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!
Rocks Brewing It's Strawberry Time
Published April 21, 2023
Every so often you come across a beer that is so garishly thriving in the world beyond your dad’s mass-produced lagers that you can’t help but feel a little offended. That was the case for me when I opened my four-pack of It’s Strawberry Time Candy Strawberry Sour by Rocks Brewing Co. It’s tall, it’s pink, it’s got little strawberries on the tin smiling at you. Let’s do this. Pouring a frosty pink that you may associate with strawberry margaritas and creaming soda with ice cream,… Read more
Red
- Style
- Candy Strawberry Sour
- ABV
- 6.5%
Whitelakes Brewing 100 Day IPA
Published April 21, 2023
Clarity in a world of Haze Whitelakes’ t-shirt slogan accompanying the second release in this limited "Extended Series" announces an interloper into the opaque mist that’s consumed beer styles for much of the past half decade. As well as a brewing concern, each release is near stoically considered and, most importantly, well-constructed. Ergo, faddish concerns have no place in Baldivis, a notion that extends to the retro royal green and gilded accents within the can design which suggest… Read more
Golden
- Style
- West Coast IPA
- ABV
- 5.8%
Newstead Brewing Double Coastal Imperial Pale Ale
Published April 21, 2023
OK, I don’t know why the absurd category of double pale ale is so good, but I’ve had a few damn tasty entries in that category. This is one of them. (Newstead are actually calling Double Coastal an imperial pale ale, but since they’ve doubled the hops, the malt, and the ABV, I think double pale ale is also fitting.) As well as cranking up the regular ingredients in their core range Coastal, Newstead have thrown in a bunch of Phantasm to boost those pungent aromatic compounds like it’s nobody’s… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Imperial Pale Ale
- ABV
- 8.4%
Swell Brewery Out Of The Juice & Dominical Express
Published April 21, 2023
Swell's fans lapped up their first oat cream IPA, with Into The Juice selling out in quick fashion. So here's Out Of The Juice, which focuses on just two hop varieties – Galaxy and Citra – compared to the five in the first iteration. It possesses the tell-tale signs of an oat cream IPA, namely the juiciness, the soft body, and next to no bitterness. There is a sweet sugar milk vibe early, punching through the earthy peach and juicy apricot. The hop characters are incredibly clean and juicy, while… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- Oat Cream IPA & Choc Hazelnut Porter
- ABV
- 7.2% & 5.0%
Avnge Brewing The Hunt For Red IPA
Published April 20, 2023
Much like a submarine, a good red IPA needs balance.* Not enough hops and it’s an Irish red you’ve got in your hand but if those hops impart too much then, you're missing the beauty to be found in a malty beer. The Hunt For Red IPA is certainly a beer of balance, with Avnge Brewing’s approach one of combining American hops with malt from New Zealand’s Gladfield. Those hops hit with a mix of spice, bergamot and grapefruit which share the spotlight with raisins, caramel, toffee and a bitter… Read more
Red
- Style
- Red IPA
- ABV
- 5.8%
Blackman's Brewery Galaxy Fresh Smash
Published April 19, 2023
They’ve long championed freshness in beer at Blackman's Brewery but this pale ale is one of their freshest yet. It saw the Surf Coast brewery drive up to the High Country to secure boxes of fresh Galaxy hops and high tail it back home to make the single malt, single hop, Galaxy Fresh Smash. It's a beer that channels classic American pale ales with a golden orange hue and soft biscuit notes at play. The whole Galaxy cones meanwhile bring passionfruit, citrus and a slight spice and a resinous touch.… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Fresh Hop Pale
- ABV
- 4.8%
The Mill Brewery All Gas No Breaks
Published April 19, 2023
Brewing beer on a quiet Collingwood street brings plenty of benefits like an eager audience and neighbourly breweries to bounce ideas and build relationships with. But it means there are other makers of delicious drinks to collaborate with too, with The Mill popping next door for their imperial stout, All Gas No Breaks. The 10.2 percent ABV beer uses cold brew from Everyday Coffee and while there might be quite a long list, it may well be the most metal Mill can design to date. The big beer is incredibly… Read more
