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!

Hopco

Sailors Grave First Harvest Hayzy, AMA & Magic Pudding

Tapped February 15, 2021
Could there be anything more Sailors Grave than plastering "Brewed With Silage" on the label of a beer? Choosing to brew a beer with "pasture grasses fermented anaerobically with naturally occurring lactic acid bacteria" in celebration of a bumper hay crop nails so much of what the East Gippsland brewers are about: farmers unafraid to experiment with any natural ingredient they can get their hands on, and eager to celebrate the natural bounty of their home region. The beer in… Read more
Style
Hayzy Pale, Gose & Christmas Ale
ABV
6.1% & 5.0% & 5.8%
Tapped February 15, 2021
Capital got into the loving feeling for Valentine's Day, releasing a new sour in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery. Pucker Up was created ahead of the start of forthcoming exhibition Australian Love Stories "to reflect the sometimes sweet, sometimes sour nature of romantic love". The major exhibition developed by the National Portrait Gallery kicks off on March 20 as a celebration of love in all its guises – from the romantic, to the platonic, between friends, lovers, creative… Read more
Style
Pear & Elderflower Sour
ABV
4.5%
Stockists

On tap at Capital's Fyshwick taproom

And select venues around Canberra

Young Henrys Brewers B-Sides: B.R.E.A.M.

Tapped February 14, 2021
Move over, C.R.E.A.M.… I grew up on the best side, the Inner West side, Drinkin’ B-Sides, well I tried To find second cans, but them Young Henrys fans, Would drink ‘em dry like drought-hit dams. This East Coast, the brewers like to boast, is dosed: juicy hops, lager yeast, and higher booze than most. Now let’s start with the sweet fruits, flashy like new suits, With big boots, stompin’ out breakfast juice. But then it ends with pine, finish fine, and goes to dry, I’ll be finished this… Read more
Style
East Coast Double IPL
ABV
7.0%

Tallboy And Moose Bizarro Cherry & Splash City

Tapped February 12, 2021
Tallboy and Moose spent a lot of 2020 exploring IPA’s many forms and filling beers with fruit and it looks like the Preston brewpub isn’t slowing that approach down in 2021. Tallboy has previously brewed the cherry gose Bizarro Cherry as a tap-only release but now it’s back with its own colourful tin and destined for a wider release. The can might be colourful but the beer isn’t, with its light golden hue making it look like a standard pale ale before a quick smell reveals it’s anything… Read more
Style
Cherry Gose & Guava Oat Cream IPA
ABV
4.5% & 6.5%

Ballistic Beer Sleep When You're Dead: West Coast IPA

Tapped February 11, 2021
Before the haze craze began, IPAs were supposed to be bitter. But there was still always the question of balance: what’s a good balance between bitterness and other flavours? An experienced brewer once told me his rule of thumb for balance was 10 bitterness units (IBUs) for each percent of ABV, so the malt body and sweetness and alcohol heft was always sufficient to keep the bitterness in check. While that's just one brewer’s opinion, and taste is subjective and all that jazz, I'd say this beer… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
7.5%
Bitterness
75 IBU

Blasta Brewing The Beast Unleashed

Tapped February 11, 2021
Blasta’s Beast series has appeared in hazy form for the past two years, and with The Beast Unleashed the Burswood brewery have set free a beer featuring the most hops that they have ever used in a beer (and they haven't held back in the past). But in no way is this excessive on the tongue. In fact, this beast – for all of the brutish evocations – arrives with such a joyous orange, it’s hard not to smile at the glass. The vivid liquid is plush with mango and pan-tropical fruit punch, which… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
7.1%

Venom Brewing Cherry Sour

Tapped February 10, 2021
Venom founders Joel and Janna Drysdale built their brewing company upon resolutely normal beers (and distinctive branding, of course). Their flagship is a characterful Golden Ale, while in the early years the "experimental" in terms of limited releases stretched to a winter Black IPA release. As with much of the beer world, however, the times have been a-changing; in 2020, they were involved in releasing a hazy DIPA with Deeds, a triple IPA with Coburg Brewing Co, a dentist-bothering imperial… Read more
Style
Cherry Sour
ABV
4.0%

