Stella Artois

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A beer that is 600 years in the making, Stella is a classy and sophisticated brew.

Stella Artois is the pride of Belgian brewing, a reminder that Europe has all kinds of amazing beers you should be getting into from time to time.

This pilsner is 4.8% and bottled in Australia among other countries.

A nice looking bunch there

According to the BWS website: “Originating from Belgium, Stella Artois is made using unique quality ingredients that result in a crisp, clean, medium-bodied flavour brew. Its distinct bitterness is balanced perfectly against a pleasantly sweet finish that is satisfying and refreshing.”

Cheers,

Dave

Last Rites Raspberry Ginger Beer

Here at Dave’s Beers of the World I enjoy looking outside of the box for the next awesome drink.

Tasmanian craft brewery Last Rites has now mass produced an interesting new drink they have been showcasing at Festivale and the Esk Beerfest.

A tantalising combination of Tasmanian raspberries, lemon and lime, this pink looking ginger beer is a great transition drink if you are looking for a break from your regular brews. At 8% it has a bit of a kick but doesn’t have much ginger taste, the combination of different flavours give it a unique flavour.

I found some down in Hobart recently, it will be available in Launceston soon, if you live out of Tasmania I understand it will be available for sale on Boozebud.

Last Rites are based in Hobart and are known for their new-world hop-driven American style ales, last year I wrote about another of their new releases Tasmania IPA Love Country.

Cheers,

Dave

Adnams Ghost Ship Pale Ale

An English beer with a spooky feel, I picked up a four-pack at Dan Murphy’s to try it for myself.

Inspired by a pub in one of England’s most haunted villages, the Bell Inn at Walberswick, Southwold is a place known for many shipwrecks along the coastline.

The first thing to note about the beer is when you open the can you get hit with a foam explosion, my first guess was that they must capture a ghost in each can and they are trying to escape… you lose a good few mouthfuls once you open it. After cleaning up the mess I was able to drink it, a craft beer feel from the moment you taste it and it was enjoyable right until the end.

The Bell Inn, the birthplace of Ghost Ship Pale Ale

It turns out all four cans frothed up and made a mess as I opened them… they have been waiting in my fridge for a while so it wasn’t from being shaken up, that is the only downside to this fantastically spooky ale.

Citra hop, an American hop known for its lemon and lime scent has been used along with other American hops. There is also a variety of malts included which give it its amazing character, the website claims it has a ‘pithy bitterness’ which means it's full of vigor and substance.

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If you get to try one let me know if you have the same frothy issue, I would like to know if it was just bad luck or maybe they are so ghostly that there is in fact a spirit trapped inside?

Cheers,

Dave 

Great Northern Super Crisp Lager

Queensland is known around Australia for its hot summers, amazing beaches and fishing. This image has been captured and created into a beer for all of Australia to enjoy. Great Northern is the beer with the marlin on it, a dream catch for any fisherman.

Great Northern Original was brewed for Queenslanders, the Super Crisp Lager was developed in 2015 for the rest of Australia. The key difference with the national version is that it’s a mid-strength. Queensland is already famous for a popular selling mid strength beer, XXXX Gold, is the state big enough for two popular selling mid-strengths?

nice artwork

I have noticed in the past two years how quick Great Northern Super Crisp Lager has entered bars and bottle shops. Many beer drinkers swear on it because of its unique fruity aroma and crisp texture, of course. Like pretty much every beer, it has had mixed reviews but this is good competition for XXXX Gold, a nice beer and one I think you should try if you are looking for something new and exciting.  

Click on the link to see one of their popular ads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amWs8rsgDjE

Cheers,

Dave

Matso's Lychee Beer

Before Christmas last year I sampled a mango beer, it wasn’t that good, but I did recommend Matso’s if you are ever wanting to have a mango beer.

I’ve recently discovered that Matso’s also have another fruit flavoured beer, lychee.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with lychee I’ll share what I’ve learned from a google search: It is a tropical fruit native to provinces in China, now cultivated around the world, you don’t eat the hard outside but instead the white fleshy pulp inside.

It has a unique sweet flavour and in my opinion has been infused with Matso’s beer very well.

While drinking it I would get caught up in the amazing sweet taste and had to keep reminding myself that this was a beer, it was a pleasurable experience and I suggest you try it for yourself.

Another great beer!

Matso’s is a brewery in Broome which has Asian history – hence the Asian influences in their beers.

Cheers,

Dave

Esk Beerfest 2017

Beerfest was a few days ago, but between buck’s parties and learning to do bonsai I’ve been struggling to get in front of a computer and put my thoughts together.

This year was different in a slightly different location, instead of the front of the brewery it spanned around the side and the back.

Breweries from all over Tasmania and many from the mainland came along, there was even a couple of sellers trying to sell Cascade Lager…

There was a lot more amazing food this time around but the merchandise was lacking. Many places were selling hats and t-shirts but I don’t usually get those.

