New Beers
There has never been a time like now: more breweries releasing more new beers than ever before. Here, in The Crafty Cuppa, and in our weekly newsletter, we'll bring you details – and, if we've sampled them, our honest, independent take – on as many of them as possible. Enjoy!
One Drop Wake Up & Triggered
Published September 16, 2022
One simply does not walk into Botany and ask One Drop for a nice dark mild or hefeweizen. There is a mad genius there that does not sleep. It is a dazzling wonderland, riddled with lactobacillus, fruit purée and vanilla. The very air you breathe is dusted with lactose. Not with ten thousand people could you do this. It is folly. What is interesting about both of the new beers here is that they’ve had their respective fruit juices added both during fermentation and at canning. Fermentation tends… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Fruited Imperial Gose & Imperial Pastry Sour
- ABV
- 7.4% & 7.6%
Prancing Pony Festbiers 2022: Helles, Hefeweizen & Dunkel
Published September 16, 2022
Of all the breweries in Australia putting on Oktoberfest celebrations each year, few can claim to do it with more justification than Prancing Pony in the Adelaide Hills. While they've built their reputation upon modern craft beer styles – often with their own unique twist – the founders are German and love to bring all the trimmings when they host their annual Oktoberfest bash. For 2022, they've also come out with a trio of German beer styles too in their Festbier series. Their take on the classic… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Helles & Hefeweizen & Dunkel
- ABV
- All 4.8%
- Bitterness
- 20 & 12 & 22 IBU
- Stockists
-
Order online here
Slow Lane Grain of Salt & Woodchip
Published September 16, 2022
Never before have we been so well serviced with low and no alcohol beers. It really wasn’t very long ago that XXXX Gold was the best-selling beer in the country and was pretty much the only option available to anyone who wanted a couple of beers without having to deal with the reckoning that comes with several standard drinks worth of alcohol. Now we’re blessed with beers like this duo from Slow Lane. Unlike the mid-strength beers of yore, just because they’re 3.5 percent-ish ABV doesn’t… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Gose & Oaked Table Beer
- ABV
- 3.2% & 3.5%
Young Henrys Wattle They Think Of Next?
Published September 15, 2022
The latest Brewers B-Sides limited release from Young Henrys has big shoes to fill, with their previous, a mandarin and watermelon sour, a certified banger. This new fruity number employs blood oranges and toasted wattleseed in a double IPA with the puntastic name of Wattle They Think Of Next? Pouring an amber colour that wouldn’t look out of place on a necklace, this DIPA has a bold, almost foreboding aroma, in which the 8 percent ABV and trio of NZ hops (Waimea, Rakau and Wakatu) seem to do the… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Wattleseed & Blood Orange Double IPA
- ABV
- 8.0%
Black Brewing & Kuld Creamery Hazelnut Affogato Ice Cream Stout
Published September 15, 2022
Black Brewing’s longstanding collaborative relationship with Kuld Creamery has produced another luscious dessert-inspired beer: this time a Hazelnut Affogato pastry stout, which debuted at Froth Town 2022 – in ice cream float form if the drinker desired. For this release, cold brew coffee, amaretto and sweet vanilla are layered on top of a stout base beer. Despite its restrained 4 percent ABV, malt complexity is still present with plenty of toasty malt, bitter chocolate and a hint of caramel.… Read more
Black
- Style
- Pastry Stout
- ABV
- 4.0%
Felons Brewing NZ Hazy IPA
Published September 15, 2022
The team at NZ Hops sure is getting around these days. Ever since they put together mixed packs showcasing their flagship hops in partnership with a dozen Aussie brewers last summer, there seems to have been a never-ending stream of new releases hawking their partnerships with brewers, from the Bract Brewing Programme featuring new experimental varieties to beers like this: a hazy IPA brewed with Nectaron, Nelson Sauvin and Wai-iti. While most hazies these days are well-suited to the term, Felons'… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy NZ IPA
- ABV
- 6.66%
- Stockists
-
Find the beer here
Jetty Road & Mismatch New Age IPA
Published September 15, 2022
