Beer Radar<\/p>\n
By John Kr\u00fcger<\/p>\n
Feral Beers (First published by Wine Business Magazine in 2012)<\/p>\n
Even though the winter months slow down beer consumption, the industry certainly doesn\u2019t go on holidays. There\u2019s some amazing beers coming out, but sometimes the release dates don\u2019t match up too well with the weather. A prime example is Feral<\/strong>\u2019s Watermelon Warhead. It\u2019s a naturally sour Berliner Weisse flavoured with watermelons. Now that\u2019s worth a mention just for the style. I tried it on a particularly cold day and thought the release timing was a bit odd being such a great lower alcohol beer for stinking hot weather, but wow, what a beer. It\u2019s absolutely sensational. It\u2019d also be my first pick for beer of the year. It\u2019s certainly a different style and there\u2019s no other examples of locally produced sour beers that come to mind to compare it to. I was worried that the lactic acid sourness would be narrow and sharp like a Cantillon beer from Belgium but the sourness is broad, smooth and almost savoury. I also wasn\u2019t sure if watermelon in a beer would be my kind of thing, but the subtle layer of flavour and aroma it adds is totally complimentary.<\/p>\n Feral is also blowing us away with their barrel aged Hop Hog and their Karma Citra, a black IPA with plenty of tropical fruit flavours from Citra hops. Brewer Brendan Varis must be doing everything right because they\u2019ve just won Best Australian Brewery (again) at the recent International Beer Awards in Melbourne.<\/p>\n Another favourite brewer of Beer Radar<\/i> is Owen Johnston. His work with Moo Brew in Tasmania is always rock solid and super tasty. Moo Brew<\/strong> have just released a new Belgian style pale ale called Belgo. It\u2019s not super high in alcohol so I was lucky enough to drink a pint of it with Owen recently. Some Belgians can be quite strong in alcohol and that funky yeast phenolic department, but Belgo is very balanced and a pleasure to drink. It\u2019s also thankfully missing the \u2018hot water on Weetbix\u2019 aroma and flavour. For a roasty stout, keep your eyes peeled for the Moo Brew seasonal stout, colloquially known as \u2018the Velvet Sledgehammer\u2019, or their oak aged imperial stout if you deserve a special yet expensive treat.<\/p>\n Little Creatures<\/strong> have got the timing right and have just released their spiced winter ale called Day of the Long Shadow. It\u2019s a sipper, sitting at a whisker under 9%abv. It\u2019s flavoured with cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice and the bottles are primed with Muscovado sugar. I usually avoid \u201cChristmas\u201d or \u201cspiced\u201d beers because the spices are always too dominant. While the spices in this beer are restrained, the flavours build with every sip so it\u2019s definitely for spiced beer lovers only. The layers of specialty malts give it a very aromatic and gutsy malt backbone and it makes this seem like drinking an ingredient rather than a finished beverage. I\u2019m tempted to try the dessert pairing options with this beer, or even using it as an ingredient. The ultimate Christmas beer pudding, or dare I suggest, spiced beer donuts. Oh yeah.<\/p>\n *Moo Brew Belgo and Little Creatures Day of the Long Shadow were supplied by the breweries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Beer Radar By John Kr\u00fcger Feral Beers (First published by Wine Business Magazine in 2012) Even though the winter months slow down beer consumption, the industry certainly doesn\u2019t go on holidays. There\u2019s some amazing beers coming out, but sometimes the release dates don\u2019t match up too well with the weather. A prime example is Feral\u2019s … Continue reading Feral Beers<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerradar.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerradar.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerradar.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerradar.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerradar.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerradar.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerradar.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beerradar.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerradar.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beerradar.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}