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!

Bright Brewery

Rocky Ridge Watermelon Ace

Tapped June 13, 2020
Rocky Ridge’s Ace pale ale is a mainstay for the South West brewer: a straightforward, albeit higher in alcohol content than most, Australian pale ale that's seen a few fruity variants along the way, now joined by this watermelon twist on the original. That said, Watermelon Ace is a pale ale first, fruit beer second. With a little help from the team at Refresh Juice in Perth, Rocky Ridge found a new home for a stack of watermelons that weren’t sold at market and instead were destined for landfill.… Read more
Style
Watermelon Pale Ale
ABV
6.2%
Bitterness
65 IBU

Big Shed Brewers Series: Red IPA & NZ Pilsner

Tapped June 13, 2020
With the new brewhouse up, running and dialled in at the venue they moved into last year, Big Shed’s Brewers Series has stepped things up a notch. A series born to give the brew team some freedom and tickle their collective creative itches these days sees them canning the beers and shipping them across the country too. Joining the series is this Red IPA, which pours an incredible deep, dark ruby red colour with a light brown and persistent fluffy head from which bitter grapefruit hop driven aromas… Read more
Style
Red IPA & NZ Pilsner
ABV
5.7% & 5.2%

Burnley Brewing The Flex IPA

Tapped June 12, 2020
Various iterations of a West Coast IPA have made frequent appearances on tap at Burnley’s brewpub since opening, with the beer shifting over time but sticking to a singular focus: big, bitter and packed with tropical hops. As the biggest beer to regularly pour there and aided by brewer Michael Stanzel's love of memes and social media phrases, it eventually took on the name The Flex. Now, midway through 2020, it's made its way into cans too. Though it does pour with a slightly hazy orange appearence,… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
6.9%
Bitterness
52 IBU

Ocho Lusty Winter

Tapped June 12, 2020
Down here in the far south, winter has well and truly landed: frosty mornings leading to beautiful clear and sunny days - some would say Tasmania is at its best this time of year. With the sun going down around 4.30 pm, the itch for an early knock-off beverage is as strong as ever - and if you’re looking after your health, that might just be a single midweek tipple. Better make it a good one, right? Enter Ocho’s latest: the Lusty Winter Baltic porter. In the first large format can release from… Read more
Style
Baltic Porter
ABV
7.5%

Sauce Brewing Mango Madness Milkshake IPA & Zoooom Choc-Pecan Mudcake Stout

Tapped June 12, 2020
Some people used their time in lockdown to get into baking sweet treats. Sauce used it to brew sweet treats. Their Trubble & Squeak is by no means a boring beer - when it was first released in 2018, we called it a “murky monster” and said it was “like standing in a cricket net, open mouthed and without a bat, being pummelled by a bowling machine loaded with mangoes.” But when the team at Sauce couldn’t open their taproom during lockdown, they got bored and decided to get into Trubble… Read more
Style
Milkshake IPA & Dessert Stout
ABV
7.0% & 9.0%

Hop Nation Pastry Stout Series

Tapped June 12, 2020
The end of lockdown hasn’t just meant businesses are running a little closer to normal but punters dining out again have a few things to remember too. Was it a medium-rare or rare steak you used to order? The attempts at home were mostly chargrilled. Chips and salad or veggies and mash? And do you have a coffee with dessert or afterwards? What if the dessert is a banana split or some Reese’s Pieces? Is this the 90s? Are we in America? Just how long has this lockdown gone on and what’s it done… Read more
Style
Pastry Stouts
ABV
6.2% & 6.0% & 6.0%

Tallboy & Moose Deadset Lager

Tapped June 11, 2020
Since launching in 2016, Tallboy & Moose have always poured a cream ale as their "house lager", a beer which eventually became known on their brewpub taps as simply The Cream. The classic American style isn't one that’s often seen in Australia, but the beer’s mix of flaked corn in the malt bill along with European noble hops proved a hit at the brewpub. That’s not to say it never changed, though, with tweaks to the recipe occurring over the years while retaining a focus on brewing… Read more
Style
Lager
ABV
4.5%

