Seasonal news

Hope everyone's having a relaxing time with some decent brews.

I haven't pushed the enveloped regarding funny beers, although I foisted a Trois Pistoles upon an appreciative bunch of blokes at a party.  Went down quite well; no match for their Crowns and Stellas :-)

I finished off my "traditional" hefe last night. Still some "summer" hefe to go, although I detect a slight souring that, although not unpleasant, may increase over the next week or so. It needs to be finished shortly.

Package beers picked up for the season included White Rabbit White Ale, and Gage Roads Sleeping Giant. The former is a wit style, with an interesting pawpaw undertone that suits the summer months. The latter is an IPA. Although having prominant IPA characteristics, seems a little awkward and lacking integration.

Anyhow, some further Lion Nathan reading:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/beer-bottle-exploded-in-my-face-surf-coach-20101225-197fw.html

Not surprising at all, yeah ?

A couple of sour Belgians

'Twas a warm Saturday last.  Although the offer was very tempting, I declined my family's invitation to join them on the roller coasters of Luna Park. There were other things on the agenda.....

After dropping them off, I went for a bit of a stroll up the hill towards North Sydney. Dropped into Dave's for a quick 5kg of pale malt and Pride of Ringwood pellets. No need for cara/crystal malt anymore, as I think the DIY approach has great merit (see recent post).  I'm thinking about an Aussie Pale, warm-fermented & fruity.

From Dave's, continued north along Miller Street, and soon found myself at Cammeray's greatest attraction (I know this all sounds rather serendipitous, but, yes, it was planned).  On warm days, the Epoque Belgian Beer Cafe opens its bifolds onto the street, giving the patron a good view of the passing trade, and a good lungfull of bus fart.

Being a warm day, and having worked up a bit of a sweat hauling my grain up the hill, I was in the mood for something crisp & refreshing. The beer that fits the bill (for those with the acquired taste) is gueuze. This for mine is the archetypal lambic beer, with a blend of old and new beers. It's not as mouth-puckeringly sour as some lambics (e.g. Cantillon), but still offers a real citrus bite, plus the wet hessian & dank funkiness that comes from the various microflora in these brews.  Outstandingly refreshing, as well as beguiling and complex. Timmermans was the brewer. I also recommend Lindemans Gueuze if you can get it.

Confirming a mood for sour beers, I then had a crack at Bourgogne Des Flandres Brune. This is a Flemish "Oud Bruin" ale (again from Timmermans), of which the Liefmans Goudenband is probably the best known. Although sour, it has a fair whack of fancy Belgian malts, giving it rich flavours of preserved fruits, dates, caramel, licorice.

For mine this beer alone is worth the trip to a Belgian Beer Cafe. It's not universally well received (Beer Advocate community only gives it a C), however I think it sits aross several beer styles and is drinkable on any occasion.

Lion Nathan - no reply

Oh well, a week's gone by and I have heard not a peep out of Lion Nathan regarding my objections to their trademark protection actions.

In the interim, I have been researching exactly what it would mean to boycott this company's products. According to the website http://lion-nathan.com.au/brands/ it is quite extensive, and not just for beer.

Australian brands: Tooheys, XXXX, Hahn, James Boag, West End, Emu, James Squire, Knappstein, Bare Cove, Southwark

NZ brands: Steinlager, Speight's, Mac's, Lion Red, Waikato, Canterbury

International brands: Heinken, Becks, Birra Moretti, Budweiser (US), Kirin, Amstel

Maybe I would probably miss the occasional visit to Squire's brewhouse on King Street wharf, although I haven't been there for many months. As for the rest of the brands, I can't say I regularly consume any of them, so no great dramas there.

But, in looking around the website, Lion Nathan has quite a portfolio of wine. I think this is where a boycott would hurt (me, that is, not Lion Nathan)

For example:

Croser, Petaluma, Pikes, Mitchelton, St Hallett, Tatachilla, Stonier, Bridgewater Mill, Henschke.... among others.

Quite a few of these have a representation in my cellar....... hmmmm

OK, Lion Nathan, I'll give you one more chance..... but after that I'll have to start commencing to think about considering the clarification of the prospect of proposing the discussion of further steps towards a tactical response to the existent issues pertaining the aforementioned actionable parameters.

