Beer - Catching up...(3 March 2012 Part 1)

Well, haven't I been a bad blogger! Have I been neglecting my passion for Melbourne's bustling beer, bar, band scene? I seem to have missed a massive February with blogger essential events like National SLAM Day, countless large music and mini beer festivals, even yesterday's American Beer SpecTAPular at The Local Taphouse, as well as bar news aplenty.

No, not neglecting...I've just been far too busy with my full time job, maintain my property and keeping fit. So, apologies if you're a keen blog reader! The last two weeks also involved a commitment to Half-arsed Febfast, in which we completely gave up all alcohol (plus junk-food, chocolate, ice-cream and chips) to focus efforts on maintaining good health and in support of health and addiction awareness. We also needed to find a near gear to boost our running training as we prepare to run the 14.38km Run for the Kids and the 13.2km Puffing Billy Great Train Race over the next two months. This goal was best served by a dry two weeks.

Whilst I'd love to blog here every day, obligation free rainy days like today are so rare for me at the moment. I also continue to write for Australian Brews News, which takes some priority, so keep watch there!

Thankfully, just quickly, I have some free space today to share about an excellent beer day, as well as a little boast about a very special international craft beer that I consumed last night (...which made this post far too long, so I turned that into Part 2).

Yesterday, we had a sensational day as we returned to the essence of that which makes us such big fans of the local craft beer scene - visiting breweries with friends and enjoying beers over good conversation in beautiful settings. We returned to the scenic Mornington Peninsula for lunch at Red Hill Brewery, followed by a tasting paddle of Hix Beer at the Hickinbotham of Dromana winery and then more beers at Mornington Peninsula Brewery.

For the day we were joined by BJ Shelton from Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA. BJ is a bar owner, musician, blogger, craft beer lover and honourary Australia (his wife, Jess, was originally from Australia). It was great to catch up again with BJ, who shares a passion for exploring local beer.

First we shared lunch with BJ and Jess and Red Hill Brewery, which was busy as many sought to escape the rainy day after visiting the popular Red Hill Community Market. Good thing we had secured a booking earlier in the week! Once again the food, beer and service was spot on. The improved Belgian Blonde, the current seasonal, provided excellent drinking on a gloomy wet day. It even paired beautifully with my steak sandwich. The relaxed setting with fresh food and beer provided a joyus lunch session, as has been the case every time I visit Red Hill Brewery. They just seem to have the prefect brewery cafe formula there.

With Jess heading home to return to parenting duties, BJ, Jenn and I continued onto the Hix brewery at Hickinbotham, which none of us had been to before. The characterful winery cellar door was busy, but everyone seemed to congregating around the wine tasting area. The beer bar off to the side was empty, providing a quiet and relaxed space for the three of us to enjoy ourselves over a tasting paddle of the 5 Hix beers.

Already family with the three bottled beers (Pilsner, Pale and Brown), Hix also offerred two beers which I had not encountered before - an Irish Stout and their seasonal Summer Ale (a Steam beer). Overall the beers didn't throw up many surprises, but it is definitely a location I'd be happy to visit again.

Sometime after 3pm we arrived at Mornington Peninsula Brewery. The rain was now pouring down hard as we took shelter in the warm brewery bar warehouse. MP's head brewer, AG, was just finished up a brew, a White IPA - a hybrid witbier India Pale Ale cross. It will be the first of the style to be commercially released in Australia, although Doctor's Orders will also be producing a White IPA in several months for the Great Australiasian Beer SpecTAPular during Good Beer Week). When his brewing duties were done. AG joined us for several beers. Dave and Karen Golding of Red Hill Brewery also popped in on their way home from a night in the city, leading to some insightful and entertaining brewer on brewer beery chat. There may have been an incident with a pillow-pet and a glass of Mornington Peninsula Imperial IPA.

I drank the Mornington Brewery Saison, which was lovely but didn't quite hit the mark of the three Saisons that I discussed in my last post. AG acknowledged that he wasn't overly happy with the Saison, with something not quite right lingering at on the back palate.

