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!
Bonehead Brewing Falling Leaves & The Myth
Published May 10, 2023
If you're a card-carrying member of the beer bubble, it's hard to know what's the better indicator that autumn is well and truly upon us. Is it the changing colours of the trees and their fallen leaves, or is it the rise in the number of red IPAs hitting bottleshop shelves? No need to choose if you're a fan of Bonehead's beers as their 2023 autumn seasonal is both a red IPA and called Falling Leaves. Pouring a lovely ruddy chestnut colour, the brewers have managed to retain a rich citrus vibe –… Read more
Black
- Style
- West Coast Red IPA & Coffee Vanilla Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 6.8% & 10.4%
Urban Alley Moonbeam Hazy IPA
Published May 9, 2023
It seems strange these days that it took so long for Aussie brewers to start nailing NEIPAs / hazy IPAs after they'd started finding favour over here as the last decade progressed. From variability in appearance to all sorts of issues with bitterness or hop creep / burn, it was perhaps easy to understand why so many doubted their longevity. Yet here we are now, where not only are such beers part of the furniture but they're generally delivered with aplomb too. Which brings us to Moonbeam from Urban… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 6.2%
Freshwater Brewing Co Dukes Pilsner
Published May 9, 2023
Described by the Freshie team as a "bucket list brew" Dukes is a Czech style pilsner that looks to do everything the proper way. There's Bohemian floor-malted pilsner malt and Czech Saaz hops at play with water that's been softened to represent that found in Pilsen the best they can on the Northern Beaches. One can only assume they went heavy on those hops though as they dominate the bright golden beer from start to finish. There's spicy, straw-like aromas and flavours for days, leaving… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Czech Pilsner
- ABV
- 5.0%
Felons Brewing x Rosie Woods Supreme Lager
Published May 8, 2023
Felons have been partnering with local visual artists since before they opened, and they haven’t taken a break since. From looming murals to colourful barrels, they’ve thrown open the doors for all kinds of creativity and beauty to infuse their space (and if you asked them, they’d probably say it infuses the beer, too). As Brisbane Street Art Festival rolls around again, the Felons team has brewed another collab beer: this time, a German pilsner with artist Rosie Woods, whose murals give the… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- German Pilsner
- ABV
- 5.3%
One Drop Vienna Lager, High Grade (with Dogma) & We Jammin'
Published May 8, 2023
After a few weeks of themed releases, we’re going back to One Drop basics with a trio of incredibly disparate beer styles. One German classic, one collaboration IPA, and an amazingly viscous fruited sour. It’s a proverbial whiplash of extremes and that’s just the way we like it. Vienna Lager. No silly names, no fluorescent can art, no special hopping regimes, no adjuncts. Just a pure as the driven snow lager beer. And what a bloody beer it is too. Honestly, it’s hard to image a beer that… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Vienna Lager, IPA & Smoothie Sour
- ABV
- 5.1% & 7.0% & 6.2%
Black Brewing Citrus Bomb
Published May 8, 2023
Black Brewing’s Citrus Bomb is one for the sourheads, with one foot in the ginger beer camp and the other firmly in kettle sour territory. With sweet, pulpy blood orange and fresh ginger added to a mouth-puckering base, this stands out with bright acidity and big fruit flavours. Ginger is prominent upfront, contrasting nicely with acid and sweet blood orange notes. A touch of spice from ginger hangs on the palate while blood orange and citrus character persist on a light and clean body, leaving… Read more
Pale Yellow
Hargreaves Hill Team World DIPA & R.I.S. 2022
Published May 8, 2023
A month ago, Hargreaves Hill released a trio of beers showcasing some of their favourite hops from the US, Australia and New Zealand. Aside from the choice of hops, the three hazy IPAs were in all other ways identical and came with the promise of a sequel: a double IPA featuring all six varieties: Team World. So, what do you get when you combine Citra, Amarillo, Vic Secret, Galaxy, Motueka and Nectaron – none of which are shy and retiring types – in an 8.5 percent ABV hazy? A dense hop soup,… Read more
Black
- Style
