Craft beer is alive and doing OK in Australia. I wouldn't say it is doing well though. According to this article in The Economist, Australian beer consumption is at an all-time 65-year low. I mentioned this fact to an Aussie mate of mine. He said it's "unfortunate" and that he personally can't be "blamed for the drop in consumption".
With this in mind, I decided to go to the Great Australian Beer SpecTAPular anyway. I don't regret it. My only complaints are that the event was too small and there wasn't enough time to try all the beers. I had hoped that every Australian craft brewer would have sent a representative to be at a booth. Alas, only three representatives from three different breweries were at the event. The event only lasted four and a half hours. Multiple Q&A sessions with the three brewers were offered during the event, but I was too busy either taking down tasting notes or waiting in line for more samples.
Of course, the most important question you have is "How was the beer?". I must admit, as an American craft beer snob, I was completely surprised by how good the beer was. I tried 20 unique beers from Australia and New Zealand. Let me say right off the bat that New Zealand has got some hops. In Australia, getting hops from New Zealand is relatively easy compared to importing them from the States. As a home brewer, I will definitely be exploring the hoppy goodness that the Kiwis have to offer.
I will spare you all the gory details of how the event was run, but I will say that I didn't find it to be very efficient. I would have preferred a booth style event. The beers were served at four bars with the same 60 beers at each bar. If you want to know more about the event and all the beers, here is a link to the booklet that I got.
This is what the sample trays looked like (I got 10 samples at a time):
OK, OK, enough beating around the bush. Here are the beers that I tried with my own amateur tasting notes:
Tasting Notes: This beer was spicy, like it had hot sauce or pepper in it. I've never had anything quite like it and honestly I didn't like it. I don't even think it was the right sample. A very rocky start to the event.
I will spare you all the gory details of how the event was run, but I will say that I didn't find it to be very efficient. I would have preferred a booth style event. The beers were served at four bars with the same 60 beers at each bar. If you want to know more about the event and all the beers, here is a link to the booklet that I got.
This is what the sample trays looked like (I got 10 samples at a time):
And this is what the bars looked like:
Finally, this is a shot of the inside of the Royal Exhibition Building where the SpecTAPular was held:
OK, OK, enough beating around the bush. Here are the beers that I tried with my own amateur tasting notes:
Tasting Notes: This beer was spicy, like it had hot sauce or pepper in it. I've never had anything quite like it and honestly I didn't like it. I don't even think it was the right sample. A very rocky start to the event.
Tasting Notes: I wouldn't call it a "Californian flavour" IPA. IPA is a very common beer style throughout America these days. When I think "hops and more hops", Delaware and Dogfish Head come to mind, not California. Compared to a typical American IPA, this beer did not have much of a floral or fruity nose to it.
Tasting Notes: Wow! Fruity and malty. I am a sucker for very strong Belgian yeast flavors and this beer had plenty of that. I think the fruit and spices gave it a deceivingly higher ABV taste. The beer was only 6.5% ABV, which is at the low end for a farmhouse ale.
Tasting Notes: Suprising taste. I guess I missed that it was a barley wine when I picked it out. Very slight hop character. I could have been imagining the hop character or maybe it was lingering from the previous IPA I had. I would like to point out that this beer was the only international collaboration at the event. AMERICA!
Tasting Notes: This was my second favorite beer at the event. Distinct fruity nose. The aroma of this beer was unlike anything I have ever had. Such a sour but tasty flavor! I can't fully describe how good the taste was, but the tartness of this one was amazing. I could drink this beer every day and not get bored of it.
Tasting Notes: My first Grissette. The description above says it all. This beer had a great Belgian yeast tatse.
Tasting Notes: The strangest German-style beer I have ever had. Smoky flavor and I could taste the banana too. Sublte smoky nose, but it wasn't overpowering like most smoked beers. Believe it or not, this beer also tasted like a Hefewizen.
Tasting Notes: Guesses: ginger or sarsaparilla. Liquorice taste as well. The most interesting farmhouse ale I've had.
Tasting Notes: Lovely mix of Belgian yeast and dry hops. After the first sip, I wasn't sure if I liked the spicy after-taste. Surprisingly fruity nose for such a spicy taste. After the second sip, the spicy after-taste wasn't so overpowering, but it did linger.
Tasting Notes: The above description says it all. I will also point out that this beer was brewed in the suburb next to the one I currently live in.
At this point, I had to get back in line for more beer. I was probably in the queue (Aussie for "line") for about 30-40 minutes and I lost most of my buzz. Later, as I was waiting to pay for the trays, I caught a lovely whiff of my New Zealand IPA tray. You have to be a true hop head to fully appreciate the smell of five hoppy beer samples. Mark my words, New Zealand is making moves with their hops.
Anyway, I present to you my impressions of this New Zealand IPA tray:
Tasting Notes: I thought this zythos was a standard yet solid IPA.
Tasting Notes: Wow! Fruity and malty. I am a sucker for very strong Belgian yeast flavors and this beer had plenty of that. I think the fruit and spices gave it a deceivingly higher ABV taste. The beer was only 6.5% ABV, which is at the low end for a farmhouse ale.
