Rocks Brewing Co.

Last night I caught up with friends of mine who are holidaying from the UK. The plan was to meet up at The Australian Hotel in The Rocks, and as usual I was early so managed to get a schooner of Little Creatures Pale Ale and a schooner of Scharer's Lager in before my friends managed to find the pub. Neither of these beers were that good. It seems that little Creatures has tamed down a lot over the last couple of years and is now tastes like Toohey's New with some Galaxy hop flavour. The Scharer's lager tasted tart and sour, and was probably infected. The Australian was pumping and we couldn't get a table so we headed around to a relatively new craft beer venue at The Harts Pub, which is also home to the Rocks Brewing Co. As my friends only had a couple of hours it was never going to be a massive piss up, but more of a social meal and a chat. First of all I would like to say that the pub is massively expensive. Pints are between $9.60 and $12 which translates to between £6 and £7.50 per pint. Meals are around $20 which is about £12 so not too bad.
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I started with a pint of Rocks Brewing Co. Governor Ale (4.4% abv) which is described as an American Blond Ale, and ordered the Brewers Burger for dinner. The beer was excellent and was the perfect summer beverage on the hottest and most humid day in December so far. Cool and refreshing with hints of stonefruit aroma most likely from NZ based hops. I had finished my pint before our meals arrived and I was drinking slow, so after a quick complain to see what the holdup was I was provided with a half of something else which was equally as nice. My burger arrived shortly after and I was content as it was one of the best burgers I have had in quite some time.
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Anyway this probably doesn't interest most of you, but as I don't get out for a few beers very often anymore I think it was worth noting. Also, I will try and get back to The Harts at some other pint in the future for more adventures with true craft proper real keg.

REDOAK

I finally managed to get out and drink some beer on Friday night. In the craziness that has been the last few weeks I have had little time to drink beer let alone write about it. The destination was Redoak Boutique Beer Cafe on Clarence Street. I arrived a little ahead of my mates and had a swift half of the Organic Pale Ale (4.5% abv) which was good but hardly spectacular. I followed this by a half of their Belgian Pale Ale that was even better although didn't taste anything like any beer I had encountered in Belgium! I suppose it was trying to be a take on something like Kwak, but it kind of misses the mark. Friday also saw the arrival of a new member to the Redoak lineup, an IPA which one the 'World's Best IPA' at the World Beer Awards, UK (31 July 09). The beer was good, weighing in at 6.5% abv but was overly sweet and not really to style. As I have never heard about these particular awards before, I'm not sure if its genuine or just marketing spin. Anyhow the price of this beer is ridiculous and a pint set me back $13.50, which is about twice the price an equivalent beer would cost in London. Anyhow after the IPA I moved on to a couple of other venues and had some Little Creatures and Coopers Pale Ale and got pretty smashed before returning to Redoak for a (OK, I had two) nightcaps of their Robust Porter (6.5%). Overall I like Redoak as the beer is exceptional, however their prices are ridiculous. Given their location is at the fringe of the financial district - paying a premium is to be expected, but $13.50 a pint is taking the piss. But while the punters are willing to pay, I can't blame them for overcharging - the place was rammed.

About Redoak;
"Australia’s most awarded boutique beer café opened its doors in Sydney in mid 2004 and serves a range of boutique premium beers accompanied by a menu of exquisite cuisine. Redoak Brewery has had outstanding successes at the 2004 -2008 Australian International Beer Awards and has been Australia's most awarded brewery for the third consecutive year in 2007 and won 'Champion International Small Brewery' at AIBA 2008.

David started brewing beer at the age of 14 when he created his first ginger beer. He developed a passion for brewing beer in his teens and always dreamed of brewing a range of premium beers for the Australian market.

Over the years he developed his own unique methods of brewing specialty beers and has used these, along with some more traditional methods, to create the range available in the Redoak Boutique Beer Café.

