New Beers

Barely a day goes by without another seasonal or one-off special flying out of an Australian brewery (if not ten). Here and in our weekly newsletter, we'll bring you news and, if we've sampled them, our take on as many of them as possible. Happy hunting!

Bendigo Beer

Smiling Samoyed Fresh Hop Ale 2019

Tapped April 17th, 2019
For a fourth year, Smiling Samoyed have been playing with freshly-harvested hops from Fresh Hops Co-op in the Adelaide Hills. With each year, lessons are learnt, and this year’s version delivers a beer that tones down the sweetness slightly while ramping up the hop aromas and resinous hop flavours. They used 20kg of wet Cascade hops this time round, added to a malty, deep orange base beer that gives off distinct resinous and earthy aromas alongside just a touch of sweetness. There's more resin… Read more
Style
Fresh Hop Ale
ABV
6.0%

Smiling Samoyed ROAR Ginger Beer

Tapped April 17th, 2019
More than a year of planning went into the creation of this beer, one that saw assistant brewer Maddi given some freedom in recipe development and on the brew kit. Instead of a sweet ginger beer, she wanted something that was more malt driven and capable of supporting a fair whack of raw ginger: 20kg of the stuff, in fact, joined by Citra hops. Clear, light orange in colour with a white head that lingers, Maddi has succeeded in avoiding the sweetness often found in ginger beers; instead, fresh,… Read more
Style
Ginger Beer
ABV
5.4%
Bitterness
20 IBU

Fixation Brewing TNT Express

Tapped April 16th, 2019
Originally planned as a beer featuring fresh Enigma hops shipped straight up from Tasmania, TNT Express is less a lesson on working with the fruits of the hop harvest and more a reminder that sometimes it's necessary to brew on the fly... Upon learning the hops were in Melbourne and would be landing at the Collingwood brewery shortly, head brewer Same Bethune started brewing the IPA. Some hours – and five phone calls – later the hops were nowhere to be seen. The team decided instead to use two… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
6.2%

Fixation Brewing Wet Hop 2019

Tapped April 16th, 2019
Australia’s hop harvest is an important time of year for many brewers across the country yet, when your operation is dedicated to making IPAs, chances are the months of March and April surely carry that extra special shine. That’s been the case for the Fixation team anyway, who headed up to Victoria’s north east to pick up some fresh Galaxy for their first wet hop beer. The trip to Hop Product Australia’s Rostrevor Farm in the High Country saw the brewery bring back 15kg of the fresh hop… Read more
Style
Wet Hop IPA
ABV
6.9%

Moon Dog Brewing Timothy Tamothy Slam-othy

Tapped April 15th, 2019
You wait all your life for the opportunity to do a Tim Tam Slam with a suitable beer then, whaddya know, two come along in quick succession. The first to land is Moon Dog's Timothy Tamothy Slam(othy), while attendees at this year's GABS will be able to check out one from Big Shed amid the Festival Beer lineup. First to try the Moon Dog version, at Crafty Towers at least, was brother-in-law Tim(othy), just arrived from the UK and having never been to Australia, heard of Moon Dog or had a Tim Tam in… Read more
Style
Chocolate Milk Stout
ABV
5.6%

Five Barrel Brewing New England IPA

Tapped April 14th, 2019
This is either the third or fourth iteration of the New England IPA from Five Barrel Brewing - brewer Phil O’Shea has kind of lost count. This time around it features El Dorado and Galaxy hops. And plenty them; Phil decided that two bouts of dry-hopping weren’t enough so he held the release date back a few days to get an extra load into the tank. Holding the release back a few days is no small thing. The New England IPA is a big performer for Five Barrels. The last three (or four) times it was… Read more
Style
New England IPA
ABV
5.3%

Modus Operandi & RAS Show Stopper

Tapped April 14th, 2019
The prominent event in many a Sydneysider’s calendar at this time of year is the Royal Easter Show, which brings local and regional livestock, produce and entertainment to the city for a few weeks. In 2019, there’s a better reason than ever to visit, and that’s thanks to the creation of a unique beer brewed exclusively for the show, Show Stopper. Made with freshly-harvested Cascade hops from small NSW grower Ryefield Hops, malt sourced from Voyager Craft Malt, and brewed by Modus Operandi,… Read more
Style
Pale Ale
ABV
4.2%
Stockists

