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!
Feral Brewing Draught
Tapped Yesterday
For a brewery that's done as much as any on the local scene when pushing the lupulin threshold of both Australian drinkers and the market, Feral Draught may come as a surprise to some. Described as an "easy drinking ale", this entry level beer is designed for inclusive, everyday drinking. It's all Aussie when it comes to the malt and hops, with a light dry-hopping of Vic Secret – not that many will be playing too much attention given the comments from tasters on the rigorous, 750 kilometre… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Session Ale
- ABV
- 4.2%
- Stockists
-
Available nationwide
Clare Valley & Sublime Coffee Iced Latte Stout
Tapped August 16th, 2019
Clare Valley Brewing and Sublime Coffee are no strangers to each other, working through two previous collaborations that took the form of a Coffee Porter and Coffee Schwarz. Here, for a third year in a row, Sublime Coffee supplied the coffee, this time for an Iced Latte Stout. The 6.1 percent ABV beer welcomed a generous helping of Blend 52 roast coffee added in the kettle, whirlpool and the fermenter. More than a drop of lactose was also added to leave a touch of residual sweetness and creaminess.… Read more
Black
- Style
- Iced Latte Stout
- ABV
- 6.1%
Ogdens Brewery Red Ale
Tapped August 16th, 2019
Damian Bussemaker’s latest creation to hit the taps at South Perth's Windsor Hotel, home of the fledgling Ogdens Brewery, is a red ale. Apparently, it's his first such creation but, judging from the initial reception from Windsor regulars, it’s unlikely to be his last. In keeping with the approachable mindset that has defined his beers to date, Ogdens Red Ale keeps to the lighter end when it comes to both colour and ABV. Copper orange in the glass, with a light red tinge, an Altbier style malt… Read more
Red
- Style
- Red Ale
- ABV
- 5.0%
WIlson Brewing Peach Of Ship
Tapped August 15th, 2019
We’ve had pastry stouts and milkshake IPAs, Skittle sours and even a long mac topped up, boozed up and served in a can. As of late, there's been little off limits for brewers conjuring ways to recreate their favourite treats in the brewhouse, with many eager punters relishing the beer-soaked nostalgia. Joining the party are Wilson Brewery, who have put forward their reincarnation of peach iced tea as an IPA. Loaded with 240 litres of Albany grown Snow White and Yellow peach juice, along with 20… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Peach Iced Tea IPA
- ABV
- 6.0%
- Bitterness
- 30 IBU
Blasta Brewing Son Of A Beast NEIPA
Tapped August 15th, 2019
The second in the Blasta Brewing Beast series effortlessly delivers what many NEIPA releases fail to achieve – texture. Son of the Beast ‘s smooth, full length supports the Galaxy-driven, tropical breakfast juice that’s synonymous with the style but with a creaminess that never feels contrived or adjunct derived. Perhaps it helps to be receiving regular Treehouse packages at the brewery as well as enjoying frequent trips to the UK to sip on Cloudwater, Verdant and the like... Whatever the… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- NEIPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
- Stockists
-
Available from the brewery, draught and for takeaway purchase, plus Blasta stockists nationally
La Sirène La Funq & Elemental (Autumn) & Vin Folie Chambourcin
Tapped August 14th, 2019
Across a few winter weeks, La Sirène have released three more beers from their barrel program. Each has its distinct character yet they all share common traits, none more so than the delightfully refreshing and cleansing acidity the comes from the Alphington brewery’s evolving house character. It comes from the mixed culture derived in great part from the atmosphere that inhabits and surrounds their brewery and offers both that refreshing underbelly to so many of their beers as well as subtle,… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Farmhouse Ales
- ABV
- 6.6% & 4.4% & 7.6%
Otherside Brewing Co Creative Releases Headliner Double IPA
Tapped August 14th, 2019
Otherside’s connection with the creative world was a central part of the Western Australian brewery’s inception; their relationships and patronage have seen artists feature on many of their labels. The team have now brought this ethos under the Creative Release banner, of which Headliner 2019 is the debut. Artist William Kitely describes the beer inspiration of his featured piece as reminiscent of “the lull of summer, as those sea breezes slowly roll up towards the Perth Hills, releasing the… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Double IPA