Black
- Style
- Imperial Stout
- ABV
- 10.2%
The Suburban Brew Gettin' There & Reaching Equilibrium
Published April 18, 2023
Brewery builds are rarely completed on time or to schedule: council delays, trouble finding tradespeople, or maybe just the weather. This was no different for the Suburban team and their Glynde brewery, where the saying, "Gettin’ there" became an everyday slogan. In beer form, Gettin' There is a heavily dry-hopped summer ale that showcases Cashmere, Mosaic and Citra hops in attempting to capture all the wonderful elements of summer. Mouthfeel, appearance, and malt structure see the beer… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Summer Ale & Double IPA
- ABV
- 4.7% & 8.5%
Shapeshifter Brewing Spectrum & Lemon Haze
Published April 18, 2023
In March 2023, the Institute of Brewers and Distillers hosted their Asia-Pacific Conference in the City of Churches, bringing brewers, drinkers and hop merchants along for the ride. While there, Hop Products Australia were keen to show off a new product; Spectrum is a essential a concentrated paste designed for dry-hopping, with the producers suggesting 100g of Spectrum hops can replace up to 800g of T90 hop pellets, while giving off intense aromas and additional hop flavour. Pouring a bright, light… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- West Coast IPA & Hard Lemonade
- ABV
- 6.4% & 4.5%
Wheaty Brewing Corps X Bridge Road Brewers X Ferveo Grisette
Published April 17, 2023
The Wheaty crew have been collaborating with long term allies Bridge Road Brewers again, this time bringing new-to-the-scene Ferveo Brewing along. The man behind Ferveo is Tommaso Watson, who has a doctorate in fermentation microbiology and has been using his talents to start up a fresh yeast business in Adelaide. For this Grisette, the collaborators opted for a French saison yeast, combined with pilsner, flaked spelt and sour grapes, plus Enigma and Eclipse hops. There's much that comes from the… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Grisette
- ABV
- 5.3%
- Bitterness
- 10 IBU
Valhalla Brewing Ace Of Spades
Published April 17, 2023
Considering the lifestyle and brand of rock Lemmy and Motörhead pursued – and the fact their crossover with the mainstream was fairly limited, if spectacular – it's impressive just how much his legend has infused culture across the planet. In the local beer world, we've had Lemmy-inspired whisky sours, while on a recent trip to the UK I was able to tuck into a Lemmy burger topped with sautĂ©ed jalapeño slices and a Jack Daniels mustard. His legacy lives on here in Ace Of Spades, a limited release… Read more
Black
- Style
- Black Pilsner
- ABV
- 5.2%
Bodriggy Brewing Maroon 6
Published April 14, 2023
She Will Be Loved might be one of your most enduring memories from the early 2000s and Moves Like Jagger might take you straight to the start of the last decade but what if I told you that you could have more Maroon? Forget about number 5, Maroon 6 is Bodriggy Brewing’s red IPA ready for autumn. The Melbourne brewery has a long history of making RIPAs, with their Gongim going back to the days before they had their own brewery (2017 in fact) an returning multiple times since. This new Maroon is… Read more
Red
- Style
- Red IPA
- ABV
- 6.0%
Ocean Reach Pine Lime Sour
Published April 14, 2023
The age-old combination of pineapple and lime is the kind of flavour that always transports me. To where? Straight to Inverloch and the post-swim ritual of buying a Splice with money that wasn’t mine. If you wanted to create a blissful beachside memory of your own, Ocean Reach's Pine Lime Sour seems like a good way to go about it and better yet, it was made near a beach right by those of my own childhood memories. The Phillip Island beer brings an inherent zest thanks to the combination of pineapple… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Sour
- ABV
- 4.2%
Aether Brewing Barrel Aged Cherry Sour & Peanut Butter Stout
Published April 14, 2023