Find it at Sydney's Royal Easter Show

3 Ravens Melon Juicy

Tapped April 12th, 2019
The Juicy series from 3 Ravens is well on its way to rivalling the classic sagas from history, with watermelon the latest ingredient to be introduced for a twist on their popular hazy IPA. It's not the most pungent of fruit (well, unless you leave one in an Esky after a picnic for a month, but that's probably not the sort of punchy aroma brewers aim for) yet it has helped created possibly the most turbid looking of the Juicy series to date, not to mention a truly fat, dense head. The aroma is more… Read more
Style
Watermelon NEIPA
ABV
6.0%
Bitterness
11 IBU

3 Ravens Red Acid

Tapped April 12th, 2019
3 Ravens Acid is their mid-strength sour ale, one that, as is the Thornbury brewers' wont, is a springboard for other variations. The third release in the series is Red Acid and, given it's a short run beer weighing in at a mere 3.5 percent ABV, you'd think they wouldn't spend too much time or effort turning it red. But if you think that you're forgetting who you're dealing with... We'll try to keep this brief, but essentially what's at play here is a quickly soured base red ale that was infused… Read more
Style
Blended Sour Mid-Strength Red Ale
ABV
3.5%

Hargreaves Hill Fresh Hop Kenneth & Gin Barrel Tripel

Tapped April 12th, 2019
For autumn 2019, Hargreaves Hill have created a couple of short run beers bearing relationships to others in their lineup, one a wet hop version of their double IPA, the other giving the gin barrel treatment that's worked so well with their gose to a tripel. The former is a one-off version of Kenneth Son of Zenith brewed with "a mountain" of Chinook and Centennial hops from Yellingbo in the Yarra Valley, topped up with additions of Azacca and Simcoe. The fresh hop version features a stripped… Read more
Style
Fresh Hop IIPA & Barrel-Aged Tripel
ABV
8.5% & 8.6%
Stockists

Beer DeLuxe Hawthorn

Beermash

Cherry Tree Hotel

East of Everything

Grape and Grain Liquor Cellars

Jimmy's Tap & Barrel

Local Taphouse St Kilda

Slowbeer Fitzroy

More stockists...

Grifter Brewing Co Green & Gold Hop Harvest Pilsner

Tapped April 12th, 2019
The Grifter gang love their pilsners. Not many breweries would think to put a watermelon pilsner in their core range, but Grifter won people over with it (not that they had much convincing to do) and the Grifter Pilsner at the brewery is a hit with Inner West locals. So perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that, when the 2019 hop harvest came around, while many people were scrambling to get their hands on wet hops to brew big stanky IPAs, head brewer Glenn decided he was going to throw his stash… Read more
Style
Fresh Hop Pilsner
ABV
4.5%

Redoak Brewery Felda's Weiss & The Trap

Tapped April 12th, 2019
The German name Felda means “from the field”, and the beer bearing its name is the sort anyone would be more than pleased to be handed at the end of the day when they came in from the field. The bright gold of the wheat crops is captured in the glass, and the clouds floating over the countryside are present in the white, fluffy head. A little natural haze hints at the yeast that makes itself known on the palate – the ester-driven banana flavours are soft and sweet, with just a touch of citrus… Read more
Style
Hefeweizen & Belgian Table Beer
ABV
4.6% & 4.2%

Homestead Brewery IPL

Tapped April 12th, 2019
India pale lager is a style of beer that's been making a bit of a surge to prominence in Western Australia, with some breweries adding one to their core range. Justin Bishop, head brewer at Homestead, feels it's a beer that will appeal to the Perth locals looking for something offering a bit more than a lager yet retaining some familiarity too. Fresh is the first word that springs to mind after taking the first sip of his creation. The aromas wake the senses with candied orange, mango, melon, passionfruit… Read more
Style
India Pale Lager
ABV
5.2%

Eagle Bay & Rocky Ridge & Dunsborough Cellars Eagle Rock

Tapped April 12th, 2019
Collab names don’t come much more obvious than this; however, for the Rocky Ridge team, this one has been nearly two years in the making. Brewery owner Hamish Coates says: “We’ve wanted to do something with the crew from Eagle Bay since the beginning. They helped us a lot when starting up, so a collaboration has always been on the cards. Making a beer from all WA hops and malts with two other advocates of the WA beer industry has been really special.” That "special" beer is a 100… Read more
Style
Wet Hop Sour
ABV
4.5%
Stockists

Mane Liquor

Launched at Dunsborough Cellars on April 12

Cans launched at Mane Liquor on April 18

Then hitting other WA retailers

More stockists...

