Little Creatures "Puffin Billy" (Australia)

www.littlecreatures.com.au
Little Creatures Single Batch "Puffin Billy"
Little Creatures Brewery
6.5% ABV

The latest, most anticipated and personally the hardest to track down beer in the ever popular series is named Puffin Billy.  The beer was born out of an in-house home brew competition at the brewery.

The beer is a smokey bock style beer.

Review

On the nose the beer has vanilla, treacle, malt and alcohol.  The beer is clear and pours with a dark amber hue with a tan head.  The beer has dark bitter notes with warmth from the alcohol coming through and also the subtle smoked malt lingering in the mix.  The beer has great weight and body.

To sum up this was not my favourite single batch.  It does taste like a home brew more than previous releases in the single batch range.  I was expecting some of the typical Little Creatures 'hop hit'.  Probably a little disappointed.

Scores: -

Aroma 6/10
Appearance 3/5
Taste 5.5/10
Palate 4/5
Overall 14/20

Total 65%

Lord Nelson "Old Admiral - Dark Ale" (Australia)

www.lordnelsonbrewery.com
Lord Nelson Brewery "Old Admiral - Dark Ale"
Lord Nelson Brewery
6.1% ABV

Sydney's finest and oldest breweries.  

Taken from their website: - In 1986, the Lord was taken over by its current custodians, including Managing Director Blair Hayden. With the aid of an 1852 photograph the new custodians took a beautiful old pub and restored it to its former Colonial glory. A stunning sandstone façade was revealed along with many convict made chisel marks on the locally quarried stone.

In keeping with the ambience of the architecture the new custodians were inspired to create beers in the style of the traditional English style ale with no added sugar and extremely full flavoured – instead of lager as made by the big Brewers dominating the market.

A microbrewery was built in the back area of the bar and cellar and the rest is history. Over a quarter century in fact.

The brewing process begins in the mash tun in the hotel's cellar, then our Ales are fermented in the brewery at the rear of our bar, matured directly below this space in our cellar and conditioned in the Bright Beer room before being sent through to the taps in the first floor bar.

Review

The beer has a roasted, malty aroma.  The beer has a dark, cloudy, ruby appearance.  Some caramel malt immediately hits the tongue before more slightly roasted malt with good bitterness.  The beer has a perfect body and great weight.  I can however pick an unusual flavour in there - maybe strange biscuit and am not that keen.  Good bitterness and great body.

Scores: -

Aroma 6.5/10

Appearance 3.5/5

Taste 5/10

Palate 4.5/5

Overall 15/20

Total 69%

Zywiec Porter (Poland)

no website available
Zywiec Porter
9.5% ABV

Zywiec Porter, pronounced "je-vi-ets", is a dark, strong beer brewed according to the traditional recipe from 1881, with the Munich malt and special malts for caramel and colour plus the highest quality aromatic hops. Everything together creates a unique combination of taste. Production of this Porter was moved to Bracki Bowar in 2004.  In Poland this beer is as cheap as chips..

Review

On the nose the beer has a dark, nutty aroma with coffee and chocolate notes.  The beer pours with a black thick consistency with a creamy tan head.  The high level of alcohol is what you notice instantly, very strong!  The sweetness hits first before the dark, richness follows through.  The palate is medium to heavy.  The beer develops bags of rich flavour as it sits and warms.  It looks like a heavy dark beer and tastes like a proper porter head banger... Very strong!

Scores: -

Aroma 7/10
Appearance 4/5
Taste 5/10
Palate 4/5
Overall 13/20

Total 66%

Hitachino Nest Beer White Ale (Japan)

www.kodawari.cc
Hitachino Nest Beer White Ale
Kiuchi Brewery
5.5% ABV

Due to the popularity of the Belgium beer Hoegarden in Japan - Hitachino Nest (Kiuchi Brewery) decided to make their own version.  In 1998 the beer was brewed.  Because of Japanese tax laws stating that anything containing less than 50% malt could be taxed at a lot less than beer the brewery worked on a recipe that produced a result they were happy with and managing to brew with less than 50% of malt in the brew.  The brewery used flaked barley and flaked wheat along with pilsner malt to give it is flavour and Perle hops are used for bittering and Styrian Golding are used for aroma.  The addition of orange juice, coriander, nutmeg and orange peel adds to it's flavour profile.

