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!
Philter IPA
Tapped October 25th, 2018
Philter set out from the start to make drinking beers. Sure, beers with flavour and character but, more than anything, that you'd want to put away then have another. A stack of awards would suggest they're doing a pretty good job of making such beers well and it's likely this IPA, the fourth addition to the core range, will see the brewing company headed by Sam Füss continue in that vein. It's a beer that does what it promises on the tin – passionfruit, grapefruit and orange aromas welcome you… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- IPA
- ABV
- 5.8%
Mash & Perth Home Brew Share Imperial Swan
Tapped October 24th, 2018
While many from the homebrewing community aspire to make the leap into professional brewing, there’s not many that end up doing so. Perhaps the reality of potentially backbreaking work in wet conditions without long-term financial security is a reality check for many weekend brew warriors but, for the WA online community that is Perth Home Brew Share, this collaboration with Mash has helped make more than 4,000 dreams come true. Bucking the spring seasonal trend towards lighter styles, Imperial… Read more
Red
- Style
- Imperial Red Ale
- ABV
- 8.0%
- Stockists
-
The recipe is available online for all to try
The original is at Mash Brewing and select WA retailers
More stockists...
Old Wives Ales Pop's Passion Tart (cans)
Tapped October 22nd, 2018
It's nearly a couple of years since Old Wives Ales' collaboration with cold smoked salt producer Smalt first appeared and now, as summer 2018/19 creeps ever nearer, it's become the latest of the foursome's beers to move into cans, boldly coloured ones you won't miss in a fridge too. What's inside remains the same, however, with passionfruit puree added to a gose base featuring Smalt's apple wood smoked salt. The effect, if you're new to the beer, is a hefty passionfruit waft to kick things off –… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Passionfruit Gose
- ABV
- 4.3%
Bridge Road & Three Blue Ducks Send It Session IPA
Tapped October 22nd, 2018
It's funny how these things work. You don't see many sour 'n' smoky Lichtenhainer style beers around then two land from Victorian brewers in a couple of weeks. And now we've had two sessionably minded releases come our way in quick succession bearing the name Send It. However, while Black Hops' "Gold Coast inspired session ale" looks to keep things simple, there's a bit more to cover here. For one, it's the second release in Bridge Road's Restaurant Series of hookups with, you've guessed… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Passionfruit Session IPA
- ABV
- 5.0%
Molly Rose Brewing Ex Vinum Wild Dark Ale
Tapped October 22nd, 2018
Another Molly Rose release with a storied history. It started out when Nic Sandery was working vintage at a Victorian winery and, as he puts it, "borrowed" five kilograms of Heathcote shiraz. This was co-fermented with a no hop stout in which he says the wild yeast and bacteria native to the grapes were allowed "to go crazy". He kept hold of this new colony of yeast awaiting an opportunity to use it on a larger scale, which ended up being within a dark ale added to a freshly emptied… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Barrel Aged Dark Ale
Boatrocker & Pambula Oyster Co Smoked Porter
Tapped October 22nd, 2018
There's not a great deal of great beer around if you live in Pambula. But Mark McKillop, a former lineman turned award-winning oyster farmer, has found a pretty unique way of ensuring he's kept in ready supply, namely getting involved in some of the country's leading beer festivals and regularly collaborating with one of the country's leading breweries, Boatrocker. This time around, brewer and oyster farmer have gone for something a little more traditional than their last dalliance, the Auster La… Read more
Black
- Style
- Smoked Oyster Porter
- ABV
- 5.2%
Boatrocker Dramjet & Sparkling Dramjet 2018
Tapped October 22nd, 2018
Having spent years ageing beers in barrels, most famously using Starward barrels when creating the iconic Ramjet imperial stout, Boatrocker's Matt Houghton decided that 2018 was the time to go a step further. Dramjet is the result: a blend of the most recent vintage of Ramjet with some of Starward's whisky, the aim being to "push your boundaries of what is beer, and what is whisky". In the case of Dramjet, it's an intentionally still, viscous beast with the hue and glamorous glisten of… Read more
Black
- Style
- Beer-Whisky Hybrids
- ABV
- 17.6%
Tallboy & Moose Boysenberry Zing Tang & Lecker Hammer & Party Like It's 1999
