For Fresh, the West Australian. Dec 27

Popping corks to cheer in the new year need not be restricted to sparkling white wine. Here are some choice beer alternatives, which come in big bottles to share out in wine goblets:

Chimay Grande Reserve: The world-renowned 9 per cent Trappist ale from a Belgian monastery. Complex with spicy sweetness and delicate, nutty and dry drinkability, Chimay Blue from the 750ml champagne-style bottle delivers enough to change the minds of wine lovers.

Deus: Known as “champagne beer”for its tongue-tingling texture, Deus is fermented for four weeks with two yeasts in Belgium before a third fermentation in the bottle, rotated in methode champagne in France. At 11.7 per cent, and loaded with floral, bready and dry spicy tastes, it’s sensational.

Grayston Reserve 07: Australian vintage dark wheat ale crafted by Matilda Bay. Redback yeast brings out 6 per cent alcohol, spice and banana aroma and warming chocolate, caramel and stone fruit flavours from the brew’s five malts and the noble hersbrucker hops. Conditioned in a chunky 750ml bottle to evolve for a further year or so, it is also ready for drinking on Monday.

3 Monts: Spicy, slightly cloudy ale originally brewed in winter and stored to quench farmworkers’ thirst in summer (hence the wired cork) during the French Revolution. This 8.5 per cent biere de garde from French Flanders packs masses of clout and flavour – citrus first, biscuity fruit mid-palate and lip-smacking, long, dry finish.

Weihenstephan Festbier: Pale gold lager from the German university brewery on the site where Benedictine monks gained the right to brew in 1040. Designed for any celebration, including New Year’s Eve, it pours with a white head and grassy, herbal, grainy aroma. Hop character balances the malt with fruity, honey, citrus and spice flavours.

Cider partners beer

When Little Creatures launched Pipsqueak Best Cider in September it showed good beer and good cider go arm in arm. There are signs aplenty. WA’s top local brews pub, Clancy’s in Fremantle, has put Stowford Press English cider on tap among craft ales and lagers. “It’s not local, but it’s well made,” manager Jane Dickson explained.

The Vernon Arms at Baldivis, a mecca for lovers of British beers on tap and in pint bottles, has put cider on two taps and introduced a range of flagons and bottles. “I sell so much cider its difficult meeting demand,” publican Terry Vernon said.

The International Beer Shop newsletter listing imported beers adds: “We also have a great range of ciders . . .”

In 2002 The Cidery in Bridgetown opened Blackwood Valley brewery and a winery alongside its rack and cloth cider press. Now the “philosophy of producing traditional unfiltered ‘real’ drinks” has boosted demand so much that expansion and bottling is underway.

We could be following Britain, where terms like medium, dry, sweet, oak-aged and scrumpy are as common as bitter, brown, porter and mild in discerning pubs. The Stubbing Wharf at Hebden Bridge, a Yorkshire real-ale stalwart, recently held Apple Day to celebrate its real-cider sales from handpumps and in bottles hand-picked from Britain, France, Ireland and Scandinavia.

A Campaign for Real Ale Oktoberfest was called the Beer and Cider Festival; another festival was titled Beer, Cider and Perry (pear cider). Pioneer craft brewer Wychwood has Green Goblin 6 per cent fresh-pressed English-apple cider fermented in 100-year-old oak barrels; the one-man Barearts microbrewery started pressing cider. Why? “It’s easier than brewing and comes up clear all by itself – and besides, I like it.”

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