Yay, Summer Drinking!

We have just had a few nice days of weather in Melbourne, and been trying to make the most of it beer wise.

I was rightly taunted into trying the Nogne O Barrel Aged Bruin recently at Beer Delux over the weekend, which had a great depth to it through the oak. Still, for the most I have been keeping to lighter coloured beers. After the Bruin I got onto Hefewiezens, with the Schofferhofer and Moo Brew coming out. The Schoff definitely had a bit more going on in terms of flavours, making the Moo taste a little watery in comparison, even thought I still rate Moo for making good beer.

On a 35 degree day earlier in the week, I finished work and for the first time this summer felt the need for a beer when I got home (ok, so normally I could just have a beer at the brewery when I finish work). Unfortunately not being a collector of many of those smash-able beers, I ended up tipping one of Stew's Holgate Mt Macedon Ale's down my gullet. The cloying sweetness did hamper my ability to 'smash it', but being a sweet tooth It didn't phase me too much, and so enjoyed it quite a lot.

The Mountain Goat Hefe has been kegged and was on show at the bar on Wednesday, so we got in early after a day of bottling to try it out again. It is seriously my beer for this summer, and have even contemplated with some of the boys of taking a keg home with me to enjoy over the summer, and take to my Australia Day celebrations next week (even if it was just me sitting at home by myself knocking back pints of this beer. Yeah, that is how good it is). So delicate, yet flavourful, with a good balance of flavours. I sort of wish the banana nose would convert more into flavour, but for your average aussie drinker, this will be just right to get you into this style of beer. I dare say it will not last long, but I guess like the summer itself, it is meant to pass, but just gonna enjoy as much of it as I can, while I can.

Yesterday was then a massive day where we finished bottling the latest batch of Rye IPA (RIPA), which while it may have been annoying to brew, ferment and then even gave us dramas the first day of bottling. after getting through 8 hours and 9 pallets of cases, even the super sweet front and sides-of-the-tongue bittering back tasted refreshing. Mind you, having sampled a fair bit of it, I hit the sack pretty quickly last night.

Anyway, this season seems to be the summer of Hefe, so I'll be back at Goat tonight to taste more of it.

Cheers,

Beef