Crazy Ales

After three years of Ale Star sessions featuring different beer styles, I guess there comes a time when the pickins’ get a little slim. It’s not that you begin running out of styles because a good beer style can always be revisited, and there’s nothing wrong with going over old ground anyway – it just makes it harder to ‘sell’.

And when you promote the latest session as one featuring ‘Crazy Ales’, well, you probably expect to see fewer bums on seats than if you are showcasing a more popular style with a new age Rock Star Brewer as special guest. While the crowd was perhaps a bit smaller than usual The Local Taphouse St Kilda proved once again that “if you build it, they will come” as forty-odd hardy souls sat down to what Ale Czar Shandy prefers to call “Unusual beers”.

Most drinkers of the amber nectar are by now familiar with the basic ingredients of malt, hops and yeast and most regular visitors to Ale Stars are probably familiar with the addition of fruits, spices and other vegetal media to enhance a beer or replace a more common ingredient. Those present were treated to four examples of the flexibility that beer has in carrying flavours and imparting new and unusual aromas.

Beginning with a Grozet Gooseberry & Wheat Ale from Williams Brothers in Scotland the Ale Stars were treated to bready and wheaty aromas mixed beautifully with lime cordial and freshly boiled lollies. A light carbonation and tart berry finish make for a refreshing drink. The “wee hairy grapes” as the Scots colloquially refer to gooseberries give the beer its character without overpowering the palate.

For those familiar with the latest addition to The Taphouse ‘family’ The Funky Brewster was on show for the next beer with the latest offering from resident Darlo Taphouse Ale Czar, Darren ‘Doc’ Robinson’s Zephyr White Ale making its way through some orange peel and native Pepperberries to produce a luxurious mouthfeel and tastes of citrus and spice in just the right measure. Patience was also a requirement as the Taphouse Beer Guru; James Smith struggled to unblock the outlet valve of lodged Pepperberries.

Mikkeller has been at the forefront of the global beer movement which can best be described as; “What can we possibly stick in a beer that hasn’t been tried yet?” After toying with specific yeasts and hop varieties through to barrel aging and adding weasel poo-flavoured coffee beans they have had a red hot go at just about everything. Their Texas Ranger has a fair bit going on in the glass with sweet and sour and spicy and smoky all wrapped up in a black richness with slight astringency in the end. Different? Yup.

We finished with a Beer Here Morke Pumpernickel Porter which you really have to try to fully appreciate the full range of flavours and mouthfeels as it slips effortlessly down. As Shandy put it so well; “not for a session but a real crossover for the liquid bread fans”. Enough said.

For an abbreviated crowd the night had plenty of atmosphere and chatter with the Mikkeller probably just edging out the Zephyr as the night’s favourite. The room at The Local Taphouse showed that whether you call them ‘crazy’ or just ‘unusual’ there is definitely a market for beers that showcase ‘different’ ingredients. And we couldn’t say that just a few years ago, could we?

Cheers

Prof Pilsner

Local Taphouse fills with Little Creatures

He’s a Chilean-born American from Brisbane, Tasmania, Fremantle and back to Fremantle via Belgium who now lives in Melbourne. And he knows just a little about beer. He’s Alex Troncoso and he has something to do with a little brewing concern called Little Creatures.

By his own admission he has held more jobs within this iconic Australia brewing company than he can fit on a wallet full of business cards including various brewing appointments and product development roles which has led him to his current desk in charge of ... new projects? Property management? Chief overseer of pretty much anything to with the smooth running of the place?

Something like that. He’s so busy I’m not convinced he knows what his job title is.

Thankfully he was not so busy that he couldn’t make a special appearance at Ale Stars at The Local Taphouse in St Kilda last night to talk and walk 68 interested beer people through five of Little Creatures and White Rabbits current offerings. By his own admission he was unsure of what to say and how it would be received but it didn’t take long for him to warm up and realise that this crowd is pretty easy to please. Just talk about what you do and keep the beers coming.

Five beers rather than the usual four (and full glass servings as well) meant that all were soon well refreshed and listening intently. That so many present were still recovering from Saturdays GABS SpecTAPular may have had something to do with the subdued nature of the mob. It’s not often you get people nodding off during Ale Stars and I will keep my promise to Tony and not mention anyone by name. There you go, Tony.