- ABV
- 8.5%
- Stockists
-
Available from the brewery, Freo.Social and Otherside stockists nationally
Little Creatures IPA (2019)
Tapped August 14th, 2019
Nearly twenty years on, there is something cute about Little Creatures' reworked IPA. Lining up nicely with the opening of the brewery’s San Francisco outpost, IPA 2019 draws from the very environment that inspired cherub-fronted fermentation inside an old crocodile farm in Fremantle. Gone is the English-leaning IPA recipe and in its place is a very modern West Coast IPA featuring a suite of seven variously classic and hyped US hops. As a result, bright tropical, stonefruit and citrus characters… Read more
Golden
- Style
- IPA
- ABV
- 6.4%
Five Barrel Brewing Barrel-Aged Imperial Stouts 2019
Tapped August 13th, 2019
Over the past few years, when the weather gets colder it’s time for Five Barrel to roll out the big, dark imperial stout Phil O’Shea has been hiding away in barrels for months. Each year the beer is made in the old school high gravity style, with two mashes going into making the one brew. In 2017 and 2018 it was stored in shiraz wine barrels and came out measuring 9.6 percent ABV. For 2019, Phil opted for something a little different: the shiraz barrel version is back, albeit bigger at 10.5… Read more
Black
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Imperial Stouts
- ABV
- 10.5%
Van Dieman Medlar
Tapped August 13th, 2019
One of the many marvellous things about wild ales is the element of the unknown, the unpredictable, they can possess. Sure, for brewers it might mean a lot of liquid disappearing down the drain after months or years of patience, while for drinkers they may encounter an experience that's not always for them. But it can also lead to moments like my first meeting with Van Dieman's Medlar, the latest wild ale to leave the Tasmanian farm brewery. In quick succession, my thought processes (and hastily… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Fruited Wild Ale
- ABV
- 7.5%
- Bitterness
- 15 IBU
- Stockists
-
Order direct from Van Dieman here
Rocky Ridge BD Imperial Stout & Barleywine Is Life
Tapped August 13th, 2019
We’re well and truly into the thick of "big beer" season and the multitudinous Rocky Ridge brewers aren’t holding back with their seasonal releases of gutsy, warming ales. Most notably, their 2019 vintages of DB Russian Imperial Stout (previously Dirty Bitch after one of the brewery dogs) and Barleywine Is Life – both barrel aged – which have had many a punter waiting in anticipation. This year's DB comes in at a sizeable 12.5 percent ABV and, after spending six months in shiraz… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout & Barleywine
- ABV
- 12.5% & 11.0%
- Bitterness
- 20 IBU & 55 IBU
Rocky Ridge Where's Danny? & Blueberry Imperial Berliner
Tapped August 13th, 2019
As has been the tradition since they launched, in recent weeks WA punters have had a slew of new releases from the team at Rocky Ridge to tuck into, not least among them a ginger nut stout brewed in honour of assistant brewer and all-round nice guy Ash "Danny" Gale. and the trend-bending Blueberry Imperial Berliner. Where’s Danny is an American style stout brewed with chocolate, orange and fresh ginger. Plentiful quantities were added during brewing and fermentation to ensure each adjunct… Read more
Red
- Style
- Ginger Nut Stout & Imperial Blueberry Berliner Weisse
- ABV
- 5.7% & 6.5%
- Bitterness
- 20 IBU & 6 IBU
Fixation Recliner & NSR & Hop Tingle & Midnight Sun IPAs
Tapped August 11th, 2019
You turn your back for five minutes and, whaddya know, there's four new IPAs pouring at Fixation's taproom. Working through the foursome in order of palate impact, let's start with Recliner, the brewery's beer for the 2019 Bendigo On The Hop. It's a twist on their Tropical IPA, featuring pineapple and mango additions, with the former leading the way on the nose, the latter coming into play more to taste. It's a combo that works well, creating an easy-going fruity IPA with a smooth body, a little… Read more
Golden
- Style
- IPAs
- ABV
- 5.8% & 5.2% & 6.5% & 6.8%
Van Dieman Wilderness Project: Long Shadows & Unpredictable Spring
Tapped August 9th, 2019
The transformation of Van Dieman from a farm-based brewery producing pretty normal beers, other than the odd one featuring ingredients from the Evandale property, into a brewery bottling the farm has been years in the making. The final step in the mission to produce 100 percent estate ales – brewed solely with ingredients grown, sourced and processed on site – was the firing up of a small malting setup, leading to the release of beers such as the trio named after founder Will Tatchell's three… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Australian Spontaneous Ales
