New Beers
There has never been a time like now: more breweries releasing more new beers than ever before. Here, in The Crafty Cuppa, and in our weekly newsletter, we'll bring you details – and, if we've sampled them, our honest, independent take – on as many of them as possible. Enjoy!
Shapeshifter Fun And Games & Waves
Published May 19, 2023
Shapeshifter are at it again, making waves by throwing out styles that they know and love, all while having fun and playing games. Fun And Games sees them return to familiar territory: an oat cream IPA that combines a really interesting mix of new hop Superdelic with classic NZ variety Nelson Sauvin along with a Canadian yeast by the name of Escarpment Hydra. Sweet, milky aromas are interwoven with mango and candi sugar, creating a mango ice cream vibe. There's just a touch of white grape from the… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Oat Cream IPA & Hazy Pale
- ABV
- 7.5% & 5.6%
Lost Palms First Time Caller & Long Time Listener
Published May 19, 2023
Last winter, Lost Palms released two imperial stouts: a straight stout and one with flavour additions. As we head into winter, they've got a similar dual release of imperial stouts with First Time Caller and Long Time Listener. And just as I found in last year’s beers, the altered one takes the already lovely base stout and then is surprisingly greater than the sum of its parts. First Time Caller is a beer that asserts its presence. Right from the pour its dark brown foam commands respect, even… Read more
Black
- Style
- Imperial Stout & Imperial Pastry Stout
- ABV
- 10.5% & 9.5% ABV
Stone & Wood Hinterland Hazy Pale Ale
Published May 19, 2023
While Coopers had been bringing the haze to Aussie drinkers for many a moon before Stone & Wood launched their Pacific Ale, there's a good argument to be made for the latter beer being a precursor of sorts for the current climate in which haze in hoppy beers is so prevalent some brewers don't even both calling hazy IPAs anything other than IPA. Whatever role they might have played in the hazification of the nation, here the Northern Rivers brewers opt for a hazy pale ale with which to launch… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy Pale Ale
- ABV
- 5.2%
One Drop Yujo, Ethereal Wave, Skankin' Mallard & Bougie
Published May 18, 2023
It's a good old-fashioned One Drop quadruple feature this week, and it feels like I've gotta come up with a different way of saying this is a ridiculous mix of different beers every time but, genuinely, these four beers are going completely hog wild. Let's not stand on ceremony folks, it's time to get crazy. We'll ease in gently with the most normal beer of the week, which just happens to be a cold rice IPA brewed in collaboration with Japanese brewers West Coast Brewing ahead of Pint of Origin 2023.… Read more
Red
- Style
- Various "Styles" As Indicated
- ABV
- 6.5% & 7.9% & 8.0% & 10.5%
Uraidla Brewery Artic IPA
Published May 18, 2023
The recipe development team at Uraidla was given one key message, one goal they were to achieve with this limited release: squeeze in as much Citra as possible. A seemingly easy challenge, with the US hop variety used absolutely everywhere in huge quantities. Artic uses Citra in the boil, is dry-hopped three times with Citra, and the name of the beer is... Citra backwards. Mission successful. The Citra reigns supreme in a 7.8 percent ABV hazy IPA that utilises the freshest Citra hops from Yakima… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Single Hop Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 7.8%
Modus Beer Neural Network AI-Generated East Coast IPA
Published May 16, 2023
It's here. A beer designed by artificial intelligence. It's not the first ever, with the team at Barossa Valley Brewing pushing ahead before AI exploded into the mainstream consciousness in 2023, but this beer made in partnership between Modus Beer and creative content agency Absolutely Ai is certainly near the front of the pack. The inferior humans asked the robot overlords how to make the best East Coast IPA in the world, and the artificial intelligence came up with Neural Network: the recipe,… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- East Coast IPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
KAIJU! Beer Hypermeta Hazy IPA
Published May 15, 2023