Horrendous weather continued to dominated outside, but it failed to attract from the good times inside, as the afternoon reaffirmed that craft beer people are good people - friendly and welcoming.

As the designated driver for a day, I kept my beer consumption on the soft side for the day, as I knew my reward was waiting for me at home...

...read 3 March 2012 Part 2 to discover that reward!

Beers - Beery Cheesemas to All (Christmas 2011)

Christmas is a time commonly used to indulge in the delicious, sweet excesses of food and drink...and it's no different at the Beer Bar Band home.

Last year we had fun with A Very Beery Christmas, in which each food element of our Christmas lunch was made with beer, around the centre-piece of a barbecue beer-can chicken. This year we indulged our new found love for fine cheese matched with excellent beer.

We gathered 12 awesome craft beers (12 beers of Christmas style) as well as 6 fine cheese from around Melbourne.

Celebrating our first Christmas in our first home, which we bought a few months back, the wife and I had a quiet little fun day with just the two of us. We made the most of our spacious deck with views across the green canopy of the Dandenong hills. It was a warm and sunny morning, then the afternoon turned into a stormy affair. Heavy rain, thunder and lightning flooded and damaged parts of Melbourne, but from our vantage point it simply resulted in a pleasant light and sound show.

During the calm before the storm, we set up a big Christmas lunch spread centred around the beers and cheeses.

 The Christmas menu on our kitchen pantry door.

Merely part 1 of our Christmas table spread.

With the beers naturally ordered from light-to-dark-to-heavy, we tried countless combinations of beer plus cheese plus various morsels of delicacy.

The wonderful cheeses were:

• Quickes Traditional Oak Smoked Cheddar
• Mauri Taleggio Cow's Washed Rind
• Jindi Old Telegraph Road Fire Engine Red Washed Rind
• Rouzaire Coulommier Double-Cream Brie
• Cropwell Bishop Stilton
• Tarago River Cheese Company Strzelecki Goat Blue

Our midday palates were first wet with the 2011 Posse Summer Ale for members of the Bridge Road Brewers Posse club. It has been an excellent beer for this mild summer and it's a fine starter for any beery session. An easy drinking, nicely spiced and well balanced witbier that matched very well with the soft cheeses.

Then we went sour and popped the cork on a benchmark lambic that is guaranteed to find favour with many forms of good cheese - the Guezue 100% Lambic Bio from Cantillon. This sessionable wild ale has just the right amout of sour tartness following the big aroma of a classic lambic.

Next we poured two red ales...always appropriate on any Christmas Day. First we had the Rogue Ales Santa's Private Reserve, a big malty American Amber Ale with a solid bitter hop hit. This beer had been sitting in my not-quite-a-cellar beer cellar for a year following a trip home from Queensland...so it may have suffered from a lack of freshness. Thankfully, it still stood up and worked well on a stormy yet warm Australian Christmas day.

Pouring the Rogue Santa's Private Reserve.

The second red ale was one of my top 3 beer highlights from this Christmas feast...the new Red Rackham by the adventurous Yeastie Boys. This accidental beer started out as a batch of the Yeastie's Hud-a-wa' Strong but they pitched the wrong yeast, a Belgian ale one. The result is a very tasty Belgian Red Ale with a full mouthfeel and excellent balance between malt, spice and bitterness. This complex brew ultimately tastes like a silky red ale, but has much more going on in it. Beautiful beer.

The hops came out in full force with the very Mikkeller in taste, Mikkeller Happy Lovin' Christmas Double IPA. Another quality and very easy drinking big beer from Mikkeller.

And then an extra special moment of Christmas Ale drinking was lined up next.

We had three vintages of the Red Hill Brewery Christmas Ale for a vertical tasting, plus a 3 year old Holgate Brewhouse Christmas Ale (which is sadly no longer brewed by Holgate).

The Red Hill Christmas Ales featured:

• 2011: bottle - this year's release from a 6 pack that we bought whilst at the brewery a few weeks back
• 2010: draught - last year's vintage in a growler, filled from the keg at Blackhearts & Sparrows in North Fitzroy
• 2008: bottle - a special little Christmas gift from Red Hill Brewery owners, Dave & Karen Golding.

