Category Archives: craft beer goodness

waiter, there’s some poo in my beer

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A couple of weeks ago, the haven for many a beer nerd in Melbourne, Slowbeer had a tasting to showcase some dark beers from Danish brewery Mikkeller. In reality, the showcase focussed on variations of two of their beers, the Beer Geek Brunch Weasel and the Mikkeller Black.

What’s so special about Mikkeller, you’re thinking? For a start, the head brewer doesn’t have his own premises. He roams the lands far and wide like a gypsy and basically goes to existing breweries, sets up for a bit and does his thing. In fact, the Beer Geek Brunch Weasel was made at Nøgne Ø in Norway. You might recall that this Norwegian brewery picked up a slew of awards at the recent Australian International Beer Awards.

I missed out on trying the Beer Geek Breakfast when it was available – the fuss being that it contained ‘gourmet’ coffee and was supposedly suitable for breakfast drinking. Mentioning ‘beer’ and ‘breakfast’ in the same sentence also gives me an opportunity to flog that post again. So, with the Beer Geek Brunch Weasel, they upped the ante and didn’t use any old coffee but the most bloody expensive coffee in the world – kopi luwak. Yes, yes, you’ve probably heard about it but let me tell you again because it’s quite exciting – a civet eats coffee berries and it pops out the other end having been…’treated’ by its digestive acids and thus leaving us humans with something of a delicacy. Also, cutest little baristas ever! Squeeeee! Ahem, sorry.

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Thus the tasting begun: we forked over $30 per person and were huddled around the table in the shop. Was this madness? Leaving the warmth and comfort of home to try out civet-shit-coffee-poo beer? Pah, hardly! The BGBW is an imperial stout which also has a fair amount of oats as well as the infamous coffee. I find oats generally give stouts a smoother, silkier drinking experience.

Okay, I admit, I’m sexing up things a little. I blame the British in me: I’ve actually had this first beer before. It’s a luxurious experience. It pours near-black with a dark tan head and whiffs of its 11% ABV are oh so evident. Despite this being a strong beer, the alcohol is well integrated. This time around as compared to my very first taste, I found that with my first sip there was a hint of hops and every so often the civety-coffee aroma and taste would pop up. I think the coffee generally brings out the chocolatey characteristics of this stout.

Mmm. Perhaps in winter, I could possibly have it with brunch. Perhaps.

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The second beer for tasting I doubt I would have in the daytime – this was the Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Highland. The difference between this and its parent is that it is aged in Highland whisky barrels for three and a half months. This seemed to affect the beer’s carbonation considerably – there was virtually no head, less coffee presence to the palate and more savoury. While the whisky aroma was strong, the taste was but a whisper in the beer itself.

Second variation, third beer in the tasting – Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Islay. This time the beer is aged for two and a half months in Islay whisky barrels. I’d say that this was more of a success as compared to the Highland incarnation – there was more carbonation and thus more head (which is useful for imparting aroma before you even take a sip) and holy shit, it was peaty. The coffee was pretty hard to detect but this could have been because the whisky was more prominent than it was in previous one.

To recap…

Beer Geek Brunch Weasel: ace. Thick, chocolatey coffee goodness in imperial stout form. Great as a dessert beer for those who don’t like dessert! This is probably because I like to imagine imperial stout is choc mud cake in liquid form.

Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Highland: lost the plot a little here, chaps – whisky-soaked barrels don’t add much to this already awesome drop. The low carbonation oddly enough dilutes the enjoyment of this beer.

Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Islay: a more successful venture with the whisky barrel ageing thing. Not as drinkable as the original but far more pleasing than the Highland version.

Rather than fatigue you, dear reader, permit me a pause in what is turning out to be a rather lengthy chronicle of the Mikkeller showcase tasting. Please check back tomorrow for the next instalment of the tasting on the Mikkeller Black variants.

a mythomaniac’s paradise

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It came time to pick up a growler. Not the kind of growler you read about on Urban Dictionary, but the kind of growler you can find at specialist beer shop Slowbeer.

I hadn’t been out of the house in two weeks except to go to the doctor so the chance to have breakfast out was indeed most welcome. I suggested Liar, Liar given it was in the area and has a reputation as a coffee house. Excuse the blurriness of the photo below, it was taken ‘discreetly’ whilst we were waiting to be seated.

coffee machine

I was pretty freaking famished and ordered the ‘big fat liar’ breakfast – eggs done the way you like with mushrooms, bacon, tomatoes, sausages, spinach and tomato relish. Probably the first time I’d had a full meal instead of the various tasteless things you have to have when you’re bedridden-sick. So bloody good. The mushrooms had a little oil and rosemary drizzled on them. I should have asked what sort of sausages they use as they’re very special.

big fat liar

Instead of having tea with breakfast, I opted to try a Tanzanian coffee through the Clover. I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but it was far too subtle…either it’s not to my taste or it wasn’t as good as it could be. It reminded me a bit of bad coffee-drinking days. Perhaps I need to give it another shot? I needed something a little more robust.

