Category: Craft Beer

Endeavour and Goat

Beer Radar for TWTW 5th October 2012

By John Krüger

Life’s not all Watervale Riesling you know. There’s plenty happening on the beer front. Here’s a few beers to keep your tastebuds happy.

The 2012 Endeavour beers are out. The Amber Ale is still as tasty as before and it’s nice to try the 2011 and 2012 side by side. Thanks to Andy Stewart at Endeavour for lining that up for us. Imagine a beer version of those little Pascall Chocolate Éclair lollies.

The Endeavour 2012 Pale has had more of a change than the Amber. There’s a bit more alcohol and a bigger hit of hops. Namely Galaxy, which bumps up the grassy resiny characters. Still finishes nice and dry. Quite a joy to drink.

Mountain Goat are about to turn 15 years old. Fifteen years of great beer have flown by. Check out the celebratory Triple Hightail ale while you can. See goatbeer.com.au for details about their beer tour. Get in quick with this one, only 250 cases bottled! We can’t wait.

*Endeavour beer was supplied by the brewery

 

Aussie Sapporo and The Big Dipper

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

Aussie Sapporo and The Big Dipper (First published in Wine Business Magazine in Nov 2011)

Beers contract brewed or brewed under license are a big deal at the moment. A search on Twitter for the hash tag #fakeperoni shows a small section of the consumer rage out there and it’s all about label integrity; an issue we’ll look into closely in a future Beer Radar. For now though, let’s look at an interesting beer brewed under license now in Australia, the Japanese classic Sapporo. Sapporo is also brewed under license in Canada, so the origins of the Sapporo you may have tried before here in Australia are anyone’s guess. We tracked down a can of Sapporo that as far as we know was brewed in Japan just to see if the Australian brewery Coopers has gotten it right. Our first taste of the locally made version was at the official South Australian launch at the Robin Hood hotel in Norwood. The draught version did taste slightly sweet which is an issue when brewing lagers, not attenuating well enough, but after trying the higher carbonated bottled version, we’re really enjoying Aussie Sapporo. It’s got a light malty sweetness but it’s clean and fresh. Considering this Sapporo was brewed 9 kilometres away from where I’m writing this now, it’d have to be damn fresh. That’s one downfall of drinking the version that’s brewed in Canada (13,800kms) or Japan (7,300kms), is the time it takes to get here. While this is probably the best version of a brewed-under-license beer we’ve tasted, listening to Dr. Tim Cooper’s speech at the launch night revealed that this was no easy task. Just as his speech was listened to intently by a selection of Japanese officials, the trial batches at Coopers had a lot of Japanese attention before it was deemed worthy. Aussie Sapporo is a beer you’ll down many of, easily.

Another beer that’s got us all excited is the new limited release Little Creatures Double India Pale Ale called The Big Dipper. It’s what Little Creatures fans have always wanted, a bigger version of their pale ale. It’s a big beer at 7.8%abv, 55ibu’s of bitterness and has no less than 7 different types of hops in it. It’s remarkably clean and balanced and still reeks of hop goodness. With all Little Creatures beers, it’s refined.  The fairly neutral label doesn’t reflect the rock star beer contained within. Unfortunately this limited release beer won’t last long enough to be around for Christmas so we’ll be hunting it down and stockpiling like no tomorrow. It’s that good. The Big Dipper is a beer to covet, to search out while you can and hide away, sharing only with a select few.

Australia in a Can

Beer Radar for April 2013 edition of WBM

By John Krüger

Australia in a Can

After a huge day of judging the 2012 Royal Adelaide Beer Awards, we all decided that a few jugs of our favourite beers of the day would be in order. By the time we left to head out to the pub for dinner, I felt like a balloon sloshing about, ready to burst at any moment. We arrived at the nearby Goodie Park Hotel and fellow judge Neal Cameron didn’t bat an eyelid when a few pints of more beer were ordered. Myself and another judge had to wimp out by coasting on small glasses of d’Arenberg white for a while. Neal was our 2012 guest interstate judge from the Australian Brewery in Sydney. He’s an impressive judge and knows beer and cider back to front. I’ll never forget him swivelling to face a few of us with a pint of beer in hand and asking, “What do you think about beer in cans?” It took me a moment to respond, thinking about it. “We’re thinking of putting in a canning line.” He added.