If you're a follower of the machinations of the modern beer world, you'll spy this collaboration and note it's taking place between two of the brewing companies that now operate under the Mighty Craft banner. But it comes with a cuter side too. With the founding head brewers at both Jetty Road and Mismatch no longer at the breweries they helped launch, the two people now holding those roles are former colleagues: Sean Varley (Jetty Road) and Tom Wood (Mismatch) brewed together at Bright Brewery back… Read more
Golden
- Style
- IPA
- ABV
- 6.2%
Black Hops AWOL: Pink Mist
Published September 15, 2022
Pink Mist may be a violent name, but this is a delicate beer. Black Hops have been brewing a raspberry saison since the early days of their existence. But when they launched their AWOL barrel program, they started ageing Pink Mist in French and American oak barrels for six months at a time… and the result is satisfying. Like the final piece of the puzzle locking into place. Pink Mist pours a gorgeous reddish pink (pinkish red?) with a wispy head that takes a bow and leaves. One sniff and you’re… Read more
Red
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Raspberry Saison
- ABV
- 5.8%
Sauce Brewing Beer Selfie Oat Cream IPA
Published September 14, 2022
When I first got sent the can art for this beer I thought some silly bugger at Sauce had messed up and put the graphics the wrong way (to be fair, the Sauce graphic designer does have to design a lot of limited release cans). Turns out it’s deliberately backwards so when you take a selfie with it (or hold it up to a mirror) it will face the right way. Turns out this amazing tin also has beer in it, so let’s go! Pouring the cloudy colour of preserved lemons, with a head that really sticks to the… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Oat Cream IPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
Holgate Brewhouse Mt Macedon Pale Ale (2022 On)
Published September 14, 2022
There are few Australian beers that have been around as long as Holgate's Mt Macedon. Sure, the beer has evolved over the years since it debuted as one of the brewery's earliest releases – back when the brewery was still located in Paul and Natasha Holgate's home. As of spring 2022, it's followed a number of its stablemates into cans, while retaining the colours, feel and mountain vibes that have been there since time immemorial. The canned version also features a couple of tweaks to the recipe:… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Pale Ale
- ABV
- 4.5%
Balter Brewing Hazy Pale Ale
Published September 14, 2022
Following a series of journeys across The Ditch, Balter’s Hazy Pale Ale takes them around the world. Typically the brewery’s hazy beers have focused on a single country’s hops but for their final limited release of 2022, they’ve combined some favourites from the Southern and Northern hemispheres. While that might be a point of difference, if you’re one of the many fans of Balter’s hazy and hoppy releases, this pale will feel wonderfully familiar. There's a soft and pillowy body that… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy Pale
- ABV
- 6.0%
Common Ground & Method Chimuwaku Yuzu NEIPA
Published September 14, 2022
Chimuwaku means teamwork – in this case, it mainly refers to the collaboration between Common Ground and Newcastle’s Method Brewing. But there’s also teamwork between brewers and artists. The artwork on the can is by Japanese tattoo artist Horizaru. Read the can’s label to learn about the artwork’s poetic inspiration, or ask Jimmy at Milton Common if you want to see some of Horizaru’s tattoo art firsthand. And, of course, there’s the teamwork between beer and fruit: hoppy NEIPA and… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Yuzu NEIPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
- Bitterness
- 20 IBU
Aether Brewing Anti Matter Cascadian Dark Lager
Published September 13, 2022
In modern physics, antimatter is defined as matter composed of the antiparticles (or "partners") of the corresponding particles in "ordinary" matter… A collision between any particle and its antiparticle partner leads to their mutual annihilation… I may only understand as much about physics as I read on Wikipedia, but surely mutual annihilation is never a good thing. And don’t even get me started on the theory that antimatter and antiparticles are regular particles travelling… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Cascadian Dark Lager
- ABV
- 5.0%
- Bitterness
- 35 IBU
Slipstream Brewery West Coast Tour: Washington
Published September 13, 2022
