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After a brew day that went pretty damn well I treated myself to this little number

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Extremely well put together IMO
 
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Not my picture. Drinking the La Trappe Quad tonight as Dan Murphy's got in a few more 4 packs. Had sampled once before in a gift pack, although many months ago. It's a pretty interesting beer. I found that the flavour progressed once my palate had become familiar with the flavour profile (without wanting to sound like a ******). In the first glass, I tasted burnt toffee, dark fruits and a nice malty sweetness. The flavour lingered for quite some time, definitely one of the more robust beers i've had lately. Aside from the dark fruits, I noticed a prominence of banana and dark cherry flavours. As it's oak aged beer, I kept in mind to be critical about picking up on this because it's something unique. With the first bottle, I found the oak flavour quite subtle. Second bottle around, I tasted the oak character as far more prominent, with hints of port. Quite complex for me, but probably haven't had a fair share of complex beers. Alcohol is a ridiculous 10% which I though was hidden reasonably well, just a touch of booziness. Would surely knock you around if you finished the four pack in a short duration. In saying that, it's obviously not a beer to swig while watching football or something :D Not sure if i'll rush out to buy again at $22 a 4 pack. It's the only quad I can really obtain, and it's really good, but didn't blow me away. Wanting to try more Trappist style beers but I can only get my hands on this and the three Chimay varieties. Cheers guys.
 
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Anyway forgetting styles and expectations for a bit (would be great if beer nerds could do that more often) I enjoyed the beer and would drink again. Lucky since I bought two bottles.


I agree with you, Manticle. I'll never complain if someone throws extra hops at an IPA, but I found this to be well balanced. At $12.50 a sixer, I'm not complaining about this one ;)

I'm a repeat buyer on this one. At $15.90/6er at Dan's, I reckon this is what commercial APA should taste like.

Definitely not an IPA - but it made me want to brew one. And like mants said - if you can forget being a beer nerd and expecting it to be an IPA - just enjoy it for being a nice, slightly hoppy beer. And accessible to megaswill drinkers.

I thought for sure, there's a faint whif of citra in there. I can just smell a little passionfruit/citrus, but no grapefruit. Not so much in the bitterness, but certainly on the nose.

Goomba
 
I had an Tooheys Extra Dry on the weekend...

tasted like ***... Not that I know what *** tastes like... :ph34r:
 
After a brew day that went pretty damn well I treated myself to this little number

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Extremely well put together IMO
Also have one waiting for me in the fridge. Might go it this weekend, sitting on the deck looking out over the ocean at the holiday home at mermaid. Life shall be good.
 
I thought for sure, there's a faint whif of citra in there. I can just smell a little passionfruit/citrus, but no grapefruit. Not so much in the bitterness, but certainly on the nose.

Goomba

From their website:

Bittered: Columbus
Flavour and aroma: Chinook and Willamette
Dry Hops: Golding and Chinook.

IBUs 60

It will be the Chinook you are picking up.
 
From their website:

Bittered: Columbus
Flavour and aroma: Chinook and Willamette
Dry Hops: Golding and Chinook.

IBUs 60

It will be the Chinook you are picking up.

That will be it - though I didn't pick up any grapefruit from Chinook. I could smell and slightly taste C-hops of some sort, but assumed given it was more passionfruit and less grapefruit that it would be Citra. If less passionfruit, I'd have banked on Centennial.

I'm happy, my APA (which is about to be CC'd) is predominently Centennial and Chinook, with a nod to Stella, and 120g of Citra, Smaragd and Galaxy (getting rid of older leftovers).

IBU's 60? My butt. It was 35 tops.

Goomba
 
It should have not been sour, let alone Lambic levels of sourness. As far as I am aware, it didn't have an infection, and they didn't brew it with any wild yeasts.

I had one of these recently.
Whilst is did not taste infected to me, the taste had that lemon lime type flavours that I get in a Cantillion beer.
There was other barrel flavours, and cognac aromas. I was quite confused, impressed at the those lambic flavours I was getting without the sourness

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Bridgeroads Nogne0 India Saison
A collaboration beer from two of my favourite brewers. But I am struggling to remember everything about it.
The aroma is fantastic. huge floral aroma, that does overpower the malt in the mouth. The malt seemed a bit simple, and could not compete with the hops, but it is a beer I would like to try again, to get my memory of the malt back.

Bridgeroads Summer IPA
An IPA using a newer breed of hops, summer. This hop seemed to strike a nice balance between earthy, spicey and pine flavours. It never dominated in any one direction and was very session-able. I would be interested to see what other think of this hop.


Oud Beersel - Geuze.
A bit more on the milder side for a geuze. Certainly not as strong, or as tart or as biting as other lambic brewers. So if you are looking for rip your face off tartness this is not the one. Very dry and thin on the palate, and the carbonation seemed to lighten the beer some more. I would suppose this would be a great beer to introduce someone to unsweetened lambic, and was very enjoyable to savour.

