GBW 2012 Day 6 - This is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

After a subdued day coming off the back of a too long night at Mountain Goat, I thought this was the point I was going to start struggling, and the sprint I put on last night was going to put me out of the marathon of a week of good beer. I had the offer to go to the beer awards, but knew I would not be able to do another sprint of beers and make it through the week. Still, maybe doing something beer orientated but without too much actual beer drinking may help. Maybe with a dose of exercise to flush out some toxins that had been building up during the week...

Therefore, I steeled myself and made it out to a packed Fox Hotel in Collingwood to catch up with Brad and Seda to partake in the beer scavenger hunt. Being late, I was running up Wellington St just to try and get there (an omen for the night to come) in time, but with a staggered start, we had time for a Cavalier Imperial Stout, which I must say tasted pretty good and with a bit of alcohol in it to loosen us up for the journey to come.
Setting off at 7:30, we worked out The Rose as out next venue so started making our way, trying to complete as many of the challenges we could do on the way. This pic is probably my fav from the night on our way to The Rose, with us all fitting into a small recycling bin. We also managed to get a few strangers to take team shots, and one guy gave Seda a piggyback to get the ball rolling

Once we got to The Rose we stalled a bit trying to figure out the famous people related to beers The Rose has on tap, but after some prodding by one of the staff and finding the nine inch nails poster on the wall, we finally figured it out. Also had a slow start on working out the next venue (thank you google!) but got enough for me to work out the next place was The Rainbow. At least I had time to drink the Squires nine lashes while I was there, but of course not focusing much o how it tasted

More bin shenanigan, trams, statues, Brad and I in a little arcade and trying to find a building with 150 on it and we finally made it to the Rainbow. No sooner had I walked in, and I knew what beer we were going to be having a pot of here. I nearly forgot I was on a beer scavenger hunt (or thought I had found the major prize and so the game was over) when I saw Thirsty Crow's Vanilla Milk Stout on tap. Ordering 3 pots of that and doing the beer style challenge (I swear that beer was an IPA!) we did as much of the find-a-word for me to work out Grumpy's Green was the next venue. Unfortunately we worked it out too quickly for the beer to warm up, so felt really bad sculling this amazing beer. Still, for tonight, tasting beer was not the focus, so quickly took this shot of us with the beer, and kept on moving.

We really started getting some momentum from here with police station, construction site and shopping trolley all in close proximity, and Brad and I having a push up off for a free beer (Grumpy's Pils was actually alright, or maybe I just didn't care). Also grabbing our pot each (I had the Goat Hightail...this race was not a poster-child for responsible drinking), we did the dash back up to The Fox, singing a beer song to passing cyclists, making our team name out of rubbish, following Brad to do the Macarena in front of Coles and whatever else we could fit in on our way back. I think we made it back just a few minutes late from our allocated 2.5 hours for the hunt, but think we did ok, and was a fun experience. My legs are smashed though. Not being a gym junky and not doing any cardio workouts, the running we did between venues and searching for photo ops took its toll not only on the night but after the fact. All I could handle once we got back to the Fox was some glasses of water, before we called it a night and left before the prizes were given out. Still, it was about the adventure and each team went home with a little pack of things to share which was nice.

So, the Beeroni's may not have gotten anywhere on the leader board, but was great to do a different sort of event during Good Beer Week. The end is nigh and starting to feel like I could actually survive what remains of it. But looking forward to what I have left, and that after that I will be happy to regain a little normality (and more importantly, sleep) in life. Thanks to all the venues for opening their pubs to rushing, sweaty people that no doubt affected the vibe in their establishments, to the Fox or oganising the event and getting some cool prizes and attracting so many people to it (I heard there were over 200 people in the hunt), and of course to Brad and Seda, for making up a team for me to go with, and experience another facet of Good Beer Week with some other friends (I swear my mates have a roster just so they don't get bogged down drinking beer with me too much. Good on 'em!)

Cheers,


Beef

GBW 2012 Day 5 - Dammit! Stuck at Work all Day!

Unfortunately, I was at Goat from 8am to 11pm yesterday. Fortunately, we had a Good Beer Week event at the Goat bar last night.

After what I will call a successful filter run yesterday (well, as good as I can do at the moment) and a clean up of the brewery to deal with the amount of people that would be walking through it that night, I had just finished my day of work and was heading across to the bar, when I see Pete. Perfect, just in time for a beer! Tried him on the Moon Dog American/Belgian Brown Ale while we caught up and showed him the brewery from the comfort of our seats. Deano turned up not long after and thought it best to start him on a Hightail. After bagging them both out for looking like they are in a Mother's group together (know it is footy season, but get off the pies boys), we stepped up into the Pepperberry Black IPA and the beer I was looking forward to...the Abbey Collaby itself.

The bar was starting to pack out a bit, so also grabbed one of the special sausage pizzas to help us get through the big beers on offer. As I have probably mentioned before, the Mikkeller/Goat (Gypsy and the Goat) Collab Pepperberry Black IPA has that malt character that I relate to Mikkeller beers quite a bit, with a sweet boldness that prepares you for the alcohol the normally follows. The fruity spice of the pepperberry come through quite well on the midpalate and rises into the hop character and cleanse. However, there is a muddiness to this beer that dulls off all of this when on tap. I recommend having it from the bottle where the flavours are much better pronounced.
The Abbey Collaby this year was an Imperial Stout (yep, right up my alley) that had used candied sugar and been 'dry chipped' with oak that had been soaked in rum. The candied sugar seems to have fleshed out the front palate as there is some good malt body to go with it before the alcohol sense kicks in with the slight rum character. It actually tasted better than I remember from when I kegged it, but the 'rummy' keg (last one of the run) did not make an appearance I suspect...I just hope we still have it and it hasn't been sent anywhere else. Little disappointed it only got to 8.1%, but probably means I have pulled up that slightly bit better this morning for it.

While working our palates back and forth over these two beers for the night, Stass rocked up, giving me a chance to grab another special pizza for the night, a blue cheese (yes, blue cheese makes another appearance this Good Beer Week) and pear, with some cured meat thrown in for good measure, to help line Stass's gut, and keep me going through the night. What was going to be 'just a couple' seeing GBW is starting to take it's toll, became a 3 time telling from the guy on security that we had to finish our drinks and leave as the bar was closing...oh dear.

Was great hanging out with the boys for a very 'unwinding' beer session, meeting up with a couple of people I have seen over GBW, showing Jayne my fermenter troubles we had discussed the night before, catching up with Simon, who use to work at Purvis but is now working the bar at Matilda Bay (hope to get down there soon), somehow getting into an arm wrestle with Josh from Moon Dog (no actually, I think I do know how, I instigated it between him and Karl after Josh lost to Karl in the battle of the footy teams on Monday night with St Kilda beating Carlton...Karl lost to Josh, but then I beat Josh...Karl had softened him up for me), and ending the night with Stass and I spouting our philosophy of beer to Pete who had got attached to our group over the night.

So all in all, a pretty standard Wednesday night at the Goat Bar...or is that Goat Bahhh. Sorry, it is getting late in this week full of good beer. The only event I forgot to take a photo from, but may be for the best as it was a long day in my Mountain Goat uniform.

