Sierra Nevada Porter

A quick review - or at least a few thoughts on the Sierra Nevada Porter, helpfully provided by my mate Dave.

This porter pours a dark amber sort of colour rather than anything truly black and holds a low bone head. At 5.6% it's on the low side for a porter but nose out of the bottom is promising though dominated by chocolate.

A sip reveals this is a highly drinkable beer if a little sweet. Toffee tones along with the chocolate are the order of the day with no real bitterness to speak of. It's very easy to put away but a bit sweet and a bit one-dimensional.

I feel this beer also is a little overcarbonated, though certainly not to the extent of the pale ale from this maker. It's fizzy where it doesn't need to be and I find myself wondering exactly what the fascination is with this from the boys and girls down at Sierra Nevada. 7.0 from me.

Brasserie du Mont Blanc - La Rousse (Pale Ale)

As it's Australia day here in France, I felt it necessary to have a top drop on hand and I don't think I could do any better than the World Beer Awards gold medal winner for world's best amber pale ale.

There is a beautifully clean and malty aroma on first. Holds a good head that fades pretty fast. As I commented on BMB's La Blonde, this beer also stays well carbonated. I think I enjoyed this beer over 30 minutes and was seeing plenty of bubbles form well into 20 minutes.

Tastewise, sweet caramel and light coffee flavours stuck out most to me. Thanks to the Mont Blanc water, this beer again tastes unbelievably clean and fresh. Good water makes such a big difference.

I've been wondering what a good pale ale is supposed to taste like for some time now ad I believe this just became my yard stick. Worthy of it's award.

Brasserie du Mont Blanc - La Blonde

At the end of my year long French sojourn in the small alps town of Aix-les-Bains, I came across a small boutique beer shop that had eluded me for my entire stay. Kicking myself for not finding it earlier, I vowed I would return one day to sample its wares. That day is today.

I picked up a variety of local French beers by Brasserie du Mont Blanc who seem to have achieved a degree of success at various awards. The first beer I'll review, La Blonde, won a silver medal in the 2011 French Agriculture Awards that review wines, beers and foods annually.

La Blonde comes with a weak head that disappears rapidly but is not an indicator of a flat beer. On the contrary, it displayed a fantastic degree of carbonation all the way to the end of the beer. Easy on the nose with a light floral smell and a nice light amber colour.

Tastewise, a pleasant bitterness at first fades gradually into a light floral aftertaste that lingers in a good way. La Blonde claims to have citrus flavours but appeared to me to have a more floral and honey taste to me.

The real kicker for this beer though is the quality of the water. Having their water come directly from the glaciers of Mont Blanc is a huge winner and really makes this beer go down extremely well. I wish I had more time to track it down on tap. Worth it if you find it!

Feral Hop Hog

Feral's Hop Hog, first tried at the Sail and Anchor, now in bottle format direct from the Swan Valley.

I had a pretty rocky beginning with Feral - certainly didn't appreciate the white lager much over a couple of tastings last year - but Hop Hog at least has been a fun revelation. It's got a great boisterous nose on it and you know from the start you're in for a herbal, floral kick of hops. Bitterness is not extraordinary but comes in nicely throughout. It's quite quenching and at 5.8% a good match for the body.

Head retention is exceptional for this beer - it maintains a lovely, powdery head all the way to the bottom over the dark amber body. This is consistent over numerous pours in different glasses.

Hop Hog's starting to turn up in Woolworths bottle stores now which is nice, and I understand Feral have entered a venture with Nail brewing to rapidly expand production also. Can't wait to see more of it about & will need to get up to the brewery sometime soon also. A solid 8.5 and puts a smile on my face every time.

Kozel Dark

OK I bought this one because it was a dark beer in a 500ml bottle for a reasonable price, and it had a quite fetching goat on the label cradling a pint of said beer himself. What's not to like? Until you find out it's 3.8% and get a bit woozy.

Despite all that though, I've been pleasantly surprised. This pours with a pretty thin and airy head, but is nice and dark off the bat. The flavours are nicely balanced throughout and there's a bit of roasty dark maltiness with really light coffeeish tastes there also.