Most readers will be familiar with the beers we sampled with Little Creatures Pale Ale and Rogers Beer and White Rabbit’s Dark and White Ales having prominent space in many bottle shops around the country so we won’t be posting detailed tasting notes here – get out and grab some for yourselves and try them. What will be shared are some details about Little Creatures that maybe unknown.

Alex took great pains to dispel several ‘industry myths’ that circulate from time to time that paint Little Creatures as having moved away from all that made it many people’s favourite brewer. Over the past few years there have certainly been plenty of punters through the restaurant who have been convinced that ‘things have changed’ since ‘they became a mega-brewery’ and ‘stopped using real hops’...

Alex will often answer the last criticism while standing in a room stuffed to overflowing with bale upon bale of hop flowers, stacked against pallets of hop pellets and explaining that Little Creatures uses more hops now than they did when brewing began back in early 2000. He is also amused by those who decry the brewery as ‘mega’ pointing out that they are a mere 10% the size of Cooper’s.

Another myth revolves around ‘dumbing down’ the recipe to ‘cheat the drinker’ which pops up regularly. Many Ale Stars were, I’m sure, pleased to hear that LC are happy to switch hop varieties, alter mash temperatures and tweak other nerdy brewing procedures to keep their flagship Pale Ale up to scratch. Seasonal variations in raw materials and a constant desire to keep searching for beer perfection means that batch-to-batch variations are not just planned for but embraced.

The ever-present spectre of ‘evil big business ownership’ was addressed well when Alex explained that, not only has Lion Nathan always had a 37% share of Little Creatures parent company, but they have never exerted an influence when it comes to the integrity of the finished product. This was most notable in the fact that corporate discounts on raw materials have been rejected in favour of staying with smaller, loyal suppliers which served to maintain the essence of the taste profile of the beer.

As is often the Ale Stars way, our guest was happy to stay back afterwards and chat to the stayers (whose numbers were thin – GABS?) until the bar emptied. It seems to be a pre-requisite that good beer brewers must be generous with their time and affable and charming all the time. Maybe there’s something in the beer ...?

And one last (and very refreshing) point to finish on. As Alex told us; “We have equipment that can measure alcohol by volume and we can test for colour and carbonation, but we can’t test for flavour. Sometimes you just have to stop and taste the beer.”

Hear, hear!

Cheers

Prof Pilsner

P.S. A quick shout-out to Bec who is leaving the Taphouse after being a welcome fixture since not long after the place opened. This Ale Stars was her last and, on behalf of all the members and casuals, I wish her all the best for the future. We will all miss her smile and her ability to seemingly pour three beers at once while ringing up the till, wiping down a bench and clearing trays of glasses all at the same time. Good Luck, Bec.


P.S.S. It is categorically untrue that a certain Trivia Team who has been handicapped-out of winning the last five or six quizzes won last night’s only because Justin wasn’t there and Guy didn’t recognise our handwriting. I mean, their handwriting. Suffice to say victory tastes sweet. But not nearly as sweet as that bottle of Sierra Nevada Hoptimum whole hop cone special that was part of the winners’ spoils.

A blend of old and new

I’m a beer drinker. Always have been. Never really into spirits and wine just ain’t my thing. Beer. Good beer and good company and I’m set.

Cocktails? Girly drink. Did have one on my Buck’s Night and can’t remember anything after it and haven’t had one since. You won’t get my attention by offering cocktails.

So when the calendar of events for The Local Taphouse St Kilda Ale Stars came out and I saw that November was listed as “Beer Cocktails and Blending” I had to look - and think – twice. Had we really exhausted all possible and available beer styles that we had to resort to ADULTERATION!?!

The assembled group was pretty much a ‘who’s who’ of the Ale Stars membership indicating that the topic may have scared off some of the crowd but a visiting group of Americans propping up the comfy couches swelled the numbers and gave everyone else a head start on the trivia quiz. Those souls brave enough to take a chance on Beer Cocktails sat eagerly awaiting the beery treats to come.

And what treats there were. Ale Star Czar, Shandy (and was there ever an opportunity to take the piss out of his nickname!?) explained that while Beer Cocktails as such are a relatively modern phenomenon, the practice of blending beers is centuries old. Whether to ensure consistency, to correct an unbalanced brew or simply to create different brands from a single batch, brewers have sought to mix and match beers.





