Category: Beer

Beer Radar for TWTW – Fri 13^th July 2012

By John Krüger

I was lucky enough to sit at the big boys and girls table at the recent Coopers Vintage Ale launch last Friday at the Coopers Ale House and was seated smack bang between Coopers Director of Corporate Affairs, Melanie Cooper and Coopers SA/NT sales coordinator Geoff Pevreall. You couldn’t get more chalk and cheese but there wasn’t a mention of football or weather; the conversation was fascinating. There’s plenty coming up from the Coopers camp and Geoff was that excited he could hardly sit still.

Last year’s lunch was a bit girly with seafood and twiddly bits. Someone must have had a word in the chef’s ear about bloking it up this year because we started with good old crumbed lamb chops and moved on to a delicious steak the size of a butcher’s fist. Plates of vegetables stood up like flower decorations on stands and remained pretty well untouched. The courses were matched with a few different vintages of Coopers Vintage ale and the 2007 had the crowd buzzing. It was chocolaty and not unlike a good Pedro Ximénez. Slabs of local cheeses and dried fruits went perfectly with it. Geoff decided to grab 2 stubbies of the 2007 for our end of the table instead of mucking around with little XL5 glasses, so we had quite a few tastes.

I’m declaring this year’s Vintage Ale to be the most drinkable now out of any of the previous vintages I’ve tasted. Coopers Vintage ale tends to need a year in a quiet place to bring all of the components into alignment but the grapefruit peel characters of the late Cascade hops really give it a fresh zing. Buy a slab, drink a 6-pack now and put the rest away for next year, or grab a longneck of Coopers Stout and try the most indulgent black & tan you’ve ever had.

Beer Radar for Friday 16^th March 2012

By John Krüger

Cascade First Harvest

Tuesday this week was the day that the fresh hops were picked at Bushy Park Estates in Tasmania for the 2012 Cascade First Harvest ale. Three experimental hops will be used this year; Campania for bittering, Triabunna for flavour and Ellandale for aroma. The hop names all come from historical hop growing areas of Tassie. First Harvest ale is all about using green fresh hops for maximum aroma and taste. They exhibit a resiny grassy herbaceous character rather than papery oxidised notes. Head Brewer at Cascade, Mike Unsworth said “Based on this year’s hop selection and the traditional style of First Harvest, we anticipate the 2012 brew to exhibit aromas and flavours of peeled fruits and blackberries over nettles, green leaves and ground spices. The finish should deliver a resinous bitterness which should blend in with the malt base to give a well-balanced hoppy beer.” Here at Beer Radar we’re looking forward to trying the new 2012 batch for ourselves in May when it’s released. We’ll keep you posted on our thoughts.

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. I definitely encourage more entries, especially across the gamut of beer styles. 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.

*Cascade First Harvest was supplied by the brewery

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

Beery Joy and Beery Sorrow. (Previously published in Wine Business Magazine in 2011)

“For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” The Bible – Ecclesiastes 1:18 (King James version)

Of course Trevor Eccesiates was talking about beer. Well, to be honest I didn’t really read through the whole thing but I’m taking a moderately educated guess. Beer takes us on an emotional rollercoaster if we let it. I’m not talking about getting drunk, I’m talking about falling in and out of love with different beer styles and facets of beer. That moment when you realise that there’s a lot more of something you’ve just discovered out there can be an uplifting if yet expensive experience.

Like all loves, you learn about the bad that inevitably goes with the good. In beer’s case we can look at three main reasons.

Bad beer stays bad – That’s right, it was pretty shit to begin with. The company that makes it has decided to pump out a beer with a few minor defects but it’s technically a pretty well made brew. There’s a heap of marketing dollars behind it, and the shareholders want a bigger dividend so they’d better make it as cheap as possible and knock the stuff out like diarrhoea in Bali. The problem is, it’s usually not very nice to drink. The majority of punters are happy with anything that’s not too offensive and gets them pissed, so it gets a huge market share anyway.

