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!
Beerfarm & Fervor Native Series: Quandong & Samphire Gose
Published June 2, 2022
Beerfarm’s Native Series, a collaboration with Fervor that utilises ethically-sourced native Australian ingredients, returns for an eighth iteration in 2022. The captivating beer features quandong and samphire atop a clean gose base beer that is unique in flavour but entirely approachable. When it comes to the Native Series, often the story and the concept garners as much attention as the beer itself, and rightfully so. The series is not a mere marketing ploy or an attempt at virtue signalling,… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Quandong & Samphire Gose
- ABV
- 3.0%
3 Ravens Nevermore Mulled Stout & Wild Raven Bière de Miel
Published June 1, 2022
You think silly beer season might be over with the end of the final leg of GABS for 2022, then what do you know: you're heating stout in a saucepan and preparing to trying different additions and garnishes... Nevermore Mulled Stout is part of 3 Ravens' never-to-be-repeated series of beers and is inspired by the mulled drinks enjoyed over winter. In this case it's a sweet stout with additions of cinnamon, star anise, clove and allspice, which, to me at least, don't just spice the beer but dry it out.… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Mulled Stout & Golden Sour
- ABV
- 6.0% & 7.8%
- Bitterness
- 34 & 19 IBU
Aether Brewing Creme Brûlée
Published June 1, 2022
Earl Grey Creme BrĂ»lĂ©e, First at GABS and now in cans, Creamy treat for end of day. Get it – quickly – in your hands! Artwork – from a hot new game – By the great Sandara Tang, Like a dragon spitting flame, Cute and small, with tiny fang. Smells like things you love to eat: Marshmallow, all gooey soft Butterscotch, all sticky sweet. Pannacotta, just a waft. When it’s time to take a chug Takes you back when you were young: Drinking custard from the jug Thick and creamy on your tongue. Rich… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Dessert Beer
- ABV
- 8.0%
Two Birds Turn It Up To 11
Published June 1, 2022
It must be a sign of how our perception of time has been so screwed by the past two-and-a-bit years that I'd swear it was only a few months ago – rather than 12 – that I was tucking into Two Birds' deliciously hoppy tenth birthday beer. Yet apparently we've completed another trip around the sun as here's Turn It Up To 11 – a birthday cake beer. It's one that features cocoa powder, cacao nibs, vanilla bean, lactose and a pinch of nutmeg – as well as special Party Packs featuring suitably cheesy… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Sweet Stout
- ABV
- 6.8%
Bowden Brewing Sour: Blood Plum & Raspberry
Published June 1, 2022
In keeping with the slick way in which they present most of their canned releases, Bowden Brewing keep things simple when it comes to labelling their seasonal sours: the colour of the can might change but what catches your eyes will be the one word: "SOUR". That said, when it comes to deciding what ingredients to feature in their sours, well, as a perusal of their page on The Crafty Pint will tell you, that's rather less simple. That said, this one is a little more straightforward than… Read more
Red
- Style
- Fruit Sour
- ABV
- 4.5%
Bowden Brewing & Soi 38 Tom Yum Sour
Published June 1, 2022
As I've written elsewhere on Bowden Brewing's page on Crafty, the brewers do rather enjoy spreading their search far and wide when it comes to souring ingredient and ideas for their sours. Case in point: this collaboration with Thai restaurant Soi 38. The Tom Yum Sour is inspired by the venue's flagship cocktail and features ginger, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, hibiscus and salt alongside the traditional water, hops, malt and yeast. Thanks to the hibiscus it looks looks like rose water or Irn… Read more
Red
- Style
- Tom Yum Sour
- ABV
- 6.2%
Bowden Brewing Purple Yeet Juice
Published June 1, 2022
Normally when I'm forced to go and do a little research by a new beer, it's because there's some unusual fruit or other ingredient in the mix, or maybe the brewers have employed a technique with which I'm not familiar, or worked with someone I've never heard of before. In the case of Yeet, it's been a case of reading about how a made-up word came to become an ever-evolving meme. And now, I guess, the magic ingredient in this hard lemonade from Bowden. While the brewers might be encouraging drinkers… Read more
