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!

Bendigo Beer

Wayward Brewing Funky Pineapple Hand Grenade Brett IPA

Tapped February 21st, 2019
Funky Pineapple Hand Grenade Brett IPA... the name alone is a mouthful but what of the beer itself, which has returned in a limited run in the latter part of summer 2019 after debuting as a GABS festival beer in 2016? Well, first up, a clarification: there's no pineapple involved, at least not in fruit form. Or, indeed, hand grenades. But it does feature Brett and is, thus, a little funky. Essentially a West Coast IPA with a twist, the beer was fermented with nothing but Wayward's favoured Brettanomyces… Read more
Style
Brett IPA
ABV
6.5%
Bitterness
50 IBU

Exit Brewing #020 Raspberry Saison

Tapped February 21st, 2019
The limited release tinnies are coming thick and fast from Exit at the start of 2019, with the hazy HIPA Juice joined by a spin on their Saison within just a couple of weeks. The spin comes in the addition of pureed raspberries, with the base recipe otherwise unchanged. If you're familiar with Exit's Saison (and, for that matter, pureed raspberries), the beer has turned out just as you might imagine. There's a layer of juicy berry sweetness throughout, one that's more thinly-spread-with-a-knife than… Read more
Style
Raspberry Saison
ABV
6.3%
Stockists

Uitgang Bar & Beer Garden

Launched at Uitgang on Feb 22 with cans appearing in retailers the following week

Eagle Bay Brewing Did We Just Become Friends? IIPA

Tapped February 21st, 2019
Eagle Bay’s habit of sneaking new beers out to market has struck again. The latest Single Series beer is a Will Ferrell-referencing IIPA that draws dryness lessons from their recent IPL although, being Eagle Bay, this is only to enhance sessionability – more on how that works in an 8 percent ABV beer later. The dry-hop expressions of Citra, Amarillo and Cascade hops are somewhat subsumed by Sorachi’s lemon meringue vibe, which leads the way on the aroma front. Pineapple also appears as do… Read more
Style
IIPA
ABV
8.0%
Stockists

Mane Liquor

Eagle Bay Brewing Co

The Goose, Busselton

The Pourhouse, Dunsborough

The Dunsborough Tavern

The Norfolk Hotel, Fremantle

The Thirsty Camel, Maddington

More stockists...

Bootleg Brewery The Hulk Festival IIPA

Tapped February 20th, 2019
Bootleg got together with the team from Buzz Media to create a beer for the 2019 South West Craft Beer Festival. In agreeing on a style, they decided a session double IPA was flavour of the month, with the Margaret River region's brewer drawing up a recipe in which a light malt body would let the hops shine, while the alcohol content would be kept at a “manageable” festival level. If you're wondering what that means in beer festival terms, they went with 7.2 percent ABV. The result is a clean… Read more
Style
Double IPA
ABV
7.2%
Stockists

Available in very limited quantity at WA retailers

Moon Dog The Magnificent Mullets 2019

Tapped February 19th, 2019
Back in the barely remembered, distant era that was beer in 2012, back when many argued that craft beer was just a fad that would fade away as it had done in the past, when you'd be told in no uncertain terms that the revolution would never take off in Brisbane and when execs at the biggest beer companies swore blind 6 percent ABV, highly hopped, bitter IPAs would never work in Australia, Moon Dog released The Magnificent Mullets. By the standards of the fledgling brewery, they might not have seemed… Read more
Style
Fruit Sours
ABV
4.5%

3 Ravens Simcoe Juicy

Tapped February 19th, 2019
The Juicy series continues to prove a runaway hit for the 3 Ravens brewing team and they keep on coming up with new versions of their hazy IPA to satisfy eager mouths. It's not just new versions of the beer either, as they've been working on the recipe over time too. Some changes to the malt bill, including raising the amount of oats in the mix, plus a reduced bitterness and the addition of more dry-hopping have contributed to beers that are softer and fuller than the earliest iterations. For Simcoe… Read more
Style
Single Hop NEIPA
ABV
6.0%
Bitterness
21 IBU
Stockists

