Hargreaves Hill 18th Birthday Packs

Style
Various styles as indicated
ABV
5.2% & 4.9% & 11.5% & 10.0%

Very few breweries have made it to the drinking age in the modern era so you can forgive Hargreaves Hill for wanting to show off a little. To mark the milestone, they've dusted down a few classics, given one cult fave a new coat, and popped all four into limited edition mixed packs. Their classic ESB needs little – maybe no – introduction to readers of these pages, so let's skip to the others.

One of the first beers they ever released was founder Simon Walkenhorst's take on a German hefeweizen. His always seemed a little lighter, fruitier and less malt-heavy than many local versions and, as Hefe returns, that remains the case: a hazy pale golden pour with a bubblegum and spicy, citrusy perfume. Highly aromatic, sweet yet refreshing, and with a zingy finish.

Regular visitors to this site will know we've long been fans of the brewery's R.I.S., especially senior writer Will Ziebell. Here, the 2022 Bourbon Barrel Aged R.I.S. is the booziest of the quartet and doesn't bother attempting to disguise the months it spent in ex-bourbon barrels – why would it? – instead wearing its lush, silky character with pride. The bourbon coddles the roast-tinged chocolate fudge and dried dark fruits within a beer that’ll warm you with its spicy spiritous nature while leaving a dark liquorice bitterness in its wake. Pretty darn delish.

Which leaves the new spin on a beer that's arguably as intertwined with the Hargreaves Hill story as any other. The 2022 iteration of The Phoenix imperial red ale has been aged in moscatel barrels; for the uninitiated, that's a form of sherry, so if you didn't think the original Phoenix had an intense enough character...

Even at this early stage in its life, it's taken on heaps of barrel and residual character, with the OG's stewed, malty richness augmented by a dried fruit / fortified wine character. Any hoppiness is gone to be replaced by the red fruits you might find in a Flanders red, but without the acidity – for now – of such a Belgian beer. If it sounds like your kind of thing, the only place to get it is in these packs, and there's not many around.

James Smith

Published November 25, 2022

Name
Hargreaves Hill
Address

Factory 60
64-86 Beresford Road
Lilydale 3140

Phone
(03) 9730 1905
CBCo Goldy
Black Bad Boy Bao 2024 B

More from Hargreaves Hill

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Sour
5.0%
Hargreaves Hill Whirlpool Pilsner & Celestial Fuzz Fruited IIPA
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8.5% & 11.2%
Hargreaves Hill Team America, Australia & New Zealand IPAs
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Hargreaves Hill Fruit Ninja & Kenneth Son Of Zenith '23
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6.0% & 8.5%
Hargreaves Hill Sunshine and Roller Skates California IPA
California IPA
7.2%
Hargreaves Hill Red Vienna Lager & Single Origin Coffee Stout
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5.0% & 6.2%
Hargreaves Hill Barrel-Aged Double ESB & Creaming Soda Stout
Barrel-Aged Double ESB & Sweet Stout
9.0% & 6.0%
Hargreaves Hill R.I.S. 2021
Imperial Stout
11.2%
Hargreaves Hill Phoenix 2022
Imperial Red Ale
9.6%
Hargreaves Hill Paper Hands & Diamond Hands
West Coast & Hazy Double IPAs
Both 7.7%
Hargreaves Hill Guava & Strawberry Sour & Margarita Gose '22
Fruit Sours
5.0% & 4.0%
Hargreaves Hill Uninterrupted Prosperity NEIPA
NEIPA
7.2%
Hargreaves Hill & Four Pillars Gin Barrel Gose 2021
Gin Barrel Aged Gose
5.0%
Hargreaves Hill Knock Off Lager & Pursuit 10.2
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4.0% & 10.0%
Hargreaves Hill Pursuit Of Hoppiness No.10: Triple Hazy
Hazy IIIPA
10.0%
Hargreaves Hill Bourbon Barrel-Aged RIS 2021
Barrel-aged Russian Imperial Stout
11.5%