SLOWBEER EASTER EDITION!
Once again its a big week for exciting new arrivals, however given the Easter weekend we will only be open Thursday & Saturday. So be sure to get your liquid indulgences sorted out before Sunday or you’ll be sorry!
FEATURE BEERS
Holgate (VIC) Beelzebub’s Jewels 750ml $53.00
Surely this is quite possibly one of the most audacious releases from a local brewery ever! Firstly, the presentation is very impressive. 750ml champagne style bottle with dark red wax seal, it certainly looks the part. Additionally the label is hardly recognizable as a Holgate beer, opting for a completely different approach. In terms of the actual beer, the guys have used their Double Trouble as a base & added extra fermentable sugars (as is common practice by belgian abbey/trappist breweries) & a champagne yeast to get the abv up to a giddying 12.5%. Further to this they have sourced excellent French oak barrels from the Curley Flat Winery in Macedon VIC, which formerly housed their brilliant pinot noir.
So what does it actually taste like? This beer is unbelievably rich as a good Belgian Quad should be. It has masses of caramel & hints of chocolate, backed up by dark prune & raisin notes. Given the quite high abv, there is significant spice on the finish, a touch of tannin from the pinot barrels as well as some toasty oak & vanilla. Wow!
STOCKS ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED - ONLY 200 BOTTLES MADE, BE QUICK OR MISS OUT!
Schneider & Brooklyner (GER & USA) Hopfenweisse 500ml $9.00
Somewhat of a surprising collaboration here, though anything short of spectacular would be quite a disappointment from two of the worlds most iconic breweries. They certainly have failed to disappoint here, creating almost an entirely new beer style. More or less a hybrid of an American Pale ale & German Hefeweizen.
Pours a very radiant golden orange with a huge fluffy white head, looks unbelievable in the glass! The aroma is just intoxicatingly perfumed but in the best possible way, brimming with vibrant orange & grapefruit from the hops & oddly complimented by clove-like yeast notes. A truly unbelievable beer that will keep the hopheads happy, while offering something completely new & left of centre. In all honesty, this would probably be one of my all time favorite beers!
Emersons (NZ) Taieri George 500ml $11.50
Released once a year in memory or Richard Emerson’s late father, who contributed much to the NZ craft brewing scene. The beer is a Belgian strong dark ale with cinnamon, nutmeg & a number of other secret spices.
CHOCOLATE BEER BONANZA!
For obvious reasons, we make mention of a few delightful, chocolaty indulgences. Why should kids have all the fun?
Meantime Chocolate Porter 330ml $8.00
Holgate Temptress Chocolate Porter 330ml $4.50
Lobethal Choc Oatmeal Stout 330ml $4.50
Hunter Chocolate Porter 750ml $16.50
+ an honorable mention to
Nogne O God Pasker 500ml $14.50 (it means happy Easter in Norwegian!)
FEATURE BREWERY
Gage Roads (WA)
Ok, so your probably about as surprised as I am that we are reviewing Gage Road beers! Recently Woolworths (who own gage roads) have been seen by some as the antichrist of craft brewing in Australia, as they recently closed the country’s original craft brewery the Sail & Anchor. Now, while the regular Gage Roads beers aren’t really anything to get excited about, you have to give credit where credit is due. Having brewed & released a limited run of two classic Belgian style beers in 800ml wax sealed bottles. Further to what I said last week re: Little Creatures, it is always promising to see the bigger boys experimenting with more obscure, interesting styles for limited releases.
Gage Roads Saison 800ml $16.00
Gage Roads Tripel 800ml $16.00
NEW ARRIVALS & FRESH STOCKS
Mikkeller (DEN)
Barrel Aged Weinbrand Red Ale 375ml $25.00 – Imperial Red Ale aged in German Brandy barrels – 10% abv
Frelser 750ml 42.00 – German style Doppelbock – 11% abv
Santa’s Little Helper 750ml $30.00 – Belgian Style strong dark ale spiced with orange & coriander
Stateside IPA 330ml $13.00
Flying Dog (US)
Gonzo Imperial Porter 200ml $4.00
Kerberous Tripel 200ml $4.00
Horn Dog Barley Wine 200ml $4.00
Double Dog Double Pale Ale 200ml $4.00
Meantime (ENG)
Old Smoked Bock 500ml $9.50 – German Style Rauchbier
Epic (NZ) Mayhem 500ml $12.50
SLOWBEER TASTINGS
In addition to our regular Friday night free tastings, we are looking at running themed tastings. They will run every few months & focus on a style or theme. We will be looking at rare & limited release beers (expensive too!), thus attendance will require a small fee ($10-20) to try the full range on offer (about 10 beers). Given we will be trying & discussing quite a few beers (with high abv!), samples will be 100ml, which we feel is enough to enjoy the beer but not too much to get you drunk & forget the beer altogether!
To give you an idea of what to expect, we are thinking of locking in the following themes for our first few tasting nights:
If you are interested in attending, please let us know as we need to confirm numbers, dates & price.
POTENTIAL BREWSHARE
I suppose it is a given that many of our customers are budding homebrewers & while we are more than happy to have a yarn about all things beer it is sometimes hard to balance that with serving customers. Therefore we are thinking of starting up a Wednesday night brewshare club. The basic premise behind the idea is that homebrewers bring in their creations & share recipes, processes & constructive feedback with each other. We would aim to do it every 3 or so months, enabling brewers time to create something great! We will also have a style or theme in mind, so that we are comparing apples with apples.
If you would be interested please let us know.