I love this Australian intrepretation of a Belgian Christmas ale. The current release was especially good when we drank it fresh at the Red Hill brewery on the first weekend of December. In this vertical, the 2008 vintage was by far the stand-out. The carbonation was still excellent and the rich, deep fruity flavour surrounded by spices had developed beautifully into a well-rounded semi-dark Belgian.

The vertical tasting definitely showcased the way this beer develops with age. The same beer was really quite different across the three vintages. My recommendation: sit on this beer for 3 years for maximum effect!

The three Red Hill Christmas Ales were enjoyed slowly with blue cheese and a game of Trivial Pursuit.

As the storms rolled over the hills past us, we lazed on our deck, watching the rain and lightning. We excitedly cracked the bottle of Holgate Christmas Ale, it was the most anticipated beer of the day. It had been gifted to us by the Holgate brewery crew when we stayed at their Keatings Hotel for our first wedding anniversary back in August.

In contrast to the 2008 Red Hill Christmas Ale, the carbonation was very minimal in the Holgate Christmas Ale but that did not detract from the spectacular flavour of a dark fruity Christmas cake. One could quite easily mistake it for a fortified wine! The warming alcohol was fairly evident, making it an excellent sipper, enjoyed with more blue cheese and dark chocolate, plus splashes of storm. Brilliant. I didn't want to finish it because it was so good...and then it would be completely all gone, with no return.

My #1 beer of Christmas 2011...the 2008 Holgate Brewhouse Christmas Ale!

Whilst this beer has been replaced in the Holgate brewing schedule by my favourite Holgate beer, Beelzebub's Jewels (Paul Holgate has noted that their Christmas Ale was essentially a trial brew as they worked up to producing this barrel aged belgian quadrupel), I truly wish this Christmas Ale was still around every December because it is a damn fine beer to follow Christmas dessert.

Later in the day, when we somehow found some space in our super full stomachs for "dinner", we brought out the Quickes Smoked Cheddar, some smoked almonds, smoked turkey and opened the God Jul from Nøgne Ø. The uber smokey God Jul islay edition is one of my all-time favourite beers and until recently I had never tried this regular God Jul. That changed two weeks back when Josie Bones tweeted that they had the beer on tap (I have never come across this beer in draught form in Australia before!). By some awesome freak chance the wife and I were planning on being in the area that night for dinner, so we first stopped into Josie Bones for a glass each of the divine God Jul in draught form. The regular version of this strong dark Winter ale still displays a hint of the peaty smoke and provided a great start to our late light dinner on Christmas Day.

I love barely wines and I love smokey beers, so a barrel aged barely wine brewed with Islay peated malts was always going to be a winner in my mouth. It came in the form of the 11.5% BrewDog Three Floyds collaboration brew Bitch Please...

And yes, I enjoyed this beer immensely (...some things were a little hazy by this time of the day though). A very well crafted smokey barely wine with the right level of carbonation and mouthfeel that I expect from such a beer. I do indeed recall that it was a perfect match for the smoked cheddar

The final beer was the semi-palate cleansing sour of the delightful and slightly twisted Moon Dog Brewing Perverse Sexual Amalgam...need I say anymore, other than...more smoked cheddar!!

And so ends another excellent Christmas of beer (plus cheese!).

Every beer we drank across Christmas was simply excellent. The stand-outs for me, those WOW beers, were the Yeastie Boys Red Rackham, the 2008 Holgate Christmas Ale and the 2008 Red Hill Christmas Ale. How special...since 2008 was when I effectively started this craft beer journey of mine!

Maybe if I was a little sober to properly recall the 11th beer of the day, I'd probably be trying to find a way to make 3 out of 4 to include the BrewDog Three Floyds Bitch Please.

Nevertheless, each beer worked well in their own way, including as a Christmas brew and an accompaniment to fine cheese, smoked (cold) meats and various nibbles. All the beers offered a unique experience of craft beer and I am keen to drink more of them all again whenever I can.

We now excitedly look towards the new year as this journey continues through the incredible science and art of taste and texture...

...2011 was massive, but 2012 is already shaping up to be even beery bigger!

