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