Morrison Brewery

My local craft beer

The Morrison craft beer brewery has been brewing beer right under my nose without me realising it.

It hit me like a hockey puck to the face when I read someone recently that this beer was brewed right here in Launceston, and not only that but Invermay, an area I drive through almost daily to get to work (insert facepalm).

I am focusing my drinking habits towards craft beer these days and have in fact sampled the Morrison Brewery beers on several occasions since the Esk Beerfest in January. It has been one I often start with at my favourite alcohol establishment Saint John Craft Beer as it is usually on the #1 tap.

I want all of the beer...

Purchasing a stubby of it today I read the label to confirm what I thought I had read, that Morrison Brewery is my closest craft beer brewer.

Doing the usual basic research I have found its Facebook page which sadly only has 539 likes since its creation in 2011.

Morrison Beer is popular at Tassie Beer Festivals 

They specialise in English and Irish style craft beer after Tasmanian Paul Morrison started with a home brew kit and sent samples down to the Hobart for the Tasmanian Beerfest which won the approval of thousands and encouraged him to grow his business into a 500 litre microbrewery.

Morrison Brewery in full swing

Click on this link to see a short YouTube clip about the brewery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S307j8OMdHY 

This was good!

The three main beers they have available are English Bitter, Irish Red Ale and Irish Stout. I’ve had the first two on several occasions and remember trying a Saison type at Beerfest.

A Morrison Brewery employee hard at work

According to their Facebook page they have their product for sale Tasmania wide at many establishments and bottleshops (including all BWS stores in Tasmania), and the beers have placed well in Melbourne beer competitions.

I will be supporting this brewer more now even though I already liked it and hopefully Mr Morrison can continue his success.

Cheers,

Dave

Kirin Ichiban (Australian Version)

Kirin is number one for a couple of reasons, first, the beer is called ichiban – which is Japanese for number one, secondly, it is an amazingly crisp, refreshing beer.

To make it clear, I’m talking about the Kirin Ichiban which is sold in Australia (called first press beer), there is one in Japan which is labelled differently but it is not as good.

Kirin Ichiban First Press is made in Australia which is why it would be different to its Japanese counterpart.

Still a good beer when you are in Japan

The Japanese labelling colour is pretty dull

This beer has been hard to find in Tasmania, only one or two shops would sell it on occasion that I knew of, now BWS have started to stock it and I can enjoy it more often.

This is how to drink beer in Japan

The bottle design really appeals to me, the green glass (green being my favourite colour) and the dark label has the image of something strange on it. If you know Japanese you can do some research, kirin in Japanese has two meanings, giraffe, or a chimera type monster, I’m sure you can see that it isn’t a giraffe on the label.

Ichiban is something I’m sure Australian’s have heard of at one point or another, it is the name of a famous yacht which has competed in many Sydney to Hobart yacht races.

This 5% beer is important to me for another reason, it has a very similar taste to something I can never taste again. A fellow beer consumer and myself believe that Kirin Ichiban first press has similar characteristics to James Boag’s Pure.

According to Dan Murphy’s: “Kirin’s special ‘First Press’ method produces pure, smooth flavours and a pale amber shine, crowned with a rich, creamy head. Only the first mix of malt and water is extracted when ingredients are at their purest to deliver what in Japan is considered a blessing.”

Time to get back to my beer, until next time!

Cheers,

Dave

Boag's Classic Blonde RIP

The latest/ last packaging

This week I will talk about Boag’s Classic Blonde, a low-carb lager created in 2007 that changed beer drinking for many Tasmanians.

I only wish I could talk about this beer under better circumstances.

The first packing when it was released in 2007

At my bottle-shop yesterday I went into the cool room and looking down towards the back of the room next to Pure Blonde I saw an extra row of Pure Blonde, there was no Classic Blonde.

The bottle-shop staff member confirmed what I had known about for a while, Classic Blonde was no longer in production.

I had heard from my source at Boag’s that Classic Blonde was on the way out but it still came as a shock to find it was no longer for sale.

This is a sad day for beer lovers

I remember buying a six-pack back in 2007 when it had just come out, it was a unique tasting, new style of beer. Blonde beer which I have talked about in a recent post is still new in Australia, Classic Blonde was Tasmania’s alternative to Pure Blonde and it found a few fans who preferred it for the low carb aspect.

Boag's is well known for its advertisments

At a best-friends buck’s party we split a carton of Classic Blonde on a golf course, I wasn’t the one riding the golf caddy down a hill though. The beer has been good to me while it was here.

Dan Murphy’s described Classic Blonde as: “Cold climate Lager. Chilled by its proximity to Antarctica, Tasmania’s cold climate is alive in James Boag’s classic Blonde, creating a premium low carbohydrate Lager that is uniquely fresh and crisp.”

I am on the hunt for these items, will pay $$$

I acquired one of these many years ago

The Boag’s official website has already erased any traces of Classic Blonde, I only wish they could keep some sort of online museum about the beers they used to make, it feels like they are letting time kill it off out of fridges and our memories.

Two of these are no longer in production...

Without getting an official comment from Boag’s about why they have stopped production of Classic Blonde I can only assume it is due to them taking on production of mainland beers (XXXX Gold). There doesn’t seem to be any new Boag’s product to replace it which is sad since Boag’s Pure was the last new beer in 2009, it’s been six years and all they have done is relabel their current beers and remove many new creations.

I have a carton of this amazing beer left, but I will drink any more that I see out in the world and I suggest you do the same. Let’s see this beer off in style and remember its crisp taste.

Please don't forget

Please don’t forget Classic Blonde, it left a mark that will never be replaced. As for an alternative when it is completely gone the next is Pure Blonde, but I don’t rate it as highly as I do Classic Blonde.

- Dave