LOOK OUT mass-produced bland lagers...the people-driven train of good beer at the dining table and in our hands gathering steam and powering towards you to take beer drinkers in a new direction in 2012!

Find these. Drink them. Experience them. Cheers!

Wishing a merry Christmas and a safe, happy, deliciously experiential New Year to all!  CHEERS!

Beer - Red Hill Brewery Imperial Stout (2011)

Warning...I have a somewhat blind love for Red Hill Brewery and everything they do, thanks to the lovely, friendly, generous staff of Red Hill and their beautiful microbrewery location. The Mornington Peninsula is an area I have a nostalgic connection to and it makes me want to move there every time I visit. So, it may be hard to properly judge their beers. Therefore, forgive me for any hyperbolic statements in this post.

The Red Hill Brewery Imperial Stout is one of the best beers in Australia. Brewed in May/June for a seasonal winter release each year, it is highly anticipated by many beer connoisseur. Fairly true to style for a Russian Imperial Stout (8% abv), it uses the brewery's own estate grown hops and is an in-house favourite of the brewers. This beer is both worth drinking now and also cellaring for several years. A multiple AIBA medal winner (Gold in 2010 for the 2007 batch and Silver for 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007), this finely crafted beer definitely improves with age.

A perfect pint?

Last year was my first experience of a Red Hill Imperial Stout and it was instant love - such a big, flavoursome and warming beer, but also accessible to all drinkers.

This year I have enjoyed this Imperial Stout on several occasions in various forms:

• first it was bottles of the 2010 release beautifully paired with dessert (Espresso panna cotta with hazelnut and chocolate donuts) at the AIBA gala dinner (where it was totally snubbed for any recognition this year),
• then, the real treat, 2011 Red Hill Imperial Stout, dry hopped cask conditioned on handpump at the Red Hill Brewery (sensational!),
• at home from the bottle poured into goblet glass (my wife gave me a slab of this beer for my birthday, which she bought whilst we were at the brewery) and
• right here and now at The Royston Hotel, where I am blogging this live!

This beer looks fantastic. Solid jet black with a big beautiful and consistent creamy tan head.

The aroma is of roasted malts, coffee, chocolate and the slightest hoppiness. There is also a faint alcohol kick that warms up your nose. It has everything I want in an imperial stout.

The taste is rich, sweet and smooth. Up front you are hit with dark chocolate, a complex but smooth profile of burnt/roasted malts and some good subtle hop bitterness, yet overall it is predominately sweet! Go deeper and you open up more of a mocha mix with dark fruits and cherries as well as some licorice and caramel.

The big body provides a creamy mouthful. On the handpump at Red Hill Brewery, the low carbonation supported the beer gorgeously, ready to drink from the moment it was poured. On tap here at The Royston it needs to sit and warm for a short while to achieve a similar rewarding mouthfeel.

The beer is warming, for sure. The 8% alcohol is evident but well balanced/suited to the beer.

The cask conditioned handpumped and tap versions left little lacing as my glass was drained, but there is a nice amount of lacing left by the Royston's tap pour. More importantly, the head retention is fantastic. All three ways (handpump, bottle, pub tap) result in a good head all the way to the bottom of the glass.

Drinkability, well...this beer is not "sessionable", but I damn well can drink it non stop! There is no need to drink more than 3 in a session because it is perfectly satisfying with only one or two (...I would classify "sessionable" as 4 or more). The warming alcohol slows your drinking but the quality and balance of the beer makes it very moreish.

The mostly dry finish provides a lovely long linger.

This beer excels when cask conditioned and poured from an handpump beer engine. Alternatively, simply poured from the 330ml bottle at room temperature, it is just as good.

Right now I am finding that, when served chilled by a carbonated tap at a pub, you may miss out a little on the true potential of this delicious brew.

Red Hill's Dave Golding said that they were keen to increase the bitterness on this year's version. This was further enhanced by dry hopping the cask conditioned batch that was exclusive to the brewery. The Red Hill Brewery team are super happy with this year's Imperial Stout and desire for everyone to try it as truly intended...from the cask at the brewery bar in Red Hill.