It was like a repeat of the same question from another brewer within a few weeks beforehand. There’s a stigma about the quality of beer in cans in the USA but I don’t think there’s anything like that here in Australia. After all, we took to srewcaps on wines like ducks to water after it was explained why they’re a superior closure.

“I don’t mind at all.” I responded, and agreed with the other judges explaining the many virtues of canned beer over bottled. While most agreed that the experience of beer in a glass is best, the storage and distribution of beer in cans is smart, no matter which way you look at it. There’s no chance of light strike, which is much more of a serious issue for beer lovers than they’ll ever realise. The weight per container is bugger all compared to bottles at around 210g of glass versus 14g for a can. An aluminium can uses more energy to be produced but 92% less materials are used. They also use about 40% less volume to stack into a case, so the eco-benefits are pretty huge. Then there’s the whole issue of glass at events. If you’re a brewery and keen on getting your beer into big festivals, not having beer in cans means you’re pushing shit uphill all the way. If you’ve ever been in a country pub in the middle of nowhere, you’ll soon realise that the general attitude is “lugging kegs around and cleaning lines is for mugs”, and almost all beers are available only in cans.

So about 8 months after that chat with Neal, he’s sent me a few of his new babies. Pilsner, Pale Ale, Steam Ale and Cider all in boutique Eurosleek cans. They’re tall thin cans. The same ones that Coopers are using for their Clear, so they’re certainly not mistaken for the ubiquitous VB or XXXX cans. So what about the beer? The Australian Brewery Pale Ale is fashioned on the new Pacific Ale style, which is becoming very popular at the moment. It’s easy drinking, as is the Steam Ale, but with a beautiful grassy spicy hit of Galaxy hops. It’s quite moreish. The cider’s bloody good too, but the standout for me is the Pilsner. It’s so clean, refreshing and, well, just about perfect in every way.

Neal explains his new love of cans, “I’m getting to the point where I think the question really should be, ‘why glass bottles’?  I can think of no advantage of the format with regard to quality of beer, cost of production, cost of capital, cost of transport, recyclability, safety, accessibility, space, and weight.  The list just goes on and on.  Most importantly, as a packaging veteran, I have recently drunk the first run of steam ale we did which was 5 months ago.  The cans have not been refrigerated and they are still amazingly fresh – much more than a corresponding bottled product would be.  The biggest difference is almost zero oxygen pick-up, and that is terribly hard to get with a bottling line.  Every time I open the fridge and see the product I just love the way it looks – one of the first times I’ve fallen in love with something a marketing department has come up with.” he says.

The Australian Brewery beers are available at varied outlets including Dan Murphy’s and from the Australian Hotel and Brewery, 350 Annangrove Rd, Rouse Hill, NSW. http://www.australianhotelandbrewery.com.au

A New Creature

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

A New Creature. (Previously published in Wine Business Magazine in 2011)

Beer lovers rejoice! Western Australian beer superheros Little Creatures are continuing their war against bland beer. This time with another of their fine tuned “single batch” beers, and we couldn’t be happier unless the owner left us the business in his will. The reason for our extra jubilation is the direction Little Creatures are going. They basically created the first mainstream hoppy American style pale ale here in Australia with their pale ale, but they didn’t continue down a narrow path like so many bandwagon breweries have done since. Don’t get us wrong, supply tries to meet demand but Little Creatures have impressed us with their other single batch brews lately, like their simple but brilliant brown ale. Sure, the hop freaks were expecting another American style ale with a billion times more hops but the brown was a refined and balanced beer; in our opinion, one of the best beers released in quite a while. Now they’ve come up with their East Kent Goldings Ale. UK beer snobs will be going weak at the knees. Goldings hops grown in East Kent (EKG) are legendary. Known for their earthy, yet spicy character, they’re the essential ingredient in a plethora of classic English ales. This beer is sharp (33IBU’s) and spicy. It’s got a firm bitterness without hurting anyone matched with a mild malt character. There’s toasty malt flavours rather than thick caramel toffee which means a nice big pint goes down well without getting too rich and cloying. Keep an eye out for their abundant 568ml pint bottles of beery goodness. No dinky boutique hairdresser bottles here.

