Noodledoof look to bring the seasons with a beer style rarely seen on these shores outside Oktoberfest – and even then it's not a common choice among Aussie brewers looking to mark the occasion. In today's climate of beers designed to deliver their hit in an instant, Altbier is like the tortoise to the hare. The aroma is faint – a little chocolate, a dash of tea – with the action (if you can use such a term with this slow-burner) all in the mouth. Toasted nutty malts, the sharp bits off the top of a crusty small bakery loaf (specific enough for ya?), hints of chocolate and treacle, and a drying, tannic black tea spice as it comes, cautiously, down the home straight.
Their Wattleseed Baltic Porter first appeared while winter was still here, but at a time when limited releases are generally moving a little more slowly – and the sort of beer that's never going to move fast (back in tortoise territory, it seems) – we're pretty sure you'll still be able to get hold of some at time of publication. This whisky barrel-aged beer, complete with both malted wattleseed and spent cacao husks from Mörk, pours a dark, dark brown with a dense swirliness, and aromas that have an intense dark fruitiness that morphs into sarsaparilla-laced bitter chocolate to taste.
If there’s a nuttiness from the wattleseed it’s wrapped up in the sort of chocolate experience delivered by those brownies found in English country cafés or restaurants with aspirations – the sort that's had every last pocket of air squeezed from them (the brownie, not the café / restaurant). Imagine all that paired with a sweetened coffee and you're on the right track.
James Smith
Published September 14, 2023 2023-09-14 00:00:00
