The New Unique Australian Beer

[KingPython]

Belgians use candi syrup, Australians use cane sugar so it should be in it's part of our history.
Bottle conditioned. Pale malts. Easily drinkable for our hot weather.
Using readily available ingredients it would be an Australian Pale Ale. Moderate use of sugar, pale malts, moderate hop bitterness, moderate hop aroma, moderate maltiness.
A bit boring though. It's set apart from other pale ales by it's high use of sugar and new age Australian hops.

 

[jayse]

A uniquely Aussie style???? you mean like this http://stoneandwood.com.au/blog/draught-ale/


The point is what are we already making that is unique to us?

These have been my exact points aswell but for the most part has fell on deaf ears with people claiming this brew should be something no one has brewed yet and made out of the arse of grandpa's gardening pants and other unique australian ingredients.

My idea is to set out some guidelines which discribe these new beers being brewed by everyone.

Belgians use candi syrup, Australians use cane sugar so it should be in it's part of our history.
Bottle conditioned. Pale malts. Easily drinkable for our hot weather.
Using readily available ingredients it would be an Australian Pale Ale. Moderate use of sugar, pale malts, moderate hop bitterness, moderate hop aroma, moderate maltiness.
A bit boring though. It's set apart from other pale ales by it's high use of sugar and new age Australian hops.

I disagree, these beers are craftbrewed styles already being made by microbrewers and homebrewers and no such examples use sugar and most have more hop character than that. I don't know of a single one which is simply a aussie sparkling ale with a little bit more pleasant hop character, maybe beechworth pale, but again that is a craftbrewed style not simply a thin swill pale.
The style can have more malt character and nearly always has more malt character than a standard aussie pale ale.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

who the hell says there has to be THE Australian style?? Why cant there be a few?

Fair enough a candidate will, or might even already be, emerge from the commercial examples - but why cant someone try to envisage what a beer that was "Australian" by character and ingredient might be? Think it up, brew it, tell people how great it is and if they brew it and agree -- maybe it becomes popular enough to deserve an official style designation one day.

I'm for an Aussie wheat, light to med body and bitterness with Aussie or NZ hop character. Coopers or similar yeast.

That keeps the common features of the current reasonably unique aussie beers - and also the features of the beers that are actually popular with the majority of Australians - makes it a beer appropriate for the local climate - as well as using ingredients that are if not uniquely, certainly typically Australian.

I actually think that we have a better chance of inventing something on spec. I personally don't notice anything particularly unique emerging about most of the Micro brewed beers I taste - they are mostly well within what I would consider to be the existing styles of beer, usually English, American or Aussie pale ales - recently that might be a little different because so many of them are using Galaxy.

I love micro brewed beer - but to be honest there are bugger all of them doing anything much that could be considered new or different. Its still exciting when one of the local guys breaks away from the Pale Ale-Stout/Porter-Hefe trio and brews a belgian or something. Micros who have brewed something daring or unique and also actually good - are pretty thin on the ground. Certainly not common enough to be developing any sort of an ongoing theme.

IMO if we get a new genuinely Aussie style - it'll emerge from the less constrained ranks of homebrewers

 

[Wardhog]

I was thinking the same thing myself, TB.

Next brew is going to be an invention. All Aussie malts (sod the sugar), Galaxy at 60 and POR at 15 to high 20s IBU.

-No hop aroma, just malt
-High 4 ABV, about 4.8 will be good
-All crystal malts to be centered around 50-75 Lovibond
-Light fruitiness remains from the Galaxy, no trace of anything from the yeast (US-05 or a lager yeast)

I'm drooling just thinking about this. It's not complete yet, I have to think about a few more things, but it will certainly be a beer to drink rather than judge.

 

[flattop]

It would be good to brew a style that worked for us... POR is a must, has to be drunk cold i mean COLD on a hot day, you have to hum working class man while brewing it in a blue truckies singlet to get the right flavor profile....

Seriously though, i guess what we are really known for here is middle of the range megaswill lagers (thinking blue cans)

 

[chappo1970]

who the hell says there has to be THE Australian style?? Why cant there be a few?

Fair enough a candidate will, or might even already be, emerge from the commercial examples - but why cant someone try to envisage what a beer that was "Australian" by character and ingredient might be? Think it up, brew it, tell people how great it is and if they brew it and agree -- maybe it becomes popular enough to deserve an official style designation one day.