Tapped October 22nd, 2018
There's another trio of new beers pouring at Preston’s Tallboy & Moose and it includes the newest member in a long running line of kettle sours, a trendy tribute to Germany and throwback to the days when discmans and boy bands dominated the music industry. The first of those, and the lowest in terms of ABV, is Boysenberry Zing Tang. Part of the brewery’s ongoing Tang series that layers a different fruit upon the same Berliner weisse base, this Zing possesses a similar refreshing, clean and… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Fruit Sour & Oktoberfestbier & IIPA
- ABV
- 3.8% & 6.0% & 8.8%
Beerfarm La Maison Marmalade Saison
Tapped October 20th, 2018
La Maison Marmalade is something of an annual release for the Beerfarmers that now leaves its Margaret River home in canned format. Francophiles will note its name means "home", a reference to not only place but also an ethos that’s expressed in the beer via the use of seasonal fruit from the large Seville orange tree that grows directly behind the brewery. Indeed, using the saison style, which translates to "season", further compliments this sensibility. Classic saison esters… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Orange Saison
- ABV
- 6.5%
Wolf of the Willows PILS
Tapped October 19th, 2018
Wolf of the Willows' green tinnie is tagged as an Australian pilsner. With good reason too. It's brewed with all Aussie malts and locally grown Enigma hops too. Yet were you presented with the liquid in a glass and given no prior briefing you could just as easily believe you'd been given a pilsner from the other side of the planet. Indeed, a well travelled brewer we shared a beer with felt it wouldn't be out of place in a North German beer garden, the sort of setting in which you find some damn fine… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Pilsner
- ABV
- 4.5%
Bootleg & Cellarbrations Carlisle Boss Taurus 2018
Tapped October 19th, 2018
In this third Boss Taurus collaboration with Cellarbrations Carlisle and its associated beer club, Grain Cru, the whiskey barrel aged imperial dark ale has really come into its own. What debuted in 2015 as a barrel aged, imperial version of Bootleg's core range Raging Bull now feels more standalone – a majestic bull in the Bootleg paddock, something that bovine enthusiasts will note the name riffs on. Aromas of choc-caramel fudge, vanilla, a hint of soft liquorice and a tease of the whiskey to… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Barrel Aged Dark Ale
- ABV
- 9.0%
- Stockists
-
Bootleg Brewery
And select WA retailers
More stockists...
Otherside Brewing Co Experimental Series Strong Ale
Tapped October 18th, 2018
Strong ale isn’t a style seen too often these days, perhaps unsurprising when the US led push for bigger, more bitter and more aggressive beers has had such an impact globally that there are plenty of other beers that sit at or above the 7.5 percent ABV mark where you might expect to find one. In some ways, they could be considered a mid-strength or session barleywine, with English examples typically pushing the malt balance and America’s take asserting hop arrogance. The first Experimental… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- American Strong Ale
- ABV
- 7.2%
- Bitterness
- 74 IBU
- Stockists
-
Available from the brewery and select WA retailers and venues
Ballistic & The Dutch Trading Co Imperial Table Beer
Tapped October 18th, 2018
What happens when a top Brisbane brewery and a top Perth venue have a baby? Ballistic’s head brewer Lachy Crothers grew up in Western Australia and, like most people who moved away from their hometown, he still gets nostalgic for the old country. So it was a treat for Lachy when his mate Joel Beresford made the trip from Perth to Brisbane to brew a beer with him. Joel’s the co-owner and director of The Dutch Trading Co, a 26 tap craft beer venue that won Australia’s Best Beer Venue in the 2018… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Farmhouse Ale
- ABV
- 7.0%
Holgate Brewhouse Hop Tart Blush
Tapped October 17th, 2018
Beers that combine fruity hops on one side and a level of tangy, tart or puckering sourness or acidity on the other are becoming ever more visible in the local beer scene. What's more, in an interview to mark ten years of Hop Hog, Feral's Brendan Varis – a man who knows a thing or two about designing iconic beers – posited that the next beer to capture Aussie beer lovers' imagination in the way his former IPA or, say, Stone & Wood's Pacific Ale had done would be "a ripping hybrid, a… Read more
Red
- Style
- Wild Berry Sour Ale
- ABV
- 4.6%
- Stockists
-
Other stockists TBC
More stockists...
