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

Pirate Life & Sneakers & Jeans Apple & Guava

Tapped Today
With Pirate Life Perth still scheduled for opening this year, this collab with their bespoke venue partner Sneakers & Jeans is, quite literally, the first taste from the forthcoming venture, and it’s one with an energetic yet broad appeal in mind. Apple & Guava pours with a NEIPA-like haze complete with a crisp, white, moussey head which belies the rather nimble beer on the tongue. Sure, there’s a little more weight than the average sour, but the visual density hides a lighter beer than… Read more
Style
Fruit Sour
ABV
3.8%
Stockists

Available from independent WA retailers

Bright Tank & Whipper Snapper Distillery Barrel-Aged Stout 2020

Tapped Today
One of the unforeseen gifts of barrel-ageing is the multiple people that a beer touches throughout the process. Indeed, whisky distillers have known this for generations, with many a fine dram the result of someone's toil years prior to release; or there's the world of tequila where agave farmers tend to plants for up to 40 years before use. For Bright Tank’s collaboration with "over the fence" neighbours Whipper Snapper Distillery, the genesis began with former head brewer Jackson Purser… Read more
Style
Whisky Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout
ABV
10.5%
Stockists

Available from the brewery and select WA stockists

Bright Brewery Stubborn Russian 2020

Tapped Yesterday
Bright Brewery’s Stubborn Russian has been part of the brewery’s winter roster since 2011, being released each year as the temperature of the Alpine region descends towards zero. It’s been on quite the journey over the past decade too with the Bright team having made it in different sizes, added adjuncts, aged it in barrels, changed its appearance and created an accompanying beer festival in Darker Days. So how’s the tenth iteration shape up? For one, it’s been released with three different… Read more
Style
Russian Imperial Stout
ABV
12%

Tallboy And Moose Highly Illogical & Baked & Confused

Tapped Yesterday
Tallboy and Moose aren’t slowing their tinnie release for Melbourne’s second lockdown with the brewery dropping two in our hands over the last few days. First up was Highly Illogical, a double IPA that’s driven by a trio of American hops that have frequently appeared in hoppy beers from Tallboy. The mix of Simcoe, Centennial and Cryo CTZ, all provide big notes of resin, pithy grapefruit, lychee and mango in the smooth, pale and slightly hazy beer with an incredibly dry finish. Alongside that… Read more
Style
Double IPA & Cookie Dough Stout

Mismatch Brewing Pizza Beer

Tapped July 12th, 2020
Mismatch's headquarters reside on the same block of land as their affiliated restaurant and cellar door, Lot 100, where they're known for great wood-fired pizza amongst other things. When restrictions were put in place due due to COVID-19, the Lot 100 crew found themselves with a lot of excess pizza dough destined for waste if not used soon. Given Mismatch's focus on sustainability, they stepped in: the dough was first cooked off in the pizza oven then added to the mash. Hey presto: pizza lager was… Read more
Style
Lager
ABV
5.0%

Mismatch Brewing Super Evil Archie's

Tapped July 12th, 2020
Every year, Mismatch fans wait in anticipation for the release of their autumn seasonal, Evil Archie's Red IPA. In 2020, the beer again proved to be incredibly popular, selling out online in no time at all. However, to keep their lineup fresh and invigorating, the Mismatch crew decided to put this particular beer on the shelf for the foreseeable future. Instead, to honour Evil Archie's, they decided to make it even more wicked, malevolent and sinful, adding a double dry hop to proceedings. Still… Read more
Style
DDH Red IPA
ABV
6.66%

Burnley Brewing Peach Melba NEIPA & Dry Stout

Tapped July 10th, 2020
Burnley Brewing have finished off one series of beers and welcomed winter with another limited release. There’s Peach Melba NEIPA, the fourth beer in the brewery’s collaboration with the podcasters at Brunswick Beer Collective called The Pie Round: four beers inspired by four pies. Technically, it’s a little more of an ice cream sundae than a pie but, given the Peach Melba is named after Australia’s legendary soprano, it seems a fitting way to close the curtain on the series. Brewed with… Read more
Style
NEIPA & Stout

