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!
Reckless Brewing Stout
Tapped May 28, 2021
When the Reckless trio decided to add a stout to their line-up, they discovered they all had their own thoughts about how it should turn out. Co-founder Jarrod describes the process on the Reckless blog: “We describe to each other what we think a perfect stout is all about… I want it to have low bitterness and be hop-forward, Alice wants the beer to have some sweetness, without the addition of sugars. Grace has a certain hop variety that she thinks would balance delightfully on her roasted base.” That… Read more
Black
- Style
- Stout
- ABV
- 5.8%
Sailors Grave & Meatsmith The Bone Yard
Tapped May 28, 2021
Melbourne specialist butcher and wine merchants Meatsmith have a close relationship with East Gippsland brewers Sailors Grave and, for Good Beer Week 2021, hosted an event together called The Bone Yard. The name has also been given to their first collab, a beer featuring some of Meatsmith's brother as well as kelp (so, not one for vegetarians), making it the second "meat beer" we've featured on the site in one month, following Willie The Boatman's lamb souva beer that debuted at GABS. Here… Read more
Red
- Style
- Umami Ale
- ABV
- 5.0%
Pirate Life Rum Barrel-Aged Coffee & Molasses Baltic Porter
Tapped May 28, 2021
One of the very many beers Pirate Life have been pouring at the 2021 GABS festivals is the snappily-titled Rum Barrel-Aged Coffee & Molasses Baltic Porter. It's a beer with quite the backstory too: 4,000 litres of their Coffee & Molasses Baltic Porter went into oak casks previously used for rum back in late 2019; they spent eight months in them before being released and blended not just with each other, but also with some younger porter. Along the way, a spontaneous Brettanomyces ferment… Read more
Black
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Baltic Porter
- ABV
- 10.0%
Bodriggy Brewing MochaMuck
Tapped May 27, 2021
Bodriggy’s dive into dark drops with their Muck range continues apace in 2021, with the brewery launching MochaMuck. The Muck series of beers first kicked off with the imperial stout MuckaMuck, before being given a midstrength makeover in 2020 with MandyMuck, a mandarine and chocolate stout created with the chocolatiers at Birdsnake. For MochaMuck, Bodriggy have again partnered up with Birdsnake, but this time around they’ve also roped in the roasters at Blume Coffee while keeping the ABV modest… Read more
Black
- Style
- Chocolate Coffee Stout
- ABV
- 3.3%
Sauce Brewing Triple & Squeak & Curaçao Dreams
Tapped May 27, 2021
For 2018 GABS, Sauce Brewing took their beloved Bubble & Squeak NEIPA, dialled it up, threw in mangoes, and called it Trubble & Squeak Mango NEIIPA. Now it’s 2021. GABS has returned after you-know-what cancelled it in 2020 and Sauce has gotten silly and made Triple & Squeak Triple Mango Milkshake IPA. It has more hops - the tropical flood is there from beginning to end - but of course, those hops are almost secondary since it also had more mango, prodding itself into your nostrils and… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Triple Mango Milkshake IPA & Blue Curaçao Milkshake IPA
- ABV
- 11.0% & 7.0%
Eagle Bay Oaked Vienna Lager
Tapped May 27, 2021
Eagle Bay Brewing Co’s latest limited release, an oak-aged Vienna lager, is the result of a collaborative effort between the coastal brewers and Perth craft beer slinging stalwarts Copper & Oak. The two venues boast nearly 30 years of combined experience in craft beer, which is well reflected in this classic style brewed with modern variation. Eagle Bay are no strangers to the idea of a good Vienna lager, having previously featured one in their lineup for some time. Their fresh take on the… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Oak-Aged Vienna Lager
- ABV
- 5.8%
- Bitterness
- 20 IBU
Ballistic Beer Sleep When You’re Dead: Black IPA
Tapped May 26, 2021
The number thirteen may be unlucky for some, but not for Ballistic Beer - the 13th beer in their Sleep When You’re Dead series is a tasty example of a style that’s largely fallen out of favour. It brings together the Simcoe, Mosaic, Centennial, Chinook and Warrior hops, pairs them with a trio of malts, and lets the smooth chaos of flavours begin. Espresso cut with a slice of lemon peel, a grapefruit cooked in the coals of a fire, sticky resin embedded with roast malt, blanketing your tongue in… Read more