Two Birds Brewing Tea Party English Summer Ale
Tapped October 17th, 2018
Two Birds continue to kick goals – or should that be hit home runs – with spring 2018 seeing the Spotswood brewery tie up a deal with baseball clubs Melbourne Aces and Geelong-India to supply beers at their games. And, of course, the new beers keep coming too, with this big bottle release inspired by a trip to England and in which they look to capture "the best parts of English hospitality", which in this case (aside from the beery parts) is Earl Grey tea, lemon and cucumber. Head brewer… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Fruit Tea Summer Ale
- ABV
- 5.2%
- Stockists
-
Grape and Grain Liquor Cellars
More stockists...Two Birds Nest
And select good beer outlets in VIC & NSW
Hop Nation & Footscray Historical Society The Patron
Tapped October 17th, 2018
Back in the 19th century, well before Centrelink and the Australian Labor Party, the social welfare of the working class was rarely at the forefront of the government’s mind. In industrial suburbs like Footscray, it meant the wellbeing of the poor often fell into the hands of their employers. Though a quick glance over a Charles Dickens novel might lead to the assumption employers would do whatever they could to avoid spending their money on workers, it wasn’t always the case. Drawing inspiration… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Mid-Strength
- ABV
- 3.5%
Dainton Brewing Cranny Sour & Smoked Sour
Tapped October 17th, 2018
There appears to be nothing that's off limits for the eclectic production line at Dainton, with everything from sours to barrel aged beers to big Belgians to lolly spin-offs and IPAs coming thick and fast. Among the spring 2018 splurge are these two sours that are rather different in nature. Cranny Sour is a salted cranberry gose, one with the faintest hint of colour from the fruit that has it looking somewhere between rosé and chardonnay, albeit far from either in character. There's much in the… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Cranberry Gose & Apricot Lichtenhainer
- ABV
- 5.0% & 4.5%
- Bitterness
- 10 & 7 IBU
Dainton Brewing Raspberry Rye Milk Porter
Tapped October 17th, 2018
They may have dropped the word "Family" from the brewery name but it seems Dan Dainton's relos still play a role in influencing many of the beers. In this case, it's childhood memories of hand-delivering chocolate ice cream with raspberry to his dad in the bath. Thankfully, the recreation of this cherished memory is kept to what was in the bowl. The beer version is stickier and fuller than ice cream and delivers on the flavour and aroma front. Imagine melting some raspberry liquorice into… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Raspberry Porter
- ABV
- 6.0%
Dainton Brewing Rock Toffee Belgian Dubbel
Tapped October 17th, 2018
If you're going to bring the worlds of rock toffee and beer together, a Belgian dubbel isn't the worst host for your sugary parasite. And thus it was that the Dainton team boiled up some toffee rocks in place of candi sugar in creating this one-off. Little surprise that it's an approach that conjures borderline sickly sweet, mouth-coating toffee characters, which are joined by hints of banana, raisin, marzipan and some fruitcake spice. There's a touch of dryness at the finish to add a little balance… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Belgian Dubbel
- ABV
- 6.3%
- Bitterness
- 26 IBU
Dainton Brewing Sav Brute
Tapped October 17th, 2018
Let's be honest. There's few among us in Australia that really know what a Brut IPA is supposed to taste like yet. We've had some so dry all aroma and flavour has been stripped out and others that are rather more enjoyable yet don't seem to tick the alleged "style" boxes so assessing one to style is a pretty meaningless endeavour. That said, we reckon this one from Dainton could be close to working out what the right track at least is. Brewer Cam Turner used a sauv blanc wine yeast here,… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Brut IPA
- ABV
- 6.9%
- Bitterness
- 27 IBU
