Tag Archives: craft beer goodness

a pithy guide to the Australian beer scene in zine form

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Stubby Buddy vol. 1

Beer week continues! For your enjoyment today, we have a zine review on beer. It seems there’s a zine dedicated to just about everything!

As is usual whenever I’m browsing the Sticky Institute website, I start off by wanting to order one zine, and then leaving with seven or so in my online shopping cart. I was pretty gleeful when I saw a zine about beer and that it was selling for *one cent*. Mistakenly, I assumed it was going to be pretty bad but hey, who can complain at one cent, really?

Stubby Buddy is excellent, and the people who write it are articulate and clearly know what they’re on about. Their information is current and addresses issues in the beer industry that affect consumers right now. The first piece discusses the phenomenon of ‘low carb’ beer and cider and how commercial breweries are pushing these ‘products’ as the next big thing to snare the punters. Judging by this discussion, the zine was written just before summer 2009 got started.

The meat of the zine is devoted to beer reviews and there are plenty, mainly from various craft brewers around Australia, with a few international beer reviews peppered in between. Both Buzz and Bumble (the nicknames of our humble contributors) rate each beer out of five and state that anything with a three or above is “a fine and decent drop”. They also have a couple of cider reviews – hopefully they’ll have a few more next issue.

After the reviews, a brief history of Australian beer is given. I was quite surprised to learn that “at first beer wasn’t that popular. Rum was the preferred method of getting shitfaced.”, like in the West Indies (my father tells me that there rum is cheaper than beer so everyone drinks rum ‘back home’). This article had me giggling all the way through.

The column ‘Barfly’s Rant’ is spot on. Barfly goes on to list ten drinks that are overrated but are continually ordered by misinformed party animals. There are some pretty dodgy suspects on the list, and one item used to be an old fave of mine *winces*. It’s kind of cool, looking into the mind of a bartender and finding out what their bugbears are. If you ever read the zine and guess what my old fave is, I’ll buy you a beer.

Stubby Buddy can be purchased online or instore at Sticky Institute, city, Melbourne. I purchased volume 2 with this first one and will be keeping an eye out for future volumes as it’s of an excellent standard, and lots of fun. Stay tuned for a review of volume 2.

I fought the bock, and the bock won

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I shall no longer have to fork over any dosh for Ale Stars, or at least for the next twelve months – for my birthday, I was bought membership! Bring on the monogrammed shirt and engraved tankard, squee!

The Beer Blokes have already written and published their report on Ale Stars and it prompted me to tell you all why I write about these sessions, if you’ll briefly indulge me.

I don’t know much about beer. However, I like learning. Documenting my Ale Stars impressions is a convenient way for me to retain the knowledge I learn. Beer is not something I ever thought I would develop such a liking for. Come to think of it, food wasn’t something I thought I would ever be so passionate about, but you can read about that here, if you like.

Generally speaking, the nature of blogging for me is a glorified diary but up in the public domain. Those who are interested may choose to read it, and I do genuinely hope you find it informative.

Anyway, onto the beer.

The bock is a German-style lager that originates from northern Germany but the southerners would love to have you believe they came up with it themselves. Fair enough, I say. Rather amusingly, the Bavarians pretend the word ‘bock’ is slang for ‘billy-goat’. More seriously, there are German laws that dictate how strong a bock has to be in order to be considered a bock. Again amusingly, the alcohol content of this beer (specifically the eisbock which is last on the tasting schedule for the night) was brought up by the fact that the beer would freeze in transit as it was transported from one colder region to another. Later on, the brewers decided they rather liked this, so adopted it as a method of bringing up the alcoholic content of the beer. Absolutely amazing what happens as a result of an accident.

First up, on tap, the Hunter Brewery with their bock (the Local Taphouse is showcasing this NSW-based brewery at present). I found it subtle with a hint of roastiness. I thought it would have more body than it did, and it was the colour of a dark ale. Moreish. On tap, so no pic.

Rogue Ales Dead Guy Ale

The second bocky example is from Rogue Ales, based in Oregon, USA. It’s an example of what is called a maibock – a seasonal bock. This brewery uses authentic German hops. Gold, and malty, I’ve marked this one as ‘loved’ on my Ale Stars score card.

The bocks are getting progressively stronger as the session moves along.

Weihanstephaner Vitus

This is from one of the oldest operating breweries in the world, circa 1040 AD (holy shit!). It’s a Weizenbock and you can detect some banana and clove in there. It’s a very palate-clean beer. I’ve definitely come round to the whole wheat beer thingy, but this would have been my least favourite.

Last of all, an eisbock – Aventinus Weizen Eisbock by G. Schneider & Sohn. I was absolutely not kidding when I said to @shandyaleczar (beloved Ale Stars host) that this beer made me have flashbacks. It may have ruined a fair few of us at a whopping 12% ABV. It feels very thin in body and reminds me of brandy in aroma. It’s very sweet as far as beer goes. Drinking this is an unforgettable experience. It’s a bit like barleywine too.

G. Schneider & Sohn Aventinus Weizen Eisbock

Those monks were lucky bastards to have this sort of stuff sustaining them.

Quick, not-beer-related aside – much grats to Guy and his partner on the birth of their daughter Frankie.

not quite *my* Local

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DRINK BEER

After a rustic, fortifying meal at Betty’s Soup Kitchen and an immense trek, four of us made it to the Local Taphouse in Darlinghurst. The first Local Taphouse opened in Melbourne, in St Kilda, and since December last year, I’ve been attending beer sessions and even beer-matched dinners that they run. For this reason, I was keen to see what the Darlinghurst Taphouse was like, even though I know they have the same menu and I think largely the same alcohol in bottles. How they differ is what they serve on tap, and any beer aficionado will tell you that nothing beats having (most) beer on tap!

Another important thing to note is that the Taphouse is highly supportive of the Australian craft and microbrewery scene. Simply put, the brewers that don’t make commercial slop (and no, I am not going to name any names. If you have even a modicum on interest in good beer, you’ll already know).

I judged appallingly, but for some insane reason, I thought my girlfriend L who is vehemently opposed to beer would like the Young’s Chocolate Stout. It has a head that smells of Cadbury milk chocolate, and for the first few gulps, tastes as such, mingled with a smooth characteristic stouty flavour. She hated it. C was determined to have the famous Meantime coffee porter. Porter to me does have a lot of burnt coffee notes, so this seemed more apt. I got one gulp and it was delish. The Young’s choc stout I’ll always like, but boy it is well filling.

British beer!

L left us because I probably scared the poop out of her with my beer choice, but not before being persuaded to have some barleywine. C then kindly bought a bottle of Maudite red ale for us remaining three to share

. Maudite red ale

Didn’t it go down a treat. Apparently this small Canadian brewery is closing down. A great shame.

'winners lane' sign

Anyone that makes it to the Local is in the winners’ lane. The staff are friendly and knowledgeable, never condescend and are always happy to help out beer neophytes – and yes, this is at both branches. Thanks to my chums for making sure I got to visit!

The Local Taphouse on Urbanspoon