Australian Brewery Steam Ale (retired)

The steam ale style harks back to the good ol' days of Wild West USA, which tends to mean they aren't all that common 'round these parts. The Australian Brewery, however, brews a good 'un. Steam ales themselves are a hybrid style of beer; not quite lager and not quite ale. Here, they take a lager (i.e. Kolsch) yeast and ferment it at a temperature more suited to an ale (i.e. warm). While the resulting beer may look every part your classic lager with a bright gold colour and having been filtered for clarity, you get an additional - albeit subtle - fruity, yeasty character coming through. The bitterness is restrained and you should pick up a little bit of a fruity zest from the hops. It's an extremely refreshing beer with far more character than you might like to think.