Beer Hunters rewind: Beer Hunters #1 Summer Ales

Way back in late 2009 a work mate John and myself discovered a fledgling mutual appreciation for beer. 

Not just the kind that is served by the plastic pot full at the footy, or the kind you drank at your 21st. Call it micro, boutique or craft, we knew there was an entire world of great, real beer out there and we were keen to explore it. It was perhaps fortuitous that our interest came at a time where craft beer was exploding in Australia and around the world. The inroads made by the little guys into the Multinational Brewing Conglomerates may appear small on paper, but we were riding a groundswell of interest and started noticing breweries, bars and bottleshops bubbling up all over Melbourne dedicated to better beer. It was and is an exciting time to be into craft beer.

No photos survive from this inaugural hunt, but I can give you an insight into the beers we had and a few insights into what we thought.

It was December, and I hosted the first official meeting of "Beer Hunters". Well aware that by definition, a club needs a minimum of two members, it was with a fair degree of interpretation that I awaited John's arrival.

The night got under way and there was a reading of a Beer Hunters manifesto, that I won’t bore you by recounting verbatim, but a few key points to note are:

• We pick a different style (or occasionally brewery) each month.
• We try to cover a broad range of styles and breweries, and where possible, include at least one Australian beer.
• Whoever hosts the hunt chooses the style, puts on the booze, food is often provided and tasting notes are a must.
• The tasting notes score each beer out of 20: 3 for Appearance, 5 for Aroma, 3 for Mouthfeel,  6 for Flavour, 3 for Bang For Your Buck (or value of the beer).
• The main reason for Beer Hunters is for mates to get together and have a laugh over some hopefully great beer and learn a little more about the world of beer by being exposed to beers we might otherwise pass over on the shelf.

The "style" I'd chosen was Summer Ale. It was more than a year later that I realised there wasn't really a "summer ale" style. If you were to define Summer ales, the Kolsh, English Golden Ale, Australian Pale Ale and even some American Pales could all qualify in some way for sessionable summer ale.

 

However in December 2009, Summer Ales seemed like a perfectly logical starting point:

Little Creatures Bright Ale was up first and was pretty well received.

Renaissance Paradox Blonde from NZ was more indicative of the type of breweries that we'd hunt for the next two years. A lovely sessionable beer. That's about all I remember (or recorded).

Monteith's Summer Ale was more like a Radler, with spices and an almost alcopop sweetness.

Knappstein Reserve Lager was although clearly not an "ale", a winner. Crisp, hoppy and had enough to keep us interested

So that was basically it. Very humble beginnings. Over two years later and we have a regular 7 members and wouldn't want to grow the group any bigger. I'll cover all the hunts and winners eventually (is that raptuous applause I here?).

In Jan 2010 we decided to take a very early left turn, and hunt Ciders, but more about that later

Beer Hunters 28: Brewery Spotlight on 2 Brothers

Last Friday, the Beer Hunters assembled for the 28th month in a row, this time west to Yarraville. Leigh had dutibly taken on the task on hosting this month's Beer Hunt. Over the two and a bit years we've been running Beer Hunters we've covered the gammit of beer styles, light/dark, heavy/light, pissed/sober. In March '12 instead of hunting a particularly style which we commonly do, Leigh cast a spotlight on Melbourne's own 2 Brothers brewery. The nature of a Brewery Spotlight as apposed to a normal Beer Hunt always throws up some challenges when comparing beer vs. beer.

2 Brothers will be well known to many a Melbourne craft beer lover. Based in industrial Moorabbin, they've quietly been doing their for many years and have picked up many gongs at the Australian International Beer Awards. However I was suprised to realise this is the first time any of their beers have appeared at Beer Hunters.

Their "Guv'nor" barleywine was my favourite Aussie beer from last year, so was looking forward to seeing if a more subdued line-up could live up to the promise of some of the more boundary pushing beers in their roster.

As we filtered in from delayed trains and long cab rides the six of us sat down at Leigh's dinning room table and got started. First up - Taxi Pilsner.

Taxi Pilsner (AUS) 4.7% alc.vol

Hunted down for $3.80 for 355ml direct from the brewery

The first "cab of the rank" was the Taxi. It's a beer many of us had before and the feeling was pretty common around the table. Although there was some nice bready flavours and a subtle hop bitterness that you'd expect from a pilsner, it was on the bland side, if a little too sweet. A comment was made that if it was this or VB on tap then you'd happily drink the Taxi all night, but that's hardly saying much. A decent enough German style Pilsner but there are plenty better out there.

Kung Foo Rice Lager (AUS) 4.7% alc./vol

Hunted down for $3.80 for 355ml direct from the brewery

It was with a fair degree of interpretation when I popped the cap of this one. We were lucky enough to get the bottles direct from the brewery just hours after they were bottled. Adjuncts such as rice and corn are a dirty word in the world of craft brewing and thought it was incredibly gutsy of a brewer to produce a beer that could vary easily be left open to ridicule in certain circles. Having said all that, we try to keep pretences to a minimum at Beer Hunters and take every beer on face value. The result, the Kung Foo was a ripper! Lemongrass and lemony hop aromas. No idea what hop they used, but maybe Sorachi Ace? It was very clean and almost creamy in mouthfeel. It blows other Asian rice lagers like Tiger and Chang et al out of the water. On a recent trip to Bangkok I would have loved a couple of these on the roof top bar. Forget the fact that's it's good of an Asian style rice lager, it's good for a beer. Look out for this seasonal and give it a try. The Kung Foo took the gong for the hunters favourite on the night.

The Growler American Brown Ale (AUS) 4.7% alc./vol

Hunted down for $3.80 for 355ml direct from the brewery

The third beer in a row to be 4.7%, The Growler US Brown Ale is a beer most of us had had many times before, but some for not a while. There was some initial confusion regarding the term growler, which is a term for a take home recepitcle for draft beer (which 2 Brothers sell) and confusingly also the name of 2 Brothers Brown Ale. But more about the beer itself. I think it's a more subtle US Brown compared to many I've had, yets it's more complex compared to its tamer UK cousins, but still a decent little beer. A perfect intro into darker, and/or craft beer and perfectly suited to Melbourne's early onset Autumn.

Super Rusty Belgian Amber Ale (AUS) 8.0% alc./vol

Hunted down for $5.50 for 355ml direct from the brewery

A souped up version of Rusty (a Belgian Pale Ale) greeted us, again another great 2 Brothers seasonal. I was immediately struck by the caramelised banana like flavours, similar to what you'd find in a strong dark German wheat beer such as a Weizenbock and not usually common in Belgian beers. Very moreish, and drinkable for it's alc./vol. A close second overall and another great beer for Autumn.

Another great hunt and certainly worth travelling to the west for. As we slip out of summer and the days grow shorter we'll no doubt start heading into darker, stronger territory. Next beer hunters we're looking at a alternate grain to the usual malted barley. Rye.

April 13th Beer Hunters 29: Beer Hunters, on rye. 

Featuring four very different uses of rye in beer:

3 Ravens Rye Roggen Bier

Bear Republic Hop Rod Rye

Beer Here Nordic Rye Ale

Brasserie Dieu du Ciel Route des epices