I'm not going to drink your beer, though.  And Squires Brewhouses are off the agenda, henceforth.

Lion Nathan - a tale of trademarks and hypocrisy

Another week, another trademark dispute involving Lion Nathan.

As reported in Fairfax press, a small brewer has been served notice from the lawyers at Lion Nathan, which has taken exception to Mr Michael Harvey's use of the phrase "Tosser's Extra Dry". http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/no-dry-humour-in-tossers-tugofwar-20101127-18bjq.html

Not content with objecting to the "Extra Dry", Lion Nathan has also objected to the phrase "Tosser's". Do they wish to confirm an association with the phrase ? I gotta say, the more they object, the more apparent this association becomes......

As stated in the article, the objection to "Tosser's" could easily be seen as revenge. Or bullying tactics.

Lion Nathan has also had success in protecting its "New" trademark, with the Trade Mark Office agreeing that a new brewery could not register as "New South Brewing Company". Not content with registering a commonly used English language adjective, Lion Nathan apparently also has the power to prevent anyone else in the brewing industry using said adjective. http://www.theshout.com.au/2010/09/27/article/Out-with-the-New-Lion-Nathan-wins-Trade-Mark-Stoush/RZHKGPWFVI

But it hasn't all gone their way lately. In May, it was reported the American company E&J Gallo Winery had a win in this country's High Court, over Lion Nathan's use of the word "Barefoot" in its Radler product. A Lion Nathan spokesperson whinged stated that "We are disappointed by yesterday's High Court ruling, which represents a substantial change to Australian trade mark law,”   (thanks to The Shout for that quote: http://www.theshout.com.au/2010/05/21/article/Lion-Nathan-stripped-in-Barefoot-battle/QALOKRVYTK.html) .

Lion Nathan could easily have learnt from the May experience when dealing with Tosser's and New South. Perhaps a little bit of empathy.

Not bloody likely. As Tosser's and New South have experienced, Lion Nathan has returned to the trademark courts with a vengeance.

And for what gain ? Your humble correspondent practices a life-long boycott of McDonalds, due to that company's obnoxious behaviour over the years.  Could I live without James Squires and Knappstein Reserve Lager ? On a principle such as this, yes.

As an aside, I have emailed Lion Nathan objecting to their stance against Mr Harvey. I'll keep you posted of any developments.

Hefeweizen - the results

I finally have my two hefes on tap.

A quick recap: One was brewed purely with pale ale and wheat malts, with an ounce of Perle, aiming for a more refreshing summer wheat beer.

The other beer was brewed with less hops (half an ounce), but 500g of the grain (barley & wheat) were home-roasted.

How do they stack up ? I won't review them formally as that would be a little self-indulgent. However, it's fair to say that the aims have been attained (this is in spite of my earlier post where I was a bit discouraged.... always give the beer time in keg/bottle to settle and smooth out).

Hefe 1 (summer style - on the right): light and crisp. Touch tangy, with a nice bitterness at the back. More an American Wheat style than a hefe, but the clove is evident.

Hefe 2 (traditional hefe style - on the left): more rounded body, nice bread & biscuit nose and taste. More prominent clove character. (Note I reused the yeast from Hefe 1 for Hefe 2). Notice the darker colour.... and that was only a tenth of the grain, 60 minutes in the oven at 175C.

I think I'm hooked on home-roasting. It wasn't perfect by any means; I'd like to get more caramel than I did, but it was my first go and it will only improve.

Strong Beer Tasting

Nope, not a results post. In fact a request for suggestions. I have the following beers:

Malt Shovel Ten20 Commemorative Ale
Unibrou Trois Pistoles
Carlton Crown Ambassador 2010
Bridge Road B2 Bomber
Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (not pictured)

I've had the Ten20 for a while. My loyal reader(s) would recognise the Trois Pistoles and B2 Bomber from my last trip to Platinum Cellars. As for the Ambassador ? Well, let's just say we have a cozy relationship with our builder, who always seems grateful for incremental business (haven't seen the latest invoice, but if he's giving away $90 beers, I'm afraid to).

