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!

Bright Brewery

Frenchies Tahiti Lager

Tapped July 10, 2020
What the bloody hell is a Tahiti Lager and what is it doing in a Frenchies can? Look, I can’t answer the majority of that question but I can give it a bloody good go. Tahiti, being the largest island of French Polynesia, was colonised by the French in the 19th century and therefore retains a great deal of French influence in the two thousand and twentieth year of our Lord. Thus how a Sydney-based French brewery and brasserie might draw some Tahitian influence into brewing a lovely little tropical… Read more
Style
Tropical Lager
ABV
4.5%

Frenchies Kamchatka

Tapped July 10, 2020
Of all the beers Frenchies have released since opening in 2017, in this writer’s opinion Kamchatka is the one that most represents the founders Vince de Soyres and Thomas Cauquil. No one would ever jam a brewery and French fine dining bistro in together on the same premises. And no one would ever brew a bière de garde and jam it full of enough Carafa malt to render it black as the void. Kamchatka is named for the far eastern Russian peninsula where Vince and Thomas made a 700km trek through a… Read more
Style
Black Bière de Garde
ABV
6.1%

Frenchies Little Sunray XPA

Tapped July 10, 2020
There’s something slightly illicit about drinking a beer named Little Sunray as a TGIF afternoon bevvy when it’s an overcast 13 degrees. I’d love to say it’s a warming beam of light but the fact my drinking hand ends up being absolute Kelvin before I’ve had three sips is hard to ignore. Sure, this lovely little light-bodied, hop forward pale ale is actively making me colder, but in the best possible way! There’s no denying XPAs are rapidly establishing themselves as de riguer in the craft… Read more
Style
XPA
ABV
4.5%

All Inn Brewing Arrive Late Leave Early

Tapped July 9, 2020
We’re all getting sick of 2020, so thank goodness All Inn Brewing have brought us a bangin’ West Coast IPA to take us back to 2013, when Frozen stole our hearts and Man of Steel disappointed us bitterly. All Inn call this beer a “descent into dankness”, and they’re not wrong. It begins on the nose as mostly floral notes - with support from grapefruit, pineapple and gin botanicals - that capture the feel of the pink California sunset on the label. But from the first sip there’s a definite… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
7.0%

Mismatch Brewing Bourbon Barrel-Aged Russian Imperial Stout

Tapped July 9, 2020
The Mismatch team’s first crack at barrel-ageing dates back to when they brewed out of Big Shed, when they created a sweet coffee stout aged in whisky barrels. Now they have a bit more room at their Adelaide Hills brewery, they brought in fourteen Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels have moved in and whipped up a big 12.75 percent ABV RIS that spent several months inside them. Upon opening the can, the beer exudes bourbon, even before your nostrils become within cooee. Pouring pitch black with a creamy… Read more
Style
Bourbon Barrel-Aged Russian Imperial Stout
ABV
12.75%

Mismatch Brewing Chocolate Stout 2020

Tapped July 9, 2020
Every year, Mismatch reach out to Adelaide Hill chocolatiers Melba Chocolate for help with a chocolate stout. The final product is slightly different every year and, for 2020, Melba decided to whip up a liquid chocolate that was then poured into the base stout featuring a stack of specialty malts along with further additions of vanilla. There's no mistaking the chocolate goodness; even Willy Wonka would be impressed. On the nose it's pretty sweet with milk chocolate, a hint of vanilla, some nuttiness… Read more
Style
Chocolate Stout
ABV
5.6%

Mismatch Brewing Traditional Stout

Tapped July 9, 2020
Lactose, peanut butter, cocoa nibs, vanilla, pastries, berries, chilli, coffee, chocolate... the list goes on. In today’s beer world, there's a whole array of adjuncts used in a wide variety of beer styles but sometimes you just want a good old fashioned beer. And that's what Mismatch have created here: a stout that's straight up solid and drinkable and brewed using just water, hops, yeast and malt. There's a flicker of red within this deeply black Traditional Stout that kicks off with sweet cream,… Read more
Style
Stout
ABV
6.2%