Redoak’s unique beer styles

Redoak’s signature beer is the Framboise Froment, which is brewed in Belgian style with fresh raspberries infused resulting in intense flavours and aroma. This beer took home Gold and Best in Class medals at the 2004 awards and is proving highly popular with both men and women.

Another favourite is the Redoak Belgium Chocolate Stout, which is Australia’s first fully Belgian chocolate beer made by infusing Redoak’s Oatmeal Stout with the finest dark Belgian chocolate. David has also created another Australian first in the Redoak Belgium Choc-Cherry Stout, in which fresh cherries are used to create a luxurious sweet sensation.

Complementing the exotic premium range is the Redoak Organic Pale Ale, which was created using some traditional English brewing methods and only certified organic grown malt and hops. Redoak is the first brewery in New South Wales to create organic beers and the first in Australia to brew organic pale ale.

The Redoak Brewery currently brews over 40 premium beers, of which 20 are available at any one time at the Redoak Boutique Beer Café. Redoak was the first brewery in Australia to brew more than 10 of its own beers and has subsequently extended it's range of beers considerably.

All beers are created using only the highest quality ingredients, contain no additives, preservatives or added sugars. Redoak beers are not pasteurised and are served fresh.

Redoak matches premium beer with fine cuisine

In addition to premium quality beers, Janet and David offer a menu of exquisite gourmet cuisine, developed together with Head Chef Chris Beard as the perfect accompaniment to the Redoak beer range.

Diners at the Redoak Boutique Beer Café can choose from a selection of tempting dishes made with quality ingredients. Redoak has specially combined food and beer to create a unique experience for the customer. Janet Hollyoak said, “Each dish uses carefully selected premium Australian produce and is complimented with a unique beer style to provide the diner with a unique tasting experience.”

Redoak has created a beer appreciation course to take customers through the brewery history, process and special qualities and characteristics that define a premium beer. Customers can then enjoy the fine cuisine complimented by a Redoak beer, while being taken through the individual flavour and aroma profiles of different beer styles.

The Café also offers unique Tasting Boards – the first of their kind in Australia. The Tasting Boards each hold four canapé style dishes that are matched with four different Redoak premium beers. The boards are designed to enable diners to experience the unique cuisine and premium beers. The tastes and flavours of the dishes and beer are enhanced as the diners palate develops when they move across the board.

Janet and David have created a stylish boutique beer café which is uniquely different in many ways to any other drinking or eating establishment in Sydney or across Australia. Every aspect has been put together with the upmost detail. For example, the bar tops are made from 700 year old jarrah timber sourced from West Australia’s famous Fremantle Wool Store and decorated with Italian mosaic tiling."

New Dig's

I'm now completely settled in my new apartment. It's snazzy and close to town. I like it. All I need now is a 40+ inch LED TV and my life will be almost complete. Oh, I also need to sort out some Internet so I can post more frequently but it's hardly a priority like the TV is. The downside is that I don't have any room to put my all grain rig together so I will be putting up with cans of goop and fresh wort kits for a little while longer, but hey at least the weather is nice here.

I have slowly started exploring the local area and have sussed out how expensive beer is in Sydney. A Schooner (425 ml) of Little Creatures Bright Ale which is a golden style summer ale in proper real keg form is $6.50 which is pretty expensive in comparison to UK prices. This is at my new local the Kirribilli Hotel which is a bit of a "too cool for school" venue so a premium is also added, but it's still a bit rich. On Sunday I wandered over the bridge (the Sydney Harbour Bridge that is) with the missus and had a look around the rocks. I bought a nice new pair of RM Williams boots and gawked at people like the intrepid tourist that I am. Plenty of proper real keg to be had in the pubs about this part of town with old favourites such as the Lord Nelson and Lowenbrau still going strong. I managed to pop into the Australian Hotel later in the afternoon for a pint of Scharer's Lager. This unfiltered Bavarian style lager is brewed in Picton and sold on tap only in The Australian Hotel in the Rocks and the King George IV in Picton. It has varied in quality since the brewery changed hands a couple of years ago and my schooner was laced with DMS. The beer literally tasted like cooked corn. Not one to be wasteful I finished it off without complaint and headed home to finish reading the paper over a bottle of Warsteiner and Sunday afternoon television. Next time I will stick with the Little Creatures Pale Ale, but still it's only beer.