Simcoe Juicy hits taps from Feb 20 with cans expected to follow from late March

3 Ravens Coffee & Blueberry Shake

Tapped February 19th, 2019
For a coffee and beer event they were hosting late in 2018, 3 Ravens head brewer Brendan O'Sullivan created a coffee and blueberry sour. Clearly, he was enamoured with the outcome as he's returned to that combo for the second release in the brewery's Shake series of milkshake IPAs. It doesn't take long to see why, with the coffee – a natural process Honduran Pacas varietal roasted by his favourite local roaster, Proud Mary – and fruit intertwined on the nose to such an extent it's hard to know… Read more
Style
Coffee & Blueberry Milkshake IPA
ABV
6.0%
Bitterness
10 IBU
Stockists

On tap from February 18 with cans to follow from February 27

3 Ravens Heavy Double IPA – Versions 1 & 2

Tapped February 18th, 2019
The 3 Ravens brewers have been playing with their favourite American hops to create another in their series of annually released double IPAs. But it's not just the year or the look – now a black can coated in neon swirls – that's different this time around; as the name suggests, it's a heavier, fuller beer than the lean machine that has appeared in the past. According to head brewer Brendan O'Sullivan, the revitalised Schooner malts they used lent the beer a more prominent malt sweetness, bready… Read more
Style
Double IPA
ABV
8.0%
Bitterness
60 IBU
Stockists

Beer DeLuxe Hawthorn

On tap at the brewery bar

Heading to venues in VIC, WA, QLD, NSW and TAS

More stockists...

Wayward Brewing Kveik To Market IPA

Tapped February 18th, 2019
OK, let’s get this out of the way. However you attempted to say the word kveik was almost certainly wrong. Correctly pronounced kwie-ick, the titular yeast in Wayward Brewing’s Kveik to Market IPA might well turn out to be one of the biggest trends in Australian beer in 2019. Originally isolated from a traditional Norwegian farmhouse style beer, kveik has been steady gaining popularity worldwide as a sort of magical super-yeast that not only ferments faster than almost every other commercially… Read more
Style
Kveik IPA
ABV
6.5%

Sailors Grave My Little Juicy Farmhouse

Tapped February 15th, 2019
When someone uses the phrase, "You can't judge a book by its cover" it's usually to suggest you'll find more depth and complexity once you dig beneath the surface. But what about a cover that speaks of a "big creamy citrus hit", "mild funkiness", "a cocktail of yeasts", "local Chardonnay lees", homegrown grapefruit and "foraged wild plums"? What could possibly be lurking within such a mélange of ingredients, for it is they that make up… Read more
Style
Farmhouse Ale
ABV
5.4%

Modus Operandi Future Factory IIIPA 2019

Tapped February 15th, 2019
Even before the second (not third as we originally wrote) instalment in Modus Operandi's Future Factory series reached shelves, corners of the beer internet were closely watching to see where the cans would land. It’s little wonder: the Mona Vale brewery has done a marvellous job carving a place for its hop forward beers in the hearts of many a craft beer fan – not to mention beer judges – and a hazy triple IPA seems a surefire way to stoke excitement levels all the way up to ten. And that… Read more
Style
Imperial IPA
ABV
10.0%
Stockists

Grain Store

Modus Operandi Brewery

Heartbreaker, VIC

Royal Albert Hotel, NSW

Franklin Hotel, SA

Then nationwide

More stockists...

Bright Tank Hitchhiker Galaxy Session Pale Ale

Tapped February 15th, 2019
Matt Moore is in a happy place. Not only does Hitchhiker represent the debut canned release from the East Perth brewery, it also seamlessly weaves together his love of hip hop (check Mos Def on the label), Douglas Adams' classic novel and beer from his own brewery. It’s a quartet that may well contain the answers to the universe but for many it’s more likely to be an enjoyable session beer. True to its name, Galaxy hops ring clearly throughout, most notably in the passionfruit and pineapple… Read more
Style
Session Pale Ale
ABV
4.7%

Boatrocker Jeepers Creepers TDH SNEIPA

Tapped February 14th, 2019
If you wanted to put out a beer that ticked as many boxes as possible when it comes to current trends in the craftier parts of the beer world, you'd struggle to come up with one that outdoes this. It's not just an IPA, but a New England style hazy IPA. Not just that, it's sour too. And, completing the picture is a hefty dose of dry-hopping complete with attendant acronym TDH (triple dry-hopped). So far, so on point. But what of the resultant beer? Thankfully, it's a cracker, with the composite parts… Read more
Style
Sour NEIPA
ABV
6.1%