We began with one of modern brewing’s most misunderstood creations, the Radler. A German word meaning ‘cyclist’ it was sold to thirsty lycra lunatics powering up the Alps by cluey bar owners wanting to strike a balance between satisfying the need for refreshment and countering the inability to navigate a bicycle after a few lagers. The original – far removed from today’s sickly sweet mainstream versions – was tart and citrusy and thirst quenching. The Taphouse version was spot-on thanks to a fresh lemon concentrate beforehand. Mixed 40/60 with Trumer Pils it hit the spot.




Having convinced the room that ‘blends’ weren’t all that scary after all and we wouldn’t be sipping shandies, the next concoction landed. You’ve all heard the expression, ‘some assembly required’? This was the beer version. Blend-your-own Faro. A small plate of ‘toffeed’ candi sugar and a glass of Cantillon Gueuze with a straw for mixing was a little daunting to some. The fact that the sugar was perhaps a bit too ‘set’ made it a bit more daunting. Persistence was recommended however, and those who stuck to the task were rewarded with a beautifully balanced drink of cheek-puckering tartness tempered with an underlying sweetness that replicated the original nicely.

The pictures below show Steve dissolving the sugar in his drink. The first picture is time-stamped 7.55pm and the last one 10.15pm. Steve’s sugar still hadn’t completely dissolved as this piece went to air.







Who likes cake? Yeah, we all love a bit of cake. Black Forest cake? Even better! Black Forest Cake in beer form? Where do I sign?!? St Ambroise Oatmeal Stout and Lindeman’s Kriek. Two more complex beer styles you couldn’t hope to find. Put them together in a glass and it’s dessert for sippin’. The tartness of the kriek combined with the richness of the chocolatey stout made for a terrific representation of the original dessert. Inspired.

How do you finish a night like this with a topic like this? With an old standard of course. Everyone asked to name a blended beer drink will eventually come up with a Black & Tan and this was the perfect note on which to finish. But not the time-honoured classic of Guinness and Bass Pale Ale but a very Australian 2010 version featuring the liquid charms of Feral Hop Hog and Moo Brew Imperial Stout. As each Ale Star poured their jug of Moo Brew Stout (and doesn’t that sound decadent enough?) over a spoon and into their Hop Hog the room fell silent before erupting in little explosions of “Look at that!!” and “Oooh!” and “Aaah!!” as glasses were held aloft and the contents examined for perfect settlements. This was beer with theatre.




The Local Taphouse is to be commended for not only creating an environment where beer can be truly appreciated but which also refuses to rest on its laurels. If anyone had dare suggest even a few years ago that forty people would pay forty bucks each to go to a little pub in an out-of-the-way location to drink beers mixed and blended with other beers for them by a dodgy (in a very nice way) unintelligible Scotsman you would have been laughed straight back to the asylum.

The fact that Beer Blending was set aside as a session for some pretty serious – and very-not-so-serious – people is both a credit and a delight. My only hope now is that by the time I write something in a few years time it will be about the fact that there is something like The Local Taphouse in every state. I’m starting to feel a little guilty that we and Sydneysiders have this all to ourselves. And you can blend that any way you like.

Cheers,
Prof Pilsner



The winning trivia team (No Name, Just Rude Pictures) enjoys their prize - The Beer Lovers Guide to Australia. Simon gives it '2 thumbs up'!!

Elementary brewing, my dear Watson

I told myself I would staunchly resist the temptation to throw in a lame-arsed ‘Sherlock Holmes’ gag when posting a review of Tuesday night’s Ale Star session at The Local Taphouse in St Kilda featuring brewer Shawn Sherlock from Murray’s Brewing Co but, well, some rules are made to be broken, aren’t they?

In any event, after speaking to Shawn and listening to him address the assembled beer lovers I decided that the literary reference was not quite so lame-arsed. Elementary is not a bad way of describing the philosophy behind the brews which come out of this Port Stephens operation. Murray’s Craft Brewing Company is really all about taking the elements – the yeasts the malts and the hops and the passion and the love – and crafting beers that are big on flavour and aroma and interest. Elementary. There ya go.




