Fish Rock Red Emperor Amber Ale

[Adamt]

I was looking through Dan Murphy's this evening with a friend and saw a beer I had not tried before, "Fish Rock Emperor Amber Ale".

Description read something along the lines of "amarillo hops for passionfruit flavour, warm fermentation for fruity characteristics, lingering bitterness and cascade hops for a citrussy finish". Price tag was ~$16 for a 6 pack. Brewed in Australia. So I split the 6-pack with my friend.

Brought it bas to my mate's house, chilled it. Poured one into a glass, the pour was like water, seemed fizzy but the head died like soft drink. The expected amarillo aroma turned out to be literally nothing. The flavour was not fruity/hoppy/anything but a dull sulphury flavour and bitterness wasn't there either. I looked in the bottle and there appeared to be these fibrous things in the bottle, looked like it could be yeast but I wasn't sure. Can't show a picture as I left the rest of the 6-pack with him (I'm a generous person like that).

Has anyone else tried this beer? I assumed it was fairly new stock as I'd never seen it at Dan's before. It was just really disappointing for a craft beer to advertise on the bottle 4 great characteristics of a good ale and not deliver with any of them. I thought the price tag was too good to be true :S

 

[Pumpy]

Adam,

I am not a great complainer but perhaps to let the company know if thier beer did not posess any of the features they lay claim to .

You may be suprised .

It does not appear to have its own brewery, maybe made under contract

http://www.fishrockbrewery.com.au/

Pumpy





Wholesale and General Inquiries
email: [email protected]

Phone: (02) 48721311 - Fax: (02) 48721322

Fish Rock Brewery (Licence No. 24014559)

Mundrakoona Estate

Old Hume Hwy Mittagong NSW 2575

Postal Address: PO Box 2188 BOWRAL NSW 2576




NSW Sales enquiries: Jason Clancy 0410 366 618

Victorian Sales enquiries: James Fitzpatrick 0402 179 415

 

[Doc]

Looks like their website is pretty neglected too.
Maybe they have lost interest in the beer business, and have gone back to wine ?

Did the bottles have a best before date on them ?
I'm wondering how old the stock was.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Insight]

They only make the two beers, Amber and Lager. You see them at a few restaurants in Sydney; Doyles, Circular Quay is one, and I recently saw them in Crows Nest (Xenos maybe?).

Tried both, and agree with you Adam. The label bears very little relation to whats in the bottle, and both were very thin and watery. If you were feeling generous you could describe them as "easy drinking". Perhaps this is what they beleive the general public want?

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

I first tried it a couple of years ago when I found it in a bottleshop in Cairns.
My impressions then were that it was a reasonably good attempt at an America
Amber Ale. The Amarillo was certainly evident.

C&B
TDA

 

[Barry]

Good Day
I had one of these two weeks ago and practised my scoring abilities on it. Scored it as an amber ale.
Light amber, brilliant, white persistent head, very enticing
Very clean aroma, caramel malt main aroma, very low fruity hop/amarillo.
Caramel malty sweetness with medium hop bitterness mid palate, some citrus/fruit from the hop, light balanced finish, bitterness builds to balance caramel malt sweetness.
Light medium body, medium carbonation, light soft mouthfeel, a bit too light for style.
Light bodied easy to drink ale with good caramel malt flavour. Very low Amarillo hop character that could/should be higher.
34/50

I think you may have bought a very old and/or abused six pack. Hope this helps.

 

[neonmeate]

it's brewed at AIB like all the Barons, Snowy Mountains, Silly Yaks, Byron Bay, Pigs Fly, Lucky Beer, etc etc etc.

100% of the beers brewed at this place seem to be cloying and underhopped.

 

[Dave86]

Maybe they have lost interest in the beer business, and have gone back to wine ?

