Eagle Bay Pale Ale

This one's finally getting a full review courtesy of it finally turning up on tap (and more to the point, growler) in the city.

Happy days indeed, for this is a very solid entrant in the crowded APA field. Nice dark amber pour, perhaps erring on the side of dim but nevertheless putting out a good strong nose of juicy pineapple, slight spice, and underlying biscuity malts.

It's those slightly roasty barley tea malts that drive the flavour profile here too, giving it a sort of bready character that lends itself to long term and session enjoyment. Mouthfeel is perhaps just a tad spiky but not disruptive by any stretch. Taste perhaps not as fruity as expected, leaning ever so slightly toward Bitter territory in places.

It's not a confrontational beer by any stretch but delivers enough flavour to be consistently enjoyable throughout. Following on from the Brown Ale it's another highly drinkable / sessionable drop, and a worthy addition to WA's pale ale forces. 7.5

Eagle Bay Single Batch American Brown Ale

Woohoo, finally Eagle Bay beer to take home and enjoy (without the drive to Dunsborough).

Everybody's happy. And why wouldn't you be with 2L of highly drinkable, if not earth-shattering, American Brown Ale?

This beer is Eagle Bay's most recent in an ongoing line of single batches, and is probably up there with their best so far (save for the stout.. man, that stout was awesome).

It looks good in the glass, nice hue on the body and head, and emanates a pretty simple smell of dry coffee, slight hops, and dry caramel. Taste delivers a similar palate of flavours, along with lingering biscuit, all of which comes across quite light and with restrained sweetness.

Again, this was not a beer for those hoping to spend an evening with one glass, an interrogation spotlight, and a chair by the fire. As a quaffer though along with some food and good friends? Wonderful. 7.5

Thoughts on Eagle Bay Brewing

Third time to this picturesque spot also, time to run through the range quickly and post some preliminary thoughts.

Eagle Bay's Kolsch is probably the best I've had, does everything it's supposed to as a light and highly drinkable ale dominated by light malt flavours rather than hops of any description, bittering or otherwise. Nice mouthfeel too.

Vienna's up second, this one's an example of the other side of lager, light bitterness and quenching. Not my favourite style, but a reasonable effort for what it is.

Beer 3 is the Mild and this is where things start to shine. This is right up there with anything else I've had at the 3-4% range, lovely caramel malty English flavours, muted mouthfeel, tastes good at all temperatures. Great for anyone driving out to this place, with this beer you don't feel you're missing out in the slightest.

Next up is a pale ale, definitely of the American school, this puts me more in mind of LC's Pale Ale than anything else and that in itself is high praise. Quite complex and well balanced between fruity flavours, bitterness, and malt - highly respectable.

Seasonal beer this time was an IPA and with the standard IPA blurb about it being a hop avalanche of overwhelming bitterness it's easy to see they're jumping on the bandwagon popularity of this style in recent times. On drinking it though it's clear this is the first one they've done. There are hops in it yes, but it's far more reminiscent of a wet hopped pale ale than a fully fledged IPA. Still good but doesn't scratch my hop fiending itch.

And finally a nice ESB, again english flavours, quite nice depth of flavour here, could drink a few of these in a session, particularly in winter.

Lesson from this time: I really, really miss their porter. Please make it again. Seriously. Please.