You really start to notice how long this lockdown’s been going when you realise that, outside of housemates and your partner, the person you see most is a sales rep from a local brewery. It also shows just how often Tallboy & Moose have been releasing new cans over the last few months, with three arriving at one time this week. Those three beers don’t come with a particularly clear drinking order either, with any traditional notion of starting with the lightest and heading to the biggest out the window when you're dealing with an apricot kveik double IPA, coconut IPA and nitro pastry beer.
Inspired by the can’s artwork, I decided that, like a holiday at a tropical resort, coconut should come first with the Un Poco Loco. Along with added coconut, there’s also lactose and oat to provide for one creamy and smooth texture while the tropical vibes of Cashmere hops and the coconut of Sabro provide the citrus, mango and um, coconut flavours that make it feel like a beer that really should be drunk with an umbrella poking from the top.
Next up was Thunder Hammer, the bigger brother to Lightning Axe which returned a few weeks ago [And which I reckon may have been Australia's second commercial kveik release by mere weeks from the research we're doing for our tenth anniversary – Editor]. The 8 percent IPA was re-fermented on more than 200kgs of apricot, which manage to pack a big punch in the beer and are joined by some ripe nectarine notes from the Norwegian yeast.
Finally, there’s Nitro Snot Block, Tallboy’s GABS beer from last year that aimed to recreate a vanilla slice in beer form. Here it returns with added creaminess and, while its dark amber colour it might ensure it looks like a beer, that’s really where any similarity ends. Pouring with a cascading and creamy body the vanilla flavour hits first before being joined by passionfruit in what's more cake trolley than bar top.
Will Ziebell
Published August 20, 2020 2020-08-20 00:00:00
