Beers - The Crafty Pint

Blackman's Brewery Needs More Mosaic

Tapped March 26, 2021

We're a few days late writing about this beer. Given the Blackman's team go to the effort of making Crafty Towers one of the stops on their "pack-and-deliver-on-the-same-day" mission, we feel we should do our best to taste that day and post the next. But, given they only learned I was in Canberra when the beers had already been deposited, here we are. That said, if my day six sampling is anything to go by, as long as you can find some, you're not going to be wishing for more hop character. The… Read more

Style: Single Hop IPA
ABV: 6.5%

Nomad Brewing Brookie Dark Ale

Tapped March 26, 2021

Following up on their no-nonsense, don’t-overthink-it Brookie Draught, Nomad have come to the table with Brookie Dark Ale. It’s dark as a coal mine and crowned with tall, pillowy froth, and as easy to drink as they come. The aroma of chocolate biscuits and cola is full and flowing, but in the mouth it’s all about the smoothness: gentle flavours, light body, clean finish. Many of us have had the experience of walking into an old pub with a slew of lagers on tap, and walking to the end of the… Read more

Style: Dark Ale
ABV: 4.5%

Moon Dog The Duke Of Chifley

Tapped March 25, 2021

In typical Moon Dog fashion, when they held a dinner to launch Black Lung X, it wasn't enough for them to pair that double-digit-booziness beer with two of the courses; no, they they offered a sneak peek of an even bigger beer with arguably the star course too. That bigger beer is The Duke Of Chifley, named after the two streets on which you find their breweries – Duke Street in Abbotsford and Chifley Drive in Preston. There's good reason too: the base beer was brewed at the former then brought… Read more

Style: Barrel-Aged Barleywine
ABV: 12.2%

Black Hops Super G.O.A.T

Tapped March 25, 2021

When you release a hazy IPA called the Greatest Of All Time, how do you top it? For Black Hops, the answer is dialling up the booze and tropical flavours to create Super G.O.A.T. First brewed as a small taproom release right at the end of 2020, Black Hops let the beer roam a little wider for March 2021; a fitting time, given its just a couple of months after the core range G.O.A.T. made it to number five in the GABS Hottest 100. The big version of their top-selling beer even looks like a far bigger… Read more

Style: 8.4%

Hargreaves Hill Phoenix 2020

Tapped March 24, 2021

The phoenix is a creature best known for its ability to rise again from the ashes of its former self, and the annual release from Hargreaves Hill is certainly living up to its name. First released in 2009 as the business came back after the original brewery was destroyed by the Black Saturday fires, it's become a centrepiece of their calendar – brewed in limited volume and eagerly anticipated by many. It's also something of a rarity style wise – an imperial red ale built upon myriad specialty… Read more

Style: Imperial Red Ale
ABV: 9.6%

Stomping Ground Into The 'Wood Barrel Aged Cherry Brett Saison

Tapped March 23, 2021

Sure many of us might like to forget 2020 but there were some positives tucked into the year too. Asides from the local craft beer industry’s resilience, the year was also responsible for many excellent beers and some personal favourites were Stomping Ground’s Into The ‘Wood series, which explores beer’s wilder and oakier side. While the series isn’t going anywhere, the March 2021 release of Barrel Aged Cherry Brett Saison does represent a turning of the page with it being the last from… Read more

Style: Cherry Brett Saison
ABV: 6.5%

Bridge Road Brewers Free Time

Tapped March 22, 2021

The rise of alcohol-free craft beer has been a rapid and swift one at the start of the 2020s, with the new decade bringing with it booze-free breweries and established operations looking to add either very-low or no-alcohol offerings to their lineups. Among those longstanding breweries to turn to alcohol-free kis Bridge Road Brewers, with the Beechworth brewery adding Free Time to their core range early in 2021. With no bitterness and a cloudy, golden appearance, Free Time very closely resembles… Read more

Style: Alcohol-Free Pale Ale
ABV: >0.5%

Bridge Road Brewers NEeD Vol.3: Hazy

Tapped March 22, 2021

They aren't slowing their hop journey at Bridge Road with the NEeD IPA series beers coming out in a rapid succession and three beers and twelve hop varieties into it, they haven’t used a hop variety twice. Volume 3 is a Hazy that’s a little tamer than its predecessors. But don’t expect it to be boring - while the can is a simple beige with an apricot blush (perhaps with a Hex colour code of #FFC77D for those among you who are design-inclined), the glowing beer inside shows off Idaho 7, Loral… Read more

Style: Hazy IPA
ABV: 6.5%

Bad Shepherd Poseidon 2021 & Flower Power ft Blasta

Tapped March 22, 2021

It's fair to say there's not a huge amount in common between Bad Shepherd's twin March releases. One is a double digit imperial IPA, the other a lower ABV beer featuring native flowers. One comes in a big can (the bigger beer, naturally), the other a normal sized one. One is a returning past special, the other a new collab with a WA brewer. Actually, maybe they do share one thing in common: both pack a punch, just in very different ways. Poseidon is the IIIPA that slots in above their Almighty IIPA,… Read more

Style: IIIPA & Spiced Session Ale
ABV: 10.0% & 3.3%
Bitterness: 74 & 23 IBU

King Road Wet Hop Ale 2021

Tapped March 22, 2021

The annual hop harvest offers a fleeting chance to use freshly picked, "wet" hops to create a one-off beer expression. While acting as a reminder of the seasonal and agricultural origins of beer, there are challenges with balance in such beers as each crop is unique, leaving the brewer with an intuitive rather than technical application. Once again, the King Road brewers teamed up with Preston Valley Hops for theirs, picking from the bines in the morning and adding the wet Victoria hops,… Read more

Style: Wet Hop Ale
ABV: 5.0%

Stockists: On tap at the brewery