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!
Hawkers Pale Ale 2019
Tapped August 6th, 2019
The first beer with which Hawkers are reinventing their lineup is their new Pale Ale. Not only is it the first to feature the new look, but it's a rather different beast to the one with which they launched the brewery in 2015. The brewers have stripped out all caramel malts to reduce sweetness and upped the load of American hops (Amarillo, Centennial, Mosaic, Citra and Chinook) to a not inconsiderable eight grams per litre. The outcome is a pale yellow beer that explodes with predominantly tropically… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Pale Ale
- ABV
- 4.8%
- Stockists
-
Find the beer here
Wheaty Brewing Corps & Lervig & Deschutes Da Big Lerv
Tapped August 6th, 2019
Collaboration number three to emerge from the 2019 version of Good Beer Wheaty saw Deschutes and Lervig step into The Wheaty’s brewery to brew up a monster. The end result is an 8.6 percent ABV choc raspberry milk stout that conjures nostalgic childhood memories of raspberry lollies, with the conjuring in the brewhouse taking the form of a phone book's worth of malts and oats, which created a bed upon which bucket loads of fresh raspberries could be scattered. Sampled from The Wheaty's hand pump,… Read more
Black
- Style
- Choc Raspberry Milk Stout
- ABV
- 8.6%
- Bitterness
- 26 IBU
- Stockists
Colonial Brewing Co Inquest 2019 – Imperial Stout
Tapped August 5th, 2019
Big, dark and bold – that’s the mandate for the annual Colonial Inquest release, one which allows their 16 brewers to get creative, as was the case with the 2018 release we described as a "Frankenporter". For the final iteration this decade, Inquest returns to the imperial stout style but with a curious twist in the shape of experimental hop HBC 472. A sister of the highly regarded Sabro hop, HBC 472 imparts barrel-aged qualities of oak and coconut as well as tropical notes depending… Read more
Black
- Style
- Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 12.0%
- Stockists
-
Launching from August 5 at both breweries and Colonial stockists nationwide
Hawkers & Carwyn Cellars The Forgotten Casks Imperial Stout 2018
Tapped August 5th, 2019
By their very nature, barrel-aged beers are rarefied beasts, in many cases unique. Even within that rarefied realm, this collaboration between Thornbury venue Carwyn Cellars and Hawkers is – if you'll forgive the tautology – very unique. Why? Well, the barrels used to age a portion of the brewer's 2018 Imperial Stout were the freshly-emptied 17-year-old whisky casks the Carwyn team acquired from Sullivans Cove to launch their spirits range. And not only are there no more such casks left but it… Read more
Black
- Style
- Whisky Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 14.2%
- Stockists
-
Just 600 bottles – available from midday on August 6 from Carwyn Cellars
Wildflower St Phoebe 2019
Tapped August 5th, 2019
Hot on the heels of the cherry-laden Thomas, Wildflower’s St Phoebe is back in all its juicy glory for 2019. Phoebe, co-founder Chris’ daughter, Titaness of Greek Mythology and the second worst character of the second worst sitcom of the 90s, is Wildflower’s annual raspberry wild ale. Phoebe is blend of five Gold barrels and one Pilsner aged on a few hundred kilos of Coffs Harbour raspberries for three months before being packaged and bottle conditioned for a further three-and-a-half months.… Read more
Red
- Style
- Australian Wild Ale with Raspberries
- ABV
- 5.0%
Two Birds Brewing Lock Stock & Dubbel Barrels
Tapped August 2nd, 2019
Look back over the past year's limited releases from Two Birds and you'll find a list dominated by IPAs. But look back over the brewing career of co-founder Jayne Lewis and you'll find a fair few big beers that take inspiration from Belgium too. And it's here the Spotswood based brewers return for their last big bottle winter release for 2019. As the punny name suggests, it's a dubbel – a style that's typically dark in hue and rich in malt and fruity yeast character – and one that's spent time… Read more
Rich Brown
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Belgian Dubbel
- ABV
- 8.5%
- Stockists
-
Two Birds Nest
West Brunswick Cellars
More stockists...Audacious Monk
Royal Clifton Hill Hotel
Union Wine Store
Kingsville Cellars
Stockade Cellars
Fizz and Hop
Cheapa Wines
Ocean Grove Cellars
Malt and Vine
Chas Cole Cellars
Newport Cellars
Plonk
Page Bottler
Leura Cellars
Glenbrook Cellars
Fritzenberger
Cheeky Monkey IIPA 2019
Tapped August 2nd, 2019
Fresh out of the new Vasse production facility, Cheeky Monkey’s IIPA 2019 is a very modern expression, aggressively late and dry-hopped with Citra and resinous El Dorado – no Old School hops need apply. However, for all the lupulin bravado, this is just really fun. National sales manager Brendan Day pithily describes the design process thus: “We wanted to make a really crushable IIPA” – one that somewhat unbelievably, at least until it’s been tasted, has sessionability at its core. Magic… Read more