Tumut River Your Shout Easy Ale

Tapped July 9, 2020
Less a new release than a tweak and a new name for the beer formerly known as Aussie Ale, Your Shout – now an Easy Ale – still makes use of malt from Voyager Craft Malt in the Riverina and hops grown locally in the Snowy Mountains. And it still reminds me more of the UK than anything Aussie. Arguably its standout feature is its appearance, with those Voyager malts giving it a beautiful deep amber colour. That said, they also contribute heavily to its traditional ESB like character, producing… Read more
Style
ESB
ABV
5.0%

Tumut River Brewing Bounty Hunter 2020

Tapped July 9, 2020
If you were to pick up a can of Tumut River's Bounty Hunter and have your eyes alight on the words below the logo – "DARK ALE" – you may well be in for a surprise. The real clue is in the name at the top. Sure, it is a dark ale, but it's got rather more than a dark brown hue and chocolaty, toasty malts in wait for you. It's their Bounty chocolate bar-inspired release, one that first appeared in 2019 and has been requested by many since. It comes with desiccated coconut flavours and… Read more
Style
Choc Coconut Dark Ale
ABV
5.1%

Tumut River Man-Gose Wild

Tapped July 9, 2020
As word came through that New South Wales was closing its borders to Victorians (leading to an earlier-than-planned dash south from Broken Hill) and that Melbourne was going back into lockdown, the name of this beer has taken on even greater personal significance. Already a nod to the wild ride that is 2020, the prospect of being cooped up for another six weeks has led to discussions around just how long we could survive on solar power, cold showers and occasional runs to the nearest town to stock… Read more
Style
Fruit Gose
ABV
4.6%

All Hands Brewing Backyard Harvest Ale '20 & Red Ale & "Can’t Believe It’s Not Coconut” Brown Ale

Tapped July 8, 2020
When All Hands Brewing House re-opened their doors to the public post-COVID-lockdown, they did so offering a string of single batches they hadn’t been able to share with punters recently. So take advantage of the low tourist numbers at Darling Harbour and three highly drinkable special releases at All Hands. The usual fanfare surrounding fresh hop beers got kind of drowned out by other news this year, so the quiet confidence of this iteration seems appropriate. While it was piled full of 50kg of… Read more
Style
Harvest Ale & Red Ale & Brown Ale
ABV
4.4% & 4.6% & 5.1%

Hawkers Moment Of Clarity & Freedom Units

Tapped July 8, 2020
Hawkers have two very big releases that are set to keep Melburnians hopped up as we return to our couches. The lighter of the two is Moment of Clarity, which isn’t actually named Jay Z’s track from his seminal The Black Album and instead refers to that moment when a double IPA first hits your lips. Pouring perfectly clear and using the one-two of Citra and Mosaic hops, it packs a punch of pine, resin and a tropical pairing of guava, lychee and lime. As Hawkers have managed well in the past, the… Read more
Style
Double IPA & Triple IPA
ABV
9.0% & 10.5%

Stomping Ground & Melbourne Cocoa Double Choc Double Milk Nitro Stout

Tapped July 7, 2020
To celebrate World Chocolate Day, which happens to be today (July 7), Stomping Ground got together with Melbourne Cocoa to create one beer and one chocolate bar in the shape of Double Choc Double Milk Nitro Stout. To recreate milk chocolate as beer as much as possible, the brewing crew used a mix of both cocoa powder and liquor plus lactose and carbonated the cans with nitro - a first for the brewery. The accompanying chocolate bar, on the other hand, was made with the inclusion of brewing malts.… Read more
Style
Sweet Stout
ABV
6.3%

