Mid Week Beer Geek Brewery Battle at The Mill

For the second time in two months The Mill on Constance Street held their Mid Week Beer Geek Battle. While I wasn't able to get to the first event (which pitted Jared 'The Beard' Palu representing Pirate Life against Gillian 'The Calamity' Letham representing Modus Operandi) I was luck enough to get to second event. The combatants this time around were two of  Brisbane craft beer scene brothers, Adam 'The Big Twin" Pollard representing Boatrocker against Matthew 'The Old Twin" Pollard representing Mornington Peninsula.

How does the challenge work? Each time you order a beer you're given a bottle cap, that bottle cap goes into one of the two jars marked with each breweries name. To make things easier it's possible to buy double tasters at a time with a little discount for getting two. Makes it really easy to buy two beers and work ones way through the tap list.

On Wednesday this week we had the following beers on tap.

Mornington Peninsula Brewery
Little Irish Red - Red Ale 3.5%
Pale Ale - American 4.7%
White IPA - IPA 6.3%
'The Beast' ( 2015) - Double Imperial Stout 11.3%

Boatrocker Brewing Company
Miss Pinky - Berliner Weisse 3.3%
Big Love Suburban Pale - Golden Ale 4.4%
Hop Bomb IPA - IPA 6.5%
Braeside Crown Cola - Scotch Ale 8.5%

Boatrocker is a brewery from Victoria that we don't really see all that often up here, and with the addition of The Beast from Mornington there was no way I was going to miss this.

Not being into sour beers I skipped the first from Boatrocker (and the first from MP) and started with the Pale Ale and the Big Love.

Here's a picture of my ugly face between them.

For what it's worth, this picture was taken as another attempt to win Brews and Bacon's current competition.

Both beers were tasty, but MP Pale is something I've had many times before and pushes no boundaries (not that that's a bad thing, it's excellent). The Big Love was different and interesting and not something I've had before, so my first vote went to Boatrocker.

Second round was the two IPA's. No pictures were taken as I'd had the White IPA from Mornington the night before at Newstead. The Hop Bomb from Boatrocker was the quintessential West Coast IPA. big bitterness and piney citrus flavours. Round two went to Boatrocker.

Round three, which is what I was most excited being a fan of the bigger percentage beers, didn't disappoint at all. By all accounts, The Beast from Mornington wasn't brewed on purpose but an accident. Too much of something, or too long doing something else in the brewing process created a beer much higher in percentage than was expected. So glad it was sent up to Brisbane as it was phenomenal

11.3% of RIS goodness.

.
Braeside Crown Cola was also pretty amazing. Sweet like cola, with a smooth vanilla backbone. Hid it's alcohol really well.

Mmmmm

Being a sucker though, my token for that round went to Mornington.

After the three rounds of beers I finished the evening with two more glasses of the Braeside Crown Cola, getting a token for each and putting them into the Boatrocker Jar.

Final tally was four to Boatrocker, one to Mornington Penisula. And another massive token to The Mill and having a good time (that's not code for me leaving a poop un-flushed either).

I highly recommend (if you're not already) that you follow The Mill on Facebook. No doubt the March Mid Week Beer Geek Battle will be just as good and just as fun.

And sorry to Matt Pollard who's now drinking XXXX Gold in craft beer venues around Brisbane as punishment. Poor fella....

Thanks for reading, and as always, drink well.
-BeerFoodBrisbane

Taps Fortitude Valley

There's something to be said about pouring your own beer, it's real, it's honest, it's awesome. There's three ways you can do it: get a job in a bar, pretend you're Mal Meninga or head to Taps in Fortitude Valley.

Beer in the foreground, awesome (and huge) artwork in the background.

By far the easiest way is to head to Taps. It's a pretty great little spot on Brunswick Street in Fortitude Valley that's just done an update of their menu. Talking of their menu, tonight I was lucky enough to enjoy "The Clogger". A huge burger comprising of a wagyu beef pattie, bacon, cheese, mac n cheese with tarragon & chipotle mayo served on a brioche bun. Check out the picture below.

Served with seasoned chips, good!

Two things that were super memorable about the burger was the mac n cheese and the quality of the burger pattie. Mac n cheese and burgers go so well together and the burger at Taps was no exception. There's something about the gooey cheesiness that mixes so well with everything else that a burger brings to the table. But that wagyu pattie, wow. You can tell that it was made in house, from fresh mince, there was herbs and onion all through it, and it just fell apart as I ate it.

Beer and burger, the perfect combo

Amazing burger, well worth checking out if you're in the area and looking at filling your stomach.

There's a lot going on at Taps too. A new store is opening on the Gold Coast in the near future. Plus they have live music every Friday, Saturday and Sunday (with Sunday's music being more "Sunday Session" vibe), You can buy beers at the bar, or get a iButton, load it with credit and pour your own beers. Some of the tables inside have taps on them, and there's a whole wall of taps you can go up and pour yourself from. Check it out!

