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!
Newstead Brewing [working title] Zoo V.8
Tapped August 19, 2020
Not every brewery can get on board with a barrel program. They’re expensive, unpredictable and take up space that could be jammed full of tanks full of three-week-old DDH hazy IPAs. Newstead Brewing Co have been developing their barrel program for a few years now, however, and have finally given a few of the beers a name and a release with one of the first [working title] releases the Zoo V.8 Golden Sour. Usually when we write these listings, there’s one or two cool things about the beer to focus… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Golden Sour
- ABV
- 8.6%
Newstead Brewing [working title] Solera Stout 2019
Tapped August 19, 2020
The solera method was originally developed on the Iberian Peninsula by sherry and Port producers to try and maintain consistent house qualities of their products as opposed to the natural variability inherent with releasing vintages. Essentially, what happens is the product is aged in a barrel and then only a certain percentage is taken out for release with fresh product going in to replace what was taken. The fresh product takes on the characteristics of the original and therefore maintains a relatively… Read more
Black
- Style
- Solera Stout
- ABV
- 9.9%
2 Brothers Ode To 86, Imperial Growler, Choc Top Boysenberry & DK
Tapped August 18, 2020
Back in March, brewers across the country who weren't already putting most of their beers into cans or bottles began scrambling to do so as venues closed. As the pandemic settled in, more ramped up their limited release schedules as the unique nature of our current situation saw more drinkers than before – which is saying something – chasing new, new, new. It's a situation that's seen one of Melbourne's elder statesmen change their approach, temporarily at least. With their busy Beerhall closed… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- NZ IPA, Imperial Brown & Dessert Beers
- ABV
- 7.5% & 8.0% & 7.0% & 7.0%
Morrison Brewery Session Ale
Tapped August 18, 2020
Tasmanian brewing stalwarts Morrison Brewery, based in Launceston in the state's north, have undergone a brand refresh while moving their beers into cans. And, as they do so, they've welcomed a new beer to their core range too. Mid-strength hoppy beers can be hit and miss, with the risk you compromise body and character for the reduction in alcohol, or that a desire to pack in as much flavour as possible puts a beer out of balance. Morrison's foray into the increasingly popular space, however, has… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Session Ale
- ABV
- 3.5%
Venom & Deeds Viper Pit 2020
Tapped August 17, 2020
Many, many moons ago, on a family trip to visit relos in the States, I developed a taste for their powder-based lemonade drinks. I'm pretty sure the brand I picked up wasn't great for one's teeth but it was certainly good for firing one's teenage self up with an intensely sweet, citrusy hit. And, for some reason, once the Venom and Deeds collab Viper Pit was in my glass and the head had mostly dissipated, it was to those pour, shake and quaff concoctions my mind travelled, what with its pale yellow,… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Hazy Double IPA
- ABV
- 9.0%
Hawkers Dreaming Of Oats & Apollo After Dark
Tapped August 17, 2020
The oat cream IPA has become one of the defining beers of 2020. Sure, it had debuted well before the year from hell started, but we've never seen so many from so many breweries, and here Hawkers get in on the act with Dreaming Of Oats. It's a style brewers interpret in different ways and, if not careful with the lactose, can lead to an end result that's the equivalent of draining the filling from a box of after dinner fruit crèmes, with both the structure and hop character of a typical IPA smothered.… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- DDH Oat Cream IPA & Imperial Choc Orange Stout