Colonial Brewing Co Sweet 16 Milkshake IPA

Tapped April 12th, 2019
The increasingly popular milkshake IPA substyle is rapidly becoming commonplace in many Australian brewers' recipe files, but that isn't to say that all vanilla and lactose loaded IPAs are created equal. Here, Colonial have given us their take on the soft and supple IPA variant with their latest Project beer, and they've made sure it's a standout in a saturated market by loading it up with an experimental hop variety from Hop Products Australia. The yet to be named hop, which is grown in Tasmania,… Read more
Style
Milkshake IPA
ABV
5.0%

Young Henrys double down on their flagship Newtowner

Tapped April 12th, 2019
Of all Young Henrys’ beers, Newtowner is not only the most popular, but it’s the one that’s developed an identity all of its own. It’s entered the bloodstream of Newtown: you'll find it in the dark corners of live music venues, on tap in the old pubs, and in the six-packs people carry home to their terraced apartments. But, of course, it hasn’t just stayed in Newtown. Though it was originally brewed in the suburb that accepts everyone, it’s now spread across the country. So, when the… Read more
Style
Double Pale Ale
ABV
7.5%
Bitterness
40 IBU

Wayward Brewing Dead Dingo Brut IPA

Tapped April 10th, 2019
For some reason, the can design for this autumnal release from Wayward brought back an unlikely memory. The combination of white SUV making its way through the Red Centre, the thoughts of dry dustiness and the title's reference to a deceased native animal reminded me of the day when, cruising the Outback on a quad bike alongside the farmers who were then my employers, I was first informed just how well suited a roo's scrotum was for use as a purse or wallet. (Admittedly, the large example next to… Read more
Style
Brut IPA
ABV
6.2%
Bitterness
40 IBU

Pikes Beer Company Passionfruit Belgian Witbier

Tapped April 10th, 2019
Pikes' second limited release for 2019 sticks to many of the themes of their first, adding fruit (and many other things) to a beer with roots in Europe. The Belgian witbier was inspired by the Hurricane cocktail and uses passionfruit pulp in generous quantities alongside Riverland-sourced orange and lemon zest, vanilla beans, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. As is typical for the style, it pours a very pale and hazy yellow, with a solid, bright white and fluffy head and a quite sprightly carbonation.… Read more
Style
Passionfruit Witbier
ABV
6.0%

Bodriggy Brewing Twin Harvest: Sun Buzz & Zooter Doozy

Tapped April 9th, 2019
March and April might be two months that are inherently connected with picking hops in the Southern Hemisphere's beer world but, for winemakers, it’s also the tailend of their own harvest. It’s a fact Bodriggy has decided to showcase through their Twin Harvest releases, featuring two colourful 500ml tinnies filled with liquids brewed with hops straight from the bine and grapes right off the vine. The first of those is Sun Buzz, featuring some 60kg of Hop Product Australia’s Enigma hops, shipped… Read more
Style
Harvest Beers
ABV
5.4% & 5.1%

Moon Dog Edie's IPA

Tapped April 9th, 2019
If there's one thing the team at Moon Dog loves as much as beer, it's dogs. There's one in the brewery name, usually at least one hanging around the brewery, heaps of them in various events they sponsor and, now, a whole series of IPAs dedicated to them. Well, to the brewery dogs specifically. Edie is the first to get both name and visage on a tinnie, one the label declares as "bursting with Eureka, Centennial and Citra hops". That said, don't go expecting a burst of juiciness as tends… Read more
Style
IPA
ABV
5.8%

The Crafty Pint is an independent online magazine and resource for anyone interested in craft beer in Australia. We bring an honest, old-fashioned journalistic approach to beer's brave new world, telling stories because they're worth telling not because someone is paying us to write them.

Like many of the people who have changed the face of beer in Australia, we believe in authenticity, integrity, enjoyment and love. We hope to play a role in helping good beer, brewed by good people, find its way into the hands of more drinkers.

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