We’ve recently been given some amazing statistics about what it takes to get a cold beer at major sporting venues. A South Australian firm, Hoshizaki Lancer has been fitting out major venues with beer dispensing gear all over the world, from ANZ Stadium in Sydney to the new Wembly Stadium in the UK. ANZ Stadium has 396 beer taps. Behind them is 9kilometres of insulated beer lines. The lines themselves are filled with 49x 50litre kegs before any beer starts coming out of the taps. Their busiest night so far was opening night when patrons consumed 1800x 50litre kegs. That’s an impressive 90,000 litres of neck oil. 287kw of cooling is required to ensure the beer is served at the required temperature. Research is underway to minimise distance between the kegs and the taps as well as reducing refrigeration costs. It certainly makes our little Beer Radar office effort of 3 beers on tap seem a little underwhelming. The Yanks are that impressed with our icy flooded fonts and beer gear that Hoshizaki Lancer are about to show off the best of Aussie beer delivery in Las Vegas in the coming months.

Interview with Charlie Papazian

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

The beer that changed my life.

Continuing our series of “The beer that changed my life” this month is one of our favourite beer experts from the United States and prolific beer author Charlie Papazian. The godfather of homebrewing coined the phrase “Don’t worry, relax, have a homebrew” which has been used as a mantra by homebrewers worldwide to the point where online forum members regularly quote the acronym DWRHAHB and t-shirts and coffee cups bearing the letters are available for sale.

“For sure that prohibition style homebrew I had in Charlottesville, Virginia changed the course of my life.  I was a student at the University of Virginia when a neighbor of a friend went down to his basement to “get the good stuff,” a year old pale homebrew. I marveled at the clarity, color, foam and unique character.  It was way more interesting than any of the cheap beer I was buying then, back in 1970.

I was made to realize that I could make my own beer.  So I began my journey down the path that leads me to here and now.

Another real head turner: Aecht Schenklera smoked Bamberg lager.  It was sent to me by a homebrewer who had just returned from Germany.  At the time in 1978 I had not visited Europe yet.  And my first German Helles and Pilsener was also in that package.  None of these beers were anything like imported German beers that were available.

I was beginning to realize something was amiss here.  Why couldn’t we get real European quality beers in the USA? They brewed stuff especially for the American market – or it was so old that it didn’t generate any beer drinker excitement.

It became clear and all the reason why homebrewing was essential.  You had to learn how to make it. Then make it in order to get authenticity. I had a lot to learn. I traveled to the UK in 1981 and learned the foundations for brewing authentic English ales, stouts and real ales.

Homebrewers had been brewing stouts and the wisdom was you had to wait many months for the beer to mellow out.  A real head turner was Guinness Stout and other Irish and English stouts, brewed, smooth and ready to drink in 10 days! I listened to brewmasters tell me their simple knowledge.

I cast away most of the English homebrewing books of the time. They had much bad information and perpetuated myths.  It was time to translate pro brewing techniques to small scale homebrewing.  Thus emerged my Complete Joy of Homebrewing 1984 original edition.

My head continues to turn and beers continue to change my life.”

*Many thanks to Charlie for his help in this article

19th August 2011 News

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

19th August 2011 News (Previously published online in The Week That Was Friday 19th August 2011)

The Coopers brewing family in Adelaide are looking towards the summer and the flurry of brewing activity that comes with the change of seasons by installing a second mash tun today. (that’s the bit they make malt porridge in, for the non-brewers) The tun is 10 metres tall with a working capacity of 35,000 litres and will be able to boost production by another 50%. This big bugger has to be lifted by crane and installed through the roof. It’s seems things are looking positive for the Aussie brewing icon while the rest of the industry worries about changing beer consumption statistics in Australia.

Little Creatures are embracing the cold weather with a new limited release brew. Called The Dreadnaught, it’s a single batch Foreign Extra Stout. Weighing in at 7.4%abv it’ll warm the cockles while supplying a nourishing amount of malty depth. It’s chock full of dark Munich and ale malts and hopped to 60ibu’s (International Bitterness Units) with English Fuggles. Don’t be scared off by the high amount of bitterness though, it’s balanced well by the malt so you’d guess it’s closer to 30. Get a bottle while you can, it’s limited.

Got some brewing industry news, release information or good old gossip?