- ABV
- 7.5% & 9.7%
La Sirène Oak Season
Tapped August 17, 2020
It's not that long ago that the vast majority of brewers in Australia doubted cans were the future for craft beer. Some were still investing more than a third of a million in bottling lines just a couple of years back. And yet here we are with a barrel-aged, blended wild ale inside them. What's more, it registers at not much weightier than a mid-strength. Oak Season is a beer that punches above its weight, however, with much to be discovered within this palest of liquids. It possesses a creaminess… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Wild Ale
- ABV
- 4.0%
La Sirène Barrel-Aged Praline 2019
Tapped August 17, 2020
Praline is one of those beers that's steadily been creating its own little family dynasty. Not bad for a beer La Sirène's founder Costa Nikias only wanted to brew once... A few weeks after the original recipe debuted in cans, here comes another barrel-aged variant as part of the brewery's Tank 3 limited specialty series. There's a blueberry / blackberry fruitiness riding atop the base beer's familiar aroma, which is the precursor to an acidic dark berry jam like character that, if anything, intensifies… Read more
Black
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Belgian Stout
- ABV
- 6.5%
Ballistic Beer Co Coup de Grâce Imperial Stout
Tapped August 14, 2020
When Ballistic named this Coup de Grâce, were they referring to it being the finishing blow for an evening? Or were they leaning more into the literal translation, "stroke of grace", and referring to the dignity and distinction of the complex flavours within? You can decide for yourself – if you can get your hands on one of the 2,200 bottles, individually numbered and hand-dipped in wax. Coup de Grâce is Ballistic’s first barrel-aged release (and they promise many more to come), and… Read more
Black
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 13.9%
Ballistic Beer Co Cold One
Tapped August 14, 2020
When a beer is simply named Cold One, it’s looking to play a very simple role. And so it’s tempting to give it a simple description: “tastes like a beer”. But that wouldn’t give credit to the work that’s gone into making this beer what it is. Ballistic’s original mid-strength core beer Pilot Light has had a full makeover to create this, with the hop bill, mash schedule, and even water profile getting loads of attention. The hops bring light fruitiness while the wheat and oats make for… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Mid-Strength Pale Ale
- ABV
- 3.5%
All Hands Fruit Bat Pale Ale
Tapped August 14, 2020
The 2019 Indies put All Hands Brewing House on many people’s radar for the first time as the brewery took out Champion Independent Brewer NSW and Champion Australian Brewpub. On the same night, they picked up a gold medal for Fruit Bat Pale Ale. The energetic core range beer has been satisfying their regulars at the brewpub for some time, and now that it’s in tinnies, it can spread joy a little further afield. Old favourites Mosaic and Citra set a firm foundation of zesty flavour, but it’s… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Pale Ale
- ABV
- 5.2%
- Bitterness
- 20 IBU
Brick Lane Avalanche Hazy IPA
Tapped August 14, 2020
Brick Lane really are stepping up the frequency of their limited release beers as we move through the second half of 2020; a fortnight ago it was the dark hoppy ale with one foot in winter and the other in spring and now it's followed by a beer with both feet in next season: the hazy Avalanche IPA. It’s a name that adds a little more weight to our theory that the team at Dandenong has an eclectic taste in music, while stylistically it's not their first foray into such territory either, with the… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 6.7%
- Stockists
-
For more, or to order online, head here.
Crafty Cabal members get a discount on all case orders too
More stockists...