Some things in life are simple. Some aren’t. When it comes to Aether’s Barrel Aged Cherry Sour, the artwork on the can is complex - it looks to me like the cosmos as seen from a psychedelic galaxy, with the view partially covered over by bunched-up cobwebs - and so is the beer. It’s a Berliner weisse that spent nine months in French oak with “a hand-picked mix of European yeasts,”* developing nuance and complexity and farmhouse character before being slammed with KĂĽtahya sour cherries… Read more
Black
- Style
- Barrel-Aged Cherry Sour & Peanut Butter Stout
- ABV
- 5.8% & 7.0%
- Bitterness
- 10 & 23 IBU
Shapeshifter Hoodie Weather, The Craic & Shot In The Dark
Published April 14, 2023
It only takes a puff of a cool breeze in South Australia to bring out the stouts; the state's brewers don’t need much encouragement. And it appears Shapeshifter have been chomping at the bit to play around with some darker styles, releasing not one but three new stouts in quick succession. It's time to layer up, according to Hoodie Weather, a 6.3 percent ABV oatmeal stout featuring German malts, roasted barley and rolled oats, that kickstarts the warming up phase. Pouring a dark brown, it utilises… Read more
Black
- Style
- Oatmeal Stout, Dry Irish Stout & Coffee Stout
- ABV
- 6.3% & 4.2% & 6.5%
One Drop Whero, Wonderland By Day & Liquid Motueka
Published April 14, 2023
When the average beer fiend thinks of One Drop, they’re probably thinking big, silly glitter-laden pastry beers or 12 percent ABV sours with a full three months of visa-obligated fruit picker labour packed into each can. What’s missing from this picture is Nick Calder-Scholes and his team tucked away in their Botany brewery are some of the most respected hop wizards in the country. Thiols, linalools, isomerisation, if it’s in any way associated with hops, One Drop are bloody well doing something… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- Various IPAs
- ABV
- 6.2% & 7.4% & 8.4%
Helios Brewing Demeter DDH NZ IPA
Published April 13, 2023
Hop harvest in the southern hemisphere is just about wrapped up for another year, but that doesn’t mean we’re finished talking about it. Demeter is the Greek goddess of harvest and agriculture,* and Helios Brewing’s Demeter DDH NZ IPA is a celebration of New Zealand’s 2023 hop harvest. For this brew, Helios partnered with Freestyle Hops, who hail from Upper Moutere at the north end of New Zealand’s south island, and built an IPA on three varieties: Rakau, Waimea and NZ Cascade (also known… Read more
Golden Yellow
- Style
- DDH NZ IPA
- ABV
- 6.4%
The Mill Brewery Freshest Haze 2023
Published April 13, 2023
Freshest Haze is a longstanding favourite for the crew at The Mill Brewery with the IPA only returning once a year but always exciting hop heads. Its release has grown into quite a launch event too, with the DDH hazy beer now showcased alongside a mix of wet hop beers from some of Victoria's finest breweries at the Fresh Hop Tap Takeover. It’s also picked up a prestigious AIBA gold medal over its life and the 2023 version of Freshest Haze certainly tastes a whole lot like a walk through a hop… Read more
Pale Yellow
- Style
- Wet Hop DDH Hazy IPA
- ABV
- 7.0%
Urban Alley Urban Dark & Alley Dangler
Published April 12, 2023
Melbourne’s Urban Allley Brewery are well-prepared for the coldest part of the year, with two of the brewery’s most-popular limited releases returning. Urban Dark is a classic English brown ale with plenty of nutty, biscuity, caramel, roasted and chocolate notes at play. On the hop front, the use of EKG and Willamette brings a touch of earthiness while a dry and quite light finish make it the kind of easy-drinking brown that helps transport you to England’s north-east. Alley Dangler meanwhile,… Read more
Dark Brown
- Style
- English Brown & Smoked Lager
- ABV
- Both 5.4%
Wildflower X Mountain Culture Village 2022
Published April 12, 2023
In March 2022, Wildflower Brewing & Blending teamed up with their mates at Mountain Culture to produce an extraordinary Australian lambic named Village. Brewed in the most traditional way possible, left out to collect native yeasts and bacteria overnight on Mountain Culture’s back deck in Katoomba and aged in 500 litres oak puncheons, Village was not only one of the best beers I had the pleasure of drinking in 2022, but it’s also possibly the best single release Wildflower has ever produced. With… Read more
Golden
- Style
- Australian Wild Ale
- ABV
- 5.5%