Twitter: @beerradar

An American Hop Embrace

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

An American hop embrace. (First published in Wine Business Magazine in 2011)

Ever since the Aussie dollar has gained parity with the greenback, things have changed for us in regards to imported beer here in Australia. Before parity, just about every imported beer you could get your hands on would turn out to be contract brewed under license in Sydney. All of a sudden, the Aussie dollar wasn’t standing in the shadow of the US dollar and cartons of Corona were being pushed harder than the idea of a carbon tax. Think about the margins on a cheap Mexican beer that’s still being sold in Australia as a “premium” imported beer. The good news is, it’s not just ordinary beer that’s on offer. We’ve recently spotted the groundbreaking Sierra Nevada Pale Ale for sale in Dan Murphy’s. Sierra Nevada Pale has a habit of turning beer likers into beer lovers. Dan’s also have the superb Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA. It’s like the pale ale but with the volume turned up to 11. These are American beers made with a passion for hops. Fresh resinous in-your-face, hops. A superb example of a hop embrace is the Sierra Nevada special release Harvest Ale. It’s a little harder to find than a trip to Dan’s, but worth the search. The Northern Hemisphere version utilising fresh American grown Centennial and Cascade hops. The Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale using fresh New Zealand grown Pacific Hallertau, Motueka and Southern Cross hops. These hops have been picked, lightly dried and flown straight to the brewery to be used within a week. Stale hops exhibit cheesy or cardboardy oxidised characters, neither of which show up in these confronting ales. The Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale is a hop lover’s beer. It’s got enough malt and alcohol (6.7%) to be a big beer, but it’s also bitter, slightly confronting, offensive and we wouldn’t want it to be anything else.

Another fantastic import from the USA, this time Portland, Oregon, is Rogue beers. Rogue are playful and ingenious. They’ll take an idea and run with it, explaining everything including all ingredients on their old school bottles. Rogue also have a dedication to hops so their beers are full flavoured and at times aggressive. Their 2011 beer schedule lists over 40 beers, a root beer and seven spirits. Their Dead Guy whiskey playfully boasts being aged in charred American white oak barrels for 1 month, yet it’s surprisingly good. We’ve only seen a fraction of what Rogue produces arrive here in Australia but what we have tried are unique yet solid beers. The Mocha Porter is superb and the Morimoto Imperial Pilsner is a world apart from anything else we’ve ever tasted. If we had a different Rogue beer posted to us every week, we’d have a very happy year.

Work Christmas Party

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

Work Christmas Party Edition (Originally published in Wine Business Magazine in 2010)

It happens every year. You end up at your work end-of-year shindig and you realise you’ll be drinking white wine and bubbly all night, thus getting hammered way quicker than expected. The problem is the beer options. In theory, the plan was to slowly sip on some malty yet cheekishly bitter beers. In reality the options are usually a light beer that tastes like it’s been shandied with soda water, or a full strength beer that has a taste like slightly bitter washing up water. So you abandon the beer idea and lose the plot, again. Have a word in your barman’s ear and see if he can grab you one of the following beers that have popped up on our radar this year instead.

Gage Roads Atomic Pale – Zap these down like spaceships in a 60’s sci-fi movie. Fruity hop brightness with a medium backbone. Fragrant delightful hoppy beer.

Gage Roads Sleeping Giant IPA – For the gentleman who has someone keeping a count on the beers consumed, a knockout beer for the sipper. Heavy toffee structure supports another delectable hop fruit salad.

Vale Ale – New and improved. Easy drinking floral beer made for warm nights and cool lawn between the toes. A gateway beer that introduces the world of hops without hurting anyone.

Stone & Wood Draught Ale – Hoppy, floral, fruity and clean. A beer made to be enjoyed, not waved around restaurants like a status symbol by men in suits. Great beer.

Löwenbräu – German sweet smelling dry straw meets soft malt that you can roll around your mouth. Soft, not sharp like a pilsner.

Pilsner Urquell – Pilsner perfection. Sharp refined bitterness and quenching bright satisfaction in a dinky bottle. Find one that hasn’t gone stale and cheesy sitting in a window all day.

Peroni – Well made Italian lager if you can find it. Buy a fresh imported carton while you still can. Word is, this great imported beer is getting an approximation made locally instead. Make sure you get imported beer if you’re asking for it. Remember crisp refined Becks? We rest our case.