...and so Good Beer Week continues...hope I can find enough people to join me for the beer scavenger hunt tonight...

Cheers,

Beef

GBW 2012: Day 4 - More Chocs!!!

The more I do beer and chocolate tastings, the more I am reminded of my arrival in Belgium a couple of years ago, walking up to customs, handing my passport to the officer, and the following conversation occurring;
Customs: Australia?! What brings you all the way to Belgium?
Me: Beer and Chocolate
Customs: Ok, I accept that (stamps passport). Enjoy!

While actually completing a filter run at Goat that did not contain any caveating fermenters and blowing holes in filter beds (but with me nearly completely breaking a gehaltermeter), who should turn up at Goat but Eric from Brooklyn Brewery. I so nearly got the bottle of Black Chocolate Stout I have in my locker to get him to sign it for me (yes, nearly. I didn't actually do it!), but instead once finished for the day had a bit of a chat to him and the blokes he came in with. One of them actually remembered me from an incident in Purvis where he was able to confirm for me that the Black Chocolate Stout was coming to Australia, and the level of excitement I had shown upon hearing that news. He even turned to the guy next to him to say 'this is that guy I told you about...' and also brought up the story of me going over to Adelaide just to have the Rogue Choc Stout on tap at the Wheaty...it is tough being known as a beer nerd. I also happily regaled them with my thoughts from the Brooklyn dinner (hmm, chocolate and blue cheese mousse with black chocolate stout) and was so caught up talking with them I was running late to meet up with a mate in the city before heading out to Sabroso.

I hadn't seen Marshy since our trip to Hobart to visit Moo Brew a couple of years back, and unfortunately only had 20 mins to catch up before having to do the dash. But with the Italian kegs getting tapped, of course had a chance to sample a beer with him. He went the Oyster Stout, which had a very dark thick body to it and a good steady rise in alcohol across the palate and up into the chest after swallowing. I went the black lager, which while kept some refreshingness with a thinner body, the alcohol really spiked from the midpalate.

Leaving him to get his Prince vibe on for the night, I dashed to Southern Cross station to meet Harriet just in time to get on the train to Seddon...perfect timing. Unlike last year, I arrived 30 mins early, so had time for a 2 Brothers Growler (very caramel!) and chat with Jayne from Two Birds Brewing, whose first line of questions was all about the fermenter I destroyed last week...yeah, thanks for reminding me Jayne! Sitting down to the tasting, they brought the plate of chocolates around. As you can see, the foodie in Harriet contemplated what was to come as the first beer was being poured...Holgate Hopinator IPA. Matched with the chilli chocolate mole, the chilli wuss in me got a tongue burning, which then made the hop feel like salt in the wound each time I tried them in combination. I got more of an english style IPA with big malt character in colour and taste, bit like a Red Ale, but on first taste, the warmth from the chilli really brought out the malt character, but after a few tries, the burn hit, and hit a bit too hard for me, especially seeing it was the first pairing of the night.

Jayne got up and had a chat as her new Red Ale beer was brought around. Felt very special as this was only the second event to have the beer, so was very interested just to try it by itself. However, I had not had a chance to rinse my glass of the Hopinator before it was filled with the Red Ale, and with my tongue still burning, I was starting to anticipate a night going downhill. Still, I did manage to get some good malt and citrus notes on the very tip of the tongue, before I felt the beer watered out a bit, and did not bring much to the back of the palate. I was happy to hear from Jayne at the end of the night saying as a first batch, they still had a fair way to go...Phew, always feel a bit awkward in those situations...it's not you, it's the beer... I was also initially disappointed with the mini cigar with white chocolate, raspberry and rhubarb, and the raspberry really reacted a bit too much with the citrus and sweet malt front on the beer, but then died off quickly to leave a lingering of rhubarb at the back. However, once we got to the white chocolate base, it all made sense as the chocolate subtled the front and drew out the flavours across the palate to make for a more balanced and even tasting.

Having just randomly meet and spoken to one of the guys from Black Heart yesterday at Mrs Parma's, was really interested to try their American Brown Ale. Unfortunately I think we got a bad bottle, as could smell straight away an alkaline and dusty malt character that I get from over-carbonated beers and beers that have been poured into a dirty glass. Even trying to warm it up didn't help, so of course it ruined the pairing, and so just came off as a spritzy but dusty malt character with very little hop noticable at all. However after my blue cheese and choc mousse from the other night, was happy to try it with a darker style chocolate (tastes like mud cake ganache) and a really salty cheese sensation. Much more out there than the fluffy, milk choc and subtly mixed blue cheese mousse from a few nights ago (maybe it just felt subtle as it all worked together so well). This bigger version still spun my tasebuds about, but having built an appreciation, I enjoyed it by itself quite well.

With Ian again getting up to speak of the last beer of the night, I was very excited to see their Temptress chocolate porter with a rich (and I mean 'rich') chocolate brownie. Looking at the bottle, was interested to see it had only been bottled last month, so thought it might be the same batch The Royston had that I enjoyed so much last week. However, the beer lacked the vanilla character I am use to, and had a more hop bitterness than the slight mocha coffee bitterness I had before. Still, the brownie just completely dominated the beer, and was just tasting chocolate when tasting the beer after coating the tongue in the brownie. Not a bad experience, just not what you look when pairing a beer a chocolate I guess.

Having gotten our orders to move on for the second session, there was only one thing to do. Having just had dessert, it was time for dinner, so we hung around Sabroso to keep critiquing the tasting and the food we were having and just have a good old chin wag. Still, meant we stayed on longer than I thought we would and so it was another sleepy trip home afterwards. My personal favourite chocolate was of course the brownie by itself, even though I appreciate what was being done with the chocolate and blue cheese. My favourite pairing came down to a single bite, the last one of the cigar and how it really lifted the beer up front with the raspberry and lengthened the palate with the white chocolate.

Thanks to Jayne, Ian and Roxy for hosting us, and even bigger thanks to Harriet for stepping in to take a spare ticket I had available. Too bad I wasn't able to get Jarrod along too for this one, but was sort of nice to do what is the closest to me to having a girly chat with one that appreciates food as much as I do beer. Big Ups Haz!!!!

So today is a big (in terms of important) filter run in at Goat that I do not want to stuff up, or Mike will have my nuts. Then the Abbey Collaby launch tonight which will be a wait and see as to how long I hang out for before I need to get to bed. In need of sleep, but think drinking every night takes its toll on your sleep patterns, not to mention my nerves in the brewery not making things any better. We shall see how I fair today.

Cheers,

Beef



PS: Ok, you probably knew I could not go to an event with a Holgate brewer without asking about the Empress. Yes, Ian confirmed another batch will be out for winter, and that there is going to be more of it available this year. YES!!!!!

GBW Day 3 - Parma and Dog

Hey anyone reading this, with this post I will finally catch up on myself with Good Beer Week! Yay!

