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!
Hargreaves Hill Beatnik Hazy Pale
Tapped May 2nd, 2019
The second release from Hargreaves Hill's canned offshoot Beatnik continues along the path trodden by the first. Whereas the OG brewery typically favours exploring classical beer styles, the child is more about current trends, with this hazy pale ale following an XPA. It lands at the hazy rather than opaque end of the clarity (or lack of) scale and is as pale as its stablemate. Aroma wise, you've got citrus of the lemon/grapefruit ilk on the one hand, a touch of the dank on the other, while there's… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Hazy Pale Ale
- ABV
- 4.6%
Hargreaves Hill Babooshka Vanilla Milk Stout
Tapped May 2nd, 2019
Well I never. A Hargreaves Hill beer in a can. Having tested the waters with the Beatnik beers, here's the first tinnie bearing the Yarra Valley brewery's name. It adorns 440ml cans of a beer that initially appeared as a very short, draught-only run in 2018 when Hargreaves Hill took over the very many taps at the Mt Macedon Hotel for a special event. Babooshka is a vanilla milk stout whose arrival is rather timely, not just because we're heading into winter but also because we're in the midst of… Read more
Black
- Style
- Vanilla Milk Stout
- ABV
- 6.0%
Endeavour OPT Porter & Hazy Wet Hop IPA & Voyager Amber Ale
Tapped May 2nd, 2019
There’s a distinctly European vibe to these releases that hit tap at the Endeavor Tap Rooms in The Rocks in quick succession. And, given the aesthetics of the brand, the venue’s location in the colonial heart of Australia and the cooling weather, it all feels very fitting. It’s remarkable given almost all the ingredients are Australian and Aussies decided a long time ago that European beers are not and will never be cool. Quite frankly, it’s a disgrace. First up is the OPT Porter. Named for… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Various styles
Burnley Brewing Blackcurrant Gose
Tapped May 2nd, 2019
When Swedish punks Millencolin toured Australia in March, the band’s frontman Nikola Šarcevic made sure to put down a few collaboration brews between performing sellout shows. Aside from being one of Sweden’s top musical exports, Nikola also runs Wizard Brewing and Mikrofonbryggeriet – and you can read more about that side of his colourful life here. In particular, Nikola is into brewing fruit-filled kettle sours, as he did with Old Wives Ales to create Sommar Sour, and hazy IPAs. When the… Read more
Red
- Style
- Blackcurrant Gose
- ABV
- 4.6%
Eumundi Brewery Tiny XPA
Tapped May 1st, 2019
What do you call a hazy, five percent ABV pale ale that’s been generously dry-hopped with New World hops? Is it an XPA? A New World Pale Ale? A New England Pale Ale? Toying with styles and style names is all fun and games until someone gets confused. (That “someone” being me. I’m easily confused.) Perhaps I’m overthinking it; it tastes delicious, and Eumundi’s happy calling it an XPA, so let’s go with that. As with the Pale Ale, some of the familiar Galaxy aromatics are there, but they’re… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- XPA
- ABV
- 5.0%
The Mill Brewery Freshest Haze IPA
Tapped April 30th, 2019
The Mill in Collingwood is one of a handful of mainland breweries to have taken part in the annual Fresh Hop Beer Festival in Launceston, Saint John Craft Beer's celebration of the annual hop harvest. The 2019 festival was their second visit and saw them take an equally hazy approach to the previous year, albeit with a few tweaks – namely, more hops in both whirlpool and at the dry-hopping stage plus more booze. They might not have been the biggest of changes, but clearly they worked as Freshest… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Galaxy Wet Hop DDH NEIPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
Moo Brew Fresh Hop Lager 2019
Tapped April 30th, 2019
Moo Brew’s head brewer and general manager Dave Macgill loves Enigma hops. Those are his words but you could probably work it out even if you’d never met him. After all, back in 2015, the brewery’s first ever can release was Single Hop, an ale made entirely with Tasmanian grown Enigma and Tasmanian malt. So, when it came time for Moo to brew a beer for Launceston’s Fresh Hop Beer Festival in 2019, Enigma was always the likely choice – not only is it a favourite of Dave’s but it’s… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Wet Hop Lager
- ABV
- 5.0%
- Stockists
-
Dirty Pennies
Other stockists to come
Wilson Brewing Draught
Tapped April 29th, 2019
From the day they launched their first beers, the team at Wilson have made it clear they're to brew beer for the people – especially the people within the community of Albany in WA's South West. While their beers are now increasingly available across WA, their packaging boldly states "Albany Proud" and their range regularly pays homage to the coastal town they call home. Wilson Draught comes with a minimalist but striking can design that tells a simple story and the beer within follows… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Sparkling Ale