Wolf of the Willows Enigma Pillows

Tapped July 10th, 2020
Enigma Pillows is the first in Wolf of the Willows' new Nitro Hazy Series and it certainly manages to tick some boxes. Hazy? Tick. DDH? Tick. Lactose? Tick. Nitro? Big ol’ tick. The DDH Hazy Nitro DIPA cans aren’t just fun to pour either, they’re pretty nice to look at too thanks to Melbourne illustrator Digable Goods having some fun with the Wolf on the can. Clouds and pillows are definitely fitting motifs for a beer that’s incredibly soft and smooth where a heavy hopping rate of Enigma… Read more
Style
DDH Hazy Nitro DIPA
ABV
8.1%
Stockists

Full list of stockists can be found here

Stomping Ground Cherry Smash & Red Moon

Tapped July 10th, 2020
Stomping Ground have been steadily releasing new cans since COVID-19 saw venues close and the brewery doesn’t look to be slowing down as Melbourne’s second lockdown kicks in. There’s Cherry Smash, the latest in the long-running fruited sour series from the brewery with one key difference: nitro cans. Other than tiny bubbles, the beer is also filled with cherries and lactose to make a bright red and equally soft beer. To my mind it was mostly reminiscent of tart cherry lollies from my childhood… Read more
Style
Sour & Red IPA
ABV
4.2% & 6.0%

Frenchies Middy

Tapped July 10th, 2020
It’s only been within the last couple of years that craft fans have begrudgingly acknowledged that yes, cold crispy lagers are actually quite nice and mid-strength beers are great to have as a viable option when you really just aren’t in a position to drink 7 percent IPAs at all times. It’s almost as if the one of the most dominant beer styles in the country for the last century existed for a reason? Like XXXX Gold, Frenchies Middy is a 3.5 percent ABV lager but unlike Gold Middy is almost… Read more
Style
Mid-Strength Lager
ABV
3.5%

Frenchies Lola Apricot Saison

Tapped July 10th, 2020
Alright, quick story time. I’ve had an intense aversion to apricots ever since I was a little bloke. And this is almost entirely due to my Mum cooking apricot chicken probably once a fortnight for about 15 years. I’m not disparaging Mum here, because she’s a great cook, but apricot chicken is an absolute abomination against God and not being allowed to leave the table until you finish your dinner when the dinner is some fetid sickly sweet goo is an enduring image of torture that plagues me… Read more
Style
Apricot Saison
ABV
3.5%

Frenchies Tahiti Lager

Tapped July 10th, 2020
What the bloody hell is a Tahiti Lager and what is it doing in a Frenchies can? Look, I can’t answer the majority of that question but I can give it a bloody good go. Tahiti, being the largest island of French Polynesia, was colonised by the French in the 19th century and therefore retains a great deal of French influence in the two thousand and twentieth year of our Lord. Thus how a Sydney-based French brewery and brasserie might draw some Tahitian influence into brewing a lovely little tropical… Read more
Style
Tropical Lager
ABV
4.5%

Frenchies Kamchatka

Tapped July 10th, 2020
Of all the beers Frenchies have released since opening in 2017, in this writer’s opinion Kamchatka is the one that most represents the founders Vince de Soyres and Thomas Cauquil. No one would ever jam a brewery and French fine dining bistro in together on the same premises. And no one would ever brew a bière de garde and jam it full of enough Carafa malt to render it black as the void. Kamchatka is named for the far eastern Russian peninsula where Vince and Thomas made a 700km trek through a… Read more
Style
Black Bière de Garde
ABV
6.1%