Seeing I had a decent day trying to manage my first bottling run at Goat, and realising GBW is only for a week, thought I should get out and do something beery, so headed along to Mrs Parma's for their Bratwurst Parma with Moon Dog Kaiser Saute Altbier pairing. Finding it hard to get a seat, I manage to get next to some blokes about to tuck into the Bratwurst Parma and talking to them found one is working in Black Heart Brewery. I hadn't actually tried any of their 8 beers (not bad for 500 litre batch brewery in a residential area), so he bought one of his own beers at the bar and shared some of it with me. The Pale Ale has some good hoppy zest to go with a full and darker malt than I would expect from a Pale. Is fairly well made, and citrus really comes through more as it warms up, to the point where after taking so long to eat the parma, I could almost taste orange juice in the beer. Thanks to Brad for the chat and beer sharing.

Ok, for the parma and altbier. As you can see, the brat is just on top with a smokey and spicy tomato chutney. I found the spice heat to be a bit much, but the chicken and sausage actually went well together. There was definitely some hammy flavour in the sausage, which combined with the smoke in the chutney to compliment well with the smokey flavours in the beer. The Moon Doggers had also added spice to the beer, but to be honest, I would have liked more of a clean and refreshing altbier to go with the parma. Everything else in the parma seemed to work well, and was happy to find the altbier malt character underlying the other flavours in it to be quite clean to keep with the style (one I am getting into more after also trying one at GABS over the weekend). Just as I was getting halfway through the parma and Brad and Tony had left, who should walk past me but Karl and Josh from Moon Dog, so also gave them a piece of my mind over the beer and gave them a taste of the Pale Ale Brad had left with me. I am sure I will see the Moon Dogs at Goat tomorrow night, and they said they saw me in my silly hat at GABS, but was too busy to see them waving at me.

So in the end what I thought would be a quiet night just enjoying a meal by myself ended up with meeting guys from two breweries. This is the great things about GBW, you can just meet so many other people interested or working in beer everywhere you go. This is a great sign for the growth of this sort of festival, and something I am happy to go out and be part of in my own little way. Just a simple bloke appreciating a beer, and happy to chat with anyone that would like to do the same.

Cheers,

Beef

PS: Will be returning to the filter today after my two disasters last week. Here is hoping for a better result today when I get back on the horse.

Good Beer Week Day 2 - GABS drinking and Mamor Chocolates and Beer

So Sunday, being Mother's Day, was spent with my cousin's and aunty from here in Melbourne before I hit GABS for my free session. Having not seen some of the family for 6 months, it was interesting to get a Christmas pressie. Yes, it was beer related, and a great book full of old beer cans, which got me thinking of Fox Hotel, which I have yet to visit, but hope to later in the week to see their beer can display (Sorry, just realised how nerdy that sounds...what am I the beer equivalent to a train spotter? [sorry to my dad, if he ever works out how to use the internet and reads this]...still anyone who has read a few of my posts knows that I am a beer nerd anyway, so what have I got to hide?).

Anyway, to GABS. While I hadn't planned to go with anyone, funnily enough the Beer Deluxe crew were heading in to the event at the same time I was, so with Miro as our leader, we headed around to scope out the place. While they had VIP passes to get upstairs, I took the opportunity to sit down with the booklet and start planning the beers to try, with the free tokens I had. I had enough time to plan and pick up my beers from the bar before Miro came back (bloody beer schmoozer), along with Sarah and Sam to bring the Mountain Goat family together.

Have to say, the beer hall style of the building and set up really works well, even if maybe there is not enough bar space for the heavy traffic that came through on the Saturday. Was great to sit in that environment with lots of light chatter from some areas, stern silent concentration coming from other punters, and others have D&M's over the beers they were having with friends, all with the band(s) in the background. A good environment to feel comfortable in whatever approach you take in the appreciation of beer.

The most amazing aspect of the event this day was that with it being Mother's Day and bad weather outside, crowd numbers were down, and while we had needed 9 people manning the front area of the bar the day before, they could easily get away with 3 today, and even then, some of them looked bored. Even though I may not have been able to enjoy my day on the bar, I think I still appreciate the Saturday more for being what this event should be, an opportunity for all people to come and try beers they would never had tried before and continue to build an understanding of beer in a great atmosphere. That it was sillingly busy just means more people were on that journey, which is great from my perspective. Plus, I did not get caught up in any lines on my day there as a punter. As soon as I took my paddle to the bar, was always served within 30 seconds, and then would wait a minute for the volunteer to get my beers to me.

When it came to drinking, even though the tasters are quite small, I took my time with them to try and get the most out of each, which meant minimising conversation, which probably offended my fellow drinkers. Also, I was just very tired after the previous week, so keeping all my concentration energy for the beers (it's ok, the Goaters know I am a beer nerd too).

So finally, here are the beers I tried, in numerical order from the booklet, with my notes:
14) Renaissance Stonecutter Oak (7%) - a good malt and alcohol balance, with just the slightest touch of alkaline or overcarbonation to take away from the beer. However, it does warm up quite well on the tongue so this aspect disappears ok and it gets a little bit meaty with a decent body to push it along. Classic caramel for a Scotch Ale.
18) 4 Pines Beetroot Belgian Ale (8.5%) - Was interested to see if any beetroot would come through seeing they only extract sugars from the beet, and in smell I have to say I did notice it. However, in taste I did not, but is definitely some alcohol on what I could call a strong Belgian blonde in style.
19) Barry Cranston's Brown Dog (5%) - A Homebrew entry that got my interest, and is quite dark for a brown ale. Is very fruity on the nose and tongue, with a bit of dusty malt on the midpalate the only sign it is a darker malt beer before a fruity bitter finish cleans up at the back. Was getting a similar pineapple aspect to the Stone and Wood Pacfic Ale with this one.
29) Wig & Pen 'This Beer's not Real Craft' (5%) - One Miro let me try of his that to me had a similar level of 'quality' to the Murray's Farmhouse. While this one could have easily been a bit too much with the sourness, but holds it character quite well and get a full breadth of flavour to support the sourness.
30) 2 Brothers Diamond Knott Bloody Oak (9.7%) - My personal favourite from the line up with a big caramel malt character that balanced out and melded well with the higher alcohol that warms very well towards the back of the palate. Simple, but well made Barleywine, and a bargain at only 5 tokens for a 370ml fill.

34) Grand Ridge Sarsaparilla Stout (4%) - Yep, definitely sarsaparilla in there, and overpowers anything else in the beer, but did manage to spot some licorice that went well with the main flavour. Unfortunately the sarsaparilla lingers long in aftertaste to make you feel you have just had cough syrup.
44) Red Duck Bumble Bee (5.6%) - Sweet honey tingle up front with a dusty feeling towards the back, but then the Bramling Cross hop cleans it up nicely at the back to give sense of nobel hop character so as not to get residual sweetness from the honey. A bit one dimensional, but the honey is at a good level, and impressive after our own failed home brew attempts at this style.
45) Red Hill Sticke Alt (5.4%) - Another beer I would put in the well made category, with a good sense of clean and stable flavours, that flow across the tongue quite well for an overall balanced approach. The notes on this one says it all...'Extended cold conditioning and a cool ferment combine to create a clean, crisp ale with a light hop nose, good malt background and dry finish'. Technically very good.
46) Temple Smoked Weizen (5.2%) - Like other wheat smoke beers I have had, the hammy smoke flavour is quite subdued/'cloudified' by the wheat and they meld together well to make this a good beginners beer for anyone just getting into smoked beers.
49) Moo Brew Belgo (4.5%) - There is some good fruit up front, but it dies off at the back with a slighty yeasty quality in aftertaste. Technically good, but unlike other well made beers here, does not have a bit more kick to it that I might expect from a beer labelled an American/Belgian Ale. Maybe I am just hard on these guys as they make good beer (and love that my surname is Bogan. That reminds me, I met head brewer Owen having trouble getting into the joint). Reminds me a little of the slight disappointment I had from the first batch of Saison they came out with, but have heard subsequent batches have shown improvement. Maybe they like to take it easy first time around before playing with it. I guess when a brewery's production gets bigger, doing bigger batches can make them want to play it safe on first attempt...sorry, that just turned into a bit of an essay...(cough) 'beer is good'...that's better.
59) The Monk Sweet Potato Porter (4.3%) - After our Sunday Roast homebrew attempt, was interested to see if the sweet potato would come through on a darker base beer than on the amber ale base we used for ours. It certainly came through quite well, but not sure if I enjoyed the coffee aspects with it.

