I'm a beer columnist and home brewer. Here I cover everything to do with one of the most popular and discussed beverages in the world.
Cheers! Bob
IF you are wandering through a bottle shop you may come across the distinctive Imperial lager from Costa Rica. Heralded as Costa Rica's favourite beer, this drop might be worth trying to find out why.
It is labelled as a cerveza-style of beer but I think falls into the mainstream lager category with a balance of malt and hops to make it a good thirst quencher especially on a warm day.
It has clean, clear golden appearance with an aroma which gives up a cereal/malt aroma.
The brewers from Stone & Wood continues to deliver seasonal beers alongside their regular range and one such brew is The Gatherer.
Formerly known as The Forager but due to naming conflicts with another brewer, the name has changed and being a seasonal beer so to this brew.
The Gatherer is based on a US wheat beer and hence as a cloudy straw coloured appearance with a tight white head.
BREWER Matilda Bay has been "breeding" its Yak range of beers and their latest, Wild Yak, is ideally suited to the great outdoors.
This release is a "pacific ale" (which seems to be the new trend) and while there are other more fragrant and fruity brews on the market, this isn't overpowering while delivering the key elements of what a good beer should do - refresh and revive.
It has a fruit nose, hinting at the citrus qualities of the beers, is clean and golden in colour with a good white head but isn't too gassy.
THE warmer months have been the perfect time to for beer drinkers to be adventurous and try something different and although summer is officially over, don't let that stop you twisting the top off a cold one.
It doesn't matter if you are a die-hard mainstream beer lover, branch out and have a go at some of the limited-release beers on the market - they won't be round for long and one of those is the latest offering from James Squire, The Hop Father Celebration Ale.
I HAVE to admit I’m not a fan of cans, especially when it comes to beers. However, I was pleased to see that one of my favourite summer ales, Little Creatures’ Dog Days Summer Ale, has now come out in cans, because the range of brews in aluminium are pretty limited when it comes to truly flavoursome drops.
WITH the advent of hot weather comes a flurry of new beer releases all claiming to be refreshing, thirst-quenching brew.
However, the proof is in the drinking and the latest offering from Burleigh Brewing, Twisted Palm, ticks all the boxes when it comes to a beer which is well-suited to our beachy summer lifestyle.
FROM the Pickled Pig Brewery at Tweed Heads comes an interesting little drop called Sunrise Ale.
This ale is slightly cloudy in nature with a bright white head but offers a distinctive fruit nose.
It is a saison-style of beer using a passionfruit base which produces a slight sour flavour at first, which may be a little confronting, but this gives way to a pleasant bitterness in the aftertaste.
Actually the flavour is quite appealing after a few mouthfuls, and it certainly delivers in the thirst-quenching department.
TWEED Heads’ Pickled Pig Brewery has once again gone against the norm and come up with an unusual but intriguing dark beer named Midnight Special.
Pickled Pig founder Paul Brewer likes to think outside the square. With this hybrid dark ale, in his quest to come up with something different, he has produced a dry black beer which has floral notes which you would expect to find in a pale ale. It actually defies many rules – sort of an old/pale ale-cross which actually works well.
LIGHT beers have never really interested for good reason – very few have any flavour. Being responsible shouldn’t come at the cost of enjoyment and fortunately the Fortitude Brewing Company in Mt Tamborine have come up with a winner in their Pacer 2.8.
As the name suggests Pacer 2.8 is 2.8 per cent but more importantly, it has a great hop flavour to it which you might find in many of the pale ales on the market.
NOW the weather is warming up, we are finding ourselves outdoors more either for work or recreation and that also means working up a thirst.
In a break away from the deluge of pale ales, Hahn has come up with a true thirst quencher in its Hahn Radler. This style was developed in Germany cut 50/50 with beer and lemon but Hahn, recognising the Aussie demand for beer with a beer flavour (not lemon) has blended theirs at 70 per cent beer and 30 per cent lemon.