- Hazy Double IPA & Russian Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 8.5% & 11.2%
Banks Brewing Night Moves
Published May 7, 2023
An oatmeal stout has been part of the Banks oeuvre ever since the early Mr Banks days, these days appearing as their cool weather seasonal Night Moves. The name is highly appropriate too: if you come across a stout more black with a darker brown head under 5.5 percent ABV this winter then you'll have done well. There's plenty of freshly ground coffee bean and high couverture chocolate in keeping with the appearance, not to mention a touch of leather, a velvety body and a dry, roasty finish. An autumn… Read more
Black
- Style
- Oat Stout
- ABV
- 5.4%
Banks Brewing Fairly Traditional
Published May 7, 2023
The beer fairies at Banks are back playing in the realm of lagers again, doing so in a seasonally appropriate manner with their Fairly Traditional Vienna lager, in very traditional livery compared to the rest of their lineup. If you want the shortcut as to what to expect, imagine Lotus Biscoff biscuits turned into beer. The longer version? Fairly Traditional pours a clear, light chestnut colour from which I picked up some nutty nougat aromas, cola without the overt sweetness of some brands, something… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Vienna Lager
- ABV
- 5.2%
Lost Palms Fashion Tips Fruited Milkshake IPA
Published May 6, 2023
Sometimes all of the expectations of a beer are met on the label, and when that happens there’s not a whole lot someone like me can add to what’s on the can. Fashion Tips is called a pineapple and peach fruited milkshake IPA, so it’s fair to say you’d expect flavours of pineapple and peaches and vanilla milk flavour and fruity hops. Well… yes. That’s what it’s like. It smells simultaneously exactly like a tin of peaches that’s just been peeled open, and exactly like those Allen's… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Pineapple & Peach Milkshake IPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
Pint of Origin Frequent Frother
Published May 6, 2023
What do you get when you make a pale ale featuring ingredients representing most of the planet? A "global" pale ale pretty much unlike any other you'll come across. That was the brief when we decided to give Pint of Origin its own beer: design a recipe that touched down in every one of the festival's regions. It led us to a recipe list including Moutere hops from New Zealand alongside a couple of US varieties, dark crystal malt from the UK, biscuit rye from Canada, Aussie wheat, Weyermann… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Global Pale Ale
- ABV
- 5.0%
Bailey Brewing Light Lager
Published May 6, 2023
The intent behind Bailey Brewing's Light Lager is clear from the outset. There’s no thiol trickery, nor proprietary lupulin action here, and the closest this beer comes to a fruit addition is passing the cake cabinet on the way out to Bailey’s expansive lawns. Instead, Light Lager aims squarely at sessionability, and does so by welcoming the broadest of audiences. The pale light straw body offers a tease of pilsner malt on the nose, with subtle noble-leaning hop influence gleaming a clandestine… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Light Lager
- ABV
- 3.0%
- Awards
Gold - 2023 AIBA
Rocky Ridge's Stouty, Hoppy, Harvesty Sextet
Published May 6, 2023
It’s been another busy month for the Rocky Ridge brewers, releasing six fresh beers. As winter approaches, a couple of darker offerings feature alongside a duo of fresh hop beers courtesy of the South West’s hop harvest. It’s not just fresh hops, though, with a couple of extra hoppy numbers to round out the half-doz. Starting heavy, Double No Ordinary Bunny is a chocolate stout landing at 11 percent ABV and featuring eight different types of chocolate added throughout the brewing process. Over… Read more
Black
- Style
- Various Styles As Indicated
- ABV
- 11.0% & 5.5% & 8.0% & 4.4% & 8.5% & 6.0%
Bright Brewery Cold & Wet & King Konge IPAs
Published May 5, 2023
Bright Brewery have been exploring their backyard with some mates from further afield, teaming up with Queensland’s Revel for a hoppy collab. The north-south partnership saw them head to the Rostrevor Hop Garden to get their hands on some fresh Galaxy to make Cold & Wet while Revel were busy making the same cold IPA but with theirs instead featuring dry hop pellets. The Victorian approach delivers peach, pineapple and some light lemondrop and herbal grassiness, with everything finishing light… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Fresh Hop Cold IPA & Kveik IPA