Good beer goes bad – Here comes the sorrow. There’s a new beer that’s blipped up on the radar, a simple pilsner from Europe, but it’s so bold that the everyday punter doesn’t go for it. Thanks to the fact that the perfect pilsner comes from overseas in green bottles, there’s now the chance that it’s light-struck resulting in a blunt hop character, a hint of unpleasantness on the nose and a disappointing finish. Welcome to the majority of beers you buy singularly from bottle-shops. If they’re exposed to light, including the dirty big fluoro right next to them, it’s only a matter of time before they go to shit. Unlike big beers designed to cellar, most beer is best fresh and there’s also the chance that any random beer has been sitting anywhere oppressive for an unknown amount of time.

The beer divorce – It was a good beer, then I drank a better beer. The cause of most beer divorces. I found a better beer. We met in a bar, the rest is history. Now we just see the ex-beer at dodgy barbeques, and random bars late at night. The new beer is just so more vibrant and exciting

Beer Radar

By John Krüger

Beer Interviews #2 (First published in Wine Business Magazine in 2010)

This month we continue our insightful series of interviews with people we admire and respect about “The beer that changed my life.” We’ve chosen these two people because of their respected palates and award winning contributions to the wonderful world of food and beverages in the Barossa.

Mark McNamara is Executive Chef at Appellation restaurant.

I can guarantee that the beer that changed my life wasn’t the first beer – getting smashed with friends as a young teenager in the early 70’s on longnecks of Southwark “Green Death” as it was then known. In fact this (and my dad insisting I have a beer with him the next day –and I thought at the time he was unaware of the night before) pretty much put me off of beer for many years – a kind of aversion therapy.

In fact it wasn’t until I moved to the UK to work about 10 years later that I discovered what I think beer is all about, micro breweries, cask conditioned real ale, hand drawn beer engines, real beer stored in cool cellars and dispensed unrefrigerated at 8ºc, in pints on cold nights, in front of an open fire in small free houses,. The key to this door was a small brewery called Rayments in a village called Furneux Pelham on the Herts- Essex border near Bishops Stortford. Unfortunately the brand owner “Greene King” closed the brewery in 1987.

The beer I was introduced to was Rayments BBA (variously referred to as Best Bitter Ale or Best Burton Ale) and I spent a very cold winter trekking around the nearly 30 independent pubs, located in tiny local villages (as these were the only stockists – no bottles only draught) . It was a revelation that beer could be savoured and flavourfull not frozen and bland, that hops were fragrant and floral, that beer doesn’t have to be gassy yet this was certainly not ever flat.

And the beauty was that each pub was responsible for cask conditioning their own beer, it was always hand drawn, no gas or temprite or superchillers anywhere near it. Because of this there was a slight variance in pint from pub to pub with the best batches being enjoyed closest to the brewery, but the beer didn’t travel much wider than a 30 mile radius anyway. Over the years other British Beers have come close but nothing has ever equaled it.

Maybe it is simply a romantic memory or the fact I can never again compare this beer with any other but Rayments converted me and I have been seeking out great beers ever since.

 

Darryl Trinnie is owner and brewer of the Barossa Brewing Company.

The eyes were opened when German decorative iron worker/brewer Harry Hennig introduced me to full grain mashing, however the lights came on when visiting Sydney for an engineering conference in the mid nineties.

Gaye and I were aimlessly wandering around the Rocks precinct looking for a decent bar, when we stumbled upon The Australian Hotel. Gourmet pizzas, a fantastic old pub, pretty much unmolested, and only two beers on tap, Scharer’s Lager, and Scharer’s Bock. Absolutely fanfuckingtastic. Both beers clean, unfiltered, free of preservatives and flavoursome. We stayed for the duration and taxied back to our digs.

I ditched the engineering conference to return to the Australian.

We traced the beer back to its source, Geoff Scharer’s George IV Inn at Picton. The copper clad brew house was on display in the front bar, and only two beers on tap.

We made regular trips to Picton to meet with Geoff and enjoy the beer.

He wouldn’t ship as he was afraid of spoil. So we would fly to Sydney from Adelaide, hire a car, drive to Picton, fill the vehicle with Scharers’, and drive back to the Barossa. I believe this was the best Lager and Bock in the country at the time.

Beer