Who can say where the road goes? Where the day flows? Only time. These are the words that washed over me like a dirge as I cracked open the final entry in the Slipstream’s West Coast Tour series.† I’m sad it’s time for this series to reach its final destination. But it’s a strong finish [One that gained a top five finish at our Queensland vs Australia IPA Blind Tasting event too – Editor]. Washington, the state that gave rise to Hendrix, Nirvana and Macklemore, is also the home of Yakima… Read more
Golden
- Style
- West Coast IPA
- ABV
- 6.6%
- Bitterness
- 70 IBU
Burleigh Barrels Burleigh Mule & Uncle Knuckles
Published September 13, 2022
When Burleigh Barrels saw their first Crafted Festival on the horizon, they saw the opportunity to brew up a couple of fun beers for the festival goers (and to put on at the Burleigh Barrels taproom, of course). Burleigh Mule Sour is their take on a Moscow Mule, which is a cocktail made with vodka, ginger beer and lime juice, and garnished with a wedge of lime and a sprig of fresh mint. There’s no vodka in this sour beer, but there is ginger, lime and mint, and you can taste each of them distinctly.… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Spiced Sour & Magical Unicorn Sherbet Sour
- ABV
- Both 4.5%
Eagle Bay Blue Swimmer, Citrus West Coast IPA & Black Vanilla '22
Published September 13, 2022
There have been quality releases aplenty from Eagle Bay in 2022 and, deep into the second half of the year, they keep coming. The coastal brewers are proving they have range here, releasing a trio of beers that includes a collaborative blueberry and shiraz sour, a citrus West Coast IPA, and a more-than-robust whiskey barrel-aged imperial stout enhanced with vanilla and coconut. Starting sour, Blue Swimmer is an intensely fruity offering that features estate grown shiraz grapes and 100kg of locally… Read more
Black
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Fruit Sour, Citrus IPA & Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 5.7% & 6.7% & 11.3%
Gage Roads Hazy As
Published September 12, 2022
Gage Roads' arrival in the realm of the soft and foggy is the result of months of playing with their new toys at the A Shed on Freo's waterfront. Five different recipes were trialled at the dockside venue, with ongoing punter feedback refining this modern hazy pale, which the Crafty team was treated to in sneak peek, tank sample form as the brewers found their happy place. Pouring – cough! – hazy as, Riwaka, Galaxy and Citra Cryo hops deliver tinned pineapple nostalgia and passionfruit in frozen… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy Pale Ale
- ABV
- 5.0%
- Stockists
-
On nationwide release
CoConspirators The Moonshiner & The Explorer
Published September 9, 2022
CoConspirators collaborative nature has really been given a chance to shine since their Brunswick brewpub opened at the end of 2021. They’ve partnered with other brewers to host events, brewed beers with fellow Brunswick businesses and teamed up with other booze makers too. The Moonshiner fits into the last of those categories with the botanical sour drawing heavily from Evening Light Gin by the Melbourne distillery Brogan’s Way. Alongside some of the more typical gin botanicals, that spirit… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Botanical Sour & NZ Pilsner
- ABV
- Both 4.7%
Stomping Ground Nectaron Of The Gods Mandarin IPA
Published September 9, 2022
In 2021, Stomping Ground brewed a celebration of New Zealand Hops’ recently-named Nectaron, with Nectaron of the Gods an IPA that showcased not just that hop, but others from Aotearoa too. A year on, the Melbourne brewery have made a follow-up by adding mandarin to the already fruit-forward IPA. The mandarin version packs in a lot of those really intense Kiwi hop with a mix of passionfruit, pineapple, peach and pine all out in force. Those are joined by an unmistakable layer of zesty mandarin… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Mandarin IPA
- ABV
- 5.8%
Red Duck Smokey & The Bear
Published September 9, 2022
It’s pretty hard to picture a beer that wouldn’t work wonders while camping but Red Duck’s Smokey & The Bear feels particularly well suited. The smoked chocolate stout is rich, campfire-like and at 7.6 percent ABV, it packs in a little bit extra compared to a standard dark beer. The first sip took me immediately to Germany’s city of Bamberg and its famed rauchbiers, with this beer creating a smokey mix of bacon and beechwood crackling in a fire pit. You’ll also find layers of smooth… Read more
Black
- Style
- Smoked Chocolate Stout
- ABV
- 7.6%