I'm for an Aussie wheat, light to med body and bitterness with Aussie or NZ hop character. Coopers or similar yeast.

That keeps the common features of the current reasonably unique aussie beers - and also the features of the beers that are actually popular with the majority of Australians - makes it a beer appropriate for the local climate - as well as using ingredients that are if not uniquely, certainly typically Australian.

I actually think that we have a better chance of inventing something on spec. I personally don't notice anything particularly unique emerging about most of the Micro brewed beers I taste - they are mostly well within what I would consider to be the existing styles of beer, usually English, American or Aussie pale ales - recently that might be a little different because so many of them are using Galaxy.

I love micro brewed beer - but to be honest there are bugger all of them doing anything much that could be considered new or different. Its still exciting when one of the local guys breaks away from the Pale Ale-Stout/Porter-Hefe trio and brews a belgian or something. Micros who have brewed something daring or unique and also actually good - are pretty thin on the ground. Certainly not common enough to be developing any sort of an ongoing theme.

IMO if we get a new genuinely Aussie style - it'll emerge from the less constrained ranks of homebrewers

TB I do like the way you think outside the square and totally agree.

<Chappo hops up on the soapbox>
From my stance on this subject I really do believe more than any one entity, we the craft brewers of Australia, have the ability to not only to dream up a new style or three but also push it through to become an accepted Unique Aussie style. It may even go main stream but that not the object of the exercise by any stretch of the imagination. I don't believe commercial success is the ultimate measure and yard stick for the acceptance of a style. We are!

As for getting traction and acceptance. Well that needs to come from us as craft brewers. The more we accept a certain style and that style starts being brewed by us craft brewers and entered into competitions the style itself will hopefully become the norm. There are plenty of Club commitee members and Judges on this forum that could help, if they saw the need or felt strong enough, to make this happen make it become a reality rather than being a dream.

Australia is a big beer drinking nation and to only have a handful of styles considered as being Australian I find riddiculous and to be honest embarassing. Seriously those style put forward as Asutralian are IMHO, well boring, flat and completely uninspired from an era that didn't have craft brewing as a main stream hobby. I for one would like to see this forum and it's members push the boundaries of style because we DO have the brains trust, we DO have the ability and we can effect change even if it is just at our level.

I do believe it is more than possible and do-able.
<Chappo hops down off the soapbox>

I was thinking the same thing myself, TB.

Next brew is going to be an invention. All Aussie malts (sod the sugar), Galaxy at 60 and POR at 15 to high 20s IBU.

-No hop aroma, just malt
-High 4 ABV, about 4.8 will be good
-All crystal malts to be centered around 50-75 Lovibond
-Light fruitiness remains from the Galaxy, no trace of anything from the yeast (US-05 or a lager yeast)

I'm drooling just thinking about this. It's not complete yet, I have to think about a few more things, but it will certainly be a beer to drink rather than judge.

I like it especially the lager yeast. I do think it needs to clean and let the flavours and aromas to come thru and shine.


Cheers

Chappo

 

[marlow_coates]

"Four score and seven years ago....."

Nice Chappo, I agree, just look at recent additions to styles accepted at competitions in recent years.

Will put some time and thought into how I am going to rumble up something Aussie inspired as of next week.

Marlow

 

[Barry]

I have made two beers recently. Inspired by the Americans ability to take a style and add their influence (eg American IPA, APA). First is a brown ale, grain bill like an American brown ale but with WLP009 Aussie ale yeast hopped with POR and Galaxy to 40IBU with lots of flavour and aroma. An uncommon mix of esters, hops and dark malts (Americans don't seem to appreciate esters in anything besides wheat and Belgian beers).
The second is an attempt at an Aussie IPA. Basically make a sparkling ale with OG 1.065, 50 IBU, lots of POR and especially Galaxy (still in the fermenter, needs to be dry hopped with galaxy).
Having new Australian hops such as Galaxy gives more freedom to be creative.
Just some ideas to kick around.

 

[jonocarroll]

<Chappo hops up on the soapbox>

I'll add my $0.02 while I have a spare minute (edit: okay... that took a while);

What makes an 'English Beer' English - does it have tea and scones in it?

What makes a 'German Beer' German - is it particularly productive?

