Category: Beer Awards

Yes, but have you actually tasted this?

Beer Radar

By John Kruger

“Yes, but have you actually tasted this?”

(First published by Wine Business Magazine in 2012)

…is a question I almost blurt out quite often, but I stifle it and nod. It’s the first response after tasting a very occasional new commercial beer that’s pretty damn rough around the edges. It’s usually a beer from a new small time operation but not always. I know tasting is all very individual and one man’s Champagne is another man’s low-carb light beer. Unfortunately there’s always a shocker waiting in that bottle shop beer fridge for me. Sometimes it’s a fermentation issue, or a sparge issue, sometimes I wonder if some brewers think that using old hops will be fine, but the oxidised cheesy character isn’t always complimentary to the style. Sadly, it’s the hop driven beers that sometimes get the stale hops instead of fresh sappy aromatic hops. If the beer is supposed to be conditioned; before adding another 3 big-screen TV’s to the bar area, please at least consider if that money would be better spent on longer conditioning for the beer. It seems as if the quality of the product slips down the list of priorities for some brewers, where I’d consider it to be permanently number one and well above the live band nights and Facebook campaign.

I find it hard to give people a response to their beer because some people in the brewing business just want to share the beer love, not get a critical response to a friendly gesture. That’s why some people prefer the anonymous feedback from a competition rather that a razor sharp critique from a friend or loved one.

I can understand how the occasional dodgy beer slips through into the market in the heat of running a small brewery passionately. You love your beer so much, that’s all you drink and your blinkers go on, but tunnel vision doesn’t give a very helpful view of uncharted terrain. Good brewers constantly get feedback from as many people as possible and I’ve also noticed that successful brewers, sometimes surreptitiously, drink a lot of other people’s beers. It’s not just for market research; it also keeps the palate stimulated. Unfortunately the newly commercial brewers often seem to be asking the wrong questions. Instead of pouring a good friend another free beer and asking him or her, “Hey, what do you think of this?” Where the answer is an amazingly enthusiastic and positive response like “Oh this is amazing, it’s so good. Would you mind pouring me another free beer please? You really should start selling this after I’ve left.”

A more realistic question you should be asking is “Hey, would you pay eight bucks for a glass of this? If you did, how many do you think you’d buy?” Then the answers come back from a very different angle. All of a sudden it’s not an ego stroking, free beer inducing response, but the kind of answer a business owner should be hearing.

“Well actually, this beer has a funny medicinal background taste and there’s also a dry husky harshness going on, but it’s cold and drinkable.” might be a more realistic response when the weight of a person’s wallet is thrown into the mix.

One SA brewer changed one of his beer recipes directly in response to some fairly minor comments left by an anonymous beer judge in a large competition for commercial beers. The next year the brewer entered the resulting beer from the new recipe and won gold. The same brewer is also known to religiously work the taps at night. Not because he’s too tight to hire more bar staff, but because he listens to every comment every customer makes about the beers. He’s not trying to turn the brewery into the biggest business ever, he just wants to be known for damn good beer, and it’s working.

In the grand scheme of things, that’s what we lovers of a pint of ale or a crisp lager want; damn good beers. The promotions, the hats and cheap sunglasses, the sporting and events sponsorships are all secondary and very short term in the memory compared to the primary thing of importance, the beer. Get that right and when you do, please let me know about it.

Weizens 2012

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

“Weetbeers – Like Weetbix, but breakfast for grownups.” (First published by Wine Business Magazine in 2012)

OK, that may not get past the officials, and Moa got in trouble with the NZ officials after they released a cherry wheat beer and suggested it’d make an awesome breakfast beer; and it does. For those of you who aren’t too seedy on a Sunday morning, wheat beers with a pan-fried breakfast are perfect matches. Gentle acidity, a little soft sweetness, carbonation and refreshment, all go with bacon and eggs on sourdough toast.  Try a half litre of fresh Schöfferhofer Hefeweizen, swirled so the yeast is incorporated into the correct tall weizen glass. Add a slice of lemon if it’s stinking hot weather. Serve next to a barbequed slice of Jagerbraten with all of the trimmings, it’s wunderbar!

