Advertiser Today

[Timmsy]

A bit of a read from todays Advertiser. So of you may want to have read

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 44,00.html


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THEY'RE bold, black and the perfect, palatable winter beer coat.
Envisage the fug of a crackling fire, a dark, dew-frosted night and an even darker pint of foaming, rich ale or stout. It's the ideal midyear scenario for any beer lover.
Dark styles are all the rage this winter, their attraction being rich, rounded, comforting and toasty flavours from their extra-roasted barley and malt content.
They might seem old-fashioned but there's a rush of the new at this end of the bar from Adelaide, Sydney and Tassie.
Seeing Double is a lustful new release from what will be South Australia's most lauded craft brewery, Brewboys, at Regency Park.
Stephen Nelsen and Simon Sellick have injected wisdom and humour into their ebullient range, most notably their "wee heavy", Seeing Double (8% alc/vol), which extracts stunning flavours from peated malt, prominent in Scottish whisky making.
Nelsen says punters may also detect "banana or lolly-like esters amongst the caramel and toffee-laced vapours" from the brew named for Sellick and his twin brother.
It is even labelled with his family's Rose clan ceilidh tartan, used as the preferred party cloth for centuries.
And don't overchill it - just leave it on the floor, not cool, not warm, inside winter's back door to maximise flavour. It's about to be widely available but intuitive beer buffs can order it and other Brewboys limited releases online at http://www.brewboys.biz
From Tasmania, the seductive label Moo Brew continues to direct its flavours at just one pub on the mainland, the Wheatsheaf Hotel at Thebarton.
In butcher and schooner only, Moorilla Estate's Moo Stout (8.2% alc/vol) is on limited tap (and vintage hand pump) at the Wheaty, where SA's best-informed beerist, Jade Flavell, lovingly elevates its status as a "velvet sledgehammer".
She says Moo stout, $8 a schooner, is "an intensely rich and flavourful brew, with fruity burnt currant esters, roasty, dark chocolate and deep malt flavours, and a warm, lingering finish".
"Its East Kent Goldings hops impart an earthy, spicy aroma and a firm bitterness (55 international bitterness units) to balance the big malt palate. Moo's is a smooth, roasty, warm and bittersweet stout that the late (UK beer writer) Michael Jackson may well have likened to Turkish coffee laced with vodka," Jade suggests.

It's not to be confused with Moo's evermore exotic Moo Brew Imperial Stout 2007 Vintage, aka Tasmania's most expensive beer.

The 672 bottles have sold out but just a handful of the collectables are stashed at the Wheatsheaf for $30 a bottle.

"Moo Brew's synergy with the Moorilla winery has allowed the creation of another challenging experience for beer lovers," says head brewer Owen Johnston.

It spent nine months in French oak barrels, with three months of bottle conditioning and a number allocation giving purchasers the option to replenish next vintage. Locally, the big grandaddy of dark beers is SA Brewing's gold medal-winning Southwark Old Stout (7.4% alc/vol), still eking out a living since 1984, despite three years ago being limited to winter production in kegs, then deleted in kegs the following year.

This year, production of longnecks ceased. Last year, fearing its demise, these pages pointed to the joys of its roasted nut, tar, tobacco and toffee elements, the beaded oily head, the bitter chocolate, the smoking mallee root deep within.

Alas, Lion Nathan has broadened its focus. Among many brewing possessions, it recently purchased J. Boag's in Launceston from San Miguel. Lion Nathan chief brewer Bill Taylor says the beer maker is building or expanding plants in Queensland, Tasmania, SA and New Zealand. So what about our humble Southwark Old Stout?

"There's been a shift away from that sort of beer," he says from his Sydney office.

"So we've consolidated it in a single serve (stubby). My view is that the 'premiumisation' of beer has made a broader range of styles available to the public so Southwark stout has suffered a little bit as people move away from it to try other things.

"But I can go to the Australian Hotel down at The Rocks and buy Southwark stout and I can get it at a bottle shop in Parramatta. We'll continue to produce it."

And Lion Nathan has an ever-intriguing line of "craft" styles coming out of Malt Shovel's Pyrmont Bridge Rd brewery in Camperdown, including the excellent new Pepperberry Winter Ale (5.4%alc/vol), also on tap at the Wheatsheaf, the Elephant, city, and the Holdfast Hotel at Glenelg.

This riveting jarrah-coloured release lists its tasting notes right there, front of bottle; informally announcing beer as the new wine.

"Caramel, chocolate, slight maltiness, native Australian pepperberry for bite," reports the sticker. Beer's propensity for delivering chocolate and caramel hints are commonplace, especially under roasted barleys and malts - and, here, very subtlely so.

The real intrigue comes from half a kilo of ground pepperberry - which can be used in leaf or berry form - added late in the brew. Its fruity bite is chased by a numbing mild pepper effect.

Chuck Hahn and former SAB head brewer Tony Jones's brew unleashes pepperberry's engaging, prickly side, imbuing a sense of rising eucalyptus under the tongue as the beer finishes - fascinatingly more-ish.

Brewboys' beers are at Hamood's Plonk, Prospect; Burnside Village Cellars, Glenside; the Earl of Leicester Hotel, Parkside; and Lipson Street Cafe, Port Adelaide.

OTHER WINTER GEMS

SALTRAM PEPPERJACK ALE (4.7%) SA pride from a Melbourne design in this unique, fruity middle driven by a trickle of concentrate from the winery's distinctive Pepperjack shiraz. Drink a little warmer in a chill. Beer as sex.

FRANZISKANER HEFE-WEISBIER DUNKEL (5%) This Bavarian beauty is dark, unfiltered and proud of its creamy head. Wheat gives its chocolate and bananas aroma with a malty sweetness.

CASCADE STOUT (5.8%) More like chocolate than most, with a slight bitter finish and typical roasted characteristics. This Tassie devil is not readily available but has massive street cred.

HOLDFAST BREWING CHOCOLATE PORTER (5%) An undeniable seasonal favourite on tap at the Holdfast Hotel, Glenelg. Think big mocha giving way to a neat, bitter finish. Uses raw chocolate from Haigh's. Say no more.

COOPERS DARK ALE (4.5%) Light toast and scotch finger biscuit flavours. Has more appeal off the tap with a flickering fire.

JAMES SQUIRE AMBER ALE (5%) Drink a little warmer and witness Malt Shovel's conjuring of enticingly red, bitter toffee appeal from three hops, 140-year-old yeast and crystal and pale malts.

BARONS BLACK WATTLE ORIGINAL ALE (5.8%) Sydney's outstanding award winner, which uses native Australian roasted wattle seed. Toffee and bush tucker with a smooth finish.

COOPERS BEST EXTRA STOUT (6.3%) Oily, creamy, burnt biscuit and tobacco-like bitterness from black roasted malt. Take it to the hilt and hit it with a half jigger of whisky and taste the flavours evolving as it warms.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/stor ... 44,00.html

[Sathias]

COOPERS BEST EXTRA STOUT (6.3%) Oily, creamy, burnt biscuit and tobacco-like bitterness from black roasted malt. Take it to the hilt and hit it with a half jigger of whisky and taste the flavours evolving as it warms.

Hmmm I might have to try that

[PaulSteele]

Southwark stout is the best thing to happen in my life