The Stout comes from my special Diageo contact. Not happy just to provide me with a single seven year-old stout (previous post http://aussiebeerblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/guinness-foreign-extra-stout.html), he's also managed to score the best part of a full case of the stuff, albeit a more recent vintage. Of course, I actually don't have my hands on any, but I'm assuming Darren is willing to contribute one or two to this tasting. I'd better invite him.....

Now, the challenge to my reader(s). What else in the "strong beer" category should be considered ? Other than ABV, there's little else in common across these beers. Mostly ales, one lager. Some Aussie, some from O/S. Belgian, Irish, Barley Wine styles. Maybe a strong wheat (aka Aventinus) ? A strong IPA (aka Icon) ?

Whadya reckon ?

Guinness Foreign Extra Stout

It's good to have connections. My mate Darren has Diageo as a client, so tends to come up with the occasional item of interest.  In this case, as a result of a site move, a lot of curios and loose items seemed destined for the mini-skip.

As an incredibly noble gesture, Darren managed to save certain of these items from becoming landfill, including a few Guinness-branded objects.

Of greatest interest was a single bottle of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout (7.5%). Now, I have managed to find this elusive beast only once before, at a single place in Sydney (Northmead Cellars). But this particular rescue-ee must have spent some time on a Diageo executive's cabinet, as its brewed date was 15/08/2003.  Yep folks, a seven year old stout.

And what did we think ?

Simply outstanding. On the nose it had picked up a touch of a sour note and a slight barnyard funkiness. Maybe some blue cheese and leather there too. Taste was amazing: no ashen astringency, but a slight pastrami or balsamic note. Chocolate cake.  Some late pecan pie or date pudding.

My previous Beeradvocate tasting notes included: black olive, balsamic, chocolate millkshake, blackened beef.  That was for a relatively young (<1 year) old example. So quite similar in profile, but with better integration, smoothness, and a touch of age.

An excellent beer to find, and an excellent beer to cellar.

Brew Day: hefeweizen with homemade toasted malt

The results of the my recent hefeweizen were mixed.

(see http://aussiebeerblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/hefe-brew-day.html).

The brew day went fairly well, and the plate chiller work superbly. However I think the resulting beer is too light in body, probably due to some oversparging and not enough boil time.

And an ounce of Perle seemed to create quite a bitter presence in the finished product, so will cut back on that in future.

So for today, I've got the remaining 2.5kg of Pale Malt and 2.5kg of Wheat Malt. But I've taken a tenth of each, mixed together, split into two, and toasted in a 175C oven.  The first went for an hour, and has come out nutty and darker than when it went in. The second got a soaking in hot water, then went in for a similar time. This produced some caramel, which seemed inclined to stick to the tray. Baking paper next time, I think.

Needed some quick repair on my mash tun (esky). The pipe through the outlet hole seems to not be sitting in the grommet as nicely as it used to, so as I was adding hot water pre-dough-in, I reckon most of it leaked out onto the ground. Quick trip to the hardware shop, and I picked up a long brass nipple, a couple of cistern outlet washers, and two brass nuts (all 15mm).  That settled it.

Mashed at lower temperature this time, doughing-in at 73.5, (opposed to 75.5).  Incremental batch sparging (8 litres hot water into the wort, lauter, then a 6 litre batch, and another). Brought the pre-boil volume to about 25 litres. Half ounce of hops, and an hour boil.

So, it's now in the fermenter, with yeast from the last batch. Should start up strongly, and with the current temperature in the low-mid 20's (C), should also kick off some good hefe aromatics.

I snuck in a quick taste, and there are distinct toasty, nutty flavours, over and above the wheat characteristics. This is reassuring, and possibly opens a new dimension in DIY brewing..... homemade crystal & toasted malts.

Endeavour Beverages Reserve Ales

I recently received another sample pack, this time from Endeavour Brewing, a newly formed beer marketing company based in Macquarie Centre, Sydney.

