Beer Porn

That got your interest, didn't it ? "Beer porn" is a rather questionable idiom that is used whenever one wants to show off their recent beer acquisitions. I've been guilty of it before, and here again.

Last Friday saw me drop into the Beer Cartel, growler in hand, and a mind for Father's Day. Geoff got the refilling underway, and I had a bit of a browse.

Certainly some interesting bottles here. I collected Meantime London Pale Ale, Sierra Nevada Porter, Mikkeller 1000IBU, Viven Imperial IPA, and Mountain Goat's Seedy Goat Coffee IPA.

The growler contains a German-style Pilsener, from the Australian Brewery at Rouse Hill.
Anyway, these have all been consumed..... another splendid Father's Day spent in the garden with the extended family. My brothers Chris and Nick don't mind a quality beer, and Chris' father-in-law Bob spends way too much time at Platinum and Northmead cellars. This is good news for us, as he brought along some very interesting beers, including Greene King IPA, Hepworth Sussex Ale, Kozlak bock, 3 Monts, and the Little Creatures Dreadnought stout, which we never got to, sadly.

The Meantime was a little subdued.... maybe would be better on tap in a London pub. The Viven seemed strangely schizoid..... I'm not entirely sure that Imperial IPAs are meant to come from Belgian yeasts. The Mikkeller almost took the roof of my mouth off. Intense hop flavours and bitterness that just kept on going. It left the Viven on the starting line.......

And the Seedy Goat ? Coffee IPA ? Well, it was interesting. We couldn't detect any bona fide coffee flavour, but the overall impression was one of green vegetable. Capsicum, to be precise.
The beer in the growler was brewed by Neal Cameron, who was also the brewer behind Red Angus pilsener. To me the beers are similar, with a well-balanced malt profile, and a good dose of hops giving the spine needed for the style. The growler is a concept that is beginning to take off in NSW, with Murrays doing it at Bob's Farm (and hopefully Manly soon).
The surprise of the day was the Kozlak, from Poland. I tend to view Eastern European beers as being fairly straightforward, with an almost pedantic ahderence to style, but lacking the substance. The Kozlak offered a caramel, fruity malt flavour that was almost doppel. A great drop for an early spring afternoon.

I also had my own Coopers pale ale on tap, as the in-betweenie session beer. For a kit brew it's remarkably good. I put this down to the full boil I gave it, rather than my usual approach of tipping tins into hot water and filling up from the tap. I think the full wort boil is a "best practice", even when using the tins.
Thanks Nick, Chris & Bob. A good lineup, and a good afternoon. And thanks to Geoff at Beer Cartel.

The Beer Cartel

Some while back I arranged a cross-link with www.beercartel.com.au. You can see it to the right =>

It was with some delight to recently learn of their acquisition of the Porter's outlet in Reserve Rd Artarmon (Sydney).

On the way home from work today, I dropped in to see what was happening. It's slightly hard to find, amongst the light industrial units of downtown Artarmon. But, even at this early stage, worth the effort of discovering.

Imagine my surprise to see a variety of esoterics, such as Burleigh Black Giraffe, Holgate Hopinator, Hunter Brewing beers, and Kooinda Pale. These are generally hard-to-find Aussie beers, and certainly unique to the north shore of Sydney.

Also, there were some single offerings from a range of significant international brands:  Nogne O, Mikkeler, Southern Tier, Anderson Valley.  And a Bourgogne des Flanders, one of my favourite tipples in the nearby Epoque Belgian Beer Cafe.

I had a quick chat with one of the principals, Geoff Huens, who graciously received my unannounced visit. It's their intention to grow this business into a leading retailer of Aussie micros, as well as top-notch internationals. They're in the process of creating more shelf-space, by relocating all that boring fermented grape stuff.....

And Geoff also mentioned Sierra Nevada, which I know will arouse at least two of my readers...

** EDIT ** And he also mentioned a growler service....... Now I'm aroused.... (please refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_bottle#Growler before getting the wrong idea).

He showed me a recently arrived palette of Aussie micros. Don't ask me to name them all, but I saw Hargreaves Hill (recently reestablished after the Victorian fires), and Bootleg (from WA). The Beer Cartel club members get first dibs at these, but whatever's left is available to all.

Although still in ramp-up mode, I applaud the direction of the Beer Cartel, and look forward to following their progress.

The Beer Cartel (Porters) can be found at Unit 9 / 87 Reserve Rd Artarmon, NSW.