Cavalier DIPA

Oho, now this is a DIPA.

That nose! It's enormous! Truly a big beer at 9% and clearly a very fresh batch to boot.

Kind of like their last effort, this doesn't quite live up to the promise - but this time, not by much. Taste brings caramel, a bit of heat, mandarin and passionfruit but it all falls just shy of that majestic 'buckets of hops' smell that really builds your anticipation before the first drop has even left the glass. It was a common refrain around my table at least that there was just not quite enough bitterness and bite in the taste to really sate the desire you've built up.

Still, it's far from a bad beer, and I look forward to trying some more of what these guys are producing. 8.0

Cavalier Brown Ale

Part two of my strictly journalistic mission to the Wayside Inn.

This was matched with the pulled pork sandwich (again great) - nice idea, but the beer itself was just a little bit short of the job in the end.

The head on this is a little light and fizzy, agitating unsettled beneath the blanket surface. It's a really excellent nose full of roasty coffee notes, chicory and an edge of chocolate, putting me in mind of fresh chocolate covered coffee beans. It's the taste where it disappointed.. this beer is completely without the body that's expected, nay required, of this style. It resembled more a light watered Japanese ice coffee with chicory than a typical malty cakelike brown. It's not empty as such and the roast flavours do get through, just.. but it all just felt a bit pale and removed, which was a genuinely saddening experience exacerbated, if anything, by the promising aroma.

The reason for this became apparent when chatting to a Good Beer Week staffer who'd been to Cavalier earlier that week to find them working on this batch of brown. They filtered it. Filtered it.

I'm more confused than angry. Devo'd. 5.5

The Peoples' Pint 2012: Double Hoptendre

Few quick notes on this one tried at the launch at Temple in Melbourne.

Got to say first, this is a great competition and it's good to see Ron and co at Temple working both on this, and the upcoming beer scholarship with Sierra Nevada etc too. They're great initiatives that help to strengthen the craft beer community & I think they themselves will gain a lot of benefit from their hard work too. All power to Temple!

Beer wise - this was a rye red IPA that has been double dry hopped in line with the mission statement. The result is a relatively spicy effort, certainly spicier than I've come to usually expect with a rye beer. The two different hop profiles are evident here also giving it an interesting 'bounce' of bitterness not once but twice during the mouthful. Despite this I did find it a bit trying toward the bottom of the glass however.

So.. an interesting drop, but not quite to my personal tastes. What will next year bring? 6.0

Temple Brewing Midnight IPA

Finally we reach the dark beer.

Sadly the brewer says he has no plans to launch a porter or a stout at this stage, they're involved in honey related seasonal beers to be produced in champagne bottles, and a couple of other projects keeping them and their production lines busy at present. So this is the closest we'll get.

Best head of the lot this, lingers wistfully, as does the first taste with burnt, hoppy, dry, bitter flavours. All good stuff. The brewer tells me they were looking to avoid 'fruit' here and it shows. Clearly stacks of hops used for a nice aroma with traces of passionfruit, but no real fruit or floral sweetness in the taste.

Highly drinkable, the best of their range, very good stuff without being astounding in any way. Passionate brewers here and bound to continue to improve I think. 7.5

Temple Brewing Saison

Saison, served appropriately in a nice wide goblet. Pretty attractive.

I'm told this and their other beers are being repackaged with the new branding and distributed via Phoenix, so we should be seeing these in Perth soon.

Slight powdery texture to this, mouthfeel and taste like a spicy, funked up wheat beer, most dominant characteristic is the citrus. Bit like a better version of Feral Golden Ace, with more kind of rural character to it.

I tired of this as it progressed. So yet again it's a 6.5 I'm afraid.

Temple Brewing Soba Ale

Beer three in the lineup: a Soba Ale fuelled with buckwheat. And with brewers 1 and 2 in the background talking to some American investor.

Pretty clean taste, easy drinking, bitter first up, develops a bit after that. Head hangs around well but low much like the others on tap. Not really drastically different but I know what they're getting at.

Not sure I would really have picked buckwheat, or indeed anything much out of the norm, if I wasn't already tipped off and looking for it in advance. But hey, I'm a fan of people trying different things and this is not a failure. 6.5

Temple Brewing Pale Ale

Next up: the ubiquitous Pale Ale (American edition).

Kind of sweetish malt aroma, pretty gentle beneath a creamy head. At first taste I thought the curse of sweet malt had ruined this one, but then Mr Pepper (Sgt Pepper? Cpt Pepper? Dr Pepper ??) arrives to save things toward the end with a bit of briskness to balance. There's less fruit in this than a lot of others - less than is suggested from the aroma, definitely - but more malt. Quite dry, possibly due to hop choice.

This is definitely an American Pale Ale as advertised and a reasonable example thereof. 6.5

Temple Brewing Bicycle Beer

Took the chance last time I was in town to visit the newly established Temple brewing, in its new premises now for just a couple of months. As I was there with time to spare I opted for the man-size tasting paddle, ie a middy of everything. And then a bit more. So it can't have been all bad.

First up the Bicycle Beer, finding its way into a few venues locally by the sounds.

Pretty low head on this, gently carbonated, nice for a beer of this character. At just 4.2% this is pretty lightweight but calls itself a tart ale, boasting salt (?) and 7 types of hops. Nice hoppy nose, quite grassy. Agreeable first bite, quite refreshing in the mouthfeel, reminds me of Hop Rocker more than anything.

The wheels fall off this particular bicycle a bit with the aftertaste.. little too sweet. Not a bad start. 6.5

Mountain Goat Rare Breed Surefoot Stout

The second of our rare goat discoveries.

Pours pitch black. If batman were a boozer he'd be on this. Head is light of coffee but fades pretty quickly.

Espresso flavour, with relatively sweet chocolate to back it up. Skilfully blended malts mean this tastes a lot rounder than its 4.9% would suggest. A round mouthed, mocha tonic. No engine oil but good nonetheless.

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Edit after a couple more pints on tap around Melbourne - this is a solid brew without really hitting extreme heights. It demonstrates more bubble and hop first up on tap, but improves as it warms and needs some time off tap to really get its message across. Nice lingering dry cocoa flavours. Reasonable dessert stout.

8.0

Mountain Goat Rare Breed Double Hightail

Mountain goat, purveyors of very respectable brews in steam and hightail format, and now we have a rare breed single batch effort in a 750ml bottle. Exciting.

Slight malt nose on this as it opens up. It's pretty dark but transparent. Laced white head. The taste is pretty gentle actually but lovely. Malt driven flavours, slight caramel. Had to slow down before I accidentally the whole bottle.

The alcohol at 7.2% becomes more pronounced with the caramel as this warms. I think it's a bit better at the higher temperature.

Feel like I need to retry the standard hightail ale now - a drop I remember very much enjoying - to see if this is worth the extra $. It's lovely this but does it justify the effort and dosh? 7.5 I think.