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. Whatever the motivation, summer – sometimes known as “golden” – ale style has blossomed with the growth of microbreweries able to provide hands-on crafting. And one of these traditions ideal for summer ales is the “hop back”.

Breweries in England often enhanced aroma and character to their beers by straining the hot wort through a hop back, a device full of hop cones or flowers.

This simple, effective ploy was used in Fremantle from the start at Little Creatures. It must take credit for much of the Fremantle brewery’s Australia-wide success. Remember the initial impact of that grapefruit-passion-fruit fragrance? It came from the hop back, packed with flowers landed in the Port City fresh from Oregon.

The shiny new brewhouse at Little Creatures has a shiny new enclosed hop back, but the original basket – nicknamed the “chip fryer” - will live on. It’s part of the White Rabbit microbrewery at Healesville, in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, which hopes to open by Easter with former Colonial brewer Dean McLeod at the helm. What is more, Mr McLeod is reinforcing English ale tradition with open fermenters, rather than the cylindroconical tanks used elsewhere in Australia.

Another Australian small brewer using a hop back is Temple. The Victorian operation’s other criteria include use of imported floor-malted English Maris Otter as well as local malts, a welter of carefully chosen hops including US varieties, and yeast-conditioning in the bottle. To my mind, such attention to detail deserves its reward: it would be nice if White Rabbit and Temple thrived as well as England’s Hop Back brewery.

When John and Julie Gilbert bought a pub near Salisbury, in the Westcountry, in 1986, they converted its cellar and backyard into a brewery. They placed tradition to the fore, naming it Hop Back. Mr Gilbert began brewing hop-backed ales for sale at The Wyndham Arms only, but on the back of more than 60 awards in 22 years Hopback has expanded enormously. It owns more than 10 pubs, including brewpubs, and exports bottle-conditioned ales to Europe and the US as well as Australia. But the traditional approach is maintained.

THE BEERS

Hop Back Summer Lightning (5 per cent)

Hop Back started brewing this British champion soon after setting up. In 1997, Summer Lightning won the Great British Beer Festival gold medal for Bottle Conditioned Beer. The golden ale was unusual for its almost-orange colouring and sweetness of Maris Otter malt barley. Its subtle fruitiness, smooth texture and dry finish set the standard for summer ale, albeit a tad on the strong side. With a hallmark fresh, hoppy aroma, tangy orange zest on the sweet’n’dry palate and intense bitterness in the long, dry finish, Summer Lightning meets the most exacting standards of summer drinking.

Hop Back Taiphoon (4.2 per cent)

As an example of developing new tastes on a traditional base, it’s hard to beat Taiphoon. Billed as a lemongrass pale ale, the pale gold brew is infused with lemongrass and coriander to lend a beguiling oriental snap on top of the more usual hoppiness of Goldings and Pioneer. Poured from the 500ml bottle it’s as effervescent as the liveliest IPA from secondary fermentation – so beware the bits at the bottom. It’s worth the slow pour, however, with a subtle floral and herbal aroma, light summery palate, citrusy roof-of-mouth astringency and delightful dry finish.

Hop Back Crop Circle (4.2 per cent)

Taking its name from the hoax “alien” landing circles in cornfields, this bottle-conditioned brew is a believable summer quenching light ale. The uncluttered palate carries a crispness and subtle bitter fruity tongue-tingle. There’s an unusual corn-like back-flavour achieved by the inclusion of flaked maize in the malt mash – a practice usually associated with bland lager, but more rewarding.

Temple Pale Ale (5 per cent)

The full-flavoured ale is dominated by rich malt character derived from a blend of five imported and domestic malts, including the famous Maris Otter. But excellent balance, floral and citrus fruit aroma, spicy, flowery flavours and firm, dry, crisp, bitter aftertaste come from the staged addition of five distinctive hops including Magnum, Amarillo and two different varieties of Cascade flowers. How is it achieved? By passing the wort through a bed of fresh hop flowers before being cooled rapidly to capture fresh flavours and aroma – the hop back.

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QUICK ONES

Clancy’s Fish Pub in Fremantle has just put its Summer Ale (4.8 per cent) on tap, custom-brewed at Mash. It also plans to serve a hop-back version of Bootleg Settlers’ Pale Ale in winter, when brewer Michael Brookes will introduce metro customers to beer that flows through his bar-mounted “Grasshopper” to bring out floral fragrance. Meanwhile, Clancy’s guest beer is Red Oak Hefe Weizen (5.2 per cent), a summery clousy wheat beer from NSW.

One of Victoria’s microbreweries, Hargreaves Hill, was destroyed in the bushfire disaster. The Local Taphouse in Melbourne hosted a benefit night last Thursday with 50 per cent of proceeds going to the official Red Cross Appeal and 50 per cent to brewery owners Simon and Beth Walkenhorst towards rebuilding. Little Creatures, Matilda Bay, James Squire and Coopers donated kegs of beer and, with Hargreaves Hill’s ESB, were the only beers served on the night.