What I liked:

Boag’s provided what I thought was the best beer of the event – Oscar’s Run, a pale ale made for Beerfest. I’ve wanted Boag’s to bring out something new for a while and this made up for it.

My favourite beer

There was a strangely awesome drink in Last Rites raspberry, lemon and lime ginger beer, soon to be available for sale, I highly recommend this one.

Hopefully for sale everywhere soon

There was a lot of debate about the best cider of the event but I made a decision with Red Brick Road’s apple pie, Corey has done a fantastic job to keep the variety coming.

Apple pie cider

The food was amazing, I got to sample new arrivals, mush pit mushrooms, the flying calamari brother’s calamari cone, an old favourite Burger Junkie and another old favourite returned after a holiday last year, tornado potatoes – even though it was from a different supplier. My favourite thing to eat though was the Canadian maple bacon burger, it was mouth-watering.

The best thing to eat

My favourite stall was without question Boag’s, the only one to sell stubby holders for their product.

I didn’t get as long as normal to get the full experience but it was still a lot of fun.

Cheers,

Dave

Kick Snare's sampler pack

An awesome idea

They're back!

Xmas Advent Calendars 2016 Dec 21 - 24

Here are the last eight beers for you to drool over…

December 21

Stillwater Artisinal Vacuum Readymade/ Stillwater

A boring looking beer and an overly strong taste at 8% and made in America, not one of my favourites. Why have an iron on a label? I don’t like it that much.

Murray’s Fred IPA

Murray’s are right when they say they don’t make boring beer, this good beer is late hopped using us pacific north west hops. Best paired with smoky and spicy food, I like the sound of that.

December 21

December 22

Feral Karma Citra

First of all there are two rabbits going at it on the label. This India black ale is a ‘sexed-up’ IPA, using citra hops with dark malts to create a pleasant and unique tasting beer.

Mikkeller Hello Ich Bin Berliner Weisse

For the last can in the beer adventure I was a bit uncomfortable with this one, it smelt bad and upon taste it was hard to drink. A strange tasting beer for a peculiar market, not mine apparently. A Belgian beer brewed with peaches, try it if you like fruity beer.

December 22

December 23

Food match with Tempura Fairy Wings

Bridge Road Magical Christmas Unicorn Vanilla Icecream Ale

I wish you could have seen the smile on my face when I found this in the carton. Highly sought after and hard to find. Bridge Road have put their heads together and come up with probably the most peculiar beer I’ve ever heard of but I’ll give them 10/10 for creativity. This vanilla ice cream beer is beer don’t forget but has a vanilla ice cream taste – you’ll probably have to try it to believe me. To the right is a picture of the side of the label, I like their description of the beer. I highly recommend this if you can find them around this time of the year.

Bridge Road Fat Man Red Suit Big Sack

I’ve hit the jackpot. I’ll admit, I wasn’t expecting this from Saint John but they have bounced back and put a Christmas beer in the carton, this was one I was hoping to find in the Bridge Road carton since its one of theirs. Unlike the amazing Vanilla Icecream Ale this one is an Australian Christmas Beer, using a combination of Australian hops to create an amazing red ale.

December 23

December 24

Bridge Road Fat Man Red Suit Big Sack

Bridge Road Magical Christmas Unicorn Vanilla Icecream Ale

This made me chuckle as the calendars have had the same attack for the finish line but just crossed over. I’ve already said what I think about these beers so I will share with you my final verdict, then you can get back to your Christmas drinking.

December 24

Both advent calendars had a very different approach and were presented in different ways. They had pros and cons for each.

Bridge Road and Friends:

A real advent calendar with doors to peel back each day

A properly designed carton

A lot of nice beers with a perfect Christmas finish

Supporting Australian brewers

Saint John:

The beers are individually wrapped meaning you can chill them and not get the surprise until you are ready to drink.

More access to the insane and bizarre, a fermented sour fruit beer, cans

A perfect Christmas finish.

The verdict.

I loved working through both of these cartons, but this year I will award the best to the Bridge Road and Friends Advent Calendar, they ticked more boxes and performed better overall. I believe that this is a fixed carton and will be identical every year, by all means, I highly recommend you get one of these next year, it is very much worth the $100 if you love beer. Having said that back to back Saint John cartons were completely different which means next year will hopefully be different again and therein lies the fun, not knowing what is coming next.

I’ve had 48 beers in the 24 days leading up to Christmas, there have been many interesting and some scary beers, I’ve recommended quite a few if you want to try something new and hopefully helped you to avoid some scary ones.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to my readers, thank you for your support this year which has been beyond fantastic.

Stay tuned next year as there will be many more exciting blog posts to see and many more crazy stories to share.

Beerfest in Launceston is on January 13 and 14, I hope to see you there.

In the meantime,

Cheers,

Dave