I have a mate in bowral who's family know the guy there. He told me they are struggling, so maybe corners are being cut to try and make ends meet. I did try the lager a couple of years ago and thought it was pretty good from what I can recall. Had one the other night and was unimpressed

 

[Franko]

I tried the leather jacket lager a few weeks back and thought it wasnt bad.
I have also visited the Mundrakoona Estate thru course of my work and never seen a bottle of it there

Franko

 

[dig]

A lot of underwhelming beers come out of AIB. I wonder if it's the brewery having difficulty meeting their customers expectations or if it's a case of the customer being unable to communicate what it is that they want...

 

[Adamt]

Thanks for all of the replies.

Sounds like they used to produce a quality product which has since slipped somewhat; story of the Aussie craftbrewing industry of the last 5 years. I won't make a formal complaint as I don't have a bottle which I can get production date, etc. off of.

Maybe the low price was set to clear old/discontinued stock, of which would explain a bit.

Cheers all.

 

[stew41]

Thanks for all of the replies.

Sounds like they used to produce a quality product which has since slipped somewhat; story of the Aussie craftbrewing industry of the last 5 years. I won't make a formal complaint as I don't have a bottle which I can get production date, etc. off of.

Maybe the low price was set to clear old/discontinued stock, of which would explain a bit.

Cheers all.

I don't think you are off the mark here...both beers well below par in my view. Comes across as a cheap contract job without much thought or love put in at all.

cheers

 

[gerald]

I'm drinking one now, and thought i would look it up here...

Now maybe its because ive been doing Uni work for the last 12 hours and any beer would taste delicious but i dont mind this one. maybe it could do with a bit more body but apart from that its a nice, easy drinking ale. its no belgium, but its got more flavour than most things sold in that price range, i only grabbed one bottle for tasting but i might get it again. would try the lager too. From homebrewing i think the first thing we all learn (if we havnt already) is that beer can't be made to suit everyone, and i spose some people will enjoy an session ale, and others will say it needs more flavour. could do with a bit more bite...mmmm makes me want a moo brew pale. gosh, beeeeeer!


:-D
catch
gerald

 

[Muggus]

Tried Red Emporer a while back and it seemed to have a bit of hop character, but on a more recent sampling the hops seemed non-existant. Might be a bit old or a different batch.
Tried their Leather Jacket as well, which wasn't anything exciting either. Another couple of disappointing Aussie microbrews i'm afraid.

 

[pmolou]

i've tried both and i'd say its an okay beer with a big price tag for what you get.

maybe they spent too much on packaging instead of the beer( it is a very cool label and bottle cap i'll give them that)

 

[debineko]

Only just reading this thread now, so I realise I'm about 4 months behind the times, but I'm a local (for the last 2.5 years anyway) as far as this brew is concerned and was keen to support it when I first saw it in the lbs probably close to 2 years ago now, and remember enjoying my first Red Emperors and finding the Leather Jacket quite tasty too (without really remembering specifically what it was i liked about them).
So i was understandably excited to see the Red Emperor on tap at one of the locals 6+ months ago. But from the first sip i knew this wasn't the beer i'd tried from the bottle before. Highly carbonated, lighter in colour, light on taste. So much so that i thought they must have mixed up the kegs or something. Just more evidence in support of the fact that something that was quite good isn't quite so now.
I also tried to sign on as a Fishrock member in the early days but got no response to my email, and I know the lbs where I bought by first ones was having trouble getting stock for a long while (transition period?), though they do have it now. Now that my interest has waned...
Great names, label design, case design and story/thought behind, so a pity if it all comes to nought.

 

[Weizguy]

I have a mate in bowral who's family know the guy there. He told me they are struggling, so maybe corners are being cut to try and make ends meet. I did try the lager a couple of years ago and thought it was pretty good from what I can recall. Had one the other night and was unimpressed

I spoke to a beer company owner at the Boutique Beer festival at Warners Bay (Newcastle suburb) yesterday and was advised that a number of microbreweries are reporting sales being off by up to 30% due to the "financial crisis".

Apart from that, the Fishrock stuff was good but not highly impressive. I really enjoyed the lager when I tasted it in Canberra about 2 years back.