Matso's Hard Melon & Hard Berry
Tapped August 14, 2020
The arrival of two new Matso’s Hard variants looks ahead to warmer weather and, for the majority of the nation, freedom. The brewed duo needs little in the way of explaining – there’s no DDH or the like here – however, the balance of mint and lime provide more interest than one might first think. Hard Melon with a hint of mint comes on with watermelon candy aromas before being licked a refreshing common mint on the tongue, which trails after the sip. Hard Berry’s mix of notable blueberry… Read more
Red
- Style
- Brewed Alcoholic Beverages
- ABV
- 4.6%
- Stockists
-
Available from Matso's stockists nationwide
Helios Brewing Medusa Black IPA 2020
Tapped August 14, 2020
In an age in which bitterness in IPAs is, for the most part, dying out, Helios’ seasonal Medusa keeps the old ways alive. With tan, voluminous foam and lacing that lasts, this black IPA certainly hits those dark beer checkpoints that suit the middle of winter so well. The malts bring a roasty bitterness with their cocoa and coffee bean notes. But there’s also significant hop bitterness holding tight to the tingles of pine and tail of citrus. Imagine grapefruit peel covered in dark chocolate… Read more
Black
- Style
- Black IPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
Modus Operandi Hazy Series 05: Cherry, Coconut, Cream
Tapped August 13, 2020
Modus Operandi’s Hazy Series has already taken drinkers on a trip through unnamed hops and ever-changing booze levels with a hefty injection of fruit along the way, and now the series has found its way into milkshake territory. Meet Hazy 05: Cherry, Coconut, Cream – a carnival stop on the brewery’s hazy journey in which lactose and cherry join hype hop Sabro for a tropical and creamy ride. It’s a rather sweet ride too, with the beer’s soft, luscious malt body providing an ice cream like… Read more
Red
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
3 Ravens 55 (2020) & Passion Juicy
Tapped August 12, 2020
There's an interesting line to be traced between these two beers from Melbourne's longest-established independent brewery. It's one that shows the evolution in tastes within the world of hoppy, US-inspired beers, with the original 55 released in 2008 as the brewery's fifth birthday beer, featuring five hops and five grains and measuring 5.5 percent ABV. Back then, it was one of the punchier, livelier, fruitier pale ales you could pick up in Australia and became their flagship beer, only to fall away… Read more
Golden
- Style
- American Pale Ale & Fruited NEIPA
- ABV
- 5.5% & 6.0%
- Bitterness
- 38 & 12 IBU
Bright Brewery Rock Paper Scissors NEIPA
Tapped August 12, 2020
It's come to something when it's not enough to release multiple new beers every month and you feel the need to give the same beer three different labels... I'm not sure I fully understand the reason, other than Rock Paper Scissors is a three-piece game; maybe you're supposed to challenge your mates with a can hidden behind your back and the winner gets to drink them both? What I do understand is it's another NEIPA / hazy IPA from head brewer Reid Stratton, this time featuring newly launched hop variety… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- NEIPA
- ABV
- 6.2%
Bright Brewery Popcorn-Ucopia & Off The Wagon Wheel
Tapped August 12, 2020
Two confectionary-inspired beers left Bright around the same time during winter 2020, with one also appearing in this year's GABS Mixed Packs. That's Popcorn-Ucopia, destined to be their Festival Beer before the festivals were postponed, and which sets out to bring you salted caramel popcorn in liquid form. Now, I've got a pretty sweet tooth (OK, I'll consume pretty much anything without a face if I'm honest), but even I approached this with trepidation as the success rate with dessert beers / pastry… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Dessert Amber & Fruited Chocolate Porter
- ABV
- 6.0% & 5.8%
Bright Brewery Barrel Series: Doppelbock 2019
Tapped August 12, 2020
You don't see doppelbocks around very often (although we have posted a couple to the site recently); even less so barrel-aged versions. Yet there's little Bright haven't turned their hands to in the past year or two, with this release from their glitzily-labelled Barrel Series following the barleywine that dropped at the end of 2019 and which I thoroughly enjoyed and April's shiraz barrel-aged Belgian Golden Ale. Doppelbocks, by their very nature, are of the rich, malty and sweet sort and here the… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Doppelbock
- ABV
- 10.0%
Nowhereman Small Odds DIPA & Mr Otter's Barley Wine
Tapped August 12, 2020
Although equally delicious, one of this pair is about to receive more attention. I’m sure that for parents of twins, especially non-identical twins, the love is framed equally, but outside the family home things are less impartial, as is the case with this double IPA and barley wine. Small Odds will likely carry itself with celebratory third birthday cheer, charming and wowing those it meets like the wrecking ball on its label. Citrus – grapefruit, a little mandarin and candied lime – lead… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Double IPA & Barleywine
- ABV
- 8.0% & 11.8%