More IPA Challenges

Over the weekend I continued my IPA challenge. This time I pitted Goose Island IPA up against Little Creatures PA, Snake Dog IPA and Meantime Pale Ale. Overall the Goose Island is a good beer, but does not have the bitterness and density of flavour to compete with Snake Dog IPA (which is still the best beer I have had this year). The Goose Island IPA is similar to Little Creatures PA - actually almost the same. They are refreshing but don't have that strong bite I like in an IPA. The Meantime IPA was bottled in a mini champagne style and hit well below the mark of the US and Australian beers. I think it's a better beer on draught than bottled, but then Meantime have a few different Pale Ales including their IPA, London Pale Ale and this Pale Ale.
I don't normally consider my self much of a hophead, but I think my palate is coming around to the US way of doing things. Luckily I am off to New York over Easter where Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA is well up on my list of things to do, along with visit the Statue of Liberty, World Trade Centre memorial and Times Square.
Oh, I almost forgot, you can learn more about Chicago's finest Goose Island at their website: http://www.gooseisland.com/

Battle of the IPA's: AUS vs USA. The results are in....

Over the weekend there was a showdown. Little Creatures Pale Ale (LCPA) from Australia in the green and gold corner, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (SNPA) from the USA in the red, white and blue corner. Allies in Afghanistan and Iraq meet to slog it out over the neutral ground of my flat in Brook Green, London. I should not big this up as a competition as really both these beers are awesome, but there is national pride at stake here. While they are extremely similar beers and probably made with almost the same grain bill and hopping regime, the experiences of the two beers are completely different.
I won't intellectualize each beer individually but concentrate on their differences.

Colour: They are both amber, but the LCPA seems to be slightly lighter in colour.
Carbonation: The LCPA has only very mild carbonation, although this could be a consistency issue. Bottles I have had in the past have been more carbonated. The SNPA was strongly carbonated at a level similar to US mega lager.
Aroma: Both had a similar citrus aroma, however the LCPA's was stronger and contained a pineapple/passionfruit note which was absent from the SNPA. I think LC uses chinook hops as well as cascade.
Body/mouthfeel/taste: I am lumping all these together. Overall they taste different. SNPA is very malty and has a chalk like bite. I think they use water that is a lot harder than the water used in LCPA. SNPA tastes a lot more bitter (perceived bitterness) because of this as well, but I bet these beers have very similar IBU levels. The LCPA tastes thinner, but more refreshing. You could drink more of it.

Which beer is better? Well they are both awesome beers, but different animals in the glass. If I was only having one beer and sipping on it, I would choose the SNPA. If I was drinking all day long in the Australian sun, then I would choose LCPA.

I should also note that I have deliberately called these beers IPA's rather than APA's. Although both of these beers appear to use American hops and would fall within the style guidelines for an APA - they are basically IPA's. Style guidelines are stupid - keep it simple.

Australia vs the USA

I am pretty busy this week and do not have time to write long witty posts about controversial issues. What I will do though is give a teaser into an upcoming post. At Whole Foods, Kensington on Saturday I bought a couple of bottles of an old favourite of mine - Little Creatures pale ale. I have been told by many people that Little Creatures pale ale (LCPA) is almost identical to Sierra Nevada pale ale (SNPA). I disagree and although similar, I think they are totally different beasts. I plan to pick up a bottle of SNPA from Tesco during my weekly shop this evening so I can reveal the truth. That's right, a side by side comparison of the two beers. Stay tuned.