The result...spot on...my ideal stout...

Beer - A fun night of Victorian beer, brought to you by women.

In honour of the 100th International Women's Day today, it is my pleasure to applaud the local women who are enriching and influencing this thing I call my "beer journey".

Personally, in my own Gen-Y-small-corner of the world, I do not see the desperate need for any gender-based qualification or separation. It is only a distinction that I make today, because there is a global call for it.

I look around me and see females doing everything I do, in the same way that I do it or in a different way...but usually, just in their own way. Women who choose to be stay-at-home mothers tirelessly raising a loving family are inspiring, just as are the women who choose to embrace another path in life, such as a workforce career or pursing their own business/creative venture. Women who are duly respected in their endeavours to take hold of life in whichever way they desire is all it needs to be about...and that is no different to the male existence. It is the beauty of Australian freedom and hence my deterrence from the need to specify a gender qualification. However, I do understand that it is not a worldwide practice and the statistics authenticate ongoing inequality for women, so International Women's Day is a noteworthy cause that I support. Connecting the issue to my blog topic, the majority of Australians still seem to regrettably and wrongly associate consuming beer with males, primarily due to stereotypes.

But enough of the sociopolitical discussion here, this blog is written for anyone and everyone, beyond gender, race or creed. I would much prefer to engage in that debate over the table at a pub whilst enjoying a flavoursome Australian craft beer. So, on with the show...

As preempted in my previous post, last Friday night my wife and I excitedly attended the Beer Diva's Victorian Women of Beer show at The Thornbury Theatre, which was part of the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival.

We knew little of what to expect from the show, other than it revolved around six of the most fun, friendly, interesting and switched-on people in the Australian small and craft beer industry...and they just happen to all be women.

Due to our dinner & show ticket purchase, we found ourselves at a table front and center of the stage. The make-up of our table provided a great insight to the general appeal of the show, with the table of 8 consisting of a balanced 4 males and 4 females...who were all there for different reasons.

There was a fair bit of Twitter action in the lead-up to the show, revealing the nerves of the Women of Beer as they prepared backstage. My own tweeting, about a steel bucket curiously sitting on stage, also beckoned a response from the host, Kirrily Waldhorn, as she first graced the stage to commence the show.

Kirrily's Beer Diva show provides an educational and humerous journey through the history of beer, as well as addressing common myths about drinking beer whilst seeking to break down those stereotypes that lead Aussies to associate beer with men. Whilst formally structured and stylish, the event was very much a relaxed and casual affair.

The aspect of this particular show that separated it from previous Beer Diva events was the inclusion of the Victorian Women of Beer (in the place of musical support from a singer and pianist). These women provided the highlight of the night as Kirrily quizzed them on their brewing history and then allowed them to share their beers with the audience.

To briefly return to my opening remarks, the theme for International Women's Day 2011 is - Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women - which is indeed a theme for political leaders to address. However, the Women of Beer are an excellent example of Australian women taking hold of their own career paths to excel in any field they choose...

Sam Fuss and Jayne Lewis decided brewing was the life for hem when they fell in love with the Little Creatures Brewery in Western Australia. Their skill and commitment to the brewing craft has now installed them as Head Brewers at impressive microbreweries.

Nardia McGrath surprised her parents when she chose to fly away to Scotland to study brewing. Further, last year her boss at Bridge Road Brewers gave Nardia an open licence to craft and brew her own beer, which resulted in the amazing Megachile Pluto Braggot.

Finally, I dare say that Victoria would be without two of our best microbreweries without the passion and business sense of Karen Golding and Beth Williams, who have provided the pathways and vital support required for their brewer husbands to build and operated successful breweries.

The beers shared with the audience, via these women, were tasted and discussed through 5 Acts that looked at different beer styles and histories. They were:

• Saison - Bridge Road Brewers Chevalier Saison (Nardia)
• Wheat Beers - Hargreaves Hill Hefeweizen (Beth)
• Pilsners - Red Hill Brewery Bohemian Pilsner (Karen)
• India Pale Ales - Mountain Goat Rare Breed IPA (Jayne)
• Porters - True South Cherry Bomb (Sam)

Beer Diva, Kirrily Waldhorn is a fantastic communicator. I was most impressed by her skill in presenting a script that could be understood and appreciated by both newbies to the world of beer but also to beer nerds. I learned a great deal from the show and aspire to one day be capable of communicating beer knowledge and evaluation with the expertise and finesse that Kirrily possess.