Golden
- Style
- IIPA
- ABV
- 8.8%
- Stockists
-
Available from August 2 from good WA retailers and venues
Smiling Samoyed Double Trouble IIPA
Tapped August 2nd, 2019
The Smiling Samoyed brewing team have experimented with many styles over the years, at one point even having a chilli beer in their core range, a legacy of the previous owners of the brewery. But never has a double IPA graced their tap list, until now. Double Trouble IIPA was brewed for the 2019 Adelaide Beer and BBQ Festival and spawned from head brewer Simon’s love for a good IPA, the thinking going something like: "What’s better than a regular IPA, I know... a double." Weighing… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Double IPA
- ABV
- 8.0%
Stone & Wood Counter Culture: It'd Be Rude Not To
Tapped August 1st, 2019
Stone & Wood's Counter Culture series is proving rather popular and, following the imperial raspberry Berliner Weisse that topped our mid-year Best New Beers poll and the hazy mango IPA that followed, they're heading even further into artery-troubling territory with number three. It's called It'd Be Rude Not To and is tagged an imperial milk stout, yet is rather more than that: laden with maple syrup, vanilla beans and five kilos of cinnamon, it's the brewers' stab at recreating French toast… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Imperial Milk Stout
- ABV
- 7.4%
- Bitterness
- 40 IBU
- Stockists
-
Find the beer here
4 Pines Nitro Stout
Tapped August 1st, 2019
It’s three years since Australia’s first crafty nitro beer in a can and a number of Aussie breweries have been toying with nitro tinnies recently… but we believe 4 Pines is the first in our fair land to give us a nitro dark beer in a bottle. Nitro Stout has the same recipe as the original Stout (unchanged since 2009), but the addition of nitro makes it a fuller bodied, creamier version, recreating the way it was originally served on tap at the Manly Brewpub. It’s replacing the Stout in the… Read more
Black
- Style
- Nitro Stout
- ABV
- 5.1%
- Bitterness
- 40 IBU
Murray's Laguna Brut IPA
Tapped August 1st, 2019
A beer that reeks of hops but drinks like a champagne? How very on-brand for a brewery that’s spent the majority of its life in a former wine storage shed. Perhaps Laguna is haunted by the ghost of brut wines past... Brut IPAs in Australia vary wildly, so it’s hard to know exactly what the style is “supposed to be like”. Murray’s rendition seems to hit all the right descriptors, though. High carbonation shoots the hop aromas right up your nose, giving you a buzz of pine and mandarin cut… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Brut IPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
- Bitterness
- 60 IBU
Frenchies Coast Extra IPA
Tapped August 1st, 2019
What do you do if you want to make an IPA that bears some traits of an East Coast IPA and some traits of a West Coast IPA? You cheat, and make the IPA exactly as you want it to taste, and call it a Frenchies Coast Extra IPA. Five hops bring the blend of flavours that make this beer the hybrid it is - a base of Columbus and Simcoe, aromatics from Centennial and Mosaic, and a flourish of Riwaka from New Zealand. There’s no real haze to speak of, but the sticky pineapple and citrus on the nose give… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- IPA
- ABV
- 6.8%
- Bitterness
- 60 IBU
Hargreaves Hill Cocktail Series 2019
Tapped August 1st, 2019
Hargreaves Hill are welcoming a third cocktail-inspired beer to their roster for winter 2019, and releasing all three at the same time too. Fans of the brewery will likely be familiar with the Margarita Gose, with this year's version presenting a little softer and rounder than memory suggests of its predecessors, while still serving up a little funk, plenty of saltiness and, of course, the requisite lime and acid. The returning Sazerac Ale pours a wonderful colour: regal like a monarch's gown. The… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Cocktail Beers
- ABV
- 3.5% & 6.0% & 6.5%
- Stockists
-
Cans out from Aug 1; kegs launching here on Aug 9
Beerland Brewing Ugly Sweater
Tapped August 1st, 2019
Winter is here, which means it's time to bring out those ugly sweaters. For Beerland’s latest winter 2019 release, they've done exactly that – only in the form of an India brown ale. Never the most common of styles, here the brewers have given it a bit of a revamp here with the intention of keeping the punters warm in these cooler months. The grain bill of ale, Munich and brown malts and rolled wheat creates the typical malt flavours you would expect from a brown ale: toasted bread, milk chocolate… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- India Brown Ale
- ABV
- 5.9%
- Stockists
-
And select WA venues and retailers
More stockists...