For the craft beer drinker, they've got a good selection. While I was there I had a Nomad Brewing Cruisin' Ale and a Young Henry's Hope Ale, and everything else on tap was craft. It was great :)

-BeerFoodBrisbane

Favourite New (to me) Beer - January 2016

January was another great month when it came to drinking awesome beers, and there was a heap of them. In my mind, four beers stood out and strangely, three of them were IPA's (if you look back you'll see the list is heavy on stouts).

The beer of the month for me was Big Shed Brewing Co's Californicator

It's not just the artwork that's awesome, the beer itself is phenomenal. A perfectly balanced west coast IPA that's huge in bitter, hoppy flavours all with a resounding fruit and citrus elements. I'd heard good things on social media in the past, but I didn't expect it to be this good. Which really is an error on my part as their Golden Stout Time kicks ass too. It's awesome to find their beers up here in QLD. I'll make it a mission to try more.

By the way, is that really the best beer label you've ever seen or what?

A couple of other great beers this month.

Grapefruit Viking IPA from Ekim Brewing Co. An awesome IPA that's made even more enjoyable by the addition of grapefruit.

Queen Anne's Revenge, an Imperial Stout brewed with Caribbean spices from Bacchus Brewing Co, then aged in rum barrels. Sounds awesome right? That's because it is. Hints of rum all the way through with the beautiful flavours of the stout.

Lastly, and probably the biggest surprise beer of the month for me was the Japanese Cowboy IPA from Mountain Goat. Showing that someone at Mountain Goat has a great sense of humor, this IPA is packed full of hops and citrus flavours, it's truly delicious.

An awesome couple of months are coming up for beer drinkers in Brisbane. What's got me excited is the release of the schedule of events for this years Brewsvegas. Last year was awesome, this year is going to be even better.

Newstead Brewing Co are still going strong with their Tuesday Tap Takeovers too. If you're ever in the area I highly recommend popping in and getting a paddle. Founders next week. Awesome!

Thanks for reading, and as always, drink well.

-BeerFoodBrisbane

Favourite New (to me) Beer - December 2015

That's the silly season done. After waking up with a rotten hangover on New Years Day I've finally gone back through my list of new beers for December 2015 and picked out my favourite new beer for the month. 

And that beer is... The Golden Stout Time from Big Shed Brewing Co

https://www.instagram.com/p/_ypbuYwtN_/

Golden Stout Time is a beer I've seen pop on social media a lot over the past six months or so. To finally see it in Brisbane and be lucky enough to grab a bottle was a real treat. Brewed with honeycomb and toffee to create the flavours of  Golden Gaytime, and boy did Big Shed make it work. One of the most interesting and enjoyable beers I've ever had. If you haven't had this before I highly recommend keeping an eye out of it.

I had a lot of new beers in December, here's a few others that I really enjoyed.

Garden of Eden from To Øl, which was like a fruit salad in a beer that worked so very well.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_bfL81wtGt/

And Yin & Yang from Evil Twin Brewing, perfect mixture of IPA and Stout.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_3IEcDQtOL/

Hellbender from Garage Project, spot on awesome Barleywine with some great artwork on the label.

https://www.instagram.com/p/_lJtd9wtDB/

Lots of cool stuff happening in January including the Hottest 100 Craft Beers countdown. Some say there are inherent problems with these sort of polls, but I'm not going to get into that. In all honesty, to me it's a bit of fun and another reason to spread the word about great Australian craft beer.

Thanks for reading, and as always, drink well.

-BeerFoodBrisbane

My First Craft Beer Experiences

I'm fairly new to craft beer, having only started about a year and a half ago. Looking back on it there was never a time where I went from being a non-craft beer drinker to being a craft beer drinker, the transition happened over time.

Looking back, there are three events that have stood out in my introduction to craft beer. I can't really recall which happened first as they all feel like they happened around the same time, but all are memorable to me.

In no particular order.

1. Stone & Wood Pacific Ale Shortage in Brisbane

There was a time when Stone & Wood Pacific Ale was hard to find. Now it's everywhere, and that's a great thing, but for a while its allocated area in bottle shops was always empty. I know why too, it was something different, a fresh and hoppy pale ale that was unlike anything else you could find at the local bottle stop. We were down in Byron Bay a couple of months back and talking to a guy down there he said that even though it was rare as hen's teeth outside of Byron you could always find it in the local area. I was told the Brewery was only filling 30% of their orders too it was that popular. Now Stone & Wood have a second, and much larger, brewery outside of Byron that does the lion's share of their brewing, leaving the original brewery for the smaller and more seasonal beers. Good times for everyone!