Frenchies Little Sunray XPA

Tapped July 10th, 2020
There’s something slightly illicit about drinking a beer named Little Sunray as a TGIF afternoon bevvy when it’s an overcast 13 degrees. I’d love to say it’s a warming beam of light but the fact my drinking hand ends up being absolute Kelvin before I’ve had three sips is hard to ignore. Sure, this lovely little light-bodied, hop forward pale ale is actively making me colder, but in the best possible way! There’s no denying XPAs are rapidly establishing themselves as de riguer in the craft… Read more
Style
XPA
ABV
4.5%

All Inn Brewing Arrive Late Leave Early

Tapped July 9th, 2020
We’re all getting sick of 2020, so thank goodness All Inn Brewing have brought us a bangin’ West Coast IPA to take us back to 2013, when Frozen stole our hearts and Man of Steel disappointed us bitterly. All Inn call this beer a “descent into dankness”, and they’re not wrong. It begins on the nose as mostly floral notes - with support from grapefruit, pineapple and gin botanicals - that capture the feel of the pink California sunset on the label. But from the first sip there’s a definite… Read more
Style
West Coast IPA
ABV
7.0%

Mismatch Brewing Bourbon Barrel-Aged Russian Imperial Stout

Tapped July 9th, 2020
The Mismatch team’s first crack at barrel-ageing dates back to when they brewed out of Big Shed, when they created a sweet coffee stout aged in whisky barrels. Now they have a bit more room at their Adelaide Hills brewery, they brought in fourteen Buffalo Trace bourbon barrels have moved in and whipped up a big 12.75 percent ABV RIS that spent several months inside them. Upon opening the can, the beer exudes bourbon, even before your nostrils become within cooee. Pouring pitch black with a creamy… Read more
Style
Bourbon Barrel-Aged Russian Imperial Stout
ABV
12.75%

Mismatch Brewing Chocolate Stout 2020

Tapped July 9th, 2020
Every year, Mismatch reach out to Adelaide Hill chocolatiers Melba Chocolate for help with a chocolate stout. The final product is slightly different every year and, for 2020, Melba decided to whip up a liquid chocolate that was then poured into the base stout featuring a stack of specialty malts along with further additions of vanilla. There's no mistaking the chocolate goodness; even Willy Wonka would be impressed. On the nose it's pretty sweet with milk chocolate, a hint of vanilla, some nuttiness… Read more
Style
Chocolate Stout
ABV
5.6%

Mismatch Brewing Traditional Stout

Tapped July 9th, 2020
Lactose, peanut butter, cocoa nibs, vanilla, pastries, berries, chilli, coffee, chocolate... the list goes on. In today’s beer world, there's a whole array of adjuncts used in a wide variety of beer styles but sometimes you just want a good old fashioned beer. And that's what Mismatch have created here: a stout that's straight up solid and drinkable and brewed using just water, hops, yeast and malt. There's a flicker of red within this deeply black Traditional Stout that kicks off with sweet cream,… Read more
Style
Stout
ABV
6.2%

Tumut River Your Shout Easy Ale

Tapped July 9th, 2020
Less a new release than a tweak and a new name for the beer formerly known as Aussie Ale, Your Shout – now an Easy Ale – still makes use of malt from Voyager Craft Malt in the Riverina and hops grown locally in the Snowy Mountains. And it still reminds me more of the UK than anything Aussie. Arguably its standout feature is its appearance, with those Voyager malts giving it a beautiful deep amber colour. That said, they also contribute heavily to its traditional ESB like character, producing… Read more
Style
ESB
ABV
5.0%

Tumut River Brewing Bounty Hunter 2020

Tapped July 9th, 2020
If you were to pick up a can of Tumut River's Bounty Hunter and have your eyes alight on the words below the logo – "DARK ALE" – you may well be in for a surprise. The real clue is in the name at the top. Sure, it is a dark ale, but it's got rather more than a dark brown hue and chocolaty, toasty malts in wait for you. It's their Bounty chocolate bar-inspired release, one that first appeared in 2019 and has been requested by many since. It comes with desiccated coconut flavours and… Read more
Style
Choc Coconut Dark Ale
ABV
5.1%

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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