Beer Radar for TWTW Friday 9th Nov 2012
By John Krüger
After attending a few different wine awards over the last few weeks, I can definitely confirm that wine people love a cold beer. The Royal Adelaide had Coopers Pale and Celebration Ale coming out amongst the wines during their awards night, and I also noticed a stash of Sparkling ale in a fridge during judging earlier in the week.
McLaren Vale Bushing King lunch was a quirky event with some of the most amazing roast lamb ever, but once the Vale IPA keg was tapped the footy MC couldn’t get the punters back into the marquee for the auction. After a few good reds, a heady plastic cup full of tasty cold beer went down a treat.
Most recently, the Clare Valley wine awards were on last Friday in the beautiful old Clare town hall. By some stroke of genius, I was set up near the bar and overheard quite a few people asking for a cold beer during the day. They kept getting knocked back until the official part was over. After everyone had their fill of amazing Rieslings, the bar staff finally let the Knappstein Lagers and Pikes Pilsners loose and they were a perfect ending to a great day.
On a different track; check out the latest Little Creatures single batch brew called Puffing Billy. It’s a 6.5% Bock with a hint of Beech wood smoked malt. It’s amazingly smooth and complex. Quite a few “Wow’s” were uttered during our tasting. If only these single batch releases were available all year.
