Fresh Beer Friends To Get Festive With

Fresh Friends to get Festive with.

As we reach the final stages of the year, festivals and celebrations abundant, the rise of anticipation for the working year to conclude and some time with our loved ones is reaching critical mass. But as with all things, wouldn’t it just all go better with some amazing beers?

What we will showcase to you this week is a snapshot of both some returning favourites and never-before-seen brews that have hit our shelves this week. As always, we have WAY more stock hitting our shelves daily and feel free to pop past and chat to the team about something new for your mouth holes!

We all know Mikkeller do some crazy, mind-bending and damn flavourful beers being created, crafted and aged all across the globe. Since kicking off in 2008, they have made over 800 different beers while partnering breweries based in Belgium, USA, England, Norway and Denmark.

Having made many different styles of Belgian pale ales over the last decade, the Nelson Sauvin Brut Orange & Passionfruit (that’s a mouthful) sees a Belgian pale being hopped with Nelson Sauvin hops, fermented to sparkly dryness with a combination of champagne yeast and brettanomyces and lastly, aged on both orange and passionfruit. Dry, Fresh, Funk and Fruity. Nuff Said!

We talk about spending time with our loved ones, but what about creating a beer brand that ends up being one giant double date? Co-Conspirators is made of two couples (Jacqui Saccor, Tim Martin, Maggie and Deon Smit) that got together in a homebrewing club and from there were granted the opportunity to run some commercial brews of their award-winning recipes. Not having a brewery hasn’t stopped Co-Conspirators from releasing some amazing beers brewed with new friends they’ve made in the Melbourne craft beer community.

As opposed to many of the imagery on their other beers, The Undertaker Rye IPA has a very dark, ominous presence printed onto the label of the can. But this brooding nature is not lost on the contents inside; marrying a very dank hop profile built from bringing together Simcoe, Idaho 7 and Kohatu hops with the earthy, raw and spicy flavours built off the rye incorporated in this beer. Should you buy it. . . Rye the Heck Not!

Australian craft beer being brewed with a truly global lens; that’s one of the most accurate ways to describe Edge Brewing Project and it’s enigmatic founder/brewer Adam Betts. Having been present at the forefront of the global craft beer movement and proving an instrumental individual in setting up one of Australia’s most lauded beer importers (Northdown Craft Beer) in 2010, Adam wanted to find a way to be able to feed his love of homebrewing and deliver the good to that Australian beer public. In 2013, he established Edge Brewing Project as a true gypsy-brewing project which has seen him partner with Red Duck, Barossa Valley Brewing as well as numerous breweries overseas.

Partnering Adams love of locally sourced ingredients and his fondness of natural wines, he joined forces with the team from Born & Raised wines in Sunbury to collectively pick, press and then skin ferment Sauvignon Blanc grapes. After 62 days the wine was ready to go, and concurrently Adam had brewed a farmhouse ale with Saison and Champagne yeast to be blended into something that is a hybrid beer/wine that drinks as both. Tannin, phenolics and light tropical notes can be attributed to the grape influence in the cuvee, met with light carbonation and honey like malt sweetness from the farmhouse simultaneously nourish the palate and confuse the mind.

So, not only could Nick Haddow be able to say he was (and still is) producing some of the most amazing cheeses available in Australia, but he grabbed the incredibly like-minded Evan Hunter (ex-Seven Sheds, Moo Brew & Lark) to commission a brewery made from re-purposed and recycled dairy equipment to create beers that take time. For those that have been lucky enough to try Bruny Island Beer Co beers before, know that the wait is well worth it. In their words, they brew slow beer that embraces traditional methods with some modern creature comforts to deliver consistently amazing beers.

Taking their inspiration from the traditional Victorian Era ‘milk’ stouts that would add milk sugar to their stouts and then prescribed to mend a myriad of ailments, the Whey Stout from Bruny Island Beer Co takes 400L of whey left over from processing raw milk just 50m away in the cheesery. The whey is added to the ferment where the ale yeast used to produce the stout can’t actually process the lactose content, leaving a velvety and smooth texture surrounding the slightly bitter and chocolatey flavours of the stout. This Stout is Whey out.

Officially named as the number 4 on Sand Diego Eater’s ‘worst restaurant names’ list in 2013, and sharing its name from a very interesting Urban Dictionary entry, Belching Beaver has been churning out an incredibly varied yet tongue-in-cheek selection of beers from The Vista since 2012. In that time, Belching Beaver has managed to open five facilities in total across San Diego, allowing specific breweries to focus on specific projects encompassing barrel aged beers, sours, wild ferments all the way to some of the best IPAs being brewed on the West Coast.

But given the spread of beer styles that comes out of their facilities, it wasn’t an IPA that helped push Belching Beaver into the minds and mouths of craft beer lovers around the world, it was their Peanut Butter Milk Stout. Taking the Milk Stout to a nostalgic and decant sound place, this beer is balanced by the roasty peanuts notes along with flavours of coffee, vanilla and chocolate. The palate is enriched with the addition of rolled oats for and finishes drier than is to be expected from the colour and nose. This is the reece’s pieces you’ve always wanted.