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!
Green Beacon Alien Weaponry, Frivolous Juice, Trade Winds & Kinetic
Published May 23, 2023
Three IPAs and a Cali pils. The hops are coming hard and fast at Green Beacon. The name of our first one here – Alien Weaponry West Coast DDH IPA – has me thinking of the Marvel movies, since people in those are always shooting blue zappy stuff from guns they stole from the aliens. You know, the ones from The Avengers that fly around on those giant whale-turtle-centipede things and crash into buildings. It begins as any number of classic West Coast IPAs: light gold in colour with a nice dankness… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Various Styles As Indicated
- ABV
- 7.0% & 7.0% & 6.8% & 5.5%
Green Beacon Subtropic Low Carb Hazy Pale Ale
Published May 23, 2023
Green Beacon’s stable of core beers has always set drinkers up for some easy-drinking hoppy pales (see Wayfarer Tropical Pale Ale and Seawolf Hazy Pale), but they’ve now added a lower carb option. Subtropic is cloudy yellow with a light, fruity aroma dancing all the way from beginning to end. Tropicals and citrus fruits join with a soft bready malt presence and low bitterness to make a quaffable beer designed for sessions, while still bringing some nice hop character. If you’re already a fan… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Low Carb Hazy Pale
- ABV
- 4.0%
Helios Brewing Cerberus Red IPA 2023
Published May 22, 2023
When we first encountered Cerberus, he was a friendly and gentle creature that was all about licks and tail-wagging. Now, this Very Good Boy is off the leash, and is growling with his teeth bared as he takes his tug-of-war very seriously. There are three big differences (or a three-headed difference?) between 2021’s Cerberus and this one: new brewers, new cans, new recipe. New brewers: Since the last Cerberus, Charlie Hodgson moved on from Helios, and Jake Harrison stepped into the role of head… Read more
Red
- Style
- Red IPA
- ABV
- 6.5%
Jervis Bay Strawberry and Rhubarb Sour & Stingray Saison & School of Hops: Eclipse & Superdelic
Published May 22, 2023
It may feel like winter’s come hard and fast, but Jervis Bay’s two autumnal releases are going strong. The Strawberry and Rhubarb Sour may be Jervis Bay’s sourest beer to date. Pouring with a lovely peachy blush, this beer simply overflows with jammy strawberry aromas. It’s one of those beers you have to forcibly stop yourself from sniffing so you can take a sip. Once you do, you meet the acidity; the beer was soured naturally overnight, and the resulting layered acidity brings quite the… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Various Styles As Indicated
- ABV
- 4.3% & 5.5% & 6.5% & 6.5%
Urban Alley Strawberry Kisses
Published May 22, 2023
If you've been drinking craft beer for some time, pastry stouts might still raise your eyebrows for their tendency to through everything but the kitchen sink at beer but Urban Alley’s Strawberry Kisses is still soaked in tradition. OK, so technically it’s soaked in native strawberry gum leaf and organic cacao but beneath those adjuncts is a classic English stout, with none of the lactose common in such beers and instead just a wide mix of malts to provide its lush base and rich undertones. It… Read more
Black
- Style
- Pastry Stout
- ABV
- 5.7%
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%