Stone & Wood Counter Culture: The Holy Grain

Tapped February 10, 2021
Given the era in which we live right now, I suspect most eyes will be drawn to the words "Hazy IPA" on the label of Stone & Wood's tenth Counter Culture release. In such cases, drinkers attuned to brekkie juice-like DIPAs might be a little surprised by the low level of opacity in The Holy Grail. In my case, I have to admit its appearance in the glass had me thinking of saisons; with hindsight, that could be down to the label directing my subconscious towards the Olde Worlde stylings… Read more
Style
Honey Toasted Hazy IPA
ABV
6.2%
Stockists

Find The Holy Grain here

Feral Brewing Shooter's Juicy IPA

Tapped February 10, 2021
Shooter’s was originally a draught only, 2018 GABS Festival release, one which may now be seen as a form of proto-oat cream IPA, although it's not labelled as such here. In the fickle and increasing ephemeral beer world, a beer like Shooter’s should have come and gone: a sweet fancy, stuffed with multiple breakfast cereals, and referencing an Adam Sandler vehicle whose moment was likely partially shared with increasingly-stained shoes on the wobbly walk back to an equally wobbly table inside… Read more
Style
Juicy IPA
ABV
7.0%
Stockists

Available from Feral stockists nationally

And from the brewpub, COVID restrictions permitting

Bright Brewery Inversion High Density Hop Charge Hazy IPA

Tapped February 9, 2021
Who needs abbreviations like DDH and NEIPA when tallboy tinnies give you enough room to plaster long-form on them? Certainly, the team at Bright Brewery clearly felt no need to keep things tight with their imperial version of Inversion, which is described as a "High Density Hop Charge Imperial Hazy IPA". If we break that down, there's certainly a high density to the hazy appearance, with this 8.5 percent ABV drop displaying the requisite deeply opaque, orange-yellow haziness required for… Read more
Style
Imperial Hazy IPA
ABV
8.5%

White Bay Beer Co West Coast IPA

Tapped February 8, 2021
The fightback continues... After a few years in which a haze has descended over the world of IPAs, smothering bitterness, boosting sweetness and fluffiness, and making the category increasingly home to words such as "juicy" and "fruity", the past is making itself felt. You could already see a growing number of West Coast IPAs appearing as 2020 dragged on – admittedly often with hop profiles very different to those of a decade before, but brighter in the glass and more bitter… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
7.3%

Bridge Road Brewers Outsider Lager

Tapped February 7, 2021
Bridge Road’s founder Ben Kraus flies back to Australia after nearly 18 months in Austria. Next minute, Bridge Road add a German style lager to their core range. Clean and clear with a loose white head, Outsider almost tastes like a helles that Ben might have snuck† into his suitcase and brought back with him. A gentle sweet cereal flavour is balanced with subtle spice bitterness, all wrapped up in a body that’s soft and slick like satin bedsheets. But while they've managed to capture a classic… Read more
Style
Lager
ABV
4.5%

Felons Brewing Co Blueberry IPA & Lemon and Lime Gose

Tapped February 7, 2021
Felons brewed the Blueberry IPA beer for their Extravaganza open day event, and it seems the frivolity and festivity of the live music, street art, roving circus performers, face painting and balloon twisting managed to seep their way into the liquid. (They certainly overpower the ominous mood of the 6.66 percent ABV.) Three hundred kilos of organic blueberry purée, which came from a farm just two hours from Brisbane, were pushed into the whirlpool on brew day. That equates to around half a punnet… Read more
Style
Blueberry IPA & Fruited Gose
ABV
6.66% & 4.0%

Balter Brewing Cryomofo West Coast IPA

Tapped February 5, 2021
While it's not new to 2021, the current prevalence of the phrase in beer names and label descriptors suggests Cryo is making a bid to be the DDH or oat cream of the year. I dunno about you, but for me – which perhaps says something about my vintage – the word conjures thoughts of a David Cronenberg-penned dystopian movie in which something is brought back to life in a troubled future before embarking on a body-dysmorphia-themed, psychologically-insidious rampage. In the case of beer, however,… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
7.0%
Stockists

