Elusive Limited's land in Darlo....

Limited Brews: 

Today we've added three very exciting new beers to our bottle list. Each extremely limited, rare and elusive, we must admit its been a challenge not to hide them away for our own consumption. 

 Wookie IPA; A collaboration between the Danish lords of BIGGER beers 'Amager Bryghus' and Californian legends of the West Coast IPA 'Port Brewing Co.'. Expect a vibrant and vivacious carbonation lifting a quizzical cacophony of hops through an elegantly 'light' body of beer. Wow!
One batch brewed.....ever!
 Hop Bach Symphony #1; Collaboration between Ballarat's home of bottle conditioned brews 'Red Duck' and yet another Danish master brewer, Anders Kissmeyer. This beer completely sold out within 24 hrs of its release. 9.8% 'If your favourite hop isn't in this ale, bad luck! But it probably is'. One batch brewed....ever!

Moo Brew, Barrel Aged Imperial Stout; 2011 Vintage Release; Very limited amount, each bottle is numbered. This is the annual release we've all come to love from Moo Brew, only it's spent the last year maturing in oak. Wahoo! Worth the price, and can be cellared for that special occasion.

 If you're interested in learning more about beer, join our very own Beerista Jordan McDonald for Beerista on the 14th August at 7pm for only $15, book here

Oktoberfest SpecTAPular

Hot off the press, this years Oktoberfest SpecTAPular line up!

From Germany;-

Spaten Oktoberfestbier

Hofbrau Munich Dunkel

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Marzen

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel

Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier

Erdinger Oktoberfest Weissbier

Schoefferhofer Hefeweizen

Fischers Helles

Bitburger Pils

Gilden Kolsch

And from Australia;-

Buxom Wench from Neilenbrau

Stone & Wood Pale Lager

Jamieson's Chocolate Bock

Duke Hefeweizen

Prickly Moses Oktoberfest Lager

Red Hill Weizenbock

Sunshine Coast Munich Dunkel

Mash Eisbock

Last Drop Kellerbier

Holgate Big Reg

Traditional German fare and entertainment. So dust off your Lederhosen or your Drindl and prepare for slap dancing, bratwurst and of course BEER! Prost!

Saturday October 3 @ The Local Taphouse in St Kilda

Saturday October 10 @ The Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst

Gold coin donation for entry going to World Vision.

Britain's Oldest Beer

A sensational cache of bottled beers dating back over 130 years has been discovered in Burton upon Trent, the home of Great British brewing. Found recently in the Worthington's White Shield brewery vaults, many are still in fine condition with their corks and wax seals still in place.

Read more here.

News article on Luxury Beers

Interesting article I found in The Australian about luxury beers such as Crown Ambassador Reserve Lager and Bridge Road's Chevalier range..

Budget Beer Soon to be $4 a Pot

I saw this article in the Herald Sun tonight. The fact that the mainstream basic beers are approaching $4 a pot I glossed over but the really interesting piece was the following:

Costly premium imports are selling three times more than mainstream beer.

Industry figures reveal sales of the more expensive exotic brands grew 18 per cent in the past year, compared with an increase of 5 per cent in sales of mainstream local beers.

I'd like to think it's not just "exotic" brands but BETTER beer which is growing market share. Sure, some people are buying premium beers cause of the marketing crap but I also am CONVINCED more and more people are seeing that beer can offer so much more than the budget range. Hallelujah!

Incidentally, I drank the Moo Brew Imperial Stout tonight. Man, that's good stuff. I really would have liked to try the oak aged batch but the stuff I had tonight was brilliant.

The World's Biggest Beer Company

Big news in the world of big breweries this morning with InBev succeeding in its $52 billion bid for Anheuser-Busch.

Read this report in the Economist.

International Brewers Day

On reading a Beer Advocate forum post this afternoon, I learnt of a new, fun initiative called International Brewers Day each July 18. Beer & Brewer Magazine and The Queensland and Border Brewers Group are holding their own celebration of beer at The Grand Central Hotel in Brisbane. I wish it were this weekend as it's still raining on the Sunshine Coast (where I'm supposedly holidaying) and a beer trip down to Brisbane would be mightily attractive.

Maybe we'll try and do something special on that day as well.

The truth about low carb beers

I dug up this recent article I found in the SMH about low carb beers and what marketing spin it all is. Just what I thought.

Most Expensive Beers

I found this on a ratebeer.com forum which I thought was interesting given my posting the imminent release of Crown Ambassador Reserve. It was posted by a guy called Jono:

As for most expensive beer in Australia; I would have to say that hands down the two most expensive beer’s are from Redoak with the “Redoak Special Reserve” and the “Framboise Reserve”. Both are $75.00 a bottle (250ml) now imagine if that where a 750ml bottle = $225! Over triple that of the Crown Ambassador Reserve!

Speaking of expensive beers I have read some of articles lately in a few beer magazines (Beers of the world and Draft) about the worlds most expensive beers and Redoak did not make any of the lists even though it clearly should be (see below).

The world’s most expensive beers according to “Beers of the World:

No.1 – Vielle Bon Secours. Around $820.00 AUS per bottle (around 26 pints)

No.2 – Utopias. Around $82.00 AUS per bottle or $55.00 AUS per pint

No.3 – Tutankhamen Ale. Around $75 AUS per bottle

The world’s most expensive beers according to “Draft”:

No.1 - Vielle Bon Secours. Around $820.00 AUS per bottle (around 26 pints)

No.2 - Utopias. Around $82.00 AUS per bottle or $55.00 AUS per pint

No.3 - Tutankhamen Ale. Around $75.00 AUS per bottle

No.4 – Scaldis Prestige. Around $52.00 AUS per bottle

No.5 – Le Baladin Xyauyu. Around $47.00 AUS per bottle

Extreme Beer article.. and another review

This is an interesting article in the New York Times about extreme beer. I have read a lot about these American beers that push the boundaries (as well as sampling a few) and find it has fans and detractors in equal measure. Ask me another day and I'll probably say something different but today I reckon they have a place. It's good to challenge the status quo. Local Beertender James brought a bottle of Stone Ruination I.P.A back from LA last week and I haven't tasted anything (literally) since! As you can imagine, the aroma was floral, piney and fruity but while the flavor wasn't over the top.

Also, Deck of Secrets ran a nice piece on us on the front page of their website yesterday. I think we'll get our own card in their popular Bar Secrets card decks which would be kinda cool.

Breweries win Gold

Congrats to Christian and and Ewald from Trumer Australia. Trumer beat 72 other breweries from around the world to win the best German-style Pilsner at the recent World Beer Cup in the USA. We're mighty looking forward to celebrating with you.

Congrats also to James Squire who took out Gold for the Bohemian-Style pilsner. Awesome effort for an Australian brewery. Maybe it's time we gave it a run on our taps!

And finally, to Matilda Bay Brewery who won 'Grand Champion Brewery', Holgate Brewhouse who won 'Best Victorian Beer' and Redoak who won 'Champion Small Brewery' at the 2008 Australian International Beer Awards.