2. Mt Macedon Pale Ale at Tipplers Tap

Tipplers Tap was/is a bit of a strange place. Nestled in a light industrial part of Brisbane (slowly becoming a residential area though). With its ten craft beer taps, a bottled beer list that makes most craft beer nerds wet their pants and a kick ass menu filled with American style food, its was a place anyone could be happy at. Someone told me, or I had read somewhere that Tipplers did a kilogram of wings for $10. Being a huge fan of wings I went to check it out. Having to have a beer with lunch I ordered what sounded like the most foreign and exotic beer on the menu, the Mt Macedon Pale Ale. Mt Macedon sounds like a mountain in European, the keg has to have traveled over land and sea to get to Tipplers right? Well not quite, I didn't know that Holgate was an Australian Brewery, but I'm so glad I got the Mt Macedon as it was excellent.

3. Green Beacon

We moved into Fortitude Valley around the same time Green Beacon opened, that's kind of a sign right? First time I went there was to pick up a green t-shirt to wear for a St Patrick's day (which I still wear frequently) and have been back many times since. Aside from buying the green shirt, my beer memory is trying the Wayfarers Way (now called Wayfarers USA), a beer that was a revelation for me. So fresh and refreshing, and brewed less than a kilometre from where I live, does it get any better? It doesn't.

If anyone out there has their first craft beer experience let me know, it's interesting to hear how fellow beer lovers got into craft beer.

-BeerFoodBrisbane

Bridge Road Brewers Posse - One Year In

I was early December 2014 and I'd only been on Instagram for a few months, so the wide world of craft beer was still very new to me. I'd really only known about beers that were easily available in Brisbane. So when I saw Instagram posts going up of bottles of beer wrapped in paper with hand drawn number tags (made with cardboard and a rubber band) I was intrigued. What is it? Beer Advent Calendar you say? How does one be a part of this next year?

Bridge Road Brewers Posse was the answer.

The Posse is the beer club run by Bridge Road Brewers. Every three months (or two months if you're super keen) they send you a mixed case of beer. The case usually has a couple of special beers in there, Posse only beers during Winter and Summer, and other rarer and hard to find beers mixed in with beers from their core range.

Now this is what I call mail!

I've been part of the Posse for a year now and just received my fourth case and wanted to write a few words about it.

First of all, as far as value for money goes it's great. A case of mixed craft beer for $69 (+ $15 delivery for me up here in QLD) is great. Especially considering there are beers in the pack that are hard to find up here, or just aren't available to you unless you're a member.

The frequency of beers is good too. I went with the pack every three months and it's enough to keep me going for a few weeks but not overdoing beers from one brewery (share the love right).

The beer selection has been really good too. When you first sign up you select what you hop and malt levels are (on a slider from one to ten). The "filler" beers they put in the pack are then to match your style. I went fairly high on hops and low on malt at the start so was getting Bling IPA's (which I love). This most recent delivery I asked if I could get some porters and red ales instead, which they did without a question.

The Hop Pack was a standout in this pack, it's great to taste the differences with the hops when the rest of the beer is the same.

The staff from Bridge Road that run the club must also be commended on how helpful they are as well as how quickly they reply to emails . Plus, just before each delivery we're emailed a PDF with information about the beers that are coming up. Tasting notes, information on what went into them, all that sort of stuff.

I'm now eight days into the Bridge Road Posse Beerdvent Calendar and having a great time and looking forward to what's coming up each day. There is a minimum term to sign up to the Posse, which is 12 months and I've now reached it, but I'm not cancelling, very happy with it. Hopefully one day will make it down to the brewery in country Victoria to say hello to the awesome people there.

Posse Summer Ale

Winter Posse Ale, this was an absolute ripper of a beer, really looking forward to trying next years version.

Thanks for reading, and as always, drink well!
-BeerFoodBrisbane
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The Good Beer Co

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to the launch of something pretty cool, The Good Beer Co. What is The Good Beer Co you ask? Well, it's Australia’s first social enterprise beer company. What does that mean? It means they'll be getting some awesome beers brewed for really good causes. The first of those causes is the Great Barrier Reef.

Partnered with Bargara Brewing Company and Australian Maritime Conservation Society they'll be brewing the Great Barrier Beer. Unsure what style it will be just yet, but that was a part of the launch. We were given voting bottle caps and had to pick between two styles. The one that appealed the most to me was the white IPA, so it got my vote. After some more research I've learned the IPA got the nod, kick ass!

We also got to put or tokens forward to help select the label for the bottle, all three looked pretty sweet, will be interesting to see what is selected.

On the night I also got to try Bargara Brewing's Thirsty Turtle, a crisp and refreshing bright lager than went down a treat. If the Barrier Reef Beer is just as good I can see this being a success.

As you can see the lighting wasn't very good for smart phone photos.

Thanks again to James for the invite, I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes, and raising a beer to the Reef.

More info, and to get on board the crowdfunding campaign can be found here - https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-good-beer-co#/ and here - http://thegoodbeerco.com.au/.

-BeerFoodBrisbane