Thoughts on The Monk

Quick stop at The Monk in Freo for a tasting paddle, introducing a friend to the wonderful world of beer.

The mild first up is a success in a non-standout sort of way. It's a crisp lager with the main character developed from a light malty backbone. The execution is good and as such it's fine for what it is - but I personally prefer mild beers to sport a bit more character.

Kolsch - quite interesting this compared to others, bit of fruit character, almost verging on light caramel notes, quite refreshing on the whole and a bit more flavoursome than other takes on this genre.

Wheat beer was a bit underwhelming: clearly of the belgian witbier family but lacking the deeper sugary hit required for this style to really zing I felt. Drinkable at 6% abv however.

Pale ale is certainly of the Australian persuasion - must be a close relative of Coopers in fact. Same pros and cons as that drop. Having got to this level would be nice to see something radical added.

Rauch beer - I'm no expert on the style but this is a good easy drinking example, roasty ham flavours coupled with a mid oily mouthfeel. Would like to have a go at this with some smoked cheddar or similar.

The Chief - the standout of the group by a distance, this sports a great nose of pine / grapefruit and backs it up really nicely. Citra and Cascade hops produce a stinging fruity bite, and love the ongoing bitter kick this gives at a solid 75 IBU. Highly drinkable, fresh and flavoursome.

Sadly the Porter lets them down with a fairly watery performance, weak aroma and dead spots throughout the taste.. vaguely chocolatey.. but pretty disappointing.

The Monk .. shows promise - though sadly there was no seasonal so we were presented with some sort of 'beer cocktail' instead. Argh. Good food though!

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.

4 Pines Kolsch

Hm. Pop went the cap and the aroma reminded me more of the lamentable Sunner effort than its heroic siblings at Eagle Bay / Duckstein and other places.

In fact there was a bit of sediment high in the bottle for this one also - not sure what that represents - but probably not a good thing. Perhaps this beer wasn't in top condition when it reached me. The head too was pretty vicious but also collapsed in on itself in strange ways. Really not sure this was in optimal shape.

Taste wise .. carbonation strikes first (possibly a product of the above) but gives way to a pleasant enough drop. It's quite quenching, a summer beer for sure, and light to the point of transparency. Bit more character and citrus flavour as it gets warmer.

This grew on me a little as I kept drinking .. but not a great deal. Perhaps the bottle was a little off, but not overly impressed. 5.0

Things not to buy

Sunner Kolsch. And Fuller's ESB.

I thought I liked both Kolsches and ESBs.

Then these two versions from their own homelands prove me wrong.

Horrid. Like 'Australian Chinese' food we have imported the thing and then done it better. When you are at the bottle-o next and tempted by these 500ml bottles of wisdom, for gods sake buy something Australian instead.

That is all.