I doubt that when Pilsners were being created people thought 'what would be particularly Bavarian about this?' - they were using a new technique (lagering), and that gave the beers a distinct character. English beers aren't low carbonated because the creamy head reminds them of fog. I find it odd to try to force the idea of a (new) 'Australian Beer Style' by randomly introducing 'Australian... things'.

Apart from the argument of 'why does Australia even need a style?' - a respectable style should come about naturally, and be identified as 'Australian' because that's where it originated - why should you not be considering a large proportion of the English ingredients? A style that comes about naturally in Australia will probably have English roots.

As for Australians being big beer drinkers, that's a bit of a stretch. Other countries are proud of their world-class beers, exported and respected globally. As Aussies we (as in, the general population) seem to be overly proud of the mainstream swill produced for local consumption, but you wouldn't put it out to play with the big boys. Sure, craft brewing is taking off in a big way, but it's still very much a minority, and ignored by most of the population. The term 'craft-brew' is actually known throughout America, and these beers are sought-after, not just stumbled upon.

Now I'm all for craft-brewing, but I think this is where you'll need to look if you're ever going to see something 'Australian'. Even then, any 'new' style will likely fit somewhere in between BJCP styles, so it will be 'a bit of English with American notes', or whatever. As homebrewers we can play around with new techniques - and I believe that this is where those techniques will be developed - but those techniques will need to be picked up by micros before they get any good recognition.

I'm not trying to (entirely) discourage you, but rather make you think about 'what exactly it is that you're trying to do.' Although you'll likely make something quite nice with an interesting range of ingredients (and that's a great achievement) I think if you want to make 'a new style' you'll need to start looking into turning the entire process on it's head, and producing a new technique that gives a beer a distinct quality. Think what decoctions did for German beers. That may or may not come about by random trial and error, but education (one of the main reasons many people frequent this forum) is a great place to start.

 

[eamonnfoley]

I would imagine that eventually a new style is going to "fall out" of all the activity/recipes on Aussiehomebrewer. From there, new breweries are going to take it up and bang - we have a new style. But an aussie style needs aussie ingredients (grain & hops) and probably a unique yeast strain (which we already have one in coopers). One of our strengths is decent quality malt, so maybe we need a way to showcase that in a beer style.

Has anyone taken the spakling ale concept any further in a way that works well? I.e. different hops/grain ?

 

[eamonnfoley]

Think what decoctions did for German beers.

How about "What BIAB & no-chill did for Australian beers"

 

[jonocarroll]

How about "What BIAB & no-chill did for Australian beers"

Well, BIAB isn't uniquely Australian (not sure of the origins of no-chill), and doesn't (flame suit: activated) alter the qualities of a beer. But that is exactly the point I was trying to make - any new processes we come up with that do uniquely affect the qualities of beer (in a positive way of course) will be what defines an 'Australian Beer Style'.

BIAB and no-chill have done great things for Australian brewing - just not the beers or styles as such.

 

[eamonnfoley]

Well, BIAB isn't uniquely Australian (not sure of the origins of no-chill), and doesn't (flame suit: activated) alter the qualities of a beer. But that is exactly the point I was trying to make - any new processes we come up with that do uniquely affect the qualities of beer (in a positive way of course) will be what defines an 'Australian Beer Style'.

BIAB and no-chill have done great things for Australian brewing - just not the beers or styles as such.

Yeah I know - was saying it in jest. :icon_cheers: .

I think local yeast, hops and grain are enough to create a beer style, if there is enough creativity.........

 

[JoeG]

I'll add my $0.02 while I have a spare minute (edit: okay... that took a while);

What makes an 'English Beer' English - does it have tea and scones in it?

What makes a 'German Beer' German - is it particularly productive?

I doubt that when Pilsners were being created people thought 'what would be particularly Bavarian about this?' - they were using a new technique (lagering), and that gave the beers a distinct character. English beers aren't low carbonated because the creamy head reminds them of fog. I find it odd to try to force the idea of a (new) 'Australian Beer Style' by randomly introducing 'Australian... things'.

Apart from the argument of 'why does Australia even need a style?' - a respectable style should come about naturally, and be identified as 'Australian' because that's where it originated - why should you not be considering a large proportion of the English ingredients? A style that comes about naturally in Australia will probably have English roots.