Red
- Style
- Hard Lemonade
- ABV
- 4.2%
Bowden Brewing & Dawn Patrol Bean Counter Coffee Porter
Published June 1, 2022
Given their location amid a hub of small businesses, including many other crafty producers, Bowden Brewing do like to collaborate. In this case, it saw them to join forces with Dawn Patrol coffee roasters to source coffee for a porter built upon a blend of seven different malts. The result is a beer possessing plenty of freshly ground bean character but also much in the way of cacao, dark chocolate and caramel sweetness too, ensuring there's depth to each sip. Job well done. James Smith… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Coffee Porter
- ABV
- 6.2%
The Suburban Brew Tram Track Stout
Published May 31, 2022
Stout season is upon us once more, and it hasn’t taken Suburban long to launch into dark territory with a straight up, no nonsense stout with not an adjunct in sight. With their home located just on the outskirts of Adelaide’s CBD, a tram line runs right past Suburban’s front door – less than a 100 metre walk away – making it ideal for their policy of naming beers with local references. Tram Track Stout is laced with dark malts and a good addition of oats to add to the silky mouthfeel,… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Stout
- ABV
- 6.2%
Five Barrel Bière De Maison & Side Salad
Published May 30, 2022
Congratulations to Five Barrel on this beer – it’s good stuff before it even gets to your mouth. The brewery made Bière De Maison for GABS, but the environment of a beer festival – surrounded by other beers, with just a name or single sentence to describe the beer – doesn’t do it justice. For this, Five Barrel’s first farmhouse ale or beer featuring using wild yeast, the team worked with local producers to build Bière De Maison from the ground up. The organic grains – pilsner malt,… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Australian Farmhouse Ale & DDH Oat Cream IPA
- ABV
- 6.0% & 7.5%
- Bitterness
- 19 & 25 IBU
Holgate Brewhouse Gluten Free Low Carb Tropical Pale
Published May 30, 2022
There doesn't seem to be too much the brewers at Holgate won't turn their hands to (well, at least in the world of beer); just a glance at their gold medal-winning beers at this year's Australian International Beer Awards throws up Russian Imperial Stout, Sour Brett Ale and a red IPA (of which more later). They were one of the first Aussie craft brewers to release an alcohol-free beer (the silver medal-winning Love All) and here enter the realm of not just gluten free but also low carb with Tropical… Read more
Golden
- Style
- GF, Low Carb Tropical Pale
- ABV
- 4.9%
Prickly Moses MiD
Published May 27, 2022
Over the past half decade or so, the world of the mid-strength has changed markedly. Not only have such beers become far more central to most breweries' thinking, but in many cases it's become a space in which brewers have strived to replicate the character of much bigger beers – whether via flourishes of hop-derived fruitiness or greater bitterness. To that you can add the arrival of fruity sours, many of which sit below 4 percent ABV, not to mention the growing trend to go even lower and make… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Mid-Strength Golden Ale
- ABV
- 3.4%
Otherside Citra Dip Hop, The Fog & Redliner '22
Published May 27, 2022
Naming limited releases is a challenge. How to represent the liquid well, be relevant and timely in market, avoid IP theft, and communicate everything about a fleeting spark of canned creativity in milliseconds is the stuff that’s either an afterthought, or squeezed out of a team that costs millions, with charts, spreadsheets and the like. What’s more, you're probably doing so with the pressure of incubating siblings waiting for next weekend’s glorious release. In this space, Otherside keep… Read more
Red
- Style
- West Coast IPA, Hazy IPA & Red IIPA
- ABV
- 6.2% & 7.0% & 8.0%
- Stockists
-
Available from the brewery
And Otherside stockists in limited release.
More stockists...