Ultimately, the theme of the night demonstrated this message: Beer can be sophisticated, beer can be brash. Beer can be serious, beer can be fun. Beer can be girly, beer can be blokey. Beer is a sensory experience for all. Enjoy!

Overall it was a fun night, full of substance and sustenance in a great venue for such an occasion. Thank you Women of Beer!

And now to further showcase the skill of my favourite woman, my wife, who captured these photos during the Beer Diva's Women of Beer show...

• For a more detailed show review, please visit my Australian Brews News article at: http://www.brewsnews.com.au/2011/03/review-the-victorian-women-of-beer/
• And for another perspective, check out Prof Pilsner's blog post at: http://beerblokes.blogspot.com/2011/03/diva-darlings-of-victorian-beer.html

In further support of International Women's Day (March 8), here are some local media articles for your consideration:

• Australian's Governor-General, Quentin Bryce, had advocated the introduction of quotas to ensure more women are appointed as directors on the boards of Australian companies: "G-G calls for female quotas" from The AGE
• 100 years of accomplishments, equality and respect for women still has a long way to go according to Australia's Minister for the Status of Women, Kate Ellis: "Still a long way to go: Kate Ellis on International Women's Day" from ABC News Online

Beers - A Very Beery Christmas wrap

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas...as ours was indeed delightful, full of delicious Australian craft beers.

All praise and love goes to my wife (our first Christmas together as a married couple!) who had the original thought some time back to create a Christmas Day menu focused around cooking with beer. And then...she did all the real work to research, prepare and cook the beery food.

Our Very Beery Christmas Lunch started with a Welsh Rarebit on beer bread. Inspired by the Red Hill Brewery rarebit with their masterstroke of including leek in the ingredients (thanks again for the recipe, Karen!), the beer used in the rarebit sauce was the 2 Brothers "Growler" Brown Ale.

Toasted under a grill on slices of wholemeal home-made beer bread, which used a full bottle of Bridge Road Brewers Beechworth Pale Ale in the dough mixture, the result was just excellent and enjoyed with Red Hill Brewery Bohemian Pilsner.

The main course of the day was a barbeque beer can chicken. A 2/3rd full can of Anderson Valley Brewing Company Poleeko Gold Pale Ale was placed inside a seasoned chicken and cooked on a closed bbq for a little under 2 hours. (Can not express my gratitude enough to Biero Bar for supplying the AVBC can!)

It was our first attempt at a beer can chicken, which we were initially concerned about due to the small size of our bbq. However, it worked beautifully in the end, with the help of the Bar-B-Chef Beer Can Chicken Roaster that we picked up at Barbeques Galore a few weeks back. A very helpful tool! I probably cooked the chicken a little too long overall, drying it out a little, but the result was still delicious...and I look forward to doing it again with an even better result.

Complimenting the chicken roast was my wife's sensational Scotch Ale Potatoes, which used the Red Hill Brewery Scotch Ale...

Balancing the meal was a Beet, Fennel, Rocket & Nut salad with a Blond Ale Vinaigrette. Half a cup of the Red Duck "Black Heart" Belgian Blond Strong Ale was used in the vinaigrette.

Finally, dessert was the Chris Badenoch inspired Beeramisu, using the forever awesome Holgate Brewhouse "Temptress" Chocolate Porter.

We thoroughly enjoyed dessert with the spectacular Red Hill Brewery Double Barrel Aged Christmas Ale (as well as the regular Christmas Ale), which formed my final 12beersofxmas blog that you can read here...!

Throughout the day we mainly drank the Red Hill Brewery Bohemian Pilsner, which suited the weather and food perfectly. However, we also enjoyed some Stone & Wood Pacific Ale and Holgate Big Reg. A great day all round.

Cheers and see you in 2011!