Local beer – That’s right, micro-brewery beers. There’s heaps of them. Try a new beer conceived by the brewer, not the accountant. There’s a lot more great beers popping up every day and some are absolute favourites of ours: Lobethal Bierhaus Double Hopped IPA, Barossa Brewing Company Victorville Ale, Steam Exchange Truffles to name but a few in our area. We also wish we were living around the corner from Feral Brewing in WA or Mountain Goat in Victoria. Have a look, buy some beer made with heart and enjoy truly great beer during your festivities this year.

Cheers and beers,

John and the Beer Radar team.

NZ Edition

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

New Zealand special edition (Previously published in Wine Business Magazine in 2011)

Emerson’s Pilsner

4.9%abv

Smells start with corn and pawpaw. Baked beans. It’s a concoction.

Nice sharp metallic bitterness. Hard to tell where carbonic bite finishes and bitterness continues but it’s enjoyable. Lingering hop bitterness that rolls on.

 

Tuatara APA

5.8%abv

Pours like a champ. Looks great. Pale burned orange with a thick soft head.

Malt and toffee aromas.

Good slab of bitterness. Fresh grass, a stew of tropical fruit and hop resin that’ll still be lingering tomorrow morning.

Cool label. Very drinkable for an aggressive beer.

 

8wired Hopwired IPA

7.3%abv

Nice light colour but a bit of haze. Clean sharp bitterness like a mouthful of cold broken lightbulb. Attacking bitterness and tingling carbonation along with enough hop resin to chew like gum. There’s a slow seeping numbness through the mouth, presumably from the high alcohol and bucket loads of hops. A whiff and taste of good quality strawberries and cream lollies. Mandarin and grapefruit. This beer is like a moderate traffic accident that includes a ride in the ambulance with a few hits of happy gas. Exciting, then relaxing. Very enjoyable beer.

 

Epic Armageddon IPA

6.66%abv

Looks filtered and lovely.

Smells of hot buttered toast with honey and marmalade. Some background of roast turkey with gravy.

Surprisingly clean and polished. Dense wheat toast and honey flavor with a refined bitterness. A great, tasty refined beer. Loud but not aggressive. Expecting Armageddon and ended up with a boozy roast turkey Christmas lunch at the mother-in-laws.

News Flash (2010)

Beer Radar for TWTW (Previously published online in The Week That Was for Wine Business Magazine in 2010)

By John Krüger

News just in: Warm weather brings on the festival of the brew. Finish those flagons of port, may the beer begin!

The beer marketing machines are up and sailing along nicely. We’ve been undercover (via twitter) and we’re following some cracker arguments between the purist brewers and companies that sell contract brewed beer. We’d love to publish a few emails in the near future, if we can get a uni student studying law drunk enough to look over them for free.

We’ve already had two new beers from one company that tasted pretty bloody good, but when we first opened the box, we thought someone had posted us 2 blind mullets for that crack about pelletised hops we made a while back. Upon closer but hesitant inspection, we realised they’d made the dinky 330ml beer bottle labels poo brown coloured. Weirdest beverage packaging concept we’ve seen for a while. We reckon people will be asking for paper bags at every bottlo so they’re not seen walking about in public holding them. We spotted a cock-up in one of the blurbs on one as well which really adds to the charm.

There’s also news of two new beers from Gage Roads. We got a little excited but didn’t get too carried away until we saw the names: “Sleeping Giant IPA” a 5.4%abv India Pale Ale, and “Atomic Pale Ale” a 4.7%abv American Pale Ale. Are “Sleeping Giant” and “Atomic” not the best new beer names in the last 15 years?! Better than “Eagle Blue” by a long shot. Get out of our dreams and into our fridge! With awesome names like that and two of our favourite beer styles, we’re damn excited. Our expectations are high and we’re hoping they didn’t back off the hop oomph. Read what we think about these two new beers in the next WBM magazine.

In our opinion, there’s never been a better time to release hoppy beers. A huge collection of hop freaks are out there and they’re spreading like zombies. One Barossa winery has been hit hard with hop zombies and they’re brewing up batches of all grain golden ale like crazy just to fuel their hop and malt addictions. Our undercover work has taken us to backstreet bars where hop addicts are spending big on specialty, imported beers that have 1000IBU (International Bitterness Units) levels, even though the tastebuds pretty well pass out after 100IBU’s. One beer we tried recently was pretty pricey and tasted like it’d been bittered with broken glass, razor blades and snail pellets. It was about as smooth and balanced as a Kangaroo Island dirt road. We’re always keen to try a new beer though.