Mountain Goat IPA

After my first day back in the office today I came charging through the front door in a disheveled state, frantically reaching out for the nearest beer like a poison victim scrambling after an antidote.  To my excitement, the first bottle I clambered upon was this IPA by Mountain Goat.  Most people from Melbourne should be well and truly familiar with the Goat by now, as their range of Ales are just about as well known as Little Creatures and Matilda Bay.  While I will happily acknowledge that they make great beers, admittedly their placement in the market is a touch overpriced.  I'm happy to pay for quality, but they're about as expensive as an imported Sierra Nevada, and at the end of the day that is a bit of a stretch.

The very last beer I had on my 365 day challenge was their 'Rare Breed' IPA, which is a single release handcrafted IPA that set me back a whopping $16.  Some attribute it's release to the tipping of the fiscal cliff.  Yes, it is brilliant, but that one beer is the price of an entire six pack of something else.  Unless they are providing respite for a gang of Trappist monks hiding out in Richmond, they could perhaps reel it in just a little.  The point has been made, so let's just move on to the beer itself.

It looks promising out of the bottle, pouring a toffee/amber like colour.   There is little to no carbonation, which takes the sting out, much like a failed Police reunion.  I can't remember exactly, but I believe the Rare Breed had a similar appearance.  The flavours are definitely bold, without going overboard.  Citrus fruits, malt, hops, a touch of pine, it's standard fare that is perhaps a touch darker and maltier than many other Aussie IPAs.  The balance between the supporting flavours and the swag of hops is exactly what was lacking in the BBC Figjam.  Everything melds together here in much more of a harmonious fashion.  At the end of the day it's really just a little brother to the Rare Breed, which while not pushing the boundaries of creativity, is still not a bad thing.  They are both cracking beers.

Speaking of creativity, what's with the name?  All of their beers have unique titles like the 'High Tail', or 'Rare Breed'.  This has no name.  They could have called it 'Cliff Hopper' or something...  playing off the mountain goat and hopped IPA angle.

Whens all said and done, this is a great beer and reserves it's spot among the better IPAs on the market.


8/10

BBC FIGJAM

It's over 40 degrees today in Melbourne.  Despite the air con working it's hardest to douse the inferno, I am still stuck fast to my leather recliner.  It is to the point where difficulty is found separating the two entities, almost as if I have become one with the chair in a non-consensual embrace.  The only remedy for this matter is a delicious cold beer.  So what better occasion to crack out this limited edition IPA, hand crafted by none other than Nathan Buckley himself?

I kid, I kid.  The 'FIGJAM' is a 'on the side' single run by Burleigh Brewing Co from Queensland.  And If you don't know what FIGJAM means, then I suggest you go look it up.  BBC is another award winning Australian micro, and they have a couple of absolutely cracking beers.  Adversely, they have also pumped out a few that missed the mark.  Nevertheless I was quietly confident that this 650ml IPA would be worth ponying up the $9 required to hire it's services.

The tagline they are using for this beer is 'A heavyweight that's light on it's feet'.  It's no surprise then that this Mike Tyson-esque braggadocio is aptly followed by a four paragraph blurb that quite literally chews your ear off.  I'm thirsty, ain't nobody got time for that.

FIGJAM enters the auditorium with adequate fanfare, pouring a glorious deep golden orange with a soapy head, and a body so thick you would fail to see a stampeding hippopotamus coming at you through the other side of the glass.  An eruptive nose of fruit and hops wafts from the surface, making it all the more alluring.

After consuming a considerable amount of this IPA, I was left in a certain state of bemusement.  I can see what they were trying to do...  but I'm just not sure as to whether or not I am personally happy with the result.  The base flavours are well and truly buried under bitter hops, to the weight of Rosie O'Donnell riding a Diplodocus.  There's an episode of 'Dino Riders' I'm glad I missed as a child.  It's not over the top, it's bearable, but the overall product seems slightly confused.  It is light on it's feet, and the citrus flavours are nicely blended, but the SPAS-12 shotgun blast of hops just doesn't mix well.

I know it's an IPA, it has to be that way, but at the same time you have to either go big or go home.  This could have been a really nice Pale Ale with a curtailing of the hops.  Or it may even have been a cracking IPA with a boost in the supporting flavours, and a richer palette all round.  I know these guys are based in Queensland, so it's preferable to have a beer that is easy to drink in hot weather, but from where I'm (uncomfortably) sitting, this is a beer that lost it's identity somewhere along the way.

