Favourite New (to me) Beer - April 2016

Once again, another month packed with new beer experiences. Was lucky enough to go to multiple beer events around Brisbane as well as a trip to Sydney including a couple of visits to the awesome Modus Operandi brewery in Mona Vale. If you're ever in the area it's well worth checking out. Core range, specialty beers and excellent food.

Favourite beer of the month has a very local vibe to it, with two of the beers being brewed within a couple of km's of the Beer Food Brisbane household. Love it.

New (to me) favourite beer for April was...

The Mayne Harvest by Newstead Brewing Co.

The Mayne Harvest is a wet hopped version of The Mayne Thing, which is Newstead's core range golden ale. I'm a fan of their golden ale but when I go to Newstead I generally get a session ale, pale ale or an IPA. The Mayne Harvest though.. wow. Delicious hop bitterness that was punctuated by fresh floral and citrus flavours. So good, it's a shame this can't be around all year. One of the best beers I've had this year.

A few notable mentions.

Another local beer, the Green Beacon Barrel Aged Strong Ale. Lots of coconut with warming boozyness and a sweet malty backbone. I believe their next barrel aged beer is going to a porter, can't wait to try that.

The BrewDog Paradox Compass Box was everything I was expecting from a whisky cask aged imperial stout. Thick and syrupy, lots of dark fruits, raisins, bitter coffee and dark chocolate. All wrapped up with a lovely warming sensation. Shared with a non-craft beer drinking mate who also enjoyed it. Wish I bought a couple to let them age, maybe next time.

May has now started, there's a shit ton of events coming up. Looking forward to the Stone Meet the Brewer event at Brewski, and the Stone & Wood Stone Beer launch at The Woolly Mammoth. See you around

Thanks for reading, and as always, drink well.

-BeerFoodBrisbane

Favourite New (to me) Beer - March 2016

Wow this year is moving quickly.

March has now come and gone. Brewsvegas 2016 was great. I was a bit unwell in the middle of Brewsvegas but had a great time and got to a handful of events. Looking forward to 2017, only 48 weeks to go right?

As far as new beers went, March was another bumper month filled with big boozy beers.

My favourite new beer of the month though, was without a doubt the Founders Backwoods Bastard.

Aged in bourbon barrels, this Scotch ale brings a huge but smooth booze kick with vanilla, dates and toasted coconut. As the beer warms up the flavours change in with the booze dropping off a bit and the other elements coming through a bit more. A real sipper of a beer, pretty sure I sat on this for two hours. Will buy again, it was delicious.

A few notable mentions.

Evil Twin - I Love You With My Stout and Soft DK.

Two imperial stouts that strangely was able to pick up from the same bottle shop. The bigger Evil Twin beers are quite hard to find  here in Brisbane so when I heard Hops & Vines in Hendra had them both I had to visit (straight after work, that afternoon). Soft DK was sweeter and easier to drink, I love you with my Stout was big and challenging and so much fun. Great beers.

Lastly, Batch 2.18 from 8 Wired.

Enjoyed this with a few other Brisbane beer bloggers over the Easter break at a bottle share/balcony session. Lots of dark fruits, bitter chocolate and vanilla. It's my kind of beer.

We're in April now, and I'm excited. It's still really easy to find new beers to drink, love the Brisbane Beer scene right now.

Thanks for reading, and as always, drink well.

-BeerFoodBrisbane

Had the Stockade Family Around for Beers

What better day is there than Easter Saturday to get stuck into a bunch of beers from a brewery you've never had a beer from before? Well the stars have aligned because Stockade Brew Co were kind enough to send me a four pack of their core range of beers to try (thanks Melissa).

I've not heard much about Stockade Brewing Co until quite recently. I've seen them pop up on Instagram a fair bit lately which they are quite active, but they don't have a presence in bottle shops in Brisbane yet. I'm always keen to try new beers and that's what I'm doing.

Peachy Keen Peach Gose

First cab of the rank is the Peachy Keen Peach Gose. Gose is one of those styles that I haven't had much exposure to but one that seems perfectly suited to warm weather. Today is once again a typical early-Autumn day in Brisbane (meaning stupidly humid and warm) so this is going down perfectly. Lots of peach flavour on the nose and palate, with a strong sour notes that cut right through the peach. Not very hoppy, leaves a peach juice aftertaste which is wholly enjoyable. Great start.

The Sesh Golden Session Ale

Most session type beers I've had in the past are hoppy, but The Sesh is different. Massive amount of malt complexity going on, with a sweet caramel flavour all the way through. Not overly bitter at first but as the sweet malt flavour disappears I'm left with a refreshing bitterness. I'm truly surprised how much I enjoy this beer, it's delicious.