As for Australians being big beer drinkers, that's a bit of a stretch. Other countries are proud of their world-class beers, exported and respected globally. As Aussies we (as in, the general population) seem to be overly proud of the mainstream swill produced for local consumption, but you wouldn't put it out to play with the big boys. Sure, craft brewing is taking off in a big way, but it's still very much a minority, and ignored by most of the population. The term 'craft-brew' is actually known throughout America, and these beers are sought-after, not just stumbled upon.

Now I'm all for craft-brewing, but I think this is where you'll need to look if you're ever going to see something 'Australian'. Even then, any 'new' style will likely fit somewhere in between BJCP styles, so it will be 'a bit of English with American notes', or whatever. As homebrewers we can play around with new techniques - and I believe that this is where those techniques will be developed - but those techniques will need to be picked up by micros before they get any good recognition.

I'm not trying to (entirely) discourage you, but rather make you think about 'what exactly it is that you're trying to do.' Although you'll likely make something quite nice with an interesting range of ingredients (and that's a great achievement) I think if you want to make 'a new style' you'll need to start looking into turning the entire process on it's head, and producing a new technique that gives a beer a distinct quality. Think what decoctions did for German beers. That may or may not come about by random trial and error, but education (one of the main reasons many people frequent this forum) is a great place to start.

:icon_offtopic:

I don't wish to be too picky here QB - but you may wish to read up on your beer history regarding pilsner. It had nothing to do with Bavarian brewers, and lagering as a brewing practice was around for a long time before Pilsner emerged as a style.

Anywho - back to the discussion.

Just brew it! All the recipes chucked about here sound pretty tasty.

Cheers

 

[jonocarroll]

:icon_offtopic:

I don't wish to be too picky here QB - but you may wish to read up on your beer history regarding pilsner. It had nothing to do with Bavarian brewers, and lagering as a brewing practice was around for a long time before Pilsner emerged as a style.

Anywho - back to the discussion.

Just brew it! All the recipes chucked about here sound pretty tasty.

Cheers

<insert overly long quote to reply to a single point raised>

Hey, you're right. That completely invalidates my entire argument. What was I thinking? Your insightful, and clearly well researched, point of "Just brew it, it will be yummy" really does have deep meaning for the concept of creating a completely new style of beer to be recognised alongside the classics. I've no doubt that in the past the Trappist monks have been known to utter "Go forth, brother, and brew for us a random mix of ingredients brought forth from the mountains, for later we shall just call it 'a new style', and there shall be much rejoicing". <_<

 

[brettprevans]

Next brew is going to be an invention. All Aussie malts (sod the sugar), Galaxy at 60 and POR at 15 to high 20s IBU.

-No hop aroma, just malt
-High 4 ABV, about 4.8 will be good
-All crystal malts to be centered around 50-75 Lovibond
-Light fruitiness remains from the Galaxy, no trace of anything from the yeast (US-05 or a lager yeast)

I'm drooling just thinking about this. It's not complete yet, I have to think about a few more things, but it will certainly be a beer to drink rather than judge.

sounds like a bloody great summer beer. it doesnt have to be fancy just taste great. its the craftbrewers version of VB/new etc etc. something to drink and enjoy an not have to critique every element of it

 

[jayse]

Morning Thirsty,
Just picked some bits I'd like to put my own opinion on here, I don't by any stretch mean any disrespect to your opinion in doing so.

who the hell says there has to be THE Australian style?? Why cant there be a few?

My view is theres currently possibly a spot for new world styles to be introduce into the aaba guidelines.
Just as the new zealand brewers guild have just introduced to their guidelines, maybe some consultation with them would be the next step for this to get it off the ground.

Fair enough a candidate will, or might even already be, emerge from the commercial examples - but why cant someone try to envisage what a beer that was "Australian" by character and ingredient might be? Think it up, brew it, tell people how great it is and if they brew it and agree -- maybe it becomes popular enough to deserve an official style designation one day.

Sure go ahead and give it your best shot, it will take years before I see it becoming regonized, 50 AHBs' might brew it within the next year and it will be simply seen as a fad. Untill it is seen as a serious style and being widely commercially brewed I can't see any member of the bjcp, aha or aaba doing anything but have a giggle at the thought of this.

You may get it introduced into a standalone comp such as anawbs, depending on what the style ends up being I see this whole new yet to be invented style as fizzing in the arse after a year.
Quite happy for you guys to try prove me wrong.