Rocky Ridge's May 2022 Septet
Published May 27, 2022
The month of May has been a busy one for the Rocky Ridge team, with new releases surpassing half a dozen. Never mind trying to keep up with drinking them all, we can’t understand how they manage to brew them all! They've delivered us an array of styles that includes a bourbon BA pastry stout, a fruited gose, the hop heavy and the winter warming. Starting light but fruit heavy is Enter the Dragon (4.5%), a gose dosed generously with dragon fruit, lime and some sweet agave. Clean and refreshing tartness… Read more
Black
- Style
- Various Styles
- ABV
- ABV as indicated
Dainton Beer Chipmunk
Published May 26, 2022
The weather’s well and truly dropped in Melbourne and the city’s breweries are turning their attention toward satisfying cold nights. In the case of Dainton, their focus is on satisfying both winter's approach and sweet-tooths with Chipmunk, a choc hazelnut porter. Sure, it might not be as rich as some of Dainton's previous dessert-inspired beers but Chipmunk does provide quite an immediate hit of chocolate that most closely resembles drinking cocoa over a slice of cake. Add in the flavours… Read more
Black
- Style
- Choc-Hazelnut Porter
- ABV
- 6.0%
Heads of Noosa Baltic Porter
Published May 26, 2022
Private launch parties, VIP pre-sales and sold-out events… this is the language of exclusivity tied up with Heads of Noosa’s Baltic Porter. It’s the first beer in their limited release range, and the 3600L batch (a limited volume indeed, when you’ve seen the size of the towering fermenters at the brewery) has struck an instant chord with punters. When you first pour it into the glass, it’s deep and dark, and the brown that tinges the head only adds to that. But hold it up to the light and… Read more
Black
- Style
- Baltic Porter
- ABV
- 7.8%
BentSpoke Brewing & Italian and Sons Regina
Published May 25, 2022
What’s the perfect beer style to pair with pizza? Personally, the crisp, hoppy combination of an Italian pils feels like a winning way to go but BentSpoke have another answer. The Canberra brewery have partnered with their Braddon neighbours at Italian and Sons to create the pizza-fermented pale ale, Regina. The collab is part of BentSpoke's Freewheeler series which celebrates community and saw the brewers take some of the pizza and wine bar’s 20-year-old sourdough starter to ferment the beer.… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Pizza-Fermented Pale Ale
- ABV
- 4.2%
Blackflag Brewing Drop Dead Gorgeous
Published May 25, 2022
If there's one thing you should know about Blackflag Brewing, it's that they don't tend to trade in subtlety. Case in point: they dragged an entire halfpipe down the Bruce Highway and installed it at the 2021 GABS Festival in Brisbane. And Drop Dead Gorgeous, the latest beer in their limited series range, is no different. A 7.1 percent ABV West Coast IPA, it sits comfortably alongside the many others in the brewery's lineup best described as "dangerously drinkable". On the nose, there's… Read more
Golden
- Style
- West Coast IPA
- ABV
- 7.1%
Slow Lane's May 2022 Quartet
Published May 24, 2022
It’s another Slow Lane special this month. The Sydney maestros routinely release beers that are so good I struggle to contain all the gushing praise, and this time might be the hardest of the lot. This foursome is once again a diverse cast of styles ranging from classics to inventions, all dialled in with the usual Slow Lane exactitude. Definitely Maybe is a beefy German lager labelled here as a Maibock but also known as a Helles Bock, depending on who you ask. In Germany, Maibocks are brewed in… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Various Styles As Indicated
- ABV
- 7.0% & 7.5% & 6.5% & 11.5%
Lost Palms Riwaka Wai-iti NEIPA
Published May 23, 2022
Lost Palms have been keeping their heads down for a few months to focus on upgrading their brewery – not an easy task with global freight lines and floods close to home conspiring against them. But now, with a flashy upgraded brewhouse and more tanks than before, the team are ready to once again unleash special releases aplenty. The first out of the gate is this NEIPA made with all New Zealand hops. It looks like straight-up orange juice on the pour, but this beer isn’t one-dimensional: a whiff… Read more
Golden
- Style
- NZ Hopped NEIPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
