...
Seven Sheds Platypus 200
Published January 22, 2014
Tasmania's northwest doesn't tend to be lavished with as much attention by tourist bods as some of its other regions. But on a trip there for a travel feature a couple of years ago, in the company of brewer and beer writer Willie Simpson, we were introduced to all manner of colourful, quirky and fascinating local producers, often hailing from other parts of the world and settling in NW Tassie after years travelling the globe. For his 200th batch of Seven Sheds beer, Willie decided to bring a few… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Spiced Brown Ale
- Stockists
-
Just 500 bottles available from Seven Sheds
Moon Dog Bjorn To Boogie
Published January 16, 2014
It's almost as if they knew the heatwave was coming... For their latest release, Moon Dog has returned to the fruit bowl and, vaguely, to the scene of one of their earlier adventures. Some of you may recall the Magnificent Mullet series of beers that saw Mel(on) Gibson, MacGuava and Billy Ray Citrus star as fruity, wheaty, tarty ales. Foregoing the temptation to forge an ancestral thread through the beers by releasing a Limey Citrus (a beer that would no doubt require more twerking than tweaking),… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Watermelon Weizen
- ABV
- 5.3%
- Bitterness
- 11 IBU
- Stockists
-
At good craft beer venues nationwide.
If you want help finding it near you, contact Moon Dog's distributor Phoenix.
Mornington Peninsula Brewery Black IPA
Published January 14, 2014
Midway through presenting the "Malt" week of the beer course we run with a fellow Good Beer Weeker late last year, we fell out. Not in a punching each others' lights out or sulking way, just in a "tomayto / tomahto" kind of way. He said Black IPAs were just gimmick beers, something brewed for geeks to talk about, we felt that they were a valid style and, when made well, one of the tastiest outcomes of the modern craft beer world's love of melding styles. Whether you think it gimmick… Read more
Black
- Style
- Black IPA
- ABV
- 6.2%
Murray's Anniversary Ale 8
Published January 1, 2014
Every year on its birthday, which falls on New Year's Day, Murray's releases its Anniversary Ale. Always big, always oaked and always an evolution on the previous year's recipe, past years have also tended to see the beer get bigger year in, year out, with the ABV percentage climbing, the number of yeasts used on the rise and sometimes even the number of types of oak used increasing too. For number 8, however, they've decided to head back to where it all started with the first Anniversary Ale. It's… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Barley Wine
- ABV
- 10%
- Stockists
Murray's Moon Boy
Published December 30, 2013
The Crafty Pint legal team is considering taking action against Murray's if they don't cough up fees for image rights for their newest beer. OK, not really - the website's founder doesn't own a maroon sweater like the bearded, bespectacled chap on Moon Bay's decal and given we allowed them to use our rippled physique as the basis for the Auld Bulgin' Boysterous Bicep label, we can't really start playing funny buggers now. OK, that's a lie too as the only thing rippling about the site's founder's… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Golden Ale
- ABV
- 4.5%