I'm for an Aussie wheat, light to med body and bitterness with Aussie or NZ hop character. Coopers or similar yeast.
That keeps the common features of the current reasonably unique aussie beers - and also the features of the beers that are actually popular with the majority of Australians - makes it a beer appropriate for the local climate - as well as using ingredients that are if not uniquely, certainly typically Australian.

A beer made like that would pretty much fit into this new world style I am talking about.

I actually think that we have a better chance of inventing something on spec.

I will with all respect disagree but it is going to take a lot of disagreements and discussion before we all find a happy medium we all agree on.

What QuantumBrewer posted here I think is well said and I personally agree with this line of thought.

I'll add my $0.02 while I have a spare minute (edit: okay... that took a while);

What makes an 'English Beer' English - does it have tea and scones in it?

What makes a 'German Beer' German - is it particularly productive?

I doubt that when Pilsners were being created people thought 'what would be particularly Bavarian about this?' - they were using a new technique (lagering), and that gave the beers a distinct character. English beers aren't low carbonated because the creamy head reminds them of fog. I find it odd to try to force the idea of a (new) 'Australian Beer Style' by randomly introducing 'Australian... things'.

Apart from the argument of 'why does Australia even need a style?' - a respectable style should come about naturally, and be identified as 'Australian' because that's where it originated - why should you not be considering a large proportion of the English ingredients? A style that comes about naturally in Australia will probably have English roots.

As for Australians being big beer drinkers, that's a bit of a stretch. Other countries are proud of their world-class beers, exported and respected globally. As Aussies we (as in, the general population) seem to be overly proud of the mainstream swill produced for local consumption, but you wouldn't put it out to play with the big boys. Sure, craft brewing is taking off in a big way, but it's still very much a minority, and ignored by most of the population. The term 'craft-brew' is actually known throughout America, and these beers are sought-after, not just stumbled upon.

Now I'm all for craft-brewing, but I think this is where you'll need to look if you're ever going to see something 'Australian'. Even then, any 'new' style will likely fit somewhere in between BJCP styles, so it will be 'a bit of English with American notes', or whatever. As homebrewers we can play around with new techniques - and I believe that this is where those techniques will be developed - but those techniques will need to be picked up by micros before they get any good recognition.

I'm not trying to (entirely) discourage you, but rather make you think about 'what exactly it is that you're trying to do.' Although you'll likely make something quite nice with an interesting range of ingredients (and that's a great achievement) I think if you want to make 'a new style' you'll need to start looking into turning the entire process on it's head, and producing a new technique that gives a beer a distinct quality. Think what decoctions did for German beers. That may or may not come about by random trial and error, but education (one of the main reasons many people frequent this forum) is a great place to start.

 

[King Brown]

I've thought about this before, to make something of Australian ingredients, thought about a wit, as australia produces a lot of wheat, and its light refreshing flavour would suit the hot aussie climate. Ferment with coopers yeast, loads of fruitiness would suit A wheat beer imo. Make it more bitter than a typical wit to reflect the aussie tastes, using POR (also quite a citrusy hop) Then add some wattle seeds or other bush spices.

On the subject of bush spices my old boss was a gourmet who reckoned wattle seed is excellent in coffee, perhaps a wattle stout would be very drinkable...

Id just like to experiment with ingredients that we have here to see what interesting beers could result

 

[KingPython]

Let's make the equivalent of saison- we have the hot weather use a wine yeat and modify it for use in beer or use Coppers yeast and modify that to get higher temp usage- use cane sugar to thin it out, pale malts, a higher IBU than a Belgian- perfect summer beer.

 

[floppinab]

I was thinking the same thing myself, TB.

Next brew is going to be an invention. All Aussie malts (sod the sugar), Galaxy at 60 and POR at 15 to high 20s IBU.

-No hop aroma, just malt
-High 4 ABV, about 4.8 will be good
-All crystal malts to be centered around 50-75 Lovibond
-Light fruitiness remains from the Galaxy, no trace of anything from the yeast (US-05 or a lager yeast)

I'm drooling just thinking about this. It's not complete yet, I have to think about a few more things, but it will certainly be a beer to drink rather than judge.

Damn close to what I mentioned in post #9 in this thread. I really put it together as an alternative to Aussie plain 'ol pub lager but and although I like the beer I've been disappointed in the reaction I've got from some of my mates. I may have overdone the galaxy a bit and that may be whats turning a few off. I would say if you head down this path keep at 2 additions tops and the IBU's relatively low.