Bridge Road B2 Bomber Black Belgian IPA

Where better to spend your time in Melbourne CBD than at Beer DeLuxe?

Hard to argue with that line of logic based on this one as sat alongside some peking duck, this was a real treat and thoroughly enjoyed throughout.

There may be a certain element of cloudy nostalgia based on the last time I was at this venue, but this one does actually share a fair bit of similarity with the excellent Mikkeller Dark Harvest collaboration recently on the taps. Beautiful roasty character is dominant here again but with a few tweaks from that drop also.

Solid black with just a tint of brown, it glowers heavyset in the glass. A nice bone mocha head serves up roasty hop and malt character but little else - Belgium is not dominant on the nose, but does come through about midway through the mouthful with an interesting punch of yeasty flavour before a crisp, clean finish that leaves you wanting more.

Dry, roasty, earthy, hoppy. Delicious and highly recommended if you see it on tap. 8.5

Bridge Road & Mikkeller The Harvest

Onwards, to that other collaboration between Bridge & Mikkeller: light (?) harvest.

Pours nice for an APA, sprightly, glinting, effervescent with a pure white head and light body in line with the 4.5% abv. Nose is reasonable, predominately orange / grapefruit, quite juicy and pronounced. Taste wise however it's a short-lived beer, bit of grapefruit first up followed by a sadly empty pale malt denouement that oddly both starts and finishes too early.

Session wise this is a goal.. you could likely drink this all day.. but it's not overly exciting above and beyond that and probably too gentle for a 'harvest' style ale. 7.0

Bridge Road & Mikkeller Dark Harvest

Another beer that just on announcement has built expectations to a level where it needs to perform pretty damn well to be considered anything like a success.

Was lucky enough to snag several of these in bottle format, and grab a pint also at Beer De Luxe Melbourne (long side note: great venue that but way to waste top beer pouring this so aggressively.. what a waste. And then I overheard two of the serving guys talking about porter being a combination of stout and stale beer .. wut?).

Back to the story - this beer is superb in both formats.. I've seen it listed as a porter it seems but feel like it's something between that and (more so) a black ale for my money. Sudsy, crystal head sits atop a dark inviting body which itself eventually dissipates to leave a lovely off-white fugue patina.

The nose is really roasty and grass-fresh but above that, this beer is exceptionally well balanced throughout. You don't need to search around or strain to hear what it's mumbling - just sit back and bask in the brilliance as you plow through the almost Guinness-like head through a slightly unexpected roasted grass flavour that lingers and gets just sweet enough to really fuel the imagination on the end. It's not brash but erudite and the hop character comes through along with the wonderful roasty overtones very nicely indeed.

Drinking this beer I get a distinctly reminiscent malt note that takes me right back to Beer Geek Breakfast and other Mikkeller stouts and porters, and sure enough looking into it a little further it seems the gypsy extraordinaire provided all the dark stuff himself. This is a good thing, take it from me - but those new (as yet unnamed) hops from Bridge seem like an interesting possible future goer too.

Look - go snap up a bottle (or a pint) if you are lucky enough to find one cross your path. 9.0

Bridge Road Chevalier Saison

As a top 10 finalist this too was on tap.

Pours with a flat head, and a pretty average saison nose. Mostly wheat, lemon, very slight spice.

Bit watery in the middle taste-wise, no real spice, kind of ok aftertaste. A bit cheap and nothing this, doesn't quite match up to its visions of grandeur.

The Nogne O collaborative india saison version was far and away better than this. Ie, worlds apart. Even Temple's effort was better than this by some margin. So I'm starting to wonder if Bridge Road only really do things with 'india' in the title really well.

With other breweries (Kooinda, Mornington etc just off the top of my head keeping to places that bottle) producing quality pale ales, IPAs and the like, I have to ask if this was only included in the top 10 because the previous saison wasn't available on tap, and they wanted some sort of variety in the countdown? 5.5

Bridge Road Robust Porter

Post number 100 for the blog!

In all honesty it's a shame it wasn't something more momentous. This is the first dark beer tried from Bridge, tipping the scale at 5.2%.