Shawn spoke of the ‘less-than-strict’ adherence to style markers that characterise his work. The Murray’s beers that he takes stewardship of are BASED on a style and are unashamedly ‘beers we like to drink’ Shawn explained. I like that.

And so did the fifty or so Ale Stars who greeted Shawn’s introduction with an almost (hate to even mention her name!) Oprah-like round of applause and just a smattering of hootin’ and a hollerin’. If you’d told me a few years back that Australian craft brewers would be welcomed to the stage as Rock Stars I would have laughed and suggested you buy me a beer by way of compensation but such is the marvellous nature of the scene here at the moment.

Shawn spoke of his love of taking ingredients, playing with flavours and brewing a beer that is for drinking rather than judging. “I tell people, drink the beer and then tell me what style you think it is,” Shawn declared, highlighting the advantage of being a still-active homebrewer and also having a good relationship with the bloke who signs the invoices.




The beers we shared further underlined the advantages of true craft brewing with the exceptional Punch & Judy English style bitter getting the crowd started with big fresh hoppiness, nicely balanced against the fruity malt and all wrapped up in a surprising 3.9% ABV. This is the perfect example of what Murray’s are able to achieve; beers with character and interest, true to style or otherwise.

The very tasty Angry Man American Brown Ale followed with plenty of punchy backbone which barely hinted at its 6.4% - very well hidden. This was a good way to prepare the palate for the Grand Cru, a big bold Belgian Strong Pale Ale nudging the 9% mark and packing in plenty of authentic Belgian character despite being a hybrid Golden/Strong ale.




We finished with the Iconic Icon 2IPA described as one of the hoppiest all-year-round beers brewed this side of the Sierra Nevada and who am I to argue with one as knowledgeable as Shandy? A pale ale in the American Imperial genre which essentially means it’s hopped to within an inch of its life (this one holds a full kilogram of hops in every 100 litres) it is full of flavour at both the malt and hop ends and the 7.5% ABV doesn’t intrude on the refreshment or the enjoyment.

I say we finished on this beer but, if Ale Stars and the Taphouse crew have taught us anything over the last two years it’s that it ain’t over till the Fat Lady finishes singing. There was yet more hoppy goodness to come in the form of the last remaining ten litres of Murray’s Spartacus a one-off, limited release Imperial Pale Ale which unleashes a 10% and 100IBU assault on your taste buds. We have to hope that other local craft beers look at this ‘Spartacus’ and likewise declare; “I AM SPARTACUS!!”




As always, The Local Taphouse did the job. Attracting a brewer of Shawn Sherlock’s standing in the Beer Community and getting him to make his way down to Melbourne to share his brews with an appreciative audience was a win all round. As many were heard to comment later in the night (way too much later!) if you’d dared to suggest five years ago that a bloke who brews beer would get a ‘rockstar reception’ from fifty strangers young and old at a pub that serves twenty different craft beers from the tap and another hundred or so from the bottle you would have raised more eyebrows than Tiger Woods’ missus.

And that is a good thing.

Cheers
Prof Pilsner

Get Set ...GO!!!

This next week looks like being a rather busy one for Beer Blokes and for those who similarly love their beer.

It is even busier for the fact that it is inter-connected with this current week which is also filled to overflowing with beery goodness-wrapped events.

Last weekend was spent checking out the Matilda Bay Brewer’s Bite which brought beer and food to the market and the masses and was a well run and well received event.




After catching up with mates and fellow beer writers at Biero (long night) on Monday, Tuesday was spent preparing for Wednesday’s 3rd meeting of the newly formed (and soon to be incorporated ABWG*) – and when I say ‘preparing’ I mean drinking three beers for tasting notes, which leads us in to today, Thursday.


Tonight you can come and see Prof Pilsner at the Oktoberfest Beer Tasting at Purvis Cellars in Surrey Hills (not to be confused with Purvis Beer in Richmond) where I will be pouring the De Molen range from Holland and the very lovely Stone & Wood range from Byron Bay. You can have some samples, chat with me about beers and perhaps even stay back to help me choose a special ‘surprise beer’ for Friday night’s Beer Dinner at The Courthouse Restaurant.