Hawkers & Against The Grain Bo & Luke Down Under 2020 – Hazelnut & Cocoa

Tapped June 10, 2020
My first sampling of the latest collabs between Hawkers and US brewery Against The Grain only featured two of the three "Down Under" variants on the latter's Bo & Luke rum barrel-aged imperial stout. The OG was an aggressive, leathery brute, while the maple smoothed out the rough edges and brought the beer back towards the centre ground for such endeavours. So what of the last of the trio to appear: the Hazelnut & Cocoa edition? Perhaps the first thing to say is that, packaging,… Read more
Style
Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
ABV
12.9%

Six String & Distillery Botanica Mr Black Coffee Milk Stout

Tapped June 10, 2020
One of the most endearing outcomes of this pandemic lockdown has been the remarkable ability of locals to help out locals, as they stand together in their respective neighbourhoods keeping an eye out for each other. Case in point: Six Strings and Distillery Botanica have a relationship that goes back to 2013, when the brewery poured their beers at the launch of Mr Black, a cold press liqueur featuring single origin arabica beans from Ethiopia, Brazil and Papua New Guinea, coupled with Australian… Read more
Style
Coffee Milk Stout
ABV
8.0%

Mash Brewing Red Cat IPA

Tapped June 10, 2020
Mash have welcomed a new Cat into the family in the shape of a new seasonal that sits alongside feline buddies including Copy and Battle. It's a seasonally appropriate release too, as the Swan Valley brewers become the latest to bringing out a transitional red ale as the weather in WA starts to cool. On the hop front, Mash have gone with some of their favourite "Big Cs” out of the States, embellished with some fruity Amarillo and Mosaic for good measure. The hero in red ales is often the malts,… Read more
Style
Red IPA
ABV
6.5%
Stockists

Available in limited release from both Mash venues

And leading retailers in Perth

BentSpoke Brewing Co Descent 20

Tapped June 9, 2020
It's always nice when things fall into place. Like travel and overnight restrictions easing in Victoria in time for the long weekend then remembering to get onto booking a campsite straight away to snap up one of the handful of ensuite sites before they're gone. And, better still, having a courier pull up outside the house just as you're hooking up your caravan, having given up hope of your Descent 20 samples arriving in time to be enjoyed – as the BentSpoke team recommends – in the company of… Read more
Style
Barrel-Aged Russian Imperial Stout
ABV
10.0%
Bitterness
72 IBU

Helios Brewing Hermes Session Pale Lager

Tapped June 5, 2020
Word association can tell you a lot about a person. When you see the word “Hermes”, do you think of the Greek messenger of the gods, flying on winged feet? Or does your mind go to the Parisian designer brand that will set you back ten grand for a handbag? Does your brain focus on mythology, or fashion? Ancient culture, or modern culture? I’ll admit this writer is Greek mythology nerd; it didn’t even occur to me that Google would be more interested in advertising high end luxury goods than… Read more
Style
Lager
ABV
3.8%

Hop Nation The Kalash 2020 Bourbon & Whisky Editions

Tapped June 5, 2020
Hop Nation's The Kalash was first released by the then recently-opened brewery for GABS in 2016, with the main vintage each year sticking to the tried and true method of filling bourbon barrels with Russian imperial stout. There have been other versions – tweaks to the recipe, the use of different barrels – over the years and, for 2020, they've put out two versions out in tins as well as an accompanying whisky you can pair with the beers. The Bourbon Edition tips the scales at a mere 10.7 percent… Read more
Style
Barrel-Aged Russian Imperial Stouts
ABV
10.7% & 13.4%
Stockists

Launching at the brewery on June 5

Dollar Bill Candy Paint

Tapped June 5, 2020
Candy Paint is the second Dollar Bill release to come bearing the dragon-wrapped dollar sign of their trophy-winning Learning To Breathe and another that's been some time in the making. Technically, it's a two year barrel-aged pseudo lambic rested on sour cherries, but in the flesh it's rather more flamboyant than those words suggest. For a start, there's the vibrant crimson colour – one as bold as any you'll have encountered in a beer – and then there's the character: this is liquid alive with… Read more
Style
Australian Wild Ale with Cherries
ABV
6.5%

