March: Green Flashes, Mad Brewers and beer for breakfast.

March started off, from a beer perspective, rather unceremoniously at a conference in Bangkok. Had more Tigers than I’d care to mention, but once back on home soil, things picked up. So here’s a run down of beers I had in March that I thought were worth a damn.

Green Flash Hop Head Red and West Coast IPA.

Unassuming looking, this duo for hop fiends everywhere were two great, no nonsense American hoppy beers. The Hop Head Red had a lovely caramel malt backbone and a nice upfront piney hop punch. Likewise the West Coast IPA, not overdone like so many US hop-bombs, nicely balanced and a great example of the style. Honourable mention goes to their Double Stout too, which is probably the hoppiest stout I’ve ever had.

Mad Brewers Hoppy Hefe

The Malt Shovel’s Mad Brewers label has been on a bit of a roll recently; their liquorice stout Noir, was a very interesting look at the style, and their Scribbly Gum lager was perhaps the smokiest a mainstream Australian brewer has ever got. The Hoppy Hefe is a style that basically takes a German Hefeweizen and ramps up the hops. I’m left a little wanting after a hefe sometimes and this is the solution: just chuck more hops in there, and bang! A mate of mine commented that they're the tastiest burps he’s ever had. Now that’s saying something. Murray’s Whale Ale is another, albeit lower alcohol, example of the style.

Moa Breakfast

Gee am I glad these Kiwi guys have relaunched their beers. Until recently a rarity on our shores, Moa have made a push into the Australian market and we’re all luckier for it. Their Imperial Stout and Five Hop ESB are standouts, but the gong goes to the controversially named Breakfast. A fruit lager, with a light spritziness and a sweet, almost artificial cherry taste. Not sure if they use real cherries, or an extract, but it somehow works. Will definitely be having one with my bacon and eggs soon. 

Mornington Peninsula Imperial IPA

Had this one after an unofficial brown ale / porter tasting at a mates house recently. The MPIIPA trumped them all. I don’t think Mornington make a bad beer and their IIPA is perhaps their best. Stoked that they’ve started bottling it. Interestingly, they’ve just released a new seasonal, perhaps Australia’s first White IPA. A Belgian Witbier with the American hop treatment. Can’t wait to get down there to try that one!

Fullers ESB

The beer that gave birth to the ESB (Extra Special Bitter) and a beer made for a Melbourne autumn. An extremely well made beer and an English bitter that actually translates pretty well in the bottle. Lots of earthy hop notes from the English varieties. Gently spicy and a beer that makes sit back and wonder how they do it. Later in the month I had their London Porter, but the ESB is the standout in the range.

Renaissance Tribute Barleywine

Talked about this beer in an earlier post, the poor little bugger only made it to late March before being scoffed. Now, at 11%, scoffed is probably the wrong word as this beer took me over 45mins to drink, but what a pleasure. Rich, plum pudding, whiskey notes, sweet, but not too so. A massive beer from one of my favourite breweries. Dang these Kiwis can brew.

Barleywines: A few to lay down.

I recently embarked on Febfast.

Now I must preface this by saying that firstly I'm not collecting for charity. My motivations are all together more selfish than that: a simple challenge from the missus. Not one to back away from a challenge I agreed and in a serendipitous twist of fate, passed Blackhearts and Sparrows in Windsor (one of my favourite craft beer bottleshops in Melbourne) a few days later.

It occurred to me that I wouldn't be imbibing for several weeks so was a great opportunity to kick start my beer cellar again. Now whilst the word cellar conjures up dimly lit, romantic, cobweb strewn caverns, dank and musty, lined with hundreds of dusty bottles and barrels, I use that term in the broadest of senses. My last cellar was a shoe box sized space under the laundry sink.

Last year I'd managed to resist the urge, and "laid down" several bottles of Coopers Vintage Ale 2009-2011. Likewise with a Red Hill Barrel Aged Imperial Stout and a Unibroue Terrible.  Just knowing that those little beauties were doing their thing, silently in the house, made my life on some minute level, more complete.

Alas my stock had been depleted over the months and thought it was the perfect time to address the blank spot under the laundry sink. Beers, like wine, can be cellared, many for up to ten years or more. There are obviously certain styles that are more up to the task than others. Barleywines are one such style. Barleywines are the big on the alcohol, malt and hops. Over time the hops with dissipate and the malt characteristics will become more prominent. Or so I've read somewhere.

I picked up two Barleywines - Renaissance Tribute (10.8%) and Green Flash Barleywine (10.9%). Both massive beers. The Renaissance was quite possibly the most expensive 330ml I'd ever purchased ($22!), but put my faith in Renaissance as they brew consistently great beers. Their Scotch ale and their Porter in particular are faves. I was less familiar with the Green Flash, but am a fan of West Coast American hop bombs, so this San Diego brewed drop was a gamble worth taking. I also grabbed a bottle of Mikkeller Santa's Little Helper 2011 (10.9%), which I believe is a Belgian Quadruppel (further research may prove otherwise).
That one is marked for a Christmas 2012 opening.

 I'm not going to give you too much technique regarding ageing beers (because I lack it myself). All I know is that unlike wine, you need to cellar the beer upright, but like wine, in a cool, dark place (like underneath your laundry sink).
Logic (but not my wallet) suggests to buy two bottles, have one now and then cellar the other. I for one cannot remember what I did last Thursday, let alone the intricacies of aroma and flavour from a beer that I'm comparing to years earlier. Poor palette memory perhaps.

So these beauties will hide away, developing and changing their flavours, smoothing off the rougher edges before finally pouring out into a goblet / snifter glass sometime in the distant future.

I'll let you know when I crack one open.