Review

Subtle citrus notes are present on the nose along with the mild sweetness that is found in all wheat beers.  The beer itself is a hazy pale golden yellow beer with a quickly disappearing white head.  On tasting - the typical wheat beer characteristics are present very subtle spices are there along with the sweetness of the wheat and the citrus that is added from the oranges.  The beer has a well weighted medium body.  A pretty good wheat beer although wheat beers are not my thing.

Scores: -

Aroma 5/10
Appearance 3.5/5
Taste 5/10
Palate 4/5
Overall 14/20  

Total 63%

Brew Dog Punk IPA (Scotland)

www.brewdog.com
Punk IPA
Brew Dog Breweries
5.6% ABV

Perhaps it's the first Scottish infact British beer that has been designed to replicate the hugely popular American Pale Ale style.  Throwing the book at the rules of classic British Pale Ales, Brew Dog have tried to capture what is exciting about the American style.  First brewed in 2007 Brew Dog have tried to market themselves as a post modern brewer.

Review

The beer is brewed with Chinock, Crystal and Motoeka hops and the combination gives it a bucketful of aroma - citrus and tropical fruit like passion fruit and guava are present along with the Maris Otter extra pale malt.  Appearance wise the beer is a golden colour with a frothy white head, it is quite cloudy and almost reminds me of a home brew.  On tasting the beer has a very metallic taste and not a lot else.  The beer did get better towards the end of the glass with a very subtle melon flavour.  This is along with the expected bitterness.  The beer has a medium body with a drying finish.

Overall this beer has an amazing aroma from the mix of hops but a very disappointing taste.  I wonder why it is so popular or well known?

Scores: -

Aroma 8.5/10
Appearance 3.5/5
Taste 4/10
Palate 3.5/5
Overall 10/20

Total 59%

Coconut Porter (USA)

www.mauibrewingco.com
Coconut Porter
Maui Brewing Co.
5.7% ABV

Another in North America's long line of craft breweries doing some great forward thinking.  This one is from the Maui Brewing Co.

Roasted coconut is added to the dark porter during the brew process.  Initially this would seem like a marketing thing but the subtlety of the coconut does add a welcomed extra element to the final product.

Apart from the kegged variety, they distribute this beer in cans which staying true to their environmentally conscious ethos - allows the cans to be recycled thus doing their bit for the environment.

Review

On the nose you get rich dark malt.  Once poured it has a tan foamy head sitting upon an almost black liquid.  On tasting you get the rich dark coffee with bitterness as well as the coconut accompaniment on the back of the palate that helps balance the beer.  The beer has a medium body and overall is pretty good.  The richness of the coffee does seem to go hand in hand with the dash of coconut.

Try it if you can find it.

Scores: -

Aroma 5/10
Appearance 3.5/5
Taste 6/10
Palate 3/5
Overall 16/20

Total 67%

St Peters Cream Stout (England)

www.stpetersbrewery.co.uk
St Peters Cream Stout
St Peters Brewery
6.5% ABV

The second beer that I have tried by Suffolk, UK based St Peters.

The Cream Stout is smoother and less bitter than a traditional dry stout. Fuggle and Challenger hops are used with a blend of four locally grown floor-malted barleys.

Review

The beer is a dark ebony liquid with an off-white head. The nose has burnt toast with a hint of rich coffee quality. Again the coffee is there in the mouth but quite light in flavour. The beer itself has a light to medium body but with some good bitterness. A very smooth palate combined with a higher percentage in alcohol makes for a "not too bad" winter beer.

Scores: -

Aroma 5/10
Appearance 3/5
Taste 5/10
Palate 4/5
Overall 14/20

Total 62%