Of course I would have liked to have tried more (for some reason I just thought I remembered trying the Yeastie Boys Gunnamatta on Saturday, but not being personally impressed with the lemon and what is termed as 'punget bergamot orange'), but was happy with my selections, even if I did not delve into IPA's. I wanted to keep my palate alright for the first beer and chocolate event I had lined up for GBW this year, which after a short stroll from GABS, I arrived at Mamor Chocolates ready to get into it. However, my partner in beer and chocolate tasting did turn up a little late so we were behind the others going through the selection. Still, it gave me a chance to talk with our hosts and the 4 other people involved in the small event. After the beer hall, it did feel a little claustrophobic, but guess it is called an 'Intimate Beer and Chocolate Tasting' for a reason. The hosts were actually quite entertaining and wanting a lot of feedback from it to help them improve and branch out what they could do with this and similar events, which is good from first timer GBW hosts, and once they heard I work at Mountain Goat and really enjoy pairing beer and chocolate, they were even more interested in what I had to say...and I was happy to say it. They also provided a lot of information to help guide us through the tasting, but also a notes sheet was available for me to fill in with my own thoughts. Was also good to see they had only chosen Victorian beers for the pairing, showing off to those attending the diversity of beers coming out of our own backyard, and hopefully stimulating people to go out and try more.

Anyway to the combos, and first off the bat was the Mountain Goat Hightail Ale. Knowing the beer quite well and seeing all beers were from the bottle, I did notice the aspects that detract from it compared to the keg version, but was happy to see these did not take away from the chocolate combinations put with it. I found with the ginger dipped in dark chocolate that the bitterness of the beer tries to cut through the somewhat oppressive ginger flavour (Sorry to my grandma, who is a massive ginger fan), while the malty character works well with the dark chocolate. Was good to get some contrasting and complimentary sensations in this and many of the other chocolate pairings. The Hightail was also used in combination with a raspberry framboise chocolate, with the fruit and malt bringing out a slight sour flavour overall which was interesting.
Second beer, another Goat, but this time the Pepperberry Black IPA. Such a good beer by itself (especially in the bottle) with dark malt, fruity hops, and a touch of raspberry and spice from the pepperberry. However, with it being such a robust beer, It is a good base to add some other flavours, to which Mamor provided on this night. A rosemary sea salt truffle? Yep, and found the spicy malt aspect of the beer was brought out with the salt well (would you believe it?!). Thinking that had been a pretty different experience, they then upped it, pairing the same beer with a kangaroo salami chocolate, which I found the spice and malt worked well with again, but this time with a smokey character that was also coming from the meat.
Finally getting off Goat (maybe they should have used goat salami?), we turned our attention to what was a forerunner to the Saison revolution in Australia with the Temple Saison. The chocolates; a rosewater cardamon, where the prominent rose/floral flavour of the chocolate reacted quite well with the fruit and yeast of the beer to create this musky character, and a chilli kaitaia, where the chilli wuss in me found it difficult to find refreshment from the heat through the beer. Howard also offered a passionfruit chocolate to me to try this beer against, but found the white chocolate high sweetness did not mix well with the yeastiness of the beer.
Next was the 2 Brothers James Brown Belgian Ale, which I quite like by itself for the beer journey it takes me on (too bad there are so many other beers to try in this world!), and I like how Mamor took two different approaches with the chocolates they paired to see what people would like. For me, the Marzipan was too subtle a flavour to go with the big belgian yeast and was completely overpowered once the beer hit your chocolate coated tongue. However, the orange ginger worked much better for me, with the jaffa quality from the chocolate reacting well with the brown malt and the yeast bringing a nice cleansing aspect at the back.
Red Hill's Wheat took the stage, accompanied by a hazelnut and honey truffle and an orange cointreau. The honey did go ok with the sweet wheat malt, but not enough to bring out anything overly exciting, whereas for me the orange seems to bring a zest to the cloudy wheat to add that other dimension I was looking for from a pairing.
Final act of the night was one of my favourite chocolate beers, the Holgate Temptress, again interestingly paired from two extremes, nut and sour cherry. The dark nut cluster complimented well with the chocolate also in the beer, but did not bring anything more apart from maybe a bit of vanilla sweetness. I could have had the chocolate by itself for a similar effect. However, the sour cherry brandy truffle brought with it a lot of alcohol heat that the chocolate in the beer helped suppress and contrasted well with the sourness of the fruit.

What is really interesting now as I think about the event and all the flavours I encountered over the session, is that I find it very hard to find a favourite, as the contrasts and complimentary get lost in which beers and chocolates I like by themselves. The raspberry framboise, marzipan and hazelnut and honey truffle were all stand alone chocolates I really liked, and of course, the darker beers (Black IPA, James Brown and Holgate) were my favs. However, the Saison and rosewater carmadon was a great combination even someone like my mum (who doesn't drink beer, or any alcohol) could enjoy. Still, if I had to choose one combo as my favourite, I would have to go the James Brown with the orange ginger. I think I have a bit of a jaffa soft spot, and the extra journey the beer put through the chocolate, really emphasised and then also neutralised it.

Still, the richness of all the chocolates did become almost overbearing by the end, and was too much for my friend, who ended up leaving half eaten chocolate and and half drunk beers at the venue (sacrilege!). She ended up leaving with a doggy bag of chocolates, which I heard she then proceeded to eat as soon as she got home...no self control that one (said the beer nerd to the foodie geek). Still, here is a bit of anonymous embarrassment for you Weeny...ok, maybe not so anonymous now. Not to mention she only had one comment to make on her notes the whole night, and happened to be a pairing that was not one set by the hosts. Still, means she is open minded, enough to be friends with a beer nerd, so I shouldn't give her shit... but I will.

Anyway, one of the parting gifts the hosts gave us was some chocolates they made with Hightail Ale, which I took into Goat and shared with the crew. Have to say it is very resinously hoppy with a bitter kick to boot. Still,  dare say I will be heading back to Mamor Chocolates for another chocolate fix, and recommending the high tea to the girls I know (not many since I am a beer nerd unfortunately).

Thanks to the Taphouse crew for the effort they have put in for GABS, and to Hanna and Howard at Mamor for an overindulgent chocolate and beer session...and for Weeny for giving me someone to laugh at/with between my periods of serious consternation over beer and chocolate.