While there are exceptions that prove the rule, there's a fair bet in 2023 that if you come across a hazy IPA / NEIPA, you'll find something on the fruity and sweet side, while crystal clear West Coast IPAs are often deeper and danker. KAIJU!'s Hypermeta IPA – a Dan Murphy's exclusive complete with new kaiju on the cans: the feminine Floramotharadon – pours hazy and certainly suggests it's going to fall into the fruity, sweet camp: "tropical flavours of guava, pineapple, mango, and melon"… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 5.8%
Reckless Brewing Lamington Pastry Stout
Published May 15, 2023
When I hear Lamington, my mind doesn't immediately go to "jam-filled". Am I in the minority here? I don't know, and I don't know how to find out. I feel like this should be a question on the census. I bring this up because when I took my first whiff of this Lamington Pastry Stout, I was blown back with surprise. What's that smell?? Did they accidentally put the wrong beer in this can? Lamingtons are chocolate and coconut, but I'm smelling... And that's when I realised. Jam. Raspberry jam.… Read more
Black
- Style
- Pastry Stout
- ABV
- 7.2%
Ocean Reach Artist Series: Synth Blossoms & Redshift Horizon
Published May 12, 2023
Ocean Reach weren't the first, and haven't been the last, to embark on an Artist Series. But their chosen partners have certainly turned out results that tickle the fancy more than most at Crafty Towers. Before we get to that side of their vaporwave-inspired duo with Aidan Howes, whose work has also appeared on beers from the likes of Black Hops, Mountain Culture and Sunday Road, the beers themselves... With Synth Blossoms, they return to a style they've played with a few times in the past, and one… Read more
Red
- Style
- NEIPA & Double Red IPA
- ABV
- 7.5% & 8.8%
Sauce Mango & Guava Juicy IIPA & Barrel-Aged Imperial Stouts
Published May 12, 2023
When Sauce changed their branding earlier this year, I was a little concerned we might be waving goodbye to cult Sauce favourites such as Mango Squeak, their juicy, fruity IIPA. So you can imagine my relief when I opened a delivery and saw Mango & Guava Juicy IIPA staring back at me. I then felt like a nong for thinking Sauce would ever stop brewing beers like this. Pouring the golden colour of the sun setting over water (or of undiluted orange cordial if you don’t want to be poetic), this… Read more
Black
- Style
- Fruited IIPA & Barrel-Aged Imperial Stouts
- ABV
- 8.0% & 11.0%
Cheeky Monkey Export Stout
Published May 11, 2023
Cheeky Monkey have thrown a few curveballs in recent years, from cupcake-infused stouts to thicker-than-yoghurt fruited pastry sours. This release, however, throws a curveball by being a beer that lacks any, well… insanity. It's a clean, sessionable and entirely unadulterated Export Stout that leans very much classic. Landing at just 5.6 percent ABV, this seasonal offering lands with winter in mind. But it's no OTT winter stout; what impresses here is repeatability within a buttoned up, simple… Read more
Black
- Style
- Export Stout
- ABV
- 5.6%
Slow Lane To the Fruit Farm, Hop Detective & Ton of Bricks
Published May 11, 2023
Three-y, flirty and thriving! Botany’s bastion of tradition, Slow Lane, have notched up a third full rotation of the sun and have fittingly released a trio of absolutely banging beers to celebrate. They always manage to coax so much character and complexity out of their beers in a way few others can, and these beers are fabulous examples of that. Also, it’s their birthday and yet we are the ones who get the presents? Let’s unwrap these bad boys, shall we? First up is To the Fruit Farm, a barrel-aged… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Various Styles As Indicated
- ABV
- 6.5% & 6.5% & 11.5%
Balter x Cloudburst Hazy IPA
Published May 10, 2023
After spending 2022 releasing a series of beers that explored New Zealand, the Balter team are now taking punters on a Mouth Holiday (capitalised because that’s actually the name of the series) of the United States. Three collaboration beers with three bangin’ American breweries. Balter’s head brewer Scott Hargrave says: “This is a chance to really pick the brains of world-class brewers we’ve been friends with for years. A chance to mix our way of doing things to create something we’d… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
Reckless Brewing Black Forest Sour
Published May 10, 2023