Tasting Notes: Suprising taste. I guess I missed that it was a barley wine when I picked it out. Very slight hop character. I could have been imagining the hop character or maybe it was lingering from the previous IPA I had. I would like to point out that this beer was the only international collaboration at the event. AMERICA!
Tasting Notes: This was my second favorite beer at the event. Distinct fruity nose. The aroma of this beer was unlike anything I have ever had. Such a sour but tasty flavor! I can't fully describe how good the taste was, but the tartness of this one was amazing. I could drink this beer every day and not get bored of it.
Tasting Notes: My first Grissette. The description above says it all. This beer had a great Belgian yeast tatse.
Tasting Notes: The strangest German-style beer I have ever had. Smoky flavor and I could taste the banana too. Sublte smoky nose, but it wasn't overpowering like most smoked beers. Believe it or not, this beer also tasted like a Hefewizen.
Tasting Notes: Guesses: ginger or sarsaparilla. Liquorice taste as well. The most interesting farmhouse ale I've had.
Tasting Notes: Lovely mix of Belgian yeast and dry hops. After the first sip, I wasn't sure if I liked the spicy after-taste. Surprisingly fruity nose for such a spicy taste. After the second sip, the spicy after-taste wasn't so overpowering, but it did linger.
Tasting Notes: The above description says it all. I will also point out that this beer was brewed in the suburb next to the one I currently live in.
At this point, I had to get back in line for more beer. I was probably in the queue (Aussie for "line") for about 30-40 minutes and I lost most of my buzz. Later, as I was waiting to pay for the trays, I caught a lovely whiff of my New Zealand IPA tray. You have to be a true hop head to fully appreciate the smell of five hoppy beer samples. Mark my words, New Zealand is making moves with their hops.
Anyway, I present to you my impressions of this New Zealand IPA tray:
Tasting Notes: I thought this zythos was a standard yet solid IPA.
Tasting Notes: Excellent floral nose. I didn't really taste the "cat pee". Strong tasting "dank" IPA! This was the best IPA that I tried at the event.
Tasting Notes: Quite a unique IPA with rose petals added after fermentation. Very bitter IPA taste with a wonderful rose nose. Interesting contrast between the sweet rose smell and the bitter taste. I can't emphasize enough how subtle but good the rose smell was.
Tasting Notes: I did not find "extreme bitterness" in this IPA. Very good IPA though. Malt sweetness was obvious and lingered on the back of the palette. Fresh grassy nose, similar to Great Divide Fresh Hop. After-taste went from bitter to sweet slowly in a good way. Very complex tasting IPA.
Tasting Notes: Here are my unedited notes for this one:
"Wow! Tea leaf taste is great. lemon tea taste at first, lingers to orange/citrus taste. lemon at the end. Lemon 'sticks' to the tongue. Could have been a bad batch, but the nose was not good at all. Bacon smell? Strange....".I could swear the Yeastie Boys added actual lemons to this beer, but the description states that it was just "lemon hop flavours" mixed with the English tea. The Yeastie Boys have some very tasty hops in their arsenal. I brew beer myself and I am inspired to explore as many hops varieties from New Zealand as I can after trying this beer. With that said, I was still very disappointed with this beer. The nose was horrible. It had a "bacon" smell to it and I'm thinking it was a bad batch. Regardless, this beer still tasted amazing. I would consider this beer an "over the top" beer that only a seasoned beer (or maybe tea) drinker would enjoy. I really wonder what went wrong with the nose though. If anyone who is reading this has an idea, please post in the comments.
Before I move on to the last set of the samples, let me say that this New Zealand IPA tray was the highlight of the event for me. I can honestly say New Zealand IPAs easily rival American IPAs. They are basically on par with American IPAs in my mind. Like I said before, I am going to do further research on New Zealand hops. As a side note, the rest of my tasting notes were probably skewed by the hoppiness of this tray.
Tasting Notes: I didn't like it. It had a muted and stale grainy taste to it.
Tasting Notes: A very unique Dunkelweizsen. I could taste the "bananas", but I couldn't taste the rum. I might have detected a slight spicy rum smell, but it could have been my imagination. I thought the "bananas" taste was slightly overpowering. All in all, I thought this beer was too sweet for a Dunkelweizen. Still a good beer though.
Tasting Notes: Great hopped amber. Definitely "leans towards the hoppier" for an amber ale. This beer reminded me of "Native Amber", which is an amber ale brewed by Coop Ale Works in Oklahoma City. Although this one had more of a sweet malty/fruity taste to it than Native Amber. Hoppy smell was subtle. This style of hopped amber ale is one that I want to explore more in my own home brewing.
Tasting Notes: This solid Dunkelweizen had a sweet smell. My favorite German-style beer at the event.
Tasting Notes: Here are my unedited tasting notes:
"Sweet potatoes taste was too subtle and dissappeared quickly. bitter after taste didn't seem to fit the style. pretty much bitter on the whole palette. oh, its a Porter, not an ale."Basically, I thought this was an attempt at mimicking American pumpkin ales. This beer was definitely a porter though.
In conclusion, my taste buds were in heaven after the Great Australian Beer SpecTAPular was over. I was very excited to be there and due to time constraints, I was overwhelmed by the amount of beer that I had to taste before it was all over. I have to tip my hat to all the craft brewers in Australia and say "Keep up the good work!"