Ground breaking Spanish chef Ferran Adrià teamed up with Estrella to produce Estrella Inedit. It’s a Belgian style wheat beer that includes the usual coriander and orange zest, but also a hint of liquorice. It’s subtle enough to add complexity without tasting like Liquorice All-Sorts. It’s a stunningly packaged 750ml beer, which can be purchased around the $10 mark, surprisingly. It’s more of a dinner party wheat rather than a breakfast beer. Ferran is known for pioneering amazing molecular gastronomic creations, so many fans were surprised that this beer is so restrained.

For an Aussie option, the classic – bacon, origin-unknown snag, baked beans and egg goes well with a variety of local wheat beers. Here’s some Aussie options:

Cascade Blonde – The Germans would call it a Kristalweizen because there’s no yeast so it’s clear. It’s a good entry level wheat beer. Nothing too offensive, which is what Cascade does best. It’s clean and clear while still having a sweet wheat aroma.

McLaren Vale has a bubbling collection of craft brewers at the moment and there’s a handful of good wheat beers to be found there too.

Swell Wheat Beer –Swell Beer Company co-founder Dan Wright also loves a good wheat beer. His version has a lean towards a Belgian style with a hint of orange peel and delivers aromatic esters while still being an easy drinker. You’ve got to love the 500ml bottles too.

Goodieson’s Wheat Beer – It’s had a brewer’s loving touch for ester production. Head brewer Jeff Goodieson has the passion and know-how to really make German wheat beer yeasts sing, and it shows. It also picked up the Ecolab Trophy for Champion Wheat Beer at the 2012 Royal Adelaide Beer Awards in a close competition.

McLaren Vale Beer Company Wit – Another Belgian style wheat beer. Limited production means that it’s only occasionally available in kegs.  This beer reminds me of a young crowd at the Vale Inn Taphouse on a sunny day, lamb on the spit and large plastic cups of cold beer. Head brewer Jeff Wright says there should be some fresh Wit pouring at the Taphouse around Christmas time.

 

Judgement Day 2012

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

(First published in Wine Business Magazine in 2012)

Judgement Day

So after a heap of phone calls and emails, I’m on my way in for my first stint as an associate beer judge for commercial beers at the first Royal Adelaide Beer Show since the 1800’s and I’m quite excited. I also know that my father is about to go in for the second session of heart surgery sometime that day. I’ve got my phone on silent but the whole day I’m praying that it doesn’t start vibrating with an urgent call from the hospital. I’m also expecting some amazing beers about to be tasted over the next two days, and I’m going be smack bang in the middle of an impressive group of beer professionals. Yes, it was a sausage fest but I’ve been assured that this balance will change. Behind the PR companies and the marketing departments, the message banks and the receptionists were a room full of Australian beer Illuminati; A heap of professional brewing blokes that don’t answer their phones unless they know who’s calling. A steadily reinforced line of Lion Nathan brewers sit on one wing of tables sticking very close together, a few scruffy micro-brewers in patches and then a handful of Coopers brewers, the head judge being Simon Fahey from Coopers in the middle, looking like a greying clean shaven Jesus in the middle of the last supper. I’m sitting nervously right next to Simon, under his wing as an associate judge as the calibration session starts. I know the Lion Nathan guys will be dark horses because I don’t get access to these blokes at all as small time media, so meeting them as a judge will be interesting. I’m standing out like a goth teen at a B&S ball and apart from a handful of people in the room I know well, there’s a heap of people in the room wondering who the hell I am and why the hell I’m there. They seem very relieved when I pick up on some DMS in a lager during the calibration session and nod approvingly, making darting looks for other nods, then bigger nodding before putting noses back into the glasses in unison. These guys are amazing. The attention and detail in the light lager and lager classes are impressive to say the least, seeing how they’re such incredibly hard classes to judge. The Lion Nathan guys brew most of it on the local market and it’s a bloody hard style to do well so they know where every fault is. At the end of those classes I have a headache and mentally exhausted. I feel like I’ve been trying to communicate telepathically with what seems like a hundred XL5 tasting glasses, each containing a splash of almost identical, restrained beer in each. It’s like trying to smell where a fly is in the room.

As a head judge, Simon Fahey from Coopers is polite, keen on a quick laugh, but ready to get down to business with a good degree of control. He’s a funny guy whom I’ve seen speak before in other official Coopers events but he knows his stuff without being a tosser. There’s no conferring in proper judging, but he’d check on my scoring once or twice during the day and give me a reassuring nod sometimes, letting me know how close I was to his final score on the last beer of a bracket. It was a relief. Previously I had a picture in my mind of someone out the back methodically dropping each of my score sheets into a shredder along with my invite for next year.