Out in Bathurst, where autumn brings a shiver and winter brings a real inland chill, Reckless are serious about getting snug in winter and drinking dark beers by the fire. Their dark beers have started coming already, and while not all of us are lucky enough to have a fire to sip beside, we can welcome the plummeting temperature with their Black Forest Sour. Made with locally-sourced cherries, this beer is indeed ripe for the sipping. It pours a deep brown with a hint of red, and actually drinks… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Fruited Dark Sour
- ABV
- 6.0%
Beerfarm Through The Grapevine
Published May 10, 2023
Beerfarm’s annual wine hybrid release has taken a few forms over the few years: Shiravignon, Shirrazaweiss and now Through the Grapevine. The 2023 vintage hits very different however, featuring four grape varieties from no less than eight wineries in the creation of a unique blended spectacular. Celebrating the diversity of the wine industry in Margaret River, Through The Grapevine is a hybrid ale that aims to showcase all that’s good about the famed grape-growing region: both producers and their… Read more
Red
- Style
- Wine Hybrid Ale
- ABV
- 7.0%
Bonehead Brewing Falling Leaves & The Myth
Published May 10, 2023
If you're a card-carrying member of the beer bubble, it's hard to know what's the better indicator that autumn is well and truly upon us. Is it the changing colours of the trees and their fallen leaves, or is it the rise in the number of red IPAs hitting bottleshop shelves? No need to choose if you're a fan of Bonehead's beers as their 2023 autumn seasonal is both a red IPA and called Falling Leaves. Pouring a lovely ruddy chestnut colour, the brewers have managed to retain a rich citrus vibe –… Read more
Black
- Style
- West Coast Red IPA & Coffee Vanilla Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 6.8% & 10.4%
Urban Alley Moonbeam Hazy IPA
Published May 9, 2023
It seems strange these days that it took so long for Aussie brewers to start nailing NEIPAs / hazy IPAs after they'd started finding favour over here as the last decade progressed. From variability in appearance to all sorts of issues with bitterness or hop creep / burn, it was perhaps easy to understand why so many doubted their longevity. Yet here we are now, where not only are such beers part of the furniture but they're generally delivered with aplomb too. Which brings us to Moonbeam from Urban… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 6.2%
Freshwater Brewing Co Dukes Pilsner
Published May 9, 2023
Described by the Freshie team as a "bucket list brew" Dukes is a Czech style pilsner that looks to do everything the proper way. There's Bohemian floor-malted pilsner malt and Czech Saaz hops at play with water that's been softened to represent that found in Pilsen the best they can on the Northern Beaches. One can only assume they went heavy on those hops though as they dominate the bright golden beer from start to finish. There's spicy, straw-like aromas and flavours for days, leaving… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Czech Pilsner
- ABV
- 5.0%
Felons Brewing x Rosie Woods Supreme Lager
Published May 8, 2023
Felons have been partnering with local visual artists since before they opened, and they haven’t taken a break since. From looming murals to colourful barrels, they’ve thrown open the doors for all kinds of creativity and beauty to infuse their space (and if you asked them, they’d probably say it infuses the beer, too). As Brisbane Street Art Festival rolls around again, the Felons team has brewed another collab beer: this time, a German pilsner with artist Rosie Woods, whose murals give the… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- German Pilsner
- ABV
- 5.3%
One Drop Vienna Lager, High Grade (with Dogma) & We Jammin'
Published May 8, 2023
After a few weeks of themed releases, we’re going back to One Drop basics with a trio of incredibly disparate beer styles. One German classic, one collaboration IPA, and an amazingly viscous fruited sour. It’s a proverbial whiplash of extremes and that’s just the way we like it. Vienna Lager. No silly names, no fluorescent can art, no special hopping regimes, no adjuncts. Just a pure as the driven snow lager beer. And what a bloody beer it is too. Honestly, it’s hard to image a beer that… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Vienna Lager, IPA & Smoothie Sour
- ABV
- 5.1% & 7.0% & 6.2%
