Craft beer thread

[Inside Shoulder]

I'm flying

a present from Mrs Shoulder so I'm expecting some issue I haven't yet identified

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Bloody nice drop @Inside Shoulder and not a very common brew. I've only ever seen that on the menu at the Chiswick restaurant in Woollahra. http://www.chiswickrestaurant.com.au/images/Master_beverage_list_as_at_08.07.14.pdf

Awesome brew if you like the traditional Belgium style beers with strong malts. My Corona drinking mate didn't like it too much.

There is no doubt that Mrs Shoulder will be trying to sweeten you up with that present.

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Bloody nice drop @Inside Shoulder and not a very common brew. I've only ever seen that on the menu at the Chiswick restaurant in Woollahra. http://www.chiswickrestaurant.com.au/images/Master_beverage_list_as_at_08.07.14.pdf

Awesome brew if you like the traditional Belgium style beers with strong malts. My Corona drinking mate didn't like it too much.

There is no doubt that Mrs Shoulder will be trying to sweeten you up with that present.

they were having a tasting in the local bottlo - which is not a million miles from woollahra.
couldn't read the label so don't know what the alc by vol was but it sure felt high

 

[boyo]

I've been enjoying James Squire's "Constable" Copper Ale lately Nice drop. IMO a tad lighter than their "Nine Tales" Amber Ale.

It was bought at the Carrington Cellars at Katoomba. They don't sell VB, Tooheys, etc.

"This beautifully coloured takes one of the most intriguing stories from James Squire’s life – his time as a regional district constable – and puts a tasty twist on it. Brewed as a tribute to James’ transformation from con to cop, the Constable Copper Ale is one of the newest members of the James Squire craft beer range.
The Constable is a deep-golden English-style ale, with a balanced nose of floral, citrus and earthy notes, a firm backbone of crystal and pale malts and a lingering hop bitterness. According to Rob ‘Freshy’ Freshwater, Senior Brewer at the Malt Shovel Brewery, it’s ‘a flavoursome beverage for all to enjoy’. At 3.4 per cent alcohol per volume, the Constable is true to its inspiration and a classic thirst-quencher.
Freshy also recommends locking away a Constable or two with a nice rich red meat like lamb to match the crystal malts within the beer, followed by the cleansing characteristics of the hops coming through to provide the balance.
All in all, we’re confident that both craft beer newbies and long-time fans of the James Squire range will find the Constable an arresting experience."

 

[Teh Other Dave]

I'm so glad I don't live up in Katoomba permanently. When I was working up there earlier in the year, my grocery shops were morphing into raids of Carrington for beer, cheese, and Trunky Creek bacon. Terminal gout.

 

[boyo]

Things go better with craft beer
http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/things-go-better-with-craft-beer-20141010-114ajh.html

 

[ChargerWA]

Sail and Anchor Monkey Fist Pale Ale .Supposed to be American style Pale Ale but really lacks the punch of the other american style brews.

Easy drinking but nothing outrageously special. Which is a shame, being a local WA product.

 

[matty_k]

It's also owned by Woolworths.

 

[MarkJ]

I believe It's the Woolworths home brand craft beer (despite the Sail & Anchor name) so probably not wise to expect too much flavour

 

[Baldric]

I believe It's the Woolworths home brand craft beer (despite the Sail & Anchor name) so probably not wise to expect too much flavour

This gives me the shits. You think you are getting some nice handcrafted brew made by some dude with cool tatts and a a technicolour goatee and it comes from some big brewer.

 

[matty_k]

Another one that is a bit sad is that Matilda Bay is owned by Carlton United Breweries.

 

[Lindommer]

CUB have owned Matilda Bay since 1990, and have done fuck all with it since. The original owners were in the vanguard of craft brewing in the mid-80s (I think they were the first?) and produced some wonderful brews like Redback and Dogbolter. They've, unfortunately, disappeared into the ether due to the "superior knowledge" of the corporate marketing wankers at CUB who wouldn't know what a decent beer tasted like if we held them down and poured it down their throats. MB have a few reasonable brews like Alpha Pale Ale, Bohemian Pilsner and Big Helga. But no, the dickheads in marketing know better than we fussy beer drinkers, try and buy one of those at your local bottleo; what you'll find is Fat Yak (an apt name for its flavour), Beez Neez (uses honey!, God spare me, what we want is BITTER) and some shit beer named after fish and chips even seagulls wouldn't like.

The tacking on of craft beers to mainstream brewers is one thing Lion Nathan've done much better than CUB. LN owns James Squire (it's the old Hahn Brewing Company renamed), Little Creatures and White Rabbit, and operate these brands well as producing decent brews. WR (World Rugby), ironically, operates from the first brewery MB set up in Victoria, in Healesville.

If anyone from CUB happens to read this and comes up with some crap involving "tasting panels" and other such rubbish, get in touch with the serious beer drinkers here at G&GR and WE'LL tell you what your beers taste like.

 

[Teh Other Dave]

A big part of this is sourcing the beers from a good bottleo. I worked at an independent bottle shop when I was at uni and it set me on my love of Trappist beers, culmimating in a pilgrimage to Belgium last year.
Those of us spoiled enough to live near a capital can find some incredibly well stocked independents that ship in some pretty top-shelf beers from here and abroad, and avoid the pitfalls of the craftily-named but mass-produced brew.

That said, I do enjoy James Squire (Chuck Hahn's new venture after leaving Hahn Breweries, which I think has always been owned by Lion Nathan) and White Rabbit beers, and conversely not everything in the craft beer arena is to my liking - mainly the flooding of shelf space with so many IPAs and their permutations, is there a massive worldwode hop surplus that I am missing here?