Black
- Style
- Black IPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
- Bitterness
- 75 IBU
- Stockists
-
National stockists are available here
Stone & Wood Tequila Queen & Sticky Nectar 2021
Tapped May 25, 2021
Ahead of an event at Good Beer Week 2021 (henceforth to be known as the festival that scraped through by the skin of its teeth), Stone & Wood held a public vote to see which of their Counter Culture releases should be brought back in cans. The public got it wrong, of course, as Killer Kween didn't make the cut, but it does mean fans of Sticky Nectar and Tequila Queen get to tuck in again. Tequila Queen is one of the more recent Counter Culture releases, debuting in August last year. If you missed… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Oak-Aged Margarita Sour & Mango Milkshake IPA
- ABV
- 7.0% & 6.5%
Seasonal Brewing Co June 2021 Quartet
Tapped May 25, 2021
Seasonal’s mid-year gambit outflanks the on trend with a quartet that educates and draws the drinker into a seasonally appropriate arc. Fluffy juice and milk, be damned! Following the brewery’s numerical system for naming their saisons, which began with one of the owner’s favourite numbers, 9, Saison No.10 delivers a more straightforward, archetypal yeast expression: banana, spice, lemony citrus and arid length that pairs best with winter dreams of warm air and real world lazy snacking. So… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Various styles
- ABV
- 6.0% & 7.9% & 6.4% & 9.9%
- Stockists
-
All available from the brewery
BARIS also available from Mane Liquor and Besk
More stockists...
Dainton Beer Twist & Stout
Tapped May 25, 2021
You may have first tried it at GABS and it has all the hallmarks of a GABS taster but Twist & Stout is a Dainton beer that, well, is pretty typical for the kind of limited releases that fly from the Melbourne brewery. The choc pretzel stout has been released for May 2021 and aims to provide equal measures of sweetness and saltiness – and it's probably best to think of it as a dessert beer suited to an after lunch snack rather than a pre-bedtime indulgence. For while it is indeed thick and… Read more
Black
- Style
- Choc Pretzel Stout
- ABV
- 6.8%
Mismatch Brewing Berry Pie
Tapped May 24, 2021
Mismatch are coming in hot and heavy, releasing another small batch beer on the back of a strong showing at the 2021 Australian International Beer Awards, which included a trophy for their Lager. This is a rather different beast to that award-winner, however, with the booze content in double figures – as with their Triple Crush – and also steers a rather altered course from their previous hop-focused heavyweights. Berry Pie is an imperial kettle sour brewed with a mixed berry purée, lactose… Read more
Red
- Style
- Imperial Fruit Cream Sour
- ABV
- 10.5%
Rocky Ridge Pillow Talk
Tapped May 24, 2021
A cold, dreary autumn in WA’s South West has prompted the team at Rocky Ridge to kick off their winter warmer offerings a touch early, and for those seeking out the decadence of adjunct-laden stouts, Pillow Talk is a beer with equal parts bold flavour and drinkable poise. Generously laced with spearmint and peppermint, Pillow Talk is a classic Irish stout. Although typically we expect a stout in 2021 to be loaded with lactose, candy and baked goods, Pillow Talk is surprisingly restrained in nature,… Read more
Black
- Style
- Choc Mint Irish Stout
- ABV
- 5.7%
- Bitterness
- 35 IBU
Slow Lane Brewing Hop Barn & Oaty
Tapped May 22, 2021
If you placed a glass of Hop Barn and a glass of pineapple juice in front of me right now, I reckon I would not immediately be able to tell which one is the beer. Granted, it would only take several seconds before I figured it out but still. When written down it occurs to me this seems very unimpressive, but this beer is genuinely the closest I’ve experienced to drinking actual fruit juice where no fruit was involved in the process. I’m sure Slow Lane didn’t set out to create pineapple juice… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Hoppy Farmhouse Ale & Oatmeal Stout
- ABV
- Both 5.4%
Balter Brewing CryoHaze
Tapped May 21, 2021