- ABV
- 6.5% & 6.0%
Five Barrel Spud Australian Sparkling Ale
Published May 5, 2023
Po-tay-toes! Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a beer! When Five Barrel were invited to pour their beers at the Robertson Potato Festival, they decided to go one step further and brew a potato beer. Because why wouldn’t you? The brewers boiled and mashed Sebago potatoes from Robertson’s Hill Family Farms, then added them into - you guessed it - the mash. While they knew the enzymes in the barley malt would help break the potato starches into fermentable sugars, they didn’t realise that… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Potato Beer
- ABV
- 5.0%
- Bitterness
- 30 IBU
Watts River Belgian Beers 1 to 4
Published May 5, 2023
The percentage of beer drinkers in Australia with a passion for traditional Belgian beers will be tiny – far smaller than such wondrous beasts deserve. And, as I made my way through this intriguing foursome from Watts River, I wondered whether that percentage has grown much during the rise of craft beer over the past couple of decades or if it remains as niche as it ever was. Either way, in releasing a foursome that rises from blonde to quadrupel at the same time – in old school stubbies, no… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Belgian Style Ales
- ABV
- 6.5% & 7.0% & 8.7% & 11.0%
The Mill Brewery Deadwood Red & Cannonball
Published May 4, 2023
Deadwood’s cancellation remains one of modern TV’s greatest crimes and, while we did get to enjoy a movie some years later, that took an awful long time. Beer drinkers don’t have to wait as long for The Mill Brewery’s Deadwood Red, however, with the red IPA a regularly returning favourite from the brewery. It returns in 2023 in smaller, 375ml cans for the first time but it still brings a surprisingly dry finish for beer rich in caramel, toffee and biscuit, accompanied by hop-derived orange,… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Red IPA & Oak-Aged Scotch Ale
- ABV
- 6.8% & 8.2%
Nowhereman Black Sunshine & AlphaRon Stout
Published May 4, 2023
First impressions may link this Nowhereman’s dark lager release to the recent full solar eclipse, however Black Sunshine has something to do with an eponymous bicycle named after Nowhereman’s former head brewer Eddie Still by Preston Valley Hops. Curious for sure, but there’s a more pressing question at hand… And, it’s one which lies beyond the smooth balance of toast-bae malt, dusted cola hints, and a blush of earthy Donnybrook hops, which resolves with a familiar thought: "Why aren’t… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Dark Lager & Stout
- ABV
- 4.5% & 5.2%
Phat Brew Club Darth Lager & Culture Of Good Times
Published May 4, 2023
Dims lights. Cues rousing orchestral music… In strides Phat Brew Club's Star Wars Day beer, Darth Lager, bringing with him a troop of sweet-flecked dark chocolate and Milo aromas, which dissolve into a taut base beer, each element held snug against the next as if by some intangible force… Toasty malt, bitter licks and liquorice hints meet a dry riposte in a delicious liquid duel that’s far, far away from abandonment or a litany of occupational health and safety workplace issues. But, hey, Death… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Dark Lager & Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 5.0% & 6.0%
Noisy Minor Admiral Ackbar 2023
Published May 4, 2023
If you thought Ackbar was gone for good, never fear: it’s making a comeback. Since Admiral Ackbar was first on the scene, we’ve had fires, floods, pandemic, food supply shortages, war… and still this anti-imperial red ale is standing against the powers that be. You can’t stamp out the Rebel Alliance that easily. Released on Star Wars Day (May the 4th be with you), Admiral Akbar is a blast from the past. There’s no haze, no lactose, no Lupomax or Phantasm. Just good ol’ fashioned hoppy… Read more
Red
- Style
- Imperial Red Ale
- ABV
- 8.2%
- Stockists
-
Fortitude Brewing
Catchment Brewing Co
Netherworld Arcade
Whichcraft
Sneaky Baron
Cannon Hill Taproom
More stockists...Ballistic Beer, Salisbury
Ballistic Beer, Springfield
Ballistic Beer, Bargara
Harry Browns
Greenslopes Cellars
Hop & Pickle
Craft Wine Store
Bottlemart Boondall
Stafford Tavern
Curious Craft Ales
Forest Lodge Hotel
HP Bowlo
Mod Eisley Cantina, Phillip Island