Duel Hoppy Lager

The Duel Hoppy Larger is brewed with Vienna malt and Ella hops. Both kind of fighting each other to be the dominant flavour. I guess that's where the name "Duel" comes from. It's really interesting as I can taste the two flavours inter-playing with each other. Lagers aren't my favourite style but with the extra hoppiness it's going down very nicely.

Chop Shop Pale Ale

Last but not least is the Chop Shop Pale Ale. A hoppy American style pale ale brewed with Fuggles and Cascade Hops. Big hop flavours punctuated with pine, citrus and tropical fruits. A bit of sweetness that then transitions to a slight bitterness. Very moreish.

Packaging is great, each bottle has eye catching artwork as well as information about the beers (hops, malts, IBU's, food pairings etc). It's a small thing but is appreciated.

I've had a great little session with these Stockade Brew Co beers. I hope to see them in bottle shops up here in Brisbane sometime soon. I've also seen they do an Oak-Aged series of beers, how good does that sound!

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

Favourite New (to me) Beer - February 2016

February has come and gone. Another great month with plenty of truly exceptional beers to enjoy. There were however, three new beers that I was lucky enough to enjoy that stood out for me (all Aussies this month too).

Favourite new beer for the month though, was the Keller Door IIPA from 4 Pines Brewing Company.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BB4cF5HwtEx/

That's some wicked artwork on the bottle, but the contents of said bottle deserved it. Big bitter and hop flavours with a balanced malt backbone and tons of citrus and tropical fruits. I'm a fan of the Keller Door series of beers from 4 Pines but this is by far my favourite of the range. Hopefully we get to see this again next year. Please???

Another thing I wanted to mention too, there is so much popularity around 4 Pines and their Keller Door beers. Their core range is great, but all these limited release beers they do really gets the social media beers nerds excited. I love it!

A couple of special mentions (which were both enjoyed at The Mill last week).

Mornington Peninsula Brewery - The Beast. I might have gone into the Beast with the preconceived notion that I was going to enjoy it as the regular RIS from MP is great, so it's no surprise to see it in this blog post. The Beast has everything the regular RIS has but turned up to 11.

Boatrocker Brewing Company - Braeside Crown Cola. Probably the biggest surprise beer this month. I was expecting something sickly sweet and not that enjoyable but that wasn't the case at all. Smooth, bit of booze, hints of coconut, lovely warming feeling. So good I went back for a couple more.

March is going to be awesome for the Brisbane craft beer scene as it's Brewsvegas time! Lots of great events coming up. If you see my ugly face out and about come say hello.

Thanks for reading, and as always, drink well.

-BeerFoodBrisbane

Had the Bling Family Around for Beers

I've got a bit of an affinity for Bridge Road Brewers in country Victoria. I don't really know why, I've never been to the brewery before, but I've had a heap of their beers and there isn't one I've not enjoyed.

This week however, I was lucky enough to get fresh bottles of each of the members of the Bling family, so why not drink them back to back?

Little Bling IPA (3.4%) bottled on 01/12/2015
Bling IPA (5.8%) bottled on 14/01/2016
Bling Bling IIPA (8.5%) bottled on 05/01/2016

Today I'm going in order from low to high.

Little Bling, Little Bling, let me in! The Big Bad Wolf would have said this if IPA's were around in fantasy tales. Little Bling is the baby brother of the Bling and Bling Bling. Coming in at only 3.4% you'd expect this beer to be boring and bland, but it's not. Big hop flavours all the way through, with a bitterness that lingers on the palate for quite a while. There's also a mild malty sweetness that sits right back there but makes it so very enjoyable. For such a sessionable beer it's got so much damn flavour.

Bling. After very much enjoying Little Bling I've now cracked open the Bling. A 5.8% IPA which is similar to Little Bling except with everything amped up. More hoppy and more bitter but still quite balanced with a mild malty sweetness in there. Said bitterness also sits on the palate for much longer. While Little Bling can be enjoyed quite quickly it's bigger brother requires a bit more of a sipping drinking plan.

Both beers so far have poured a beautiful amber colour, with a head that is retained for quite a while.

Bling Bling. Pungent and fresh the Bling Bling IPA doesn't hold anything back. Huge hop bitterness all the way through, with a bit more sweetness than it's lower ABV brothers. Tell you what though, it's hides its 8.5% ABV really well. So damn tasty. Every sip brings the palate to life. You can't go wrong with this beer, you really can't.

Great fun drinking all the Blings back to back. If you get a chance to pick them all up at once I highly recommend it.

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

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