- ABV
- 6.0% & 5.9%
- Bitterness
- Both 12 IBU
Green Beacon Helen Street Haze
Tapped August 9th, 2019
The Green Beacon brewers have been displaying a knack for knocking out IPAs in a range of styles and doing it well. There have been red, black, double, hazy and other variants in recent times and it's to the world of the haze they return once more with Helen Street Haze, named after their original Teneriffe home. It's loaded up with tropical and citrusy hop varieties Galaxy, Azacca, Idaho 7 and Citra – in whole hop cone, pellet and cryo form – yet, to this olfactory system at least, it's predominantly… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 6.2%
Bad Shepherd Hazy IPA
Tapped August 9th, 2019
The Bad Shepherd brewers appear to have been studying up on all things hazy. As part of their IPA Series, they released a New England IPA last year that didn't quite hit the mark, a little lacking in fullness of body and with a potent bitterness to boot. Roll forward to late winter 2019 and they're back with Hazy IPA – and backing themselves to the extent this is no one-off but a new addition to their core lineup, and one that follows this year's Oatmeal Stout into schmick white cans. Pouring with… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 6.0%
- Bitterness
- 33 IBU
- Stockists
-
Bad Shepherd Brewpub
Malt & Vine
More stockists...The Black Sheep
Black Rock Cellars
Cardigan Cellars
Cellarbrations Southland
Brighton Bay Cellars
Ritchies' Towerhill IGS
Cork The Liquor Cellars
And more to follow...
T-Bone Brewing Bloody Helles & Big Old Stout
Tapped August 9th, 2019
If the name and can design didn't give it away, it doesn't take long for T-Bone's latest fruity number to reveal itself. No sooner had liquid hit glass a foot away than sweet blood orange aromas were burrowing their way up nostrils like excited rabbits. The fruit addition lends Bloody Helles an Irn Bru-esque appearance, while the lightness of the helles lager style base beer allows the fruit to dominate on the palate too in a crystalline, almost cordial like manner, as opposed to anything approaching… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Blood Orange Lager & Russian Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 5.2% & 8.5%
Deeds Brewing Festivus & Dark Deeds Double Lamington
Tapped August 9th, 2019
We've said it before and we'll say it again. But if you get the chance to try a new beer without having much idea of what it is, do it. It's like a partial blind tasting and is the approach I take, where possible, when sampling new arrivals. In part, it's to allow the senses to go to work without preconceptions; in part, it's to see if I agree with the brewers. And it can lead to fun experiences like one with Deeds Brewing's Festivus. I knew it was a bock before pouring, but that only led to a somewhat… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Spiced Bock & Imperial Brown Ale
- ABV
- 6.0% & 8.5%
Moon Dog How Now Brown Cacao?
Tapped August 9th, 2019
Think nitro in a beer and you'll likely think stout. Think cacao in a beer and you'll be in roughly the same space. Think brown in relation to beer and you'll think, well, brown. So what is How Now Brown Cacao? A pale golden cream ale, of course. In something of a change of tack for Moon Dog, here the beer is actually less odd than the name would have you believe; if anything, it's quite normal in the way a comfortable tweed suit would be to an English gent. Why that image? Well, once it's been given… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Nitro Cream Ale with Cacao
- ABV
- 6.0%
- Stockists
-
Launching at the Abbotsford brewery on August 9
Sauce & Bar Pop Isolation Island NEIPA
Tapped August 8th, 2019
Western Australia loves its East Coast IPAs - must be something about the IPA always being juicier on the other side. So, for the 2019 Perth Craft Beer Festival, Sauce Brewing showed the isolated city some love by making a collaboration beer just for them; they hung onto some kegs and shared a few with Brisbane and Melbourne venues, but the tinnies are exclusive to those out west. It’s not hard to see why this was dubbed an “Island NEIPA”. With a radiant yellow like the island sun, and a fluffy… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- NEIPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
- Stockists
-
Some kegs appearing at Sauce's brewery and at East Coast venues.
Cans at WA retailers only.