FEATURE BEERS
Holgate (VIC) Beelzebub’s Jewels 750ml $53.00
Surely this is quite possibly one of the most audacious releases from a local brewery ever! Firstly, the presentation is very impressive. 750ml champagne style bottle with dark red wax seal, it certainly looks the part. Additionally the label is hardly recognizable as a Holgate beer, opting for a completely different approach. In terms of the actual beer, the guys have used their Double Trouble as a base & added extra fermentable sugars (as is common practice by belgian abbey/trappist breweries) & a champagne yeast to get the abv up to a giddying 12.5%. Further to this they have sourced excellent French oak barrels from the Curley Flat Winery in Macedon VIC, which formerly housed their brilliant pinot noir.
So what does it actually taste like? This beer is unbelievably rich as a good Belgian Quad should be. It has masses of caramel & hints of chocolate, backed up by dark prune & raisin notes. Given the quite high abv, there is significant spice on the finish, a touch of tannin from the pinot barrels as well as some toasty oak & vanilla. Wow!
STOCKS ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED - ONLY 200 BOTTLES MADE, BE QUICK OR MISS OUT!
Schneider & Brooklyner (GER & USA) Hopfenweisse 500ml $9.00
Somewhat of a surprising collaboration here, though anything short of spectacular would be quite a disappointment from two of the worlds most iconic breweries. They certainly have failed to disappoint here, creating almost an entirely new beer style. More or less a hybrid of an American Pale ale & German Hefeweizen.
Pours a very radiant golden orange with a huge fluffy white head, looks unbelievable in the glass! The aroma is just intoxicatingly perfumed but in the best possible way, brimming with vibrant orange & grapefruit from the hops & oddly complimented by clove-like yeast notes. A truly unbelievable beer that will keep the hopheads happy, while offering something completely new & left of centre. In all honesty, this would probably be one of my all time favorite beers!
Emersons (NZ) Taieri George 500ml $11.50
Released once a year in memory or Richard Emerson’s late father, who contributed much to the NZ craft brewing scene. The beer is a Belgian strong dark ale with cinnamon, nutmeg & a number of other secret spices.
CHOCOLATE BEER BONANZA!
For obvious reasons, we make mention of a few delightful, chocolaty indulgences. Why should kids have all the fun?
Meantime Chocolate Porter 330ml $8.00
Holgate Temptress Chocolate Porter 330ml $4.50
Lobethal Choc Oatmeal Stout 330ml $4.50
Hunter Chocolate Porter 750ml $16.50
+ an honorable mention to
Nogne O God Pasker 500ml $14.50 (it means happy Easter in Norwegian!)
FEATURE BREWERY
Gage Roads (WA)
Ok, so your probably about as surprised as I am that we are reviewing Gage Road beers! Recently Woolworths (who own gage roads) have been seen by some as the antichrist of craft brewing in Australia, as they recently closed the country’s original craft brewery the Sail & Anchor. Now, while the regular Gage Roads beers aren’t really anything to get excited about, you have to give credit where credit is due. Having brewed & released a limited run of two classic Belgian style beers in 800ml wax sealed bottles. Further to what I said last week re: Little Creatures, it is always promising to see the bigger boys experimenting with more obscure, interesting styles for limited releases.
Gage Roads Saison 800ml $16.00
Gage Roads Tripel 800ml $16.00
NEW ARRIVALS & FRESH STOCKS
Mikkeller (DEN)
Barrel Aged Weinbrand Red Ale 375ml $25.00 – Imperial Red Ale aged in German Brandy barrels – 10% abv
Frelser 750ml 42.00 – German style Doppelbock – 11% abv
Santa’s Little Helper 750ml $30.00 – Belgian Style strong dark ale spiced with orange & coriander
Stateside IPA 330ml $13.00
Flying Dog (US)
Gonzo Imperial Porter 200ml $4.00
Kerberous Tripel 200ml $4.00
Horn Dog Barley Wine 200ml $4.00
Double Dog Double Pale Ale 200ml $4.00
Meantime (ENG)
Old Smoked Bock 500ml $9.50 – German Style Rauchbier
Epic (NZ) Mayhem 500ml $12.50
SLOWBEER TASTINGS
In addition to our regular Friday night free tastings, we are looking at running themed tastings. They will run every few months & focus on a style or theme. We will be looking at rare & limited release beers (expensive too!), thus attendance will require a small fee ($10-20) to try the full range on offer (about 10 beers). Given we will be trying & discussing quite a few beers (with high abv!), samples will be 100ml, which we feel is enough to enjoy the beer but not too much to get you drunk & forget the beer altogether!
To give you an idea of what to expect, we are thinking of locking in the following themes for our first few tasting nights:
- Single Hop IPAs – Looking at hop varieties from Australia, New Zealand, USA & UK
- Barrel Aged & Fortified beers – Whisky cask, Oak, Port, Bourbon & Brandy
- Coffee & Chocolate – porters & stouts with additions
If you are interested in attending, please let us know as we need to confirm numbers, dates & price.
POTENTIAL BREWSHARE
I suppose it is a given that many of our customers are budding homebrewers & while we are more than happy to have a yarn about all things beer it is sometimes hard to balance that with serving customers. Therefore we are thinking of starting up a Wednesday night brewshare club. The basic premise behind the idea is that homebrewers bring in their creations & share recipes, processes & constructive feedback with each other. We would aim to do it every 3 or so months, enabling brewers time to create something great! We will also have a style or theme in mind, so that we are comparing apples with apples.
If you would be interested please let us know.
Labels: Beer News, New Releases, Recent Tasting Notes
posted by Chris Menichelli at
2:29 pm
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