Then comes the media session. As soon as the TV crew’s bright lights turned on some of the big brewers retreat like vampires avoiding the sunshine, so the presenter collars Simon Sellick from BrewBoys. Simon’s one of the funniest blokes I’ve ever met and I was expecting an excellent interview from one of the smaller brewers. It turns out that he’s made on the best ales of the year that was in the final taste off. Instead the TV station cuts; a grunt, a serious face and a vowel from Simon Sellick into the interview and the presenter makes a joke about getting pissed and catching a cab at the end. We we’re all hoping the media attention would help the cause and get the beer show off the ground. The last thing we’d want to do is look like a bunch of pissed idiots. I see it on the tiny square TV screen in dad’s little hospital room later that evening and it barely shows more than the side of my arm in a shot so I’m relieved. On the wide screen at home that night I was right smack bang in the background laughing like a doofus at Simon Sellick’s jokes with a glass of beer in my hand… looking like a pissed idiot.

 

 

2012 Beer Awards

Beer Radar for TWTW Friday 16rd March 2012

By John Krüger

Call for entries for second beer brewers’ competition

There’s been a lot of work behind the scenes organising this year’s Royal Adelaide Beer Show, I’m on the committee and there’s no beer involved in any of the meetings, much to my disappointment. Things are revving up for the 2012 judging and I encourage anyone involved in commercial brewing to start getting their plan together for which beers they’ll enter. Here’s the latest update from the Royal Agricultural and Horticultural Society before it’s even hit the presses: 

Low-carb, hybrid and exotic-style beers will be among the new sub-classes judged at the second Royal Adelaide Beer Show in July.

Boutique and mainstream brewers from around the nation are urged to enter the contest, which is part of the 2012 Royal Adelaide Show. The competition had great success last year, being the first staged by the RA&HS since the 1800s, with 80 entries from South Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania.

Chief judge and planning committee member Simon Fahey, also a technical manager in beer systems at Adelaide’s Coopers Brewery, says they hope to attract more than 100 entries from around Australia this year, including more from interstate.

“This year, there is also a vast expansion of the beer classes, including a sub-class for low-carb dry beer to cater for that expanding market, one for Belgian and French-style ales, and a hybrid class for beers using herbs and spices, smoked beer, aged beer and more.”

Categories encompass lagers, ales, stouts, reduced alcohol beers and wheat beer, with exhibits judged from both a technical and consumer appreciation perspective. Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded, with gold medal-winning beers considered for trophies.

Judges will include industry experts from both large and boutique brewers, and all trophy winners from last year’s contest have been invited to judge also. Female and interstate judges have been invited to take part for the first time, as well.

Last year, Adelaide Hills boutique brewer Lobethal Bierhaus dominated the show, winning four of the 10 trophies including Champion Exhibitor.

Entries for the 2012 Royal Adelaide Beer Show will open soon, with judging scheduled for July 3-5. Winners will be announced on July 6. For entry details, visit www.theshow.com.au or contact RA&HS representative Brad Ward on ph (08) 8210 5253.

 

 

Beer Awards 2011

Beer Radar for TWTW Friday 3rd of June 2011

By John Krüger

A reminder for the commercial brewers out there, Closing date for entries in the first ever Royal Adelaide Show Beer Competition is Friday 10th June 2011 at 5pm. Don’t let your competitors take out the gold medal just because you couldn’t get it together in time to enter. We’re sick of people whinging about who won what, when the whingers are usually the ones that never entered any of their beers in the first place. There’s draught beer and packaged beer classes with a good range of categories to suit most producers. Dee Rowlands from the show society is handling everything and can be contacted at rowlandsd@adelaideshowground.com.au (*2016 Now contact Brad Ward BWard@adelaideshowground.com.au ) for more information. Don’t sit around waiting to see who does what, if you make a good beer, enter it.

Thanks to some amazing brewers and cider makers from New Zealand, as well as Tony from EU Cellars, Wellington Square in North Adelaide for helping out with our research for the upcoming NZ Special Edition of Beer Radar in WBM. Without giving too much away, all we can say is WOW! there’s some fantastic stuff coming out from the Kiwi’s. It’s not just the Sav Blanc scene they’re stitching up. They’re miles ahead of us with the craft-beer and cider scene. Read all about it in the June edition of WBM.