- ABV
- 4.2%
Bright Tank Alelagersaurus
Tapped April 29th, 2019
As the eagle-eyed among you may already have deduced, this canned release from Perth's Bright Tank Brewing is a hybrid. And what makes it so? Well, they've taken the sort of malt and hop bill that would typically be used in an IPA then cold fermented it with a lager rather than ale yeast to create the sort of finish you'd expect from a lager. It is a style that is very much open for experimentation and open to interpretation too. For this creation, brewery co-founder Matt Moore decided to showcase… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- IPL
- ABV
- 6.5%
Brewhouse Margaret River Chocolate Orange Porter
Tapped April 29th, 2019
This autumn limited release from the crew at Brewhouse Margaret River couldn't have come at a better time: a chocolate and orange infused porter that landed days before the Easter weekend and just as the cold South West nights were starting to settle in. Available on tap and in takeaway bottles from the brewery, the Brewhouse Choc Orange Porter features robust flavours of dark chocolate, red berry and an earthiness derived from a whopping 8kg cocoa nibs added both in the boil and as a chocolaty dry… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Choc Orange Porter
- ABV
- 6.4%
- Bitterness
- 35 IBU
Two Birds Brewing Galaxy Hop Harvest & West Coast IPA
Tapped April 28th, 2019
It’s all about hops at the Two Birds Nest as they launch a pair of hop dominant beers to celebrate new beginnings. The first, Galaxy Hop Harvest, is a 5.3 percent ABV pale ale made with new season hops. It is lean in malt, and all about the wet, unprocessed hops from the 2019 Australian harvest. The keg-only release is bright yellow, with fresh cut grass and white peach aromas. It has an oily-fresh and luscious mouthfeel, finishing dry, with a solid bitterness. Using Galaxy hops in a pale ale… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Harvest Pale & West Coast IPA
- ABV
- 5.3% & 6.3%
- Stockists
-
Two Birds Nest
NSW / ACT
Blind Bear
More stockists...Old Canberra Inn
Windsor RSL
VIC
Bar Josephine
Heartbreaker
Bonnie and Clydes
Hop Temple
The Mallow Hotel
Healesville Hotel
NB These are Hop Harvest stockists
Rocky Ridge Imperial Ace
Tapped April 28th, 2019
What does a brewery do when their trusty brewdog fathers a litter of eight adorable brewpups? Create a beer to celebrate the occasion, of course. Ace, the trusty Border Collie, already has his own beer in the Rocky Ridge range, but to celebrate becoming a dad the Ace Pale Ale has been ratcheted up to imperial status. Imperial Ace is a triple dry-hopped offshoot of what was already a bountifully-hopped American pale ale in its own right. Here, however, the beer offers up huge passionfruit, melon… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Imperial Pale Ale
- ABV
- 8.0%
- Bitterness
- 75 IBU
Loch Brewery Pale Ale
Tapped April 27th, 2019
It’s not often you’ll find a pale ale like this released by an Australian brewery. At a time when pales seem to be getting, well, paler and paler, it’s an outright rarity to get your hands on one that’s this dark and so malt heavy. But Loch Brewery & Distillery approach beer a little differently and are far more inspired by the traditional brewers of England’s Midlands region than those of America’s West Coast and by the hops of Kent than those from the Pacific North West. Thus Loch’s… Read more
Golden
- Style
- English Pale Ale
- ABV
- 5.2%
Exit Brewing #021: SXPA
Tapped April 27th, 2019
Since moving them into tinnies, and particularly since the start of 2019, Exit’s limited release schedule has been setting a brisk pace. The latest to arrive is an SXPA, which may sound like it’s from the future but is a far more straightforward creation: a Session Extra Pale Ale that sits at an eminently sensible 3.5 percent ABV. Despite the rather complex sounding name, one that sits with a lineage of past Exit releases such as the Session XXXPA, it's actually quite a simple affair – and… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Session XPA
- ABV
- 3.5%
Bad Shepherd Alkonost Russian Imperial Stout
Tapped April 27th, 2019
In Russian mythology, an Alkonost is a bird with the head of a woman, that – like the sirens of Homer’s Iliad - is said to make someone forget all else and desire nothing else. It’s this seductive approach that Bad Shepherd have taken for this Russian Imperial Stout, which could hardly be more appropriate for a big beer from a brewery with the motto “Leading you into temptation.” Pouring opaque with a tan head, a peated smokiness is the clearest flavour, followed by a rich caramel sweetness.… Read more
Black
- Style
- Russian Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 9.2%
- Stockists
-
More stockists...