The beers on offer being:

2 x 2010 Endeavour Reserve Pale Ale

2 x 2010 Endeavour Reserve Amber Ale

Very attractive packaging, and fancy bottles. The media release states that these beers will develop of 2-3 years..... hmmm..... not so sure about that.

Darren dropped in for a quick taste, and we determined that these beers were, on the main, average. The claims for cellaring are dubious to say the least.

But, the gesture from the company is appreciated.

In the spirit of constructive criticism, I offered my thoughts back to them. They are as follows (no reply as yet):

Hi Ben,

Thanks for the tasting pack. I shared it with a beer loving mate, and we took down some notes.

In the spirit of providing frank and fearless advice, I wish to provide you with my feedback before I publish it on my blog.

Pale Ale
Looks good and has a wonderful fruity aroma, typical of its hop varieties. But it seems to go missing on the palate. And the mouthfeel seems quite dry and quick finish; for me it's not really that satisfying (but hey, I drink Russian Imperial Stout and Double IPAs, so maybe I'm desensitised !).

It seems to a have a foot in two camps: American pale ale fruitiness, and Dry/Blonde styles popular with Gen-Y. In this sense, it will be popular with this crowd, and maybe with the females, with the fruity perfume on the nose appealing, but the palate light, dry, crisp, and 'contemporary'.

If that's your target market, well done.

Amber Ale
Again, looks appealing. Aromas seem quite focused on chocolate & caramel. Touch resinous as you describe in your media release. I can't really pick up the distinctive Pride of Ringwood metallic/spicy profile, but the resin note is evident. Taste is again quite chocolaty, but seems a bit 2-dimensional. Perhaps you should throw in some English noble hops e.g. East Kent Goldings or Fuggles.... give it a third dimension and some interest.

I detect an attempt at appealing to the Gen-Y drinkers; give them a "different" style but not overburden their distraction-driven minds with complexity. So, give them chocolate, give them alcohol.... and give them a bottle that appears very sophisticated.

I seriously dispute your claims about aging these beers. The pale ale is too light on alcohol, and has no malt or hop structure to support change over time. The amber may take up some raisin/sherry notes as it ages.... but again at 5.2% doesn't have enough 'preservative' to see it into a second year. I'm happy to be proven wrong .......

Overall.... hats off to your packaging. Looks good, and assuming I'm correct regarding your target market, you're probably onto a winner. Price is a challenge, but not for the wanna-be-seen trainee stockbroker crowd. Just remember how fickle these guys are.... you'll be history in 3 months.

Again, thanks for the taster, and best wishes,

Michael Vanderlaan

Declining beer sales: the good news

Interesting read in Monday's Sydney Morning Herald:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/feeling-a-chill-as-beer-loses-pulling-power-20101011-16fzc.html

The opening sentence:

AUSTRALIAN drinkers have turned their backs on beer at an unprecedented rate, shunning both traditional brands and new hip labels, to post in August one of the biggest volume declines in recent history and threatening the earnings of Foster's, Lion Nathan and smaller players such as Coopers.

But..... a few paragraphs later:

Mr Bowley said these drivers included consumers dumping beers such as VB or Tooheys for imports and boutique beers.  ''Step-up brands and premium offerings typically have smaller bottle sizes [355ml and 330ml] than regular mainstream brands [375ml]. The recent acceleration in the shift from mainstream to premium will contribute to reduced consumption,'' he said.

Ostensibly a bad news article (it was, after all, published in the Business section). However, it's good for supporters of quality beer. Notwithstanding the implication that beer consumption is down due to bottle size, the shift from "mainstream to premium" is a positive sign. Note the "blame" is bottle size, not the cost thereof.

What also interests me is the writer's implication that "new hip labels" are different to premium brands. The former is on the decline with the macros, while the latter is increasing (relatively, I expect). It would be interesting to know what constitutes "new and hip", and what constitutes "premium".

A downside is the inclusion of Coopers in the list of decliners. I find this difficult to swallow, considering the amount of Coopers that's consumed these days at my local surf club.......

Perhaps we can correlate certain Coopers lines with the "new and hip"..... read Coopers Clear and Coopers 62 Pilsner. How would Coopers perform if they did not have these Gen-Y pleasers in their stable ?