 

[matty_k]

Beer Cartel.
Best bottle shop around for craft beers.
www.beercartel.com.au

 

[Hugh Jarse]

This article from Choice Magazine gives a good potted view of the big breweries and corporates skin in the craft beer space.

Who owns your beer?

Lion, Foster’s, Coca-Cola, Woolworths and Coles are all muscling in on the craft beer business.

• Updated:26 Jan 2014
• Author:Jodi Bird

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Brewery beer battle

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Until recently, the last time Aussies consumed less than 100 litres of beer a year, World War Two had just ended. But while we’re drinking less beer, we’re getting better at it. Our demand for quality is higher than ever with a record 150 breweries now producing craft beer.

• Is your favourite craft beer Aussie owned?

Homebrewed craft beer

The definition of craft beer depends on who you ask. Chuck Hahn’s Hahn Premium arguably began the current craft beer boom in the late 1980s before he was bought out by Lion Nathan (now Lion). The Hahn brewery was then renamed the Malt Shovel Brewery which today produces Australia’s biggest selling craft beer James Squire.
Crediting the large brewers with nurturing the craft beer industry, Hahn argues craft beer has several definitions.

“Part of it is delivering on flavour that people expect and having the credibility of a brewmaster behind it who identifies with brands and controls all stages of the process," he says.

But the Australian Real Craft Brewers Association disagrees. For them, a craft beer must be independent, traditional, and 100% Australian owned with no ownership or control by a major brewer, such as Lion.

Last year’s Australian brewer of the year Shawn Sherlock of Murray’s Craft Brewing Co, also lists independence, as well as a smaller batch size, allowing more control of the brewing process, as key characteristics of a craft beer. But he contradicts Hahn reluctantly.

“Chuck has done so much for the industry, it’s difficult to criticise him.”

Sherlock is also quick to point out that American craft beers such as Sierra Nevada and Dog Tooth are now large breweries with a bigger market share in the US than Coopers have here, “but you can’t not see these as craft beers”.

Brewery swill

Breweries swallow each other almost as often as we swallow a brew. An IBISWorld report says the Australian brewing industry is still one of the most profitable in the world, making it attractive to multinationals.

Japanese brewer Kirin acquired Lion in 2009 and the world’s second largest brewer SABMiller engulfed Foster's (now CUB) in 2011, leaving Coopers as the largest Australian brewer with a 3.5% market share. And Lion and CUB have been busy gulping craft breweries, most recently with Lion’s acquisition of Little World Beverages, brewers of Little Creatures.

In 2012 Coca-Cola Amatil sold its local alcohol arm to CUB and stayed out of the market until December 2013 as part of the deal. But it wasted no time in re-entering the market, securing rights to a range of international craft beers and forming the Australian Beer Company to produce locally brewed craft beers.

Even the supermarkets are in on the game, Woolworths owns a 25% stake in Gage Roads, which produce private label beer for Woolworths Liquor such as the craft-branded Sail & Anchor while Coles offers its own private label beer, Steamrail Ale.


Beer pong

Sherlock told CHOICE the better margins on tap beer can help grow a business and make it successful. Murray’s pays

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$32 in excise tax per litre of pure alcohol on the keg compared to $45 for the bottle. Add to that the extra packaging costs and it’s clear tap beer is where the war is won.

However the ACCC launched an investigation into the industry this year querying shady practices in the breweries contracts with pubs.

Most publicans have contracts with the major brewers which commonly offer kickbacks such as rebates or installation and maintenance of lines and taps by the brewery. So the battlefield shrinks to one or two leftover taps known as ‘floating taps’ which the pubs use for craft brews.

But the common experience is that a big brewer sales rep notices an independent craft beer on the floating taps and, several new umbrellas for the beer garden later, the independent’s beer has been bumped off the tap in favour of the big brewer’s craft beer line.

Smaller breweries can’t compete with these services. The best they can offer the publican is the beer at keg price but Sherlock says the beer is winning the war.

“It used to be that craft brewers could only hold a tap for one to two weeks but now we’re able to access and hold the taps better than ever,” he says,“As long as the public understands that some of the craft brands they are consuming are big brewery brands, that’s all that matters. Let the beer stand up in the glass for itself.”

 

[TheBigDog]

Was recently introduced to the brewers 'Garage Project' out of NZ. Tried a few of their drops, all were great.

Really loved the Death from Above though, ale infused with lime leaf and chili. Very subtle but gave the beer a good punch. Seems to be plenty of it floating around in Brissy craft bottle-os at the moment, I recommend if anyone comes across it.

 

[Lindommer]

Get yerselves down to The Oak Barrel, 152 Elizabeth Street for their contribution to Sydney Craft Beer Week: http://www.oakbarrel.com.au/four-tasting-seven-days/

TOB has about the best range of craft beers in Sydney (I will qualify that and admit I haven't been to the Beer Cartel in Artarmon recently).

 

[Tangawizi]

10th Annual Beerfest is on at the Aussie in Sydney this weekend. Good fun arvo & nice and close to the Rugby Club too if you're heading there for the Bledisloe.

Found their "Meet the Brewer" and Beer School classes were good way to get extra beers for free.

 

[Teh Other Dave]

Bush Ambree - Belgian, made with caramelised malt which gives it density and a golden brown hue as well as a sweet flavour offset with good, cutting bitterness. ABV 12%. Strong, Belgian beer which originated from a farmer who brewed for his labourers. Part of my late shift recovery programme.

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Anyone going to Sip and Savour at CarriageWorks in Eveleigh?

250 craft beers and ciders to tantalise the taste buds.

http://www.goodfood.com.au/good-foo...thout-the-hipster-beards-20141024-11aqau.html