Bridge Road Brewers Jimmy's Bake Shop Isolation Cake with Nitro

Tapped June 4, 2020
The first time I went to the Brisbane German Club almost a decade ago, I saw a beer on the menu that had “banana bread” listed among the tasting notes. As someone who’d had very limited experience of wheat beers up to that point, I was intrigued, and ordered "the banana bread beer". I hadn’t known exactly what to expect, but I certainly got impressive banana bread flavours and a new memory. I’ve since tasted plenty of wheat beers with "banana-y" flavours, and have become… Read more
Style
Nitro Dunkelweizen
ABV
6.9%

Bridge Road Brewers Mayday Hills Hoppy Sour

Tapped June 4, 2020
Am I the only one who sees the words “Hoppy Sour” and can’t help but expect a hoppy kettle sour? I blame the meteoric rise of kettle sours over the past few years for this - my brain has been conditioned to expect this as the norm. But Bridge Road’s newest addition to the Mayday Hills series is not a kettle sour; as with all other Mayday Hills beers, it’s fermented in an oak foedre, and develops its sourness from the yeast and bacteria therein. So, while my brain had the misguided expectation… Read more
Style
Foedre-Fermented Hoppy Sour
ABV
3.8%

Deeds Brewing Chit Outta Luck, Milk Bar Strawberry & Vanilla & Conductors Special

Tapped June 4, 2020
Not the sort of people to fall asleep at the wheel, the Deeds crew instead continue to put pedal to metal by dropping three new beers this week. Starting with the lightest (which still weighs in at 7.5 percent ABV), Chit Outta Luck is a hazy double IPA that might not contain the huge hopping rates of past Deeds releases - a mere 18 grams per litre - but still explores new ground for the brewery. It does that by utilising chit malt, a type of malted barley often used for foam stability in beer but… Read more
Style
Hazy DIPA & Imperial Fruit Cream Sour & Smoked Baltic Porter
ABV
7.5% & 7.7% & 9.5%

Ballistic Beer Pale (2020 onwards)

Tapped June 3, 2020
Some pale ales are a wolf in sheep’s clothing - or rather, an IPA in pale ale’s clothing. And some pale ales do exactly what they say on the can. Ballistic’s core pale is the latter. It pours a light gold bordering on sappy orange, coincidentally matching the orange colour of the text on the label. Ballistic have packed a respectable amount of fresh hop character into a modest 4.6 percent ABV, with a blend of tropical, citrus and spice in the aroma. Once it hits the tongue, it’s hard to tell… Read more
Style
Pale Ale
ABV
4.6%
Stockists

For more on the new core range head here

Ballistic Beer IPA

Tapped June 3, 2020
When it comes to limited releases, Ballistic put out hoppy beers aplenty - juice boxes, haze bombs, and bitter beasts. Between pale ales, IPAs and hopped-up variations of just about any style you could hope for, Ballistic have hops coming out the wazoo, often accompanied by higher ABVs. When it comes to their core range, however, Ballistic focuses on sessionability and wallet-friendly prices for punters. Which means their IPA isn’t the biggest and baddest in town; it’s more like that buddy you… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
5.8%
Stockists

For more on the new core range head here

Ballistic Beer Lager

Tapped June 3, 2020
This is for anyone who enjoys a beer cleaner than your grandma's pride and joy china cabinet. Ballistic’s core range Lager is a no fuss German-style pilsner, drinking crisp with a healthy bitterness throughout. It’s straw gold, clear as a crystal ball, and tastes like chewing on soft bread fresh from the oven. The brewers put in a tonne of effort behind the scenes to make sure you don’t have to put in any effort when you drink it. Both the clean white labels and the clean finish on the palate… Read more
Style
Lager
ABV
4.4%
Stockists

For more on the new core range head here

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

Newstead Brewing Are Hiring (QLD)

Newstead Brewing are one of Queensland's largest independent breweries and operate out of a brewpub in…

St Andrews Beach Brewery Are Hiring (VIC)

St Andrews Beach Brewery possess one of the most impressive brewery homes in all of Australia, located…

Fixation Are Hiring A Marketing & Creative All-Rounder (VIC)

Fixation are part of the Fermentum family of businesses and focus on brewing IPAs in all shapes…

STAY IN TOUCH!



Hit enter to search or ESC to close