If I'm honest, there are better options for a light beer (LC Rogers, Eagle Bay Mild etc). But then, there are far worse and more watery dark beers at higher percentages also. I'm giving this a 6.5.

Stone Ruination IPA

Well now, this one comes with a reputation. Some of it is self-proclaimed (ie, it calls itself a liquid poem to the glory of the hop, and threatens to destroy your sense for beer if you so much as look at it askance). But this has been backed up by critics across the board also. We approached this one with a giddy trepidation.

Pours a deep colour with a lovely strong white head. You can smell the hops from a distance, it's floral.

The taste? Well, it certainly does have hops in it. And a lingering bitterness that just might kill you if you're not a beery sort of person. But it's not the most floral beer I've had - Feral's Hop Hog for example tastes a bit like you're gargling the contents of a herb garden - this is more .. balanced in a way, despite the absurdity of the content.

I did not notice this was 7.7% alcohol until I'd finished the bottle. I'm not sure how many one could drink, but it certainly seems possible to get hooked on them. I'm pining for another right now.

In a word, impressive - and impressive not just as a sideshow joke piece for a laugh, but as a great example of a bold, brave, and balanced specimen showcasing some brilliant flavours and dare I say it, pushing the craft beer community forward. Any beer fan should try it. 9.0

Coopers Pale Ale

This really needs no review other than to say it is Coopers Pale Ale.

A classic and rightly so of the Australian beer scene, and was a welcome companion when it could be found when I was living in Japan also (thankyou, Mishima restaurant opposite Iseya inokashirakoenguchiten).

Mate of mine said recently it occupies a really special place between the mainstream and craft beer in Australia.. and I agree. This is still the best "$40 carton" you can buy pound for pound and I hope that continues as Australia's third largest brewer (despite limited market share) into the future. 7.5 and ongoing respect.

Brewdog Paradox Isle of Ahran

At 10% alc and having been aged in whiskey casks, this beer was always going to pack a punch.

Note that it doesn't necessarily need to be poured into sake cups bought from a zoo in northern Japan. But it does make it better.

There's a great complex nose on this one due to the bottling / aging process, and a dark head to boot though this dissipated quite early in the piece. I won't lie - I found the alcohol in this one a little overpowering, though it does generate a really long a complex harmony, with the best flavours coming through almost after you've swallowed your mouthful. Coincidentally, that is when your throat starts to tingle also.

Very interesting - my first foray into spirits-cask-aged beers and a good one at that. I'm giving it a 6.0, with Nic backing up with a 7.0.

Baird Brewing Shimaguni Stout

And so we came to the final exchange in our increasingly acrimonious relationship with the Baird crew: the Stout.

Now a stout typically refers to quite a heavy dark beer or porter, usually among the strongest brews a brewery puts out. But this clocked in at 4.5%, well below the 6.0% of any of their other beers. Befuddled and by this stage somewhat resigned to our fate we poured out.

(sadly no photo for this one, borrowing one from their official website to illustrate the cool artworks better)

This stout has a quite dark coffee coloured head which was pleasing to see. The nose was also far better than the porter, though still put me in mind of homebrew guinness. This brew proved less fizzy than the porter (though still oddly aerated), a relief. And flavour wise it was not too bad either, though a little watery perhaps due to the light alcoholic content. I didn't come across any of the smoky flavour promised on the label, but nevertheless, a fair effort to finish. I'm giving it 4.0, with Nic giving it 5.0 of 10.

Baird Brewing Kurofune Porter

Baird, Baird, Baird.

As keen craft beer buffs and frequent travelers to Japan, my associates and I are on your side. We would like to see Japan evolve beyond the 'easy drinking' image of throwaway lagers and build a new beer scene above and beyond. But you're losing us, Baird, really you are.

The Kurofune Porter, at 6% in common with the Brown Ale and IPA, and complete with another top label depicting a smirking General MacArthur, put me in mind of a dark beer invasion ready to change the minds of the lager-reliant Japanese populace.

Why then is is so damn fizzy? A porter is typically near flat on pouring, but as we tried this beer through a range of temperatures the key characteristic was the insane amount of aeration. It put me in mind of an even fizzier version of the similarly disappointing Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, almost cola-like in nature. After some time waiting for this to settle Nic had the bright idea of giving it a gentle shake to see if he could eliminate some fizz. One shake later, the room was covered in froth as if a brave meringue soldier had leapt on a live grenade.

