When you've been teaching budding and practising brewers how to make better beer for as long as Peter Aldred has, you know how to construct a good lager. No need for any concessions about such pale, restrained beers leaving nowhere for the brewer to hide here – so no surprise Aunty Jacks' Lager picked up an Australian International Beer Awards gold at the first attempt.
It's unfiltered, partly as a means of starting conversations at the bar with curious punters, although you wouldn't know it from its appearance, and matches Coopers pale malt with locally grown classic lager hops Hallertau Perle and Mittelfrüher. The former provides a touch of gentle crackers-meet-honey sweetness, the latter easy-going floral, spicy, earthy aromas and a crisply quenching bitterness. Just what the doctor ordered.
James Smith