Tanzanian from Clover

Tris got the ‘pigs might fly’ breakfast – twice cooked pork hock, melted aged cheddar, rocket and seeded mustard on sourdough. You can pay a little extra for a fried egg too. I nearly chose this too! Doesn’t it look scrumptious?

pigs might fly

He also ordered coffee – a humble latte. Yes, I did just put the photo in ’cause it was awful purty…

pretty latte

I’ll be campaigning heavily for this place to become the ‘pre-growler fill’ haunt. There’s plenty of delicious sounding breakfast options (as well as lunch) and look forward to exploring the coffee choices available.

Ooh yes, and the growler. As well as picking up a stash of stout and porter (bottled), the beer on tap for growlers was the Brewdog Zeitgeist. Very, very sessionable and went down all too easily. The growler was drained in two days and that was with exercising restraint! A quick consult to ratebeer.com informed me that this is a schwartzbier – a nice dark beer with very little hop flavour and roast malt characteristics. See the growler and beer below.

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No wonder I loved the Zeitgeist so much – it’s the same style as the Rogue Dirtoir which was heavenly. It could be just the name but yes, there is a hint of dirt aroma there! Think freshly turned warm dirt in your garden. If stout and even porter is just a bit too ‘heavy’ for you, I’d recommend dark lager as your ‘gateway’ beer.

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African cuisine virgin no longer!

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I’d heard lots of great things about The Abyssinian in Kensington. In fact, it seemed so popular that our group could only be accommodated at the 8pm sitting, rather than earlier. The duck enabler Anna took a night off from cajoling us into eating duck for that from the horn of Africa instead: The Abyssinian specialises in Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine.

As always, you’re often asked if you’d like a drink at the beginning of your meal. There was a sizeable list of African (!) beer so three of us conspired to get the only three available at the time and have a taste. I of course got the worst one, the St George. No depth of flavour, slightly sweet and just generally a poor example of what a lager should be. Blech blech blech. Watery with a hint of beer.

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The more common choice which was a good deal more drinkable was the Dashen beer. I stealthily swapped my bottle of St George with Tristan’s Dashen when he wasn’t looking. Dashen matched the food very well. It could be a good session beer too!

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The best one out of what was available was the Castel beer however. I should have known by the fact that it had gold wraparound on the neck of the bottle (JOKE). Not sure how to explain why I liked this – it was rich in flavour and just felt like it had more depth.

Castel beer

Sadly, they did not have the African stout in stock. A shame, I’d love to try it! Perhaps next time?

All nine of us agreed to have the banquet. This worked out perfectly because the platters are shared between three. So, you take a pinch of injera (sour, fermented, porous, slightly moist pancake with sorghum) and then pick up a handful of any of those dishes shown above and then scoop into your mouth. Nope, no cutlery. Yes, very messy and therefore very fun.

banquet platter

There seems to be trouble viewing the menu online at the restaurant’s website so let me try to take you through what we had. Starting from the dish in the bowl and working clockwise: goat curry, yellow lentils, red meat (possibly lamb?), brown lentils, chicken, chickpea, fish, and lastly beef.

Think Indian-like curries but with a different spice base. The spiciest one to the left of the goat curry reminded me very much of vindaloo. I know, I’m sorry – it’s not very fair to compare Ethiopian and Eritrean food to Indian food, but they do have their similarities – as you can see, lentil soupiness and stew-like things which look like curry.

Not pictured, we also added another dish for ‘goormette’ kicks – a raw mince tartare-like dish to be eaten with injera. It came with a little dish of the most fragrant and alien spices my palate has ever had the pleasure to taste. It reminded me of the smell of the earth.

Some of us managed to fit in dessert (which is more in the Western vein) – I opted to have Ethiopian style coffee which is just as fragrant and spicy as its cuisine.

A wonderful, homely communal eating experience with good foodie mates makes for a cheery night during a rainy, wintry Melbourne. The staff are lovely and the atmosphere is warm and relaxed. Get a group of mates and go the banquet as it really is the best introduction to the menu at The Abyssinian. My dear foodie chum Billy was with us and he too reviewed it (he also has a photo of the raw beef dish – my fingers were far too messy for me to take a photo by that stage!).

The Abyssinian on Urbanspoon