And I haven't even got to the pervasive sour smell and initial taste of the beer either. Once you conquer all that, there is a porter in there somewhere. But any desire to drink it was long gone. A disappointing 2.0 / 10 from each taster.

Baird Brewing Teikoku IPA

It was all going so well for Baird after their promising effort with the Brown Ale. Then this happened.

The bottle claims a spicy floral aroma, backed up with the sweet Maris Otter malt. My nose claims a very similar (ie slightly offputting) scent in line with the Brown Ale. Then it was on to the taste buds who did not enjoy this beer at all.

The almost anonymous hops and lack of bitterness left us wondering what about this beer if anything made it an IPA for a start. It's one dimensional and sweet in a poorly prepared home brew sort of way.

Overall, a heavy, torpid struggle. I'm giving this 1.5, with Nic giving 2.0 out of 10.

I'm prepared to accept a little bit of degradation here given the small batch bottle brewed nature + the roundabout route to arrive several thousand kilometres away in Perth (the way Nic insisted it smelled / tasted of mint perhaps backs this up?) but there's little to recommend this.

Baird Brewing Angry Boy Brown Ale

And so we came to the first of our four beers from Baird Brewing Company, all the way from Shizuoka.

The bottle art on these beers is off the hook.. top work indeed. Though my overall expectations weren't that high given pretty mixed past experience with both Japanese beers, and with brown ales.

The Japanese description on the bottle suggested this beer was 'hiding an angry edge' and that it was best for days when you were a little angry yourself. We certainly found the nose on it made us a bit angry.. not the best entry to a beer. Head also dissipated quite quickly though this is perhaps permissable given the distance travelled to get to us.

The beer itself however was convivial if anything. I didn't feel enraged in the slightest by anything other than the misleading packaging. In fact, the conversation I had with this drop encouraged me to relax, think a moment, breath, count to 10, and not sweat the small stuff. I felt calmed. Quite a mellow characteristic throughout, tailing to a buttered toast like finish. No caramel / toffee here: pleasing.

It's a one-note sort of beer but pleasant enough to deserve a 7.0 and my interest to try it again as the best brown ale I've had to date (this is a limited field). Nic called a 6.0 and a reasonably auspicious start to Baird.

Bridge Road Galaxy Single Hop IPA

Picked up a whole bunch of interesting beers late last week from the excellent Cellarbrations Carlisle and couldn't wait to do some weekend research.

First up was Bridge Road's effort above - first time to try something from this brewer, though we'd read a fair bit about them in the past. Can't say the bottle was too attractive, in fact made me a bit apprehensive, but the other information on there (max hops, moderate malts, though just 4.8%) suggested good things to come.

Forgive the small pour by the way - really need to invest in some better tasting glasses it seems.

This beer pours well with a solid head and a full mouth flavour, culminating in an almost peppery sort of finish. The hops are not really as dominant as expected but stand up to be counted throughout (er.. one? and it's Galaxy) and there's a good balance of bitterness.

Overall, I have to rate this beer pretty highly and give it a preliminary 8.0 / 10, pending future tasting. It's a high mark but the fact I'm looking forward to it so expectantly justifies its score. Nic scored this a 7.5.

Billabong Nelson Sauvin Ale

Starting a place to at least keep track of what beers we're all drinking and post reviews! Nothing fancy, nothin sus.

This one's brewed just down the road in Perth at Billabong. It's notable mostly for the hop use and puts me immediately in mind of Knappstein Reserve Lager, though that drop has a bit more vanilla and a cleaner finish.. and is certainly higher quality overall. Alcohol's standard at 5.1%.

The oddest thing about this beer is the nose on it .. while there's a fresh head when first uncapped it all gets a bit malty (think home brew) as you proceed through.

Thankfully that doesn't influence the taste and it's nicely rounded and refreshingly gooseberry / passionfruit throughout. Be a good session beer this one for summer I believe. And it gets the thumbs-up from the missus as well as easy drinking and fruity. I give it a 7.0.