Still, good beer, but there are a host of better alternatives out there both locally and overseas.

7/10

Stone & Wood Jasper Ale

Stone & Wood are a Byron Bay brewery that took the local beer scene by storm with their award winning Pacific Ale.  The Pacific is a very light and fruity summer beer, so I was interested to see how they fared upon defecting to the dark side.  While I wasn't quite sure of the style they were aiming for with the 'Jasper Ale', the maroon label led me to believe it may be a red or amber ale.  For some reason I also couldn't get 'Ol' Jasper' from The Simpsons out of my head when staring at the bottle.

"Moonpies.  What a time to be alive."  Indeed.

Upon pouring the beer, all suspicions were laid to rest as a darkened amber colour filled the glass, with a rich streak of red, packing real depth and lacing.  Visually, it looks great.  I'm choosy with dark beers, but this one looked as solid  off the bat as a Dean Jones hook on a hard pitch.  Pale Ales tend to have that Hayley Williams 'ranga' sort of colour to them, whereas this is more of a Christina Hendricks blood orange, and it appears to pack the same junk in the trunk.  It was now time to investigate further.

I will give them this...  Stone & Wood do not conform to any trend.  They do not pigeonhole themselves, or try and reinvent the wheel.  Their own legacy is forged.  The reason this ale has an ambiguous title is that it brings with it a cavalcade of attributes that you could relate to various genres of beer.  It has the caramel hues that some APAs have, it has the nutty and sticky toffee feel of an amber, combined with the malt driven base of a red ale.  They've taken the better part of predominantly winter beers and forged their own indoor friendly gem.  Despite all of that interbreeding, this low carbonated affair goes down like an Italian soccer player during a light breeze, and is truly as well rounded as Karl Pilkington's head.

If anything, it's perhaps a touch restrained.  Some of these well crafted flavours could have been bigger, but I know that isn't necessarily their style.  S & W beers are well balanced and easy to drink.  This would be the textbook perfect dark beer to introduce to someone who has never ventured outside the realms of fizzy yellow swill.  A fellow who lives on Porters and Stouts might feel it to be a touch anorexic, but at the end of the day this beer finds it own spot on the shelf and holds it down.

Top stuff Stone & Wood.

7.5/10

Sail & Anchor Monkey's Fist

Today's patient under examination is a Pale Ale by a brewery named 'Sail & Anchor', from Fremantle in WA.  While this is all contentious, many do consider Sail & Anchor to be one of the pioneers of craft beer in Australia.  The founders started the brewery in the early 80's, also gave birth to Matilda Bay, and then were  involved with the legendary Little Creatures.  Such a prestigious pedigree must lend to a brilliant sense of excitement...  however all is not as rosy as the background suggests.  Sail & Anchor was bought out by Woolworths (ALH Group), the historical brewery then shut down, and operations moved to another location.  S & A is now a mere marketing operation by one of the giants of food & beverage in Australia, so it is hard to know what to expect, but my inkling is that this will be but a sheep in wolves' clothing.

The pour of the beer makes no attempt to allay this by wearing a traditional APA amber colour.  It looks nice, but on further inspection is completely transparent and clear as day.  The label pronounces that the Monkey's Fist packs a 'hidden punch' so perhaps this was all part of the plan.  Am I simply being lulled in to a false sense of security before a hop-fisted orangutan socks me in the jaw?

No.  No I am not.  

Unless they have hidden it in the surrounds of Area 51, this beer has about as much place in the world of 'punch' as Gary Glitter does in childcare.  There are some stone fruit flavours, and a graze of hops, but all in all listening to a Kim Kardashian monologue about paint drying to the soundtrack of 'Titanic' is a more exciting prospect than drinking this again. There's always a feeling of disenchantment when you sit down to enjoy something you love, and then find yourself wishing it would just hurry the fuck up and finish.  Transformers 2 being the pinnacle of such emotions.

The bottle says that it packs a hidden punch, a knock-out blend of hops, and a tingling bitter aftertaste.  You would struggle to find a copywriter so willing to stamp such bullshit on a campaign, but I guess Mitt Romney's writers are now looking for ways to pay the bills.

To be fair though, it isn't a horrible beer.  Politics aside, it is just a very weak, run of the mill APA that the industry just does not need.  There are far worse beers, and from memory it was very reasonably priced.  For someone already jaded with the world however, seeing a massive corporate behemoth gut a microbrewery just to don it's skin and prance about like 'one of the little guys' leaves a bad taste in my mouth.  Literally and figuratively.

5.5/10