If you attended GABS, you may well have tried 2 Brothers' festival beer Smoking Jacket. It was a pretty special beer for the double trophy winners at this month's Australian International Beer Awards as it was based up their 1000th brew – but it wasn't the beer they intended to have pouring from the container bars.
The idea was to age the beer on Australian and Cuban tobacco. But, a couple of weeks before the event, the GABS organisers called with concerns around possible nicotine content. As a result, while they awaited test results, the brewers submitted a tobacco free version for GABS.
Since the festival ended, 2 Brothers has received the results and the original beer does indeed contain nicotine. And the two barrels of that beer are being tapped on June 3.
One is being tapped at their Beer Hall, the other at The Great Northern Hotel, both at 1pm – 200ml serves only.
The beer itself started out as the brewery's Velvet Stout, a smooth, creamy stout, and was then aged in former Cognac barrels as well as getting the tobacco treatment. And once these two barrels are empty, that's it.