To follow on from the dystopian reference in our write-up of Balter’s earlier release CryoMofo: this week I learned the disgusting sci-fi word ‘corpsicle,’ which refers to a corpse that’s been cryogenically frozen until such a time that it can be revived. You’re welcome. In more pleasant news, in May, Balter released CryoHaze. When Balter released CryoMofo, a West Coast IPA made with Cryo Mosaic, they promised a Cryo Mosaic hazy would follow in a few months. Head brewer Scott Hargrave described… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
- Bitterness
- 26 IBU
Hargreaves Hill White Russian 2021
Tapped May 21, 2021
White stouts are one of those styles that pops up every now and then – often when there's a reason for them to knock out a novelty beer – and the same can be said for cocktail-inspired beers too. Not many of either achieve longevity, but Hargreaves Hill's combination of both is staking a claim as it returns for what I believe is a third year. Given it features one of the best labels (from the graphic designer we share with the brewery, admittedly, so maybe we're biased), that has to be a good… Read more
Golden
- Style
- White Stout
- ABV
- 6.5%
Bridge Road, Range Brewing & Sailors Grave DDH Oat Cream Mango Pale
Tapped May 21, 2021
For quite some years, Bridge Road Brewers hosts a hop harvest festival in Beechworth, the High Country Hop. As part of that, they now invite some other brewers to join them to pour beer at the festival and join them in a collaborative brew. For 2021, Range and Sailors Grave were the friends who came along and added their experience, talent and creativity to the mix (unfortunately Range missed 99 percent of the festival, having been required to spend most of it in their hotel room awaiting a COVID… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- DDH Oat Cream Mango Pale
- ABV
- 5.8%
Akasha Project Romeo & Juliet DIPA
Tapped May 20, 2021
Bloody Romeo and Juliet they reckon? A marriage of Montague and Capulet? In this economy? Akasha, reaching the very height of audacity, have endeavoured to bring West and East together in holy matrimony with their newly released double IPA. But how can one conjoin these two bitter enemies? I guess only one of them is bitter, the other is sweeter and more tropical hop focused, but you get the idea. Can Akasha be the ones to stop this senseless bloodshed on the mean streets of Verona? Will six people… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Double IPA
- ABV
- 8.0%
Bodriggy Brewing & Hop Nation The People's Elbow
Tapped May 20, 2021
Among the many collaborative events running during Good Beer Week 2021 was Hop Nation and Bodriggy's battle, North X West Fight Club. Given it was one that involved brewery employees being dunked in tanks of water, you could assume it wasn’t the friendliest of collaborations, but we’ve been told everyone remains as good mates as ever. Launching at that event was The People’s Elbow, an imperial porter featuring each brewery transformed into mascots ready to do battle. The beer inside is 9.5… Read more
Black
- Style
- Imperial Porter
- ABV
- 9.5%
Burnley Brewing & Blackhearts & Sparrows Apricot Sour
Tapped May 20, 2021
The team at Blackhearts & Sparrows love collaborating with breweries as well as beers inspired by the Old World so, in some ways, it feels like Apricot Sour is a little inevitable. Launched during Good Beer Week 2021 and brewed with Melbourne’s Burnley Brewing, the beer is a highly effervescent and lightly sour saison with apricots aplenty thrown in. That fruit flavour is really quite close to tucking into a fresh bit of fruit that’s been sitting in a fruit bowl for a number of days. That… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Apricot Sour
- ABV
- 3.8%
Nomad Brewing Powder Day: Cookies and Cream
Tapped May 20, 2021
It’s been a while since I’ve walked into Cold Rock Ice Creamery - probably more than a decade. But smell memory is a powerful thing, and somewhere inside me is a vault where the scent of Cold Rock is stored safe and secure. Because Cold Rock has a distinct smell; the moment you walk into a Cold Rock store, full of tubs of various flavours of ice cream and a mass of different chocolatey and nutty and confectionery mix-ins, you’re hit by a barrage of aromas. Laying the base is vanilla - that… Read more
Black
- Style
- Cookies & Cream Double Milk Stout
- ABV
- 7.8%