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Kooinda Witbier
This is a hard one to pick. I like the beer, but when the witbier yard stick is Hoegaarden, which would be my desert island beer, it is hard to call this one honestly. Clearly is is more of a hazy orange than the whitish yellow I am used to, and the flavours seem to highlight that bitter orange slant. Whilst the head was light and fluffy in the picture it fell away within minutes and was a little one dimentional, as I just was not getting those yeast flavours I love so much with a witbier. I have praised everything that Kooinda has done in the past, so it is probably just me that is not getting this beer, due to the Hogaarden bias.

Little Creatures DIPA
I have read some criticism on here about this beer, and its lack of in your face hops. Sure that might be true, but I liken it to more of a English approach where there this beer had that malt and hops in balance. The bitterness was still up there, even though the hop aroma was more subdued. After two of these, I was really feeling it, and in a good way. If LC brought this out more, I would be buying. I really loved how I was able to come back for more, as the beer was not cloyingly sweet

Matso's Smokey Bishop - Was this supposed to have smoke in it. I could not find any if there was. Nevertheless, this is a solid dark lager, that appears to have a nicely balances amount of roast in it, to place it above its megalager brethren. Whilst I did not fall in love with this beer, I enjoyed it.

Matso's Pale Ale.
It would appear that Matso's is really are brewing for their local conditions (and why wouldn't you) The clarity on this beer is flawless, at the expense of an averrage head. The beer is very very refreshing, the malt is not overly obvious, but clearly in balance with the hops, which is also not in your face, but present and flavoursome. If I was up in the top quarter of WA, this would be easily as refreshing as a lager, which I would say is what they are trying to achieve. Sure it is no LCPA, but I am sure it is not trying to be.

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Finally, a few that I can't remember much about because of how long ago I drank them.

Standout was the Fullers Vintage Ale, which was a very solid beer, and was more or less identical to the coopers vintage ale. So it was really worth trying.

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This week I polished off:

Mikkeller Spontanale - very acidic and whopping grapefruit taste. Was OK. I prefer the funk to the acid so probably wouldn't rebuy but it was certainly unique - "Attack of the Killer Grapefruits"

Rodenbach Grand Cru - this was interesting, so sweet! - couldn't believe there's not cherry in there (I don't think there is?) as it almost tastes like Kriek, very sweet/sour. Could try this one again for sure, need a few more to get a handle on it. Probably a bit too sweet but I'll try a few more for sure.

Petrus Aged Pale - was pretty good, don't remember too much of this one, but recall a bit more of the farmyard thing happening.

Still Boon Oude Geuze as my favourite sour to date, got a Boon Oude Geuze Mariage Parfait yet to quoff.

I think it'll be a Grand tour of Belgium next purchase, having completed my lambic odyssey. But will definitely be buying more lambics. What it would be to have 'fresh' blended lambic on tap somewhere, perfect autumn beer to my taste but I'm buggered if I'm going to spend years making it!
 
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Dropped into the bottle shop just past Tiamo's heading north on Lygon St. This was the only beer in there I hadn't tried. Yum. Reminds me of a less belgian Leffe Radieuse. Similar malt and hop profile but not as much yeast input. Nice toffee, caramel malt, not cloying though. Hop bitterness without too much other hop character. A beer to savour. Not cheap but it's probably the best Italian beer I've had. I'd easily have something like this on tap at home.
 
First one and it's really carbed but smells great. Taste, well I don't like the amount of carbonation first of all, mouthfeel is thin not to impressed with hop flavour either. Maybe I was expecting to much. Nice summer guzzler I suppose.

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First one and it's really carbed but smells great. Taste, well I don't like the amount of carbonation first of all, mouthfeel is thin not to impressed with hop flavour either. Maybe I was expecting to much. Nice summer guzzler I suppose.

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Had a couple off tap this arvo. Beautiful stuff. Really doesn't travel well - possibly as a result of bottle conditioning?
 
Bottling procedures, bottle handling or bottle storage maybe but bottle conditioning?
 
Bottling procedures, bottle handling or bottle storage maybe but bottle conditioning?

Have to agree. Anyone who drinks it off tap, especially close to the brewery (either Manly or Hunter region) swears by it. I've only had Murrays on tap once at the (now defunct) Nectar bar in Brisbane, and fantastic.

Never had a bottle of it that was worth singing from the trees about.

My conclusion is that it's like most of our HB - fantastic fresh, doesn't travel well. I'm noticing that in this heat, my surplus HB (the 3 or 4 bottles after the keg is filled) are nowhere near the quality of their keg counterpart - though this doesn't seem to be an issue in our... ahem.... winter (it's not winter in Qld, it's just less hot).
 
I just can't get enough of my big black chocolate friend. He's big, robust and fills my mouth , but goes down so smoothly.

And by friend I mean Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate Stout, 10%aa. I don't know what you were thinking, sicko.


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I just can't get enough of my big black chocolate friend. He's big, robust and fills my mouth , but goes down so smoothly.

And by friend I mean Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate Stout, 10%aa. I don't know what you were thinking, sicko.


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Where is this one available to purchase?
 
My wife was near mclaren vale for work today. She gave me a ring to ask if I would like some beer from mclaren vale beer company. What a wife!! She came home with vale ipa and vale dark. Drinking the ipa now. Nice aroma and hop flavor. A bit more malt would be better but a very nice beer.
 
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