From Fresh, The West Australian, June 19

Brewers often proclaim they are up for a challenge and like to present challenging beers to the public. The two factors come together in two new Gage Roads brands, each a limited release of 4500 numbered 750ml bottles. Because of secondary fermentation in the bottle and the hand-dipped wax seals, the ales can be cellared – upright – for up to three years.

The Gage Roads brewers split into the “A” team - director Bill Hoedemaker and head brewer Aaron Heary – and the “B” team, comprising their four other brewers. They challenged each other to brew the better classic beer and ask customers to name the winner.

Gage Roads Trippel (9.8 per cent)

The bosses plumped for a Belgian-style Trippel, so called because it was the strongest ale in the Trappist monks’ armoury. Spot-on ingredients keep the deep burnished-copper-coloured ale true to style. Two Belgian yeasts bring banana, raisins and bread to the nose and dry, spicy, fruity highlights to the palate. Candy sugar heightens the mainly pilsener malt flavours and noble tetnang and hersbrucker hops come through as faintly floral but definitely spicy notes. The high alcohol level adds a feisty spiritness and length. This special brew – in the golden-waxed bottle – is the more challenging of the two because it lands rather heavy. Sip slowly from a goblet around 8C-12C for best rewards.

Gage Roads Saison (5.8 per cent)

The style chosen by the “B” team literally means “season”, ale designed by Belgian farmers to keep their labourer happy by making it not only refreshing but also complex, fruity, dry and spicy. According to the latest International Beer Club newsletter on a newly imported Belgian saison, “much of the flavour comes from special top fermenting yeasts, believed to stem from strains used in red wine production and evolving over decades of use in farmhouse breweries”. And, as mentioned in this column in April, saisons are gaining popularity, not least with hands-on brewers such as the Gage-Roads crew.

Tasting their brew is a pleasure. Zesty from bottle-conditioning, it starts with a yeasty, freshly-picked berry whiff on an earthy base from English east Kent goldings hops. This continues in the mouth, balancing the malty fruit flavours. Hop spices arrive late with a slightly acidic finish. Recommended food matches: peppery and spicy dishes.

Gage Roads is not the first Australian brewery to package beer in stylish, hefty, champagne-like bottles. The Hahn Millennium vintage ale in 1999 included corked 750ml bottles in the breakthrough limited-edition project. A few Matilda Bay specials have been released, but now the trend seems to have accelerated. Tanglehead brewery in Albany brings out a 750ml Christmas Ale and this month’s Crown Ambassador Reserve Lager release in an elegant champagne bottle only confirms that “bigger is better”.

Bridge Road pub in Beechwood, Victoria, also has branched out from standard-size “stubbies” with the Chevalier range of classic Euro-style beers yeast-conditioned in 750ml bottles. Three are available from Cellarbrations at Carlise, Kewdale.

Chevalier Saison (6 per cent) has the straw colour, a heady, grassy, herb-scented and faintly doughy aroma, then lots of spice and orange-peel complexity with a refreshing, bubbly and enticingly sharp aftertaste. In some respects it’s a different take on farmhouse style from the Gage Roads version, but trying to dissect and compare the respective flavours will only make you giddy.

Chevalier Biere de Garde (7.5 per cent)

A wonderful complete ale, though not really fitting the long-matured beer style from Flanders. Compared with the floral, herbaceous, fresh, spring-like, pale golden European version, this one is heavier in colour and on the palate and more akin to a Christmas ale. It seems stronger, but is lower in alcohol than the 8.5 per cent of the classic Trois Monts. Rather than herbaceous it’s more plum pudding in aroma and flavour: malt-fruity, plummy, with a bit of nutmeg and layered with caramel and spice. In fact, Bridge Road Brewery has come up with a novel winter warmer for Aussies.

Chevalier Hefe Weizen (5.2 per cent)

Sniff this beer and it’s like pushing a banana up your nose – the hallmark of the German cloudy wheat style on which Bridge Road Brewery bases the ale. Peach and apricot notes pop up as it reaches 8C or so, perked up with a tart snap. It’s a plausible New World stab at a venerated old world beer, faintly sour to start, smooth, creamy and full-bodied on the middle palate, refreshing and long in the finish.

BrewBoys Stellar (6.9 per cent)

From a limited-edition “fun” boutique brewery in Adelaide comes a serious-looking 750ml champagne-type bottle of Stellar. The mahogany-hued beer is described as a “spiced ale of astronomical proportions – a celestial brew to be savoured on special occasions”. With star anis among a raft of spices married with Chinese herbs, it’s difficult to categorise. You might call it an individualistic interpretation of European wheat-based strong ales.

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QUICK ONES

Bootleg head brewer Michael Brookes will show groups through the Wilyabrup brewery at 2pm today and tomorrow as he has done through WA Beer Week. “WA creates some amazing beers and Beer Week is a great way to celebrate that,” Mr Brookes said. “I’m very passionate about beer and what I do here and I want to share some of my knowledge with others.” Brewhouse tour groups are limited to 15 people, so he suggests booking on 9755 6300. All pints will cost only middy prices between 3.30 and 4.30pm.