Ballistic Beer Co Sleep Nordic IPA
Tapped July 31st, 2019
The majority of the beers in Ballistic’s Sleep When You’re Dead series have been about the hops, the whole hops, and nothing but the hops. But, as with the India Brown Ale, one of the first SWYD beers, the Nordic IPA expects the hops to share the spotlight. Not so much with the malt this time, but with the yeast - Nordic IPA is made with kveik, which we’ve written about, and which brewers around the country are experimenting with. It’s difficult to know exactly which aromas and flavours are… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Kveik IPA
- ABV
- 7.4%
- Bitterness
- 60 IBU
Ballistic & Collective Arts Down Time Down Under
Tapped July 31st, 2019
Although they’re heavier than traditional summer smashers - crisp lagers, fruit sours, pale ales [Are fruit sours already traditional? That happened fast! – Editor] - fruity IPAs still feel like a summer beer. Good thing for Ballistic that Queensland winter’s as sunny as summer in most of the world. Down Time Down Under was made in collaboration with Collective Arts for the Adelaide Beer & BBQ Festival, and bears a road trip themed label like the others in the series - it’s essentially… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Mandarin IPA
- ABV
- 6.1%
- Bitterness
- 60 IBU
Black Hops #100
Tapped July 31st, 2019
In 2014, a trio of mates released their first beer. It was an eggnog stout because, apparently, that’s what the Australian beer scene needed at the time. They went by the name Black Hops Brewing and 99 beer releases and almost five years later we have #100, an IPA continuously hopped for 100 minutes in the vein of the classic Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. They say #100 is a reflection of all they've learnt over the years; it’s sophisticated and caters to the demands of today. As you'd expect from… Read more
Golden
- Style
- IPA
- ABV
- 7.7%
Hawkers Cognac Barrel-Aged Barleywine & Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout 2019
Tapped July 31st, 2019
The darker, colder months are met with no little joy in Reservoir as, each year, Hawkers release a variety of dark and barrel-aged beers. Following on from this year's "straight" Imperial Stout 2019 – which you can read about here – you can now get your hands on 500ml bottles of a barleywine and an imperial stout, both of which have spent time in barrels. The Cognac Barrel-Aged Barleywine's time in oak has given the beer a rich, velvety sweetness. There’s a lot of dark fruit at play… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Barleywine & Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 11.6% & 13.2%
Modus Operandi Pangea International IPA
Tapped July 31st, 2019
Plenty of breweries release an IPA for International IPA Day - free marketing, right? But one clever soul at Modus Operandi had a stroke of genius: when the team was discussing what kind of IPA to make, they said, “It’s International IPA Day… why don’t we make an International IPA?” So that’s exactly what they did. They used hops from all over the world - Magnum from Germany, Styrian Golding from Slovenia, Cashmere and Centennial from USA, Kohatu from New Zealand, and Galaxy from our… Read more
Golden
- Style
- IPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
Nowhereman 2Fresh 2Ridiculous IIPA
Tapped July 30th, 2019
There ain’t no party like a Nowhereman party! The West Leederville brewery decided to celebrate their second birthday with double IPA and a decal that riffs equally on the Fast and the Furious, Stranger Things, The Goonies and the So Fresh hit music compilation series – that’s a lot to take in while sipping a 8 percent ABV beer, none of which should be taken seriously. Beginning as an iteration of last years’ Fresh AF, 2Fresh 2Ridiculous could easily be labelled a hazy IIPA. The opaque orange… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Hazy IIPA
- ABV
- 8.2%
- Stockists
-
Available from the brewery from late July and select WA venues and growler filling retailers from IPA Day, Aug 1