Check out the Balter beer finder

King River Brewing Summer Ale

Tapped February 5, 2021
Summer in the Victorian High Country can get hot – real hot – and dry, the sort of weather in which you're likely to want a beer, and one that's refreshing and can be consumed in quantities greater than one. Presumably it's with that in mind that King River designed their Summer Ale, and chose to make it the first of their core range beers to go into cans when they switched from bottles. Pouring deep golden with a white head, a lightly sweet biscuity base that makes the citrusy hops taste that… Read more
Style
Summer Ale
ABV
4.4%

King River Brewing Mango & Blueberry Berliner Weisse 2021

Tapped February 5, 2021
King River's switch to cans came just in time for them to pop the 2021 versions of their fruited Berliner Weisse duo inside. The Mango Berliner Weisse looks like thick juice or purée and, from the off, it makes no effort to hide its star ingredient. Fleshy mango is prominent on the nose, the silky palate, the belch test. Indeed, it smothers your chances of picking up much in the way of acidity or funk in favour of fruit-heavy refreshment. There's plenty of funk in its Blueberry Berliner Weisse brethren,… Read more
Style
Fruited Berliner Weisse
ABV
4.0% & 3.5%

Bridge Road Brewers NEed Vol.2: West Coast IPA

Tapped February 5, 2021
Two months after opening their NEeD IPA program with Hazy Double, Bridge Road bring the second instalment in the series with a West Coast. It’s stacked high with hops, but shares precisely zero of the varieties of the first NEeD; here, you'll find Strata, Amarillo, Simcoe, Centennial, Columbus and Warrior waiting to fill your face with lupulin. Like many of the new wave of West Coast IPAs, it doesn’t bust your lip with a violent uppercut of hop flavour and bitterness; it’s more of a wrestle,… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
6.9%

Seasonal Brewing Co Pia & Crumble Castle

Tapped February 5, 2021
As the new year edged closer to its second month, the neighbourhood folk at Seasonal welcomed a nuanced pair which equally slake and intrigue. First was Pia, a New Zealand-hopped pilsner which references a M?ori language translation for beer, and celebrates WA beer legend Pia Poynton. Here, the Czech malt provides an elegant light gold base, atop which Nelson Sauvin and Pacific Jade dance with white grape, NZ hop diesel, veiled pepper and a grassy bitterness that runs Jever-like dry. Which leaves… Read more
Style
Pilsner & Brett IPA
ABV
5.2% & 6.6%

Nomad Brewing Brookie Draught

Tapped February 4, 2021
Fancy a brewski? Ask Johnny and Kerrie to grab you a Brookie out the esky. Named in honour of the brewery’s home suburb, Brookie Draught is Nomad’s answer to the no frills Aussie beer of days gone by, except independent and brewed with all Australian ingredients. The retro tinnies bring memories of classic beers ads from the 70s and 80s – although without the assumption men are the only ones who drink beer.† There’s a smooth malt character on the nose that hangs around just long enough… Read more
Style
Aussie Lager
ABV
4.5%

Helios Brewing Eos Hazy Pale

Tapped February 4, 2021
Combining sessionability, heavy dry-hopping and community-mindedness, Helios Brewing have released Eos, a hazy pale ale full of El Dorado and Cashmere hops made in collaboration with Caboolture Sports Club. Eos, sister of Helios, is the goddess of the dawn, and, like her brother, she rides across the sky in a chariot, blazing past the metallic sun rays that adorn this beer’s label. But there’s even more burning sunshine when this hazy is poured into the glass – it shines a steady fiery gold… Read more
Style
Hazy Pale
ABV
4.5%
Bitterness
20 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.

The Crafty Pint – Putting Class In Your Glass Since 2010

Get the Crafty App

INDUSTRY JOBS

Stomping Ground Are On The Hunt For An Experienced Brewer

Stomping Ground operate a substantial production site from their original home in Collingwood but…

Newstead Brewing Are Hiring An Experienced Brewer

Newstead Brewing are one of Brisbane's biggest independent breweries, with operations in the suburbs…

Tagaytay Brewing In The Philippines' Are Hiring A Head Brewer

Tagaytay Brewing Company is a brewpub in the Philippines that's focused on brewing unique craft…

STAY IN TOUCH!



© 2021 The Crafty Pint Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy
Hit enter to search or ESC to close