Cheers,


Beef

GBW 2012: Day 1 - GABS Volunteering and Brooklyn Dinner

What? It is Monday and I am already falling behind keeping up this blog during Good Beer Week! Not a Good sign, and this is only my first post for the week!!!!

After my bad week, I really felt like letting loose at GABS with my volunteering session. Not drinking beer, but just wearing a silly hat and dancing around the bar a bit...well when I had a chance. If you saw a guy on Bar 4 looking like this, then you saw me just trying to have a bit of fun. Still, with it being so busy and hearing from a few people they sometimes had to wait 45mins just to get beer, I was busy just trying to get beer to punters. Most of the time you hardly even had a chance to say hi or even look at their face, was just about looking at paddles to see what numbers they had, and mostly talking to the pourers when we were running low on a beer or filling an order. So, not as relaxing as I would have liked it, but certainly did my bit to get good beer to the good folk at the event, and did get a few comments from people over the silly hat. After the bar had closed, I did manage to scrounge around for a taste of some of the left over beers. The Garage Project Double Day of the Dead was good on colour, but noticed a bit too much coffee from the malt. Still, not as coffee as the Matilda Bay Double Stout. The Invercargill Red Hot Chocolate had a chilli burn that was too big for me to be drinking like a shot, with the warmth really coming up the back of the throat and the chocolate character being good, but not enough to balance it out seeing it was mostly up front. As for the Moa Cocoa Weizen, I was just getting coconut from it which was a bit weird. One of my early favs was the Murray's Bob's Farmhouse Ale, a great example of the style, and unlike the weird and sometimes unbalanced nature of some of the beers at this event, a subtle and well balanced beer. I think I also shot a Bridge Road God Save the Lager, which seemed fine but did not do much for me, and of course I had already tried the Mountain Goat Red Saison, which I find has a good balance of refreshingness with the ginger/saison fruit style, with the slight back of the tongue heat from the chilli and a bit of spice to boot with the pepperberry. Having shoted all these beers in 10 minutes I left the event feeling content, a little tired, but excited for my most anticipated event for the whole week...The Brooklyn Brewery Degustation at Beer Delux.

Having seen Naz from Goat and Josh from 2 Brothers at GABS, I caught up with them at Beer Delux and decided to cleanse the palate a bit with the La Sirene Saison, which I reckon is one of the better Aussie saisons going around. Great fruit and yeast character, with just enough kick to it to make you pay attention to it but still make it easy drinking and refreshing. A perfect beer to get my palate reset for what it was about to go through. While Naz and the boys went off to the Rugby (Wow, Rebels beat Crusaders...still, preferred being Beer Delux that night), Stass and I went upstairs in girly anticipation of what was to come. As soon as we arrived, our first beer and food pairing was at out table, with the Brooklyn Lager and Cajun spiced popcorn. The lager is actually quite malty for what I am used to having in this style (maybe it is just an Australian thing) and the dry hopping keeping that side of things subtle, but refreshing enough to cut through the buttery and spiciness of the popcorn.

The Brown Ale was paired with a great pork belly with apple mash and walnuts. The ale and pork combined to make the sweetness too big, but there was something in the walnut that offset this sweetness well to bring it back to balance.
The english style East India Pale with a nobel hop being used with the malty character, a combo I quite liked, and something to differentiate Brooklyn Brewery from the West coast IPA style in the States. But the slight hop bitterness character was really brought out more in combo with the acidic cooking style of the Gravlax cured salmon to make it very interesting. The basil, carrot and cucumber (?) in the thai salad also worked well with the beer, but the coriander did not seem to me to work well with the beer or food as it overpowered both a bit too much.

The dill and lemon characters I was getting from the Sorachi Ace Saison was quite strange to see from this style of beer, and thought it may be a bit off putting by itself, but in combination with the crispy lemon chicken, it was probably my favourite pairing in terms of complimenting each other. The refreshing flavours of the beer really cut through the chicken fat and cooking oils in the food, but did so in such a subtle way there was almost balance in the offsetting (if that make any sense). So delicate was this balance, that just a little too much lemongrass sauce on the chicken really overpowered the beer, but if you got it right, the offsetting flavours neutralised each other in a cleansing way but where you could still appreciate each flavour you were picking up on. The driness of the beer did also help clean up, but not liking asian pilsners personally, the Sorachi hop character was not good when drinking the beer by itself. a very interesting experience though.

Then having the Cuvee de la Crochet Rogue Rose by itself as a palate cleanser was great. While cold, it smelt like a Faro, but in taste and warmth has a bit more belgian lambic character, but even this is subtle in combo with the vanilla aspect that could have come through the barrel aging, if they had used American oak. It had me thinking of the similar traits I get from a Linderman's Faro and a JJ Purm Riesling, so was great to find a beer that had brought together beer and wine flavours in a similar way. It was at this point, the general manager of Brooklyn Brewery finally made his was to our table to get our thoughts. spouting out some of these comments got a reply of 'oh, so you know beer then'...instant mancrush!

Onto my favourite part of the meal, 2 serves of dessert and 4 beers to go with them....oh yeah!

Dessert course 1: Vanilla bean custard tart  and candied acidulated malt (not quit sure what acidulated means, but the malt had quite a spritzy quality to it) with Monster Ale and Companion Ale. The pastry and malt seemed to go well with the wheat and fruit flavours I was getting from the Companion Ale, and the syrupy sweetness of the barley wine went great with the vanilla custard. Still, better was to come in the next course, but did take the opportunity after Eric had spoken again to quickly intercept him going to another table and invite him to come along to Goat during the week. He said he had already been planning to come visit the Goat brewery at some point, so told him to be there Wednesday or Friday for the best opportunity.

Dessert course 2: Dark chocolate blue cheese mousse with Black Chocolate Stout and Black Ops...yep, mess in my pants time! The stout of course went great with the dark chocolate flavours, and the hoppy character of the Black Ops went well with the blue cheese character in the desert. Having seen this, I then proceeded to blend the two beers together (sorry if this is sacrilege to anyone reading this) to make the experience of the two beer with the dessert all happen at once in your mouth...amazing!
Keeping aside some of the Black Chocolate Stout to warm up, everyone started leaving the dinner. Eric then came back over to our table and sat down with us to talk more beer with us. It was then I had a moment: Stass and I sitting there with a warming Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout with the General Manager of Brooklyn Brewery sitting next to us talking beer and the beer industry, even at this early stage, I think it will be the moment of the whole week for me.

After that, going downstairs to see Joel and the boys back from the rugby, not even them, the rebels winning the rugby, or the Mikkeller barley wine Stass got for me penetrated the moment, I was just still living in that bubble. I think the day and that moment must have been too much for me, as started falling asleep on the tram on the way home. Unfortunately, I only got 4 hours sleep that night, making yesterday hard to get through...

However, I don't even have time to put up yesterday's adventures as need to get ready for a bottling day at Goat. Not a good start to trying to keep track of my week if I can't even get my weekend down on here, but hope to have a chance this arvo, as thinking I may have a quite Monday to help get me through the week... Geez, that is not a good thought after only 2 days of GBW. May need more than luck to get me through this one.

Cheers,


Beef

The Week That Was and The Good Beer Week (GBW 2012) to Come...