Modus Operandi Press Rewind IPA

Tapped July 7, 2020
When Modus set up their hazy program, they did two things. One: they gave themselves licence to experiment further with hazy beers. Two: they gave themselves space to keep working with non-hazy beers, rather than getting entirely swept up in the haze craze. With Press Rewind, they’ve pulled away from the tropical juice flavours, negligible malt character and low bitterness of the NEIPA nebula and have landed back in West Coast IPA territory. Not only does Press Rewind not look like brekky juice,… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
6.5%

Pikes Beer Co Choc Vanilla Stout

Tapped July 6, 2020
When the colder months come calling, there are many who reach for a stout as if by Pavlovian response [which in these pastry stout days could have a very different meaning too – Editor], And it's no different in the Clare Valley. This Pikes winter release comes in the form of a 7.8 percent ABV chocolate vanilla foreign extra stout featuring additions of vanilla and roasted cocoa nibs post ferment. The beer does everything it says it should on the label: the chocolate and vanilla absolutely reign… Read more
Style
Choc Vanilla Stout
ABV
7.8%

Two Birds Brewing Kalsarikännit Hazy Pale & Vanilla & Cocao Stout

Tapped July 6, 2020
Kalsarikännit (try here for the pronounciation) is a Finnish word that really needs to be popularised in English. The word effectively translates to “pantsdrunk” and refers to life’s great pleasure of drinking at home in your underwear with no intention of going anywhere. Now seems like the perfect time to push for its move into common usage too, considering so many new words and phrases have risen out of lockdown. Two Birds have looked to capture the blissful feeling of underwear drinking… Read more
Style
Hazy Pale Ale & Stout
ABV
5.3% & 5.8%
Stockists

For the full list of stockists, head here.

Tapped July 6, 2020
Hot on the heels of their hazy IPA-centric limited series, Cheeky Monkey are now indulging drinkers with another series drawing inspiration from the sort of tasty treats more commonly touted by artisan bakers and pastry chefs. The first release, in what will hopefully be a lengthy run to get punters through a cold winter, is a choc-chip oatmeal cookie pastry stout, loaded with a decadent amount of toasted oats, rye malt and lactose, plus a few packets of actual oat cookies. Brewed to satisfy the… Read more
Style
Pastry Stout
ABV
6.8%
Bitterness
28 IBU

Wheaty Brewing Corps Poblano Mexican Stout

Tapped July 6, 2020
The Wheaty Brewing Corps crew are well known for their witty, pun driven beer names, however there was no comic intent behind releasing a Mexican stout amid the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the Poblano was brewed back in February in anticipation of the West Torrens Chilli Festival, an event at which the Wheaty team run the bar every year. When the festival was cancelled, the Poblano was put in the cellar ready to debut as part of the Wheaty Brewing Corps 6th birthday. Incorporating 1500 SHU (Scoville… Read more
Style
Mexican Stout
ABV
5.9%
Stockists

The Wheaty

Hargreaves Hill R.I.S 2019

Tapped July 3, 2020
Hargreaves Hill's Russian Imperial Stout is a bit of a perennial favourite of this publication, a beer that comes out in the depths of winter and ticks all the boxes such as complex, big and boozy yet made without the assistance of barrels – aside from one very special release last year. It's a beer that's given lots of time to mature, though, with each brew spending months conditioning before release. R.I.S 2019 follows that same path but this year it’s been given one noticeable change: it’s… Read more
Style
Russian Imperial Stout
ABV
11.2%

Holgate Brewhouse Empress 2020

Tapped July 1, 2020
In the current era, nothing seems too crazy when it comes to the beers you can find in your local bottleshop fridge. Thus, in the current era of pastry stouts – imperial or otherwise – an imperial mocha porter weighing in at 10 percent ABV and brewed with coffee, Belgian candi syrup, cocoa and vanilla might qualify as a pretty normal winter release. Which, in its own way, reminds you just how forward-thinking the Holgate Brewhouse crew was when they first released Empress way back in 2011. The… Read more
Style
Imperial Mocha Porter
ABV
10.0%
Bitterness
50 IBU

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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