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From Fresh, The West Australian, March 26
Two of New Zealand’s most successful craft breweries are aiming to win a slice of the Australian market. One is a relative newcomer, founded in the 1980s, the other an established brand with origins in Scottish...
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Beer brewed at an English stately home and which comes in bottles custom-designed in 1770 for an American innkeeper has to command respect. The oval-profile 500ml bottle resembles an old-fashioned medicine flask you could imagine once contained Dr McGilli...
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From Fresh, The West Australian, March 12
St Patrick’s Day craic means toasting the patron saint of Ireland. But when he asked followers to mark his passing with a tipple he didn’t specify a brand. So, while Guinness will grab its customary lion’s ...
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From Fresh, The West Australian, March 5
When is a beer bottle a can? When it’s the latest incarnation of the “Crownie”. At least, with the familiar sloping neck and colour scheme it looks like a bottle and has crown cap like a bottle – but is ma...
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For the second year in its three-year existence, the 2009 Sydney Royal Beer Competition failed to award any gold medals. Surprising perhaps, considering that last year there were six gold medals from among 102 entries, while none of this year’s increase...
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RYAN Leslie delights in telling the story of the little
old woman who walked into a country bottle shop
and asked for an ‘‘effen beer’’.
...
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From Fresh, The West Australian Feb 26
Summer ales are a relatively new development in the long history of brewing. Perhaps this style was a reaction to the global spread of lagers – a similarly refreshing beer for warm weather but with more flavour. W...
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From Fresh Jan 22
Any public holiday is an excuse to concentrate on beer, and Australia Day has to focus on the nation’s top drops. As well as an array of beers for informal gatherings and barbecues on Monday, I recommend trying some of the new vint...
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While we’re still coming to grips with the horrendous loss of life and property in the wake of the recent Victorian bushfires, the devastating force of nature also claimed one craft brewery in the Yarra Valley region.
The Hargreaves Hill Brewery ope...
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From Fresh, The West Australian, Feb 12
AUSTRALIA’S TOP 10
1. Little Creatures Pale Ale (WA)
2. Murray's Icon 2IPA (NSW)
3. Mountain Goat Hightail Ale (VIC)
4. Knappstein Reserve Lager (SA)
5 Little Creatures Bright Ale (WA)
6. James Squire Golde...
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From Fresh, The West Australian, Feb 5
Packaging does not overly exercise a beer-lover until a six-pack falls apart and drops a bottle on his bare foot. It happened when I was putting some global premium lager in the beer fridge. The pack was one of t...
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CRAFT brewer Matilda Bay has proved just as adept at inventing intriguing names for its specialty beers as it is at making them.
This is the crew, after all, that dreamed up Barking Duck (a farmyard, Saisson-style ale); a red lager dubbed Rooftop Red nam...
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From Fresh, The West Australian
Local breweries seem to be challenging the perception that summer drinking means the “coldie”, or standard Aussie sweet lager. Elmar’s in the Valley’s seasonal brew is a black beer and Gage Roads has produced B...
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THE BOYS at the Malt Shovel brewery are renowned for producing an excellent range of big, flavoursome ales under the James Squire banner.
When the crew headed by veteran brewer Chuck Hahn decide to try their hand at a lager, it’s time to sit up and tak...
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The temperate climate and relaxed lifestyle of the northern rivers region was an obvious drawcard and starting their own craft brewery made a lot sense for Kevin and Andrea Rowland, the couple behind the Northern Rivers Brewing Company.
“We enjoyed ...
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From Fresh, The West Australian Jan 15
THERE was a buzz at the bar. Blokes nudged each other and pointed. A queue formed. Exclamations such as “I don’t believe you can get that here,” and “Pints all round,” were heard. The publican was on the p...
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The popular coastal holiday destination of Byron Bay will soon be the location for not one, but two of the country’s newest craft breweries. Stone & Wood Draught Ale was flowing in several pubs before Christmas, produced from a microbrewery operated...
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From Fresh, The West Australian, Jan 8
Among changes on the local brewing scene over the past year were two contrasting advances in the metropolitan area. Fremantle’s Little Creatures got a lot bigger and more high-tech, and the Old Swan Brewery change...
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From Fresh, The West Australian, Jan 01
New year brings new beers, and three of them are particularly noteworthy. One is a champion WA home brew translated into a commercial drop. One is a craft beer of startling colour and content. And the third is s...
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From Fresh, The West Australian, Dec 18
In this season of personal indulgences, mine is to drink the hoppiest ales available. And Meantime India Pale Ale (7.5 per cent), in its 750ml wired-cork champagne bottle, has leapt into my top 10 as the perfec...