Hi all,

For those that keep up to date with this blog, sorry it has been a while between posts. This week has not been a good one for me personally, so is not the best lead up to one of my favourite festivals of the year (ok, so it is only the second GBW ever...still, high hopes it will be as good as last year).

Even in beer this week has not been good for me. No, I haven't been getting drunk, but in my attempts to step up at Mountain Goat with one of the brewers away on holidays, I have made some major stuff ups, and had to make everyone else work harder around me (These pics show what happens when you allow a Bogan into your brewery). I made sure during the meeting yesterday to apologise for ruining a 5000ltr fermenter, stuffing up another filter run, and thanking them for their help and understanding this week. I am just glad to see the back of it, and lucky to have GBW to look forward to now, and hoping to do better in the brewery next week too.

Today I will be volunteering at the Great Australasian Beer Spec'tap'ular (GABS), a massive beer event to start the week off, with 60 beers from around Australia and New Zealand on tap. No, I won't be drinking during the event today, and in more bad news, I found my role will have nothing to do with beer at all...I will be serving wine and cider...AT A BEER EVENT!!! So if anyone wants to see the saddest sight ever, come watch a beer nerd pouring wine and cider at bar 4 at GABS. I am sure to try and persuade people onto beer at every opportunity, especially helpful when they find out my knowledge of wine comes down to that it comes in red and white colour varieties.

Still, after that I have one of my most anticipated events during the whole week (and happy for it to be so as want my tastebuds fresh for it), with a Brooklyn Brewery Degustation at Beer Delux tonight. Will be great to catch up with Stass and Brad, and after a day surrounded by beer (but more closely surrounded by wine and cider, dammit!), am sure to love this event even more than I anticipate.

The rest of the week looks to be going like this:

Sunday - Each volunteer at GABS get s a free session and tokens, so will be using mine during the day before I head to a Chocolate and Beer tasting that I am also highly anticipating, and so happy to get done early as well.

Monday - Try not to stuff up a bottling run at Mountain Goat and maybe hit Mrs Parma's with a mate that is in town for their Bratwurst Parma with a corresponding Moon Dog beer (which reminds me, saw the Moon Doggers at the Royston for a free tasting of their new Billy Ray Citrus, the honey and orange peel really tingle nicely on the tongue...still, this I prefer the McGuava in their Mullet Series. The Holgate Temptress was tasting amazing that night. In hindsight, I am surprised I haven't been back again for it).

Tuesday - Yes, try not to stuff up whatever I am doing in Goat that day (let's just call that a given for the rest of the week), and then my second Beer and Chocolate event, which hopefully this year I turn up on time and again get to talk to some of the brewers.

Wednesday - If all goes well and I feel like staying back at Goat after work, the Abbey Collaby will be on with a few other beers as with last year. The beer may not be as big as they had hoped, but know of one particular keg that has more rum notes in it than others. I will be keeping an eye out to see if that makes it over the bar on the night.

Thursday - I am suppose to be getting together a team for a beer scavenger hunt, but at the moment only have a couple of people interested, so hoping I get a last minute influx of friends wanting to join me or will have to pull out of this one. :(

Friday - Was thinking of doing Good Beer O'Clock, but with my brother in town, might just have a pizza with him and a few beers at Goat and see how everyone pulls up from the AIBA dinner they are going to the night before.

Saturday - While I probably start the recovery session by now, I still have a Slowbeer event (the store is looking great and with beer available on tap and in the bottle, and new courtyard area under development out the back), as I did last year to finish off the week, but this time with an Italian flair which will be interesting. If I still feel ok after that the closing party, and just remembered I have Brad's birthday (Woohoo). Phew, this could be an interesting end to the week.

Still, I have to get to the end of the week, and from my point of view now, even though I probably won't get to the over 100 beers I tried last year, I have much to look forward to, which is good for me right now. So let the good beer flow, and come and say hi to me if you see me at any events...especially today at GABS...WINE AND CIDER...BEER EVENT...ME NOT POURING BEER...I'm sorry, it just doesn't make sense to me, but I guess that works with the surreal week I have had.

Good luck to us all,

Beefy

Happy 30th 'Beer'thday Stass!!!!!

Another landmark day comes to Beerdakari as I can share on here a two-day beer journey we used to celebrate the life and times of Stass.

Starting on Friday we had a collection of beers Stass had been keeping for a while and a few late inclusion to keep us going from 6pm to midnight. After trying to get the sequence of the journey right, this is how it progressed.

1) Rouge Mocha Porter - This was a late inclusion I made to the mix seeing I had tried the double mocha a year ago and so thought the original might be good to try. There is a decent porter lightness and sweetness and some slight chocolate notes as well. However, from the midpalate, there is a hoppy bitterness which I find not to be of the style, and may even be masking any coffee bitterness they may have been trying for in this beer. With a dry back and slight over-carbonation, it was a disappointing start to the journey (my bad...sorry).

2) Baird Morning Coffee Stout - Stepping up more into the coffee theme at the start of this journey, this beer has quite a strong espresso coffee smell which translates into flavour. It has a full body and sharp bitterness that is not to my taste, ending a bit dry/astringent. If you like a bitter coffee, this is a beer for you to try out.

3) Les Trois Mousquetaires Porter Baltique (2011 - 10%) - Was really looking forward to heading towards some sweeter flavours as the malt and alcohol character in the beers started increasing (yeah, only 3 beers in...) The sweet malt and alcohol smell definitely come through on the nose, and even at this stage felt the alcohol was a little too high. This translated to the tongue similarly as the familiar sweet malt character covers the front of the palate well and the alcohol starts to rise from the midpalate. However, it rises a bit too high and the beer becomes a bit too hot in alcohol. Not sure why they have tried to up the alcohol from 9.2% in the previous year to 10, unless they think people would like to age it, which is what I will now do for a few years with the bottle of this I have. Means I can collect a few more seasons of this brew before I do a vertical tasting.

4) Grand Ridge Supershine - Having been aged for a couple of years, this old favourite did it's classic thing of causing contentment to rise through my body through a good flow and balance of sweet caramel malt and warming alcohol. I was surprised to hear from those tasting with us that they were getting a sort of sourness from it after the initial sweetness, but maybe it is part of the transition from malt to alcohol that may do this, especially at 11%.

5) St Ambroise Russian Imperial Stout - Stepping back in alcohol, but stepping up in darker character, this 9.2% bourbon wood aged extra strong stout had a bit of a peaty smell and a mellow standard RIS flavour, with the alcohol rising appropriately for the style. It also sits pretty think on the tongue, which I do not have a problem with...at all.

6) Harveston Ola Duhb 16 - After the previous beer, this one really steps up nicely in the smokey character. It is very smooth and the alcohol is not too overwhelming. The whiskey aspect of the beer does not lead to an overly peaty smoke, so doesn't use Islay whiskey barrels to store this beer in.