Stomping Ground & Heartbreaker Piney Dancer IPA

Tapped February 14th, 2019
The local beer world's naming game is strong at the minute, with this beer created by Stomping Ground and Melbourne good time joint Heartbreaker bearing one of the best puns around – one that anyone who's spent time enjoying the DJs and jukebox at the CBD bar will appreciate works on many levels. Focusing on the Piney of the title, the beer is a pineapple IPA. Like the Collingwood brewery's recent collab with BentSpoke – the Bentstomper citrus IPA – it drinks far more easily than you'd expect… Read more
Style
Pineapple IPA
ABV
6.1%

Exit Brewing #018 HIPA Juice

Tapped February 11th, 2019
Exit Brewing have put out many a hoppy beer in their time, from the Pale and IPA in their core range to all manner of limited releases: West Coast IPA, imperial IPAs, a red IPA, a gluten reduced pale... you get the message. And it's to that realm they return for their first packaged limited release of 2019, but with added haze. HIPA Juice (the H standing for Hazy) is a "very highly/ late hopped beer", according to brewer Grum, and one assumes it's the work of all those late hop additions… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
6.0%
Stockists

Uitgang Bar & Beer Garden

Balter Brewing Hazy IPA

Tapped February 11th, 2019
If it ain't broke, don't fix it... It's fair to say hop forward beers have done pretty well for Balter to date (gold medals, the odd trophy, back-to-back top spots in the GABS Hottest 100 Aussie Craft Beers and three hoppy beers in the top seven). So, when it comes to releasing a first nationwide limited release for 2019, it's back into hoppy territory that Scotty Hargrave and his team have headed. In doing so, they've joined the merry masses going crazy for the hazy with the aptly named Hazy. And,… Read more
Style
Hazy IPA
ABV
6.0%
Stockists

Available nationwide from February 2019 on tap and in 500ml cans

Two Birds Brewing Peachy Steen

Tapped February 10th, 2019
Announcing you've designed a new beer on the back of a trip to Bali opens up a few possibilities. While the beer scene there is changing – as we discovered last year – you may still wonder if the Two Birds crew has decided it's time for Australia to have its own Bintang (Birdtang, perhaps) or want to create a beachside cocktail in beer form. However, it turns out the inspiration came in the form of an ingredient, as the most recent trip there was during the height of mangosteen season. Not only… Read more
Style
Fruit Sour
ABV
4.6%
Stockists

Beer Cartel

Beer DeLuxe

Blackhearts & Sparrows

Cutty Cellars Crows Nest

Fancy Hank's

Grape and Grain Liquor Cellars

Hopheads

Hotel Sweeney's

More stockists...

Brewhouse Margaret River Saison

Tapped February 8th, 2019
As Ryan Ashworth stepped into the head brewer’s role at Brewhouse Margaret River an expanding range of possibilities opened up not only for himself but also the brewery. While the temptation to go a little crazy was ripe, the desire to craft something seasonal and refreshing was also front of mind. Enter: the saison, a creative middle ground for brewers. Here the classic Dupont style is explored with elements of peppery spice and lemon rind as well as a little funk derived through partial fermentation… Read more
Style
Saison
ABV
4.8%
Stockists

This summer 2018/19 seasonal is available from the brewery on tap and in takeaway bottles

Brewhouse Margaret River In The Pines NEIPA

Tapped February 8th, 2019
The recent creative run from Brewhouse Margaret River brewery has brought them to one of the styles of the moment, the NEIPA. That said, the brewery has taken some licence with their expression in creating a beer that leans a little closer to a classic IPA than the trubby examples that threaten to hold cutlery upright, Uri Geller-style, in the glass. This is more a fruit bomb than a juice bomb as evidenced by the big tropical aromas of melon, mango, pineapple and more derived from Citra and Mosaic… Read more
Style
NEIPA
ABV
6.8%
Stockists

Available from the brewery on tap and via takeaway bottles.

Blasta Brewing Cat's Whiskers

Tapped February 8th, 2019
First up, we should probably express our gratitude that Steve Russell didn't opt for the canine slang equivalent when coming up with a name for this beer; the cat's whiskers is a far better image to have in mind when bring a beer to your lips... For Blasta, the name is a reference to the smug cat who got the cream – or lactose addition in this case – something that’s digitally rendered on the can as the brewery's tinnie lineup expands. Originally released in support of the 2018 strawberry tampering… Read more
Style
Fruit Cream Pale Ale
ABV
4.8%
Stockists

Following Blasta signing with Northdown, expect to see the brewery's beers appearing across Australia.

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.

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