Another day, another dollar. Or, in this case, another Red Duck beer. Latest cab off the rank is another that falls inside their bulging collection of strong pale ales as the Ballarat brewery continues what could be cast as a hop series of sorts. Inspiration for this single hop beer, which uses the Aussie hop Topaz, came about when brewing Hop Bach with Anders Kissmeyer earlier in the year. Among the 25 hops that went into that beer was this, a variety that has found a new lease of life as an aroma / flavour variety in the past year or two. It's a variety with a huge alpha acid level (in other words it can add tonnes of bitterness to a beer) so has only been added very late to the brew (to try and maximise aroma and flavour and minimise bitterness - here endeth today's technical lesson). According to brewer Scott Wilson-Browne, there's still a fair amount of perceived bitterness in a beer that "has moderate malt characters, and the hops remind you of some classic English varieties, in particular East Kent Goldings, with soft earthy notes, long grass, and hot breezy afternoons lying under a shady tree..."
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