Bad Shepherd Brewpub
Cork Liquor Store
Elsternwick Cellarbrations
Good Company Beers & BBQ
Hop Supply Co
Lonsdale Cellars
Mordialloc Cellar Door
Mrs Parma's
Southland Cellarbrations
Wines on Poath
Blackman's Brewery Super Hop West Coast IPA
Tapped April 26th, 2019
The latest chapter in Blackman's push of the "fresh is best" message when it comes to their hoppy beers has arrived in the shape of the Super Hop West Coast IPA. It's the first in a series of beers that will be released every two months under the "Same Day IPA" banner and will see kegs and cans delivered to partner venues in Victoria on the day they're packaged. In other words, the brewing team will head into the brewery in the early hours, fill kegs and cans, then enlist the… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- West Coast IPA
- ABV
- 7.2%
Australian Brewery Trans-Tasman XPA
Tapped April 25th, 2019
It’s not uncommon for an Australian brewery to release a commemorative beer around Anzac Day. What is unusual, however, is when that beer is actually brewed by a former Anzac. That's the case here, however, after ex-Rifleman Jamie Howie made the interesting career move from Australian Army to Australian Brewery, joining the team at Rouse Hill in late 2018. Trans-Tasman XPA is the first beer he’s designed and the brewery’s first XPA too. Pale gold in colour and with aromas of citrus and tropical… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- XPA
- ABV
- 5.0%
- Stockists
-
Australian Brewery
Australian Brewery
Minsky’s Hotel
Mt Annan Hotel
Leumeah Hotel
Willoughby Hotel
Figtree Hotel
More stockists...Wattle Grove Hotel
Eastwood Hotel
Central Hotel
St George Hotel
All Hands Dunkel In The Rye
Tapped April 25th, 2019
Originally brewed as a one-off in the first half of 2018, this beer proved such a hit with regulars (as well as snagging a silver at the 2018 Indies) that All Hands decided to start a tradition: brew in time for Anzac Day; release on Anzac Day; serve with an Anzac biscuit. Order a pint of this and it’ll display a russet colour, but in a smaller glass it’s a dark ruby, like the robe of a king, with its creamy, off-white head sitting atop like a crown. But this isn’t a drink reserved for royalty;… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Munich Dunkel
- ABV
- 4.8%
- Bitterness
- 24 IBU
Beerland Brewing Steam Machine
Tapped April 24th, 2019
This beer style may have launched the craft beer movement via Fritz Maytag’s beloved Anchor Steam Ale, however, with the zeitgeist chasing haze, double digit DIPAs and pastry stouts, Steam Machine seems, well, rather common. That is until the drinker pauses for a moment and checks the serenity – beautifully made beers of this cannon may not receive their previous levels of attention but there is certainly a place for this kind of craft. Nicknamed "Karridale Common" thanks to the addition… Read more
Golden
- Style
- California Common
- ABV
- 4.8%
- Stockists
-
Plus select WA venues
More stockists...
Wayward Brewing Red IPA
Tapped April 23rd, 2019
Back when Wayward launched as a gypsy operation in 2012, the first beer to make its way into the hands of Sydneysiders was the Charmer India Red Ale. Since then, the brewery’s built a home in Camperdown, started sending its beers into other states and moved its core range into cans. So, it’s safe to say plenty has changed. But it seems the love for a hoppy red ale has continued unabated, as was made clear when Wayward added the Red IPA to its core range in autumn 2019. According to the Wayward… Read more
Red
- Style
- 6.5%