This Beer Dinner looks like being an absolute cracker with media attending and everything!! I must be on my best behaviour for that. A full restaurant on Saturday before a pleasant Sunday afternoon of drinking lovely beer around a BBQ with mates round out the weekend before the ‘real’ beer week activities begin.







Monday will probably consist of recover/prepare with Ale Stars at The Local Taphouse St Kilda featuring the very talented Shawn Sherlock from Murray’s Brewing (long night) before the hectic and very beery two days of the Microbrewery Showcase at Federation Square. That takes care of Wednesday and Thursday before we are back at The Courthouse to showcase some more craft beer before doing the same again on Friday night and Saturday night and then collapsing in a heap at the end of the week.

The things we do for better beer!

Cheers
Prof Pilsner

Ale Stars & The Beer Ambassadors

It was a different Ale Stars session last night as 65 gathered downstairs at The Local Taphouse in St Kilda like the bear that went over the mountain - to see what they could see.

Ale Stars, you see, usually has a theme, be it a beer style a beer type or beers from a particular brewery. But this time things were different. In fact, I bet if you asked a thousand beer lovers if they’d like to pop over for a ‘slide night’ you’d get a thousand answers ranging from “I’m washing my hair” to “piss off you idiot”.

But, as I said, last night was different. The slide night was being presented by The Beer Ambassadors.





The Beer Ambassadors are Barney Matthews and Miro Bellini from Fed Square must-hang-out, Beer Deluxe and Road Goat, Tom Delmont. And their slide nights are well worth attending. Combine it with a big group of interested onlookers and a fist or two full of very nice American Craft Beers and who could say no, really?

Of the 65 who did say yes, few had any real idea what to expect. Most knew of the boys’ recent trip to the States where they set out to visit 25 breweries and bars in 25 days and sample the best of what that burgeoning Craft Beer scene has to offer but there was a little mystery as to how they would make an Ale Stars night out of it. As it turned out, the boys themselves didn’t really know, either.

What we got was a rollicking night filled with tales of travel and friendships, of mountains and medical emergencies and 200kg Mexican bedmates. You just had to be there.

The beers were different to what we were used to as well. Not that were exact replicas of the beers that the Ambassadors sipped in The States, but representative nonetheless. A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale from Lagunitas got things going and for those in the room (most of us) who had not had an American style wheat beer were divided on this one. Love it or leave it seemed to be the two camps.



Ale Stars had been treated to an Avery Beer when we tasted Brown Ales and this time round we had their flagship IPA which kept things ticking at 6.3% and accompanied the Ambassadors tales of foaming fermenters and Ron Jeremy branded production lines. Don’t ask, I’ll tell you when we next catch up for a beer. But let’s just say it had something to do with ‘packing the most boxes’ ... ooops, may have given it away there. [CAN WE EDIT THAT OUT IN POST? Prof. YEP, THINK SO. Ed]

Salvation then appeared in the form of Avery’s Belgian Strong Pale Ale of the same name and, at 9% it would have to be something pretty drastic that you were being saved from. Warm and rich and spicy and coincidentally sharing its name with a Russian River Brewing Company beer. In a sign of where the Craft Beer scene in The States is at, the two breweries have combined rather than collided to make a joint-blended beer called Collaboration – not Litigation.


Shandy is still in two minds
as to who he is siding with



We finished the formal tasting with a Left Hand Milk Stout which was very much a desserty end to the savoury offerings enjoyed to that point. The Beer Ambassadors closed out the evening with a terrific story that seemed to require selected edits from each of the boys in order to fill in all the missing details that each suffered from. Let’s just say that if you ever find yourself lost, looking for a taxi on a strange corner in a state of fairly severe inebriation, you could do worse than to wake up on a sofa next to a rather large Mexican named Purnell who, until that very minute was a complete and utter stranger and who, as it turned out, didn’t violate you in any way. That you can remember.

That’s a trip worth taking.

Cheers,
Prof Pilsner



And just a quick shout-out to our good mate and long time Ale Star, Kelv, who is heading off to conquer Perth and drink a lot more of the WA Craft Beer a lot fresher. A top bloke and a loyal mate and true friend of Craft Beer. His last regular Ale Star event was last night's and I'd like to take the opportunity to wish him all the best and to thank him for his company on the journey so far. Cheers and Good Luck mate.