7) Moo Brew Barrel Aged Vintage Imperial Stout (09) - I brought this bottle back for Stass from the brewer's stash at Moo Brew last year for his buck's party, so has had nearly a year to age even after I gave it to him. The problem of carbonation with the '09 batch reared its head (unfortunately there has been enough time between trying this vintage to have forgotten this aspect) as Stass opened it to pour out, and found myself swilling it quite a bit to try and let the carbonation break out of the beer before tasting it, as it causes the flavours to spike a bit too much across the tongue. Once it has warmed up and settled the familiar mellow malty flavours, with a touch of dark sweet fruit from the wine barrel aging that also seems to thin out the beer a bit, come back. However, there is definitely a higher bitterness at the back palate which is a bit too much. Yep, won't beat the '08 vintage.

8) Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout - Ok, another favourite that like the Grand Ridge gave me complete contentment as I let it roll around my mouth. I can only think from these two beers that mouthfeel must be a very important aspect for me with beers I enjoy, as the texture relaxes me into the beer to enjoy the flavours that go with it. In this beer it is dark chocolate, and in the supershine it is the caramel, so behind the feel of the beer, my sweet tooth still reigns. Such a well rounded beer with a slight bitter chocolate up front before the alcohol warms and the body thickens over the tongue. Ends with a touch of bitterness and alcohol to clean up.

9) Hargraves Russian Imperial Stout (12.3%) - Nearly made a mistake in leaving this one til last, but glad I corrected myself before that occured. While there was some classic malt and alcohol character to this, there was a great deal of bitterness that really took away from the style of the beer. I would even contemplate letting it sit for up to 5 years to see if some of that bitterness drops out enough the balance it.

10) Mikkeller Black (17.5%) - Phew, lucky we did leave this to last. What a great 'finisher' beer for this journey. Some interesting port character and some medicinal alcohol in the aftertaste with it being that high, but is just so mellow that even with the big alcohol content, it rises so warmly the beer could almost contain it. I must include some of the other drinker's were commenting on a 'mhehh, sort of coffee taste' at the back of the palate, which like the supershine 'sourness' I did not perceive. Maybe it was just the big roasted malt character coming through to much so as to try and keep some balance in the beer.

After sleeping off that journey and have to make ourselves stay sober for a go kart session the following afternoon (I came in 6th after spinning out badly a couple of laps from the end, but beat the birthday boy!), we got together at a bar in Carlton to exchange gifts (we decided to indulge Stass' coffee streak and get him a cold drip coffee maker), was happy to see a bit of a selection of beers to try out at Markov. Starting on a sweet and full Hawthorn Pale, I moved onto a classic American Pale Ale in the Sierra Nervada (that is for you Joshie!), a Schofferhoffer Weizen (would have preferred a dark wheat at that time) before an Alambra (?...yep, starts getting a bit dicey from here) that seemed easy drinking for a dark beer with just enough character to keep you interested, then retrying a 3 Ravens Stout, where I definitely got a lot more chocolate notes than I recall having tasted previously from this beer. Then some people tried to get me on port and muskat(?) which ruined the whole journey, and brought an end to the night for drinking (luckily we were getting kicked out of the bar at this time while trying to have a conversation about death and the whole body/spirit aspect of it all...ah drunken musings) and a couple of slices of pizza on Brunswick Street as I made my way home.

Some great news Stass and his missus Jess were able to tell everyone of the night is that they are now 10 weeks pregnant and so now all the dad jokes Stass come out with will become legitimate...poor kid.

So another phase of life as told through Beerdakari comes to pass...

Beefy

PS: Must also mention it is also Iain's birthday today, so even though I didn't have a gift for him, was good to finally be able to share some news with the gang that made it to his brunch.

PPS: I should just start a new post for this, but could not be bothered (I'm really appreciative of anyone reading this stuff aren't I. Just proves I ain't doing it for you, even if you are welcome to view it). Stass and I have finally tasted our Sunday Roast beer now Michelle and Brendon have come back from overseas. The garlic beer they requested has been rounded off some with the addition of roasting it,  also roasting sweet potato, and adding corn syrup for body, some rosemary for a slight saltiness and some hickory smoke for a dash of meatiness. We agree that if we did it again we would not use 21 pieces of garlic (though in this case had to be seeing it was the main emphasis behind the beer) and could back off on the sweet potato a bit too (even if it is needed much at all). We are happy to call this one a bit of a success for a first try. We also have out Scotch Ale ready for tasting against Team Harrod in the near future, and I have just put on my first ever gluten free beer for my cousin's, who have chose to go with the flavour of agave pancake syrup, and which I hope may mask a slightly strange flavour I get on the back of my palate from the sorghum malt. Hoping some residual sweetness will hold (and not get fermented out) out for this purpose...we shall see.

Josie's Journey

Wow,

I have just come home from doing some brewing with Stass (this Sunday Roast beer will be interesting...) and we hit Josie Bones this evening for a few well earned beverages to celebrate life in general. Well, didn't I just fall off my chair (even before I sat in it), when what should I see but the Lindermans Faro on the taps menu. A beer I have only been able to enjoy via the bottle for so long, was now in my grasp, and I grasped tight. In terms of trying to contrast it to the bottle, the carbonation from the keg really freshens it up a bit and brings up all the complexities of flavour there is in this beer. The sherberty sweetness is brought up maybe a bit more through this, bring just a slight better balance to the beer overall. Still, the two words that always come to me with this beer in delicate complexity. Apple cider, white wine, melon, slight caramelised sherbert sugars offset by the fruit sourness, all characteristics I get from this beer over the 20 seconds I like to let it roll over my tongue for. It probably loses a little delicateness from the keg seeing the flavours seem a bit stronger, but the breadth and balance amazed me with each sip, and even went for another one at the end of the journey, even though my palate was not able to fully comprehend it as well second time round. Over 18 months after having this beer in Belgium, I have finally been able to try it again on tap, and have it in Australia. Mind blowing!

Seeing a few other beers on the taps menu looking interesting, we had tasting glasses off the rest of them brought to us and we settled on an order to drink them in

1) Mornington Saison: Having only been receptive with a couple of the beers from this brewery, I was not surprised when I found I did not enjoy this one. For a beer that is meant to have a bit of a yeasty kick, there was hardly any of this to speak of, and that is just my style based criticism. The aroma and front palate had almost like a creamed corn character that was quite off-putting. There was a very slight fruity hit in the midpalate before the corn comes back at that end with some floury character coating the throat on the way down, just so you can keep tasting it for a while after you swallow.

2) Brewer's Malt: One I have tried a few times in the bottle, and it did not disappoint from the tap either. The pure malt character has a sort of scotch ale flavour, but without the alcohol hit of a wee heavy. Perhaps with more sugars not fermented, the body holds up quite well with this caramel malt taste, with only enough hops at the back just to tale off the malt and stop residual sugars overwhelming in aftertaste. Very simple but well made, and with the big malt base, one Stass and I both liked personally.

3) Red Hill Wiezenbock: Had been interested in trying this for a while, so happy to have it on tap for best appreciation. The wheat reminded Stass of the corn aspect in the Saison, while as for me, the alcohol on the nose gave substance to the 8% alcohol written about this beer. However, the alcohol takes over the wheat just that bit too much to unbalance the beer and make it a little too harsh to drink much of. It just rose to soon on the palate, and too quickly in heat, removing a touch too much of the wheat characters I would have liked to have tasted more in this.