Crack the top and there's a definite 'bang', then head flowing out of the bottle. Why is this? This was stored upright for at least a week in good cold conditions. No excuse? A mate's bottle did the same damn thing too. Sigh. No-one likes a fizzy porter.

Reasonable aroma, in a chocolate malt central sort of way. Once the head settles it's pleasant enough too except a bit of an empty spot there in the middle. The aftertaste and mouthfeel could improve too. So all in all it's vaguely unpleasant, a shame. 5.0

Bridge Roads / Nøgne Ø India Saison (return leg)

Having tried (and meh'd at) the danish leg of operations we took bat against those battlers from Beechworth, Bridge Roads.

Strong herbal, plantlike, earthy, pine driven nose. Bit of citrus there also. Pours with a bit of sediment, light in the glass, but big frothy cloudy expanse of head. Very different to the euro version already.

First reaction to the taste is a genuine "are you sure this is the same recipe"? Hops dominant, the mix of stella and galaxy is green, fresh and quenching. Snaps into a lasting bitterness at the end that lingers coquettishly until you drink some more. 7.5% and well hidden, spot on.

It can't be simply the water that results in such a distortion can it? Perhaps the danish brewing equivalent of the swedish chef was all up in that Nøgne Ø, borking his way to the brew they created. This is an object of some wonder nevertheless.

8.5

Bridge Road Bling IPA

BLING!

Having recently unfollowed the main brewer from this place on twitter due to his relentless selfcongratulatory retweet campaign, I went to the bottleshop to give him some more of my hard earned.

This pours pretty murky - rates a 4.5 for hops and a 3.5 for malts according to the label. That seems pretty accurate, it's fruity initially with hops but complemented with a fair whack of malt there. Kind of grainy mouth feel but not bad at all. Carbonation gentle and well suited, not cloying.

Nice big balanced IPA on the whole. 7.5

Bridge Road / Nøgne Ø India Saison

Bridge Road again, but in collaboration with Nøgne Ø.

I hear this was brewed with the same ingredients in Aus and in Norway .. oddly (it may be psychosomatic but I don't believe so) you can taste the euro. In the same way you can in a euro lager .. and I'm not sure I like it. Thick body made it quite hard to drink.. an impressive 7.5% but overall unimpressed I'm afraid (/waits for flames). 6.5

Bridge Road Summer Single Hop IPA

Another IPA for the collection, this time the summer drop from Bridge Road.

The aroma and taste of this hop brew sits somewhere between the brewdog, and the hopdog. ?

It's a little fizzy, highly drinkable. Hops not overpowered for an ipa by any stretch but satisfyingly present. Slight caramel malts here in the background. Body is quite dark and thick actually. A flat head but laces.

This reminds me oddly of the Bridge Road Stella but it has a bit more character with the sweetness up front providing a bit of a counterpoint. Not sensational but without doubt a quality beer. For the money though I'd buy something else. 7.0

Bridge Road Brewers Stella Single Hop IPA

Hm. An unexpected twist in the legacy of Bridge Road after their very agreeable opening with the single hop Galaxy.

This one's another one from the single hop collection based on the Stella hop. It's billed as an IPA at a low 4.8%, with max hops and mid malt according to the label.


It's got a big fruity aroma right off the bat - putting me in mind of LC's bright ale almost, but the taste behind it is far more spicy and the aftertaste puts me in mind of powder. It's like chalk and, well, flowers.


It's dry throughout, this - you go in expecting sweetness but it plays a straighter bat on that front than a stalwart heyday Jason Gillespie. There's standard opacity, a powdery ephemeral white head, and reasonable lacing. There's bitterness there alongside the astringent ash flavour if you hunt for it.. but a quite remarkable lack of anything else, especially given the nose.

I'm unsure what to rate this. On the one hand it's another interesting example of a single hop product. But then it doesn't fix my itch for an ipa, it's not particularly quenching due to the astounding dryness, and it's not complex enough to make up for the lack of satisfaction elsewhere. 5.5

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.