With a brewery as unafraid to experiment as BentSpoke, you might expect them to use their Drifter Series of one-off releases for beers that push, or at least nudge, the envelope. Shifters, however, is not that sort of beer. Instead, it's a pale lager released with summer looming and, presumably, with sun-drenched quaffing in mind.
That said, you could argue the beer has been BentSpoked – at least a little. Sure, it does indeed look like many of the pale lagers on the market, measures a perfectly respectable 4.4 percent ABV, and ticks the boxes marked "crisp" and "refreshing". However, there's distinctive citrus / fruity white wine character awaiting within and underneath the long-lasting white head.
Grainy malts play a part too, while bitterness comes across as little more than a tickle with a soft brush in what's something of a new world relative of the more traditionally-minded Mort's Gold lager that's a longstanding member of the Canberra brewery's core range.
James Smith
Published November 14, 2024 2024-11-14 00:00:00