4) Nogne O Nighthawk Breakfast: As an American Brown Ale, it certainly did not have the amount of bitterness I was expecting from the style. Malt character was fairly standard in a brown and wasn't enough the make up from the hole the hops seemed to have left. Even if it had tried to fill the flavour gap, it would have outbalanced the beer.

5) Mikkeller Green Gold: I wouldn't have thought there was a beer that rivals the Moylan's Hopsickle in terms of balance and depth in an IPA, but this one does. The caramel malt, and body to go with it, the slow but steady rise in hop the blends well with the malt, but continues to rise through the 7% alcohol that could potentially push the palate too far, and a final warm bitterness at the back that just hangs on to the back of your throat, this is one well made beer that even a non hop-head like myself can appreciate. This was probably the most tecnically proficient beer we had on the whole journey, and one I would recommend alongside the Hopsickle.

6) Doctors Orders Black Lung: Was a bit of a comedown after the Mikkeller, and Stass really picked up on the black wheat character we think was used to give this pilsner its dark characteristic. Having had this recently, I did not focus on it too much.

7)Aecht Schenkerla Rauchbier Marzen: As the Faro had taken me back to Brussels, this beer took me directly back to Bamberg, a great smoothness in the body to stop the flavours spiking to much across the tongue, and gives some residual sweetness to stop the smoked ham flavour from drying out the back palate. The smoke flavour is also contained well at the front through the fresh maltiness, reminding me of the more approachable smoke beers I had while in Bamberg. This was also then another beer I appreciated more personally for the nostalgia aspect.

As I said, I ended up going back to the Faro to finish the night on. I hope to even head back during the week to try and drink more of this while it is available on tap. This beer is a must try for anyone that drinks white wine, to start getting an appreciation of beer through flavours they are more use to, and knowing someone like this, would like to get them in there to try it out, even if it means engaging my beer nerd a bit too much.

A great journey for Stass and I to enjoy at this time, so thanks to Jess for helping us through it from behind the bar at Josie Bones, and approving of the drinking order we made for it. Good to see Mira working in here too (as he said, he is a beer hussy), and to James for having a chat about the beer scene, and giving us some comments on our Russian Imperial Stout that Stass brought in for him last time he came (yep, 11.2% will give it a fair bit of alcohol heat)

Oh, I just remembered I missed out on seeing this years collaboration brew between Mountain Goat, Moon Dog and Matilda Bay from being brewed, so looking forward to seeing how it comes along from here as we close in on the colder months and it's Good Beer Week launch...Still, with 27 degrees today, was perfect for the Faro (yeah, just had to finish on that aspect)

Cheers,

Beef

Another Easter De(g)gustation

Happy Easter beer and chocolate lovers, and welcome to my third year of having chocolate beers for the weekend.

Unfortunately I did not get much interest from my mates to eat easter eggs and drink chocolate beers with me this year (yeah, what is wrong with them), so it was just Stew and I that went through the journey together, which meant I held back on a few beers just to make sure we could get through them all.

In the end we tried the Robinson's Old Tom Chocolate Strong Ale, Meantime Chocolate, Mildura Choc Hops and an old fav in the Holgate Temptress, paired with M&M, dark, milk, and Caramello solid Easter eggs.

The Old Tom Chocolate has a bit of high noted sugaryness to it that reminded me a bit like the Polish chocolate beer, but that may just be from the vanilla in it as well. There is a bit more depth in the malt though in comparision, but I did get a bit of acid through this aspect though, so the slight alkaline from the milk chocolate egg did balance if out well. The Caramello was next best, then the dark, ending with the M&M egg. The candied shell aspect of the M&M combines badly with the suspect quality of chocolate use (ok, it is a novelty easter egg) so it did not fair well overall. Anyway, onto the next beer.

I have tried the Meantime Chocolate the first time we did an easter choc beer tasting, but came off quite subtle with the bigger beers we had tasted back then. Compared to the Old Tom there was a fuller malt character and darkness to go with it to bring a bit of bitterness along with it. Of course this meant it matched well with the dark chocolate the best, even though personally, we did not enjoy this combination the most. The milk chocolate seemed to balance out the bitterness a bit better and give me the sweet choc flavour I personally enjoy more, and this sweetness followed onto the Caramello, with the M&M again coming last. But if you do like a subtle dark chocolate flavour, this beer is pretty good to go with.

I have tried the Choc Hops a few times now, and having stored this beer for a while, wondered if the 'chico' aroma and flavour would mellow out with age in the bottle. This has definitely happened, and allowed for more of a darker chocolate aspect to come through, but still retaining a slight high noted sugary choc factor. Surprisingly, I think with these two things combined meant it reacted well to the Caramello egg the best, as it seemed to bridge both these aspects in the beer with the chocolate, and the caramel sweetness. The dark came in second, as it contrasted well with the high notes and balance it out towards the darker side across the palate. the darker chocolate aspect at the back of the beer bring out the bitter roasted chocolate egg and you are left with this flavour in aftertaste. The milk of course also found some traction in this beer to match in the front palate, and the M&M continued to fail us.

Finishing on the Temptress, it also seemed overall to be capable of tying itself well with most of the eggs, even though the beer tasted a bit old/dusty and the slight chalkiness also coming through seeing I had left it in the fridge for a long time to try and preserve it as best I could for this tasting. It was actually a bit harder to pick which egg went best with it, but in the end the dark won out over the milk, the Caramello coming in third, and of course the M&M last. Still, on the M&M, I was interested to find a sort of jaffa flavour could be found in the combo, as the candied shell went with the darker choc aspects in the beer, which is why it matched better with the dark egg. Still, this slight jaffa quality was not enough to get the M&M egg out of last spot.

So, this brings us to the end of the 250th post on this blog, and happy to see it put towards this easter tradition of enjoying chocolate beers along with the chocolate that comes out around this time of year. I was also interested to notice that I have now reached 7,500 views and now getting around 500 views each month. Of course, not something I was looking for when starting this blog, which is probably why I notice it more. So I guess some people do have nothing better to do than read my notes on beers...who would have thought. Not me. Still, I hope it is doing its little bit in educating some on what the potential of beer is, even if I may be a bit limited in my personal appreciation of beers many styles. I hope people can look beyond this to find their own flavours, and I am being descriptive enough to allow people to start looking for those beers they enjoy through my experience. I know for me, it has helped me come a long way in understand my own taste and given me notes to work off when thinking of what makes up the beers I like and so the beers I like to brew (well, attempt to brew anyway).

Thanks to Stew for his company and input into this specific post, and to anyone that actually enjoys reading any of this stuff I continue to put up here. I at least know my friends have finally had enough of me annoying them with free beer...though it does not make any sense to me (I guess that is the point).

Cheers to beers,

Beef

PS: I also just remembered I tried a couple of other beers this week, with the German made, iconic Duff Lager, and the Maui Coconut Porter, both packaged in cans. The Duff had the traditional German sweet malt aspect that came off a bit honey and found it quite enjoyable for what I heard Stew bought at $20 a case (good value for money there). The Coconut Porter had some dark chocolate aspects to it and came out quite a bit dry-roasted at the back of the palate. This made it a bit hard to get the coconut aspects (though the potential for it to be a bit like an aussie lamington was interesting to think about), but this seemed to help balance out the dark roasted character of the malt to give it some better balance and broadness overall.