Should I be happy or mega annoyed?

[Marty_G]

Wife and I are taking a well earned break  spending a week at her dad's holiday apartment on the beach at Coolangatta. Anyway while away I am taking the chance to have a few craft beers. So  far the 6 packs of Newtowner IPA was crap, Newy Pacific Lager also crap and some Pacific Pale Ale from Black Hops again crap.  Seriously compared to my keg AG brews they are rubbish.  I know self promotion is no recommendation but I was expecting more from the beers. No body, a lot of perceived bitterness and too much reliance on the hops to carry the beer's flavour rather than balance of hops and malt.   So then I bought an old favorite that is making a resurgence of popularity in NSW the good old silver bullets of Resch's Pilsner and that was worse.     I now know how good I have it making my own beer and having it on tap.  I can make it exactly how I like it. Even better a keg costs less than a 6 pack of craft cans. 

[Malter White]

@MartyG1525230263 you should be happy you're having a holiday at Coolangatta. It's a great spot. Forget the craft beers and sink a few megaswill beers. You'll still be bitterly disappointed at the beer you're drinking but at least you won't be paying top dollar for the disappointment.

Enjoy the break.

[Marty_G]

30 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

@MartyG1525230263 you should be happy you're having a holiday at Coolangatta. It's a great spot. Forget the craft beers and sink a few megaswill beers. You'll still be bitterly disappointed at the beer you're drinking but at least you won't be paying top dollar for the disappointment.

Enjoy the break.

Great advice Muzzy. 

Edited November 17, 2020 by MartyG1525230263

[Stickers]

we print a lot of menus at work and my boss today was like '$13 for a pint of craft beer isn't too bad' and i'm there thinking that is not something i'm willing to pay at the moment now i'm having fun making my own

[RepSpec]

Great that you have what you want figured out!

But to "keep yourself sane" id just take beer for what it is (compared to what you brew and like)

The market is fairly flooded with beer at the moment and we are spoiled for choice. So look around and you should be able to find something.

Balter is in the same area as coolangatta, and they brew some crackers.

Muzzy also had a great point...Knock back a few XXXX or Northerns and enjoy been able to have a holiday in a nice part of the world.

[Marty_G]

1 hour ago, RepSpec said:

Knock back a few XXXX or Northerns and enjoy been able to have a holiday in a nice part of the world.

Northerns  ha ha you're funny  ....   I was a XXXX drinker for decades. Best drop is off the wood at the Breaky Creek but that palce is not as good as it once was. No longer a working class pub. Back in the say when the public bar was full of wharfies you could smell the sedition when you walked in.    Thes days I tend to drink Furfey.   Good body, the Viv secret and Topaz give it a good hint of tropical hop flavours.  Also it is made with one of my favorite malts, Vienna.   So for a swill it is OK. 

Yep, Coolangatta is a great place but I only live a couple of hours north on the Sunny Coast and have been here 100's of times but I do love Cooly. First time I was here was in 72.     

Bit overcast this morning. 

Edited November 17, 2020 by MartyG1525230263

[Lab Cat]

14 hours ago, Stickers said:

my boss today was like '$13 for a pint of craft beer isn't too bad'

Compared to what - $20? I won't pay it. The reason I got into brewing was trying a lot of these new beers from the never ending craft beer explosion, and many of them were just shit for top dollar. Too many people are in it because it's making money. Some brewers literally have NFI. Mango milkshake IPA? These hipsters are having a lend.

[Marty_G]

1 hour ago, Lab Cat said:

Compared to what - $20? I won't pay it. The reason I got into brewing was trying a lot of these new beers from the never ending craft beer explosion, and many of them were just shit for top dollar. Too many people are in it because it's making money. Some brewers literally have NFI. Mango milkshake IPA? These hipsters are having a lend.

I am with you.  Interestingly I was ready some articles on the Craft market and brewers are now swinging more to lager production. I found that very interesting. There are signs that the big hop bomb ale has reached its limit and drinkers are going more the for lighter sessionable  balanced lager styles.   My thinking is  they are not true lagers but more like a psuedo lager so a light pale ale.  If that make sense.  The strong hazy hop bomb styles like NEIPA are losing popularity with brewers fast in the USA. I will see if i can find the article.   Anyway it is starting to look like the school of "less is more" is on the rise. 

Edited November 18, 2020 by MartyG1525230263

[BackyardBrewer]

18 hours ago, MartyG1525230263 said:

Wife and I are taking a well earned break  spending a week at her dad's holiday apartment on the beach at Coolangatta. Anyway while away I am taking the chance to have a few craft beers. So  far the 6 packs of Newtowner IPA was crap, Newy Pacific Lager also crap and some Pacific Pale Ale from Black Hops again crap.  Seriously compared to my keg AG brews they are rubbish.  I know self promotion is no recommendation but I was expecting more from the beers. No body, a lot of perceived bitterness and too much reliance on the hops to carry the beer's flavour rather than balance of hops and malt.   So then I bought an old favorite that is making a resurgence of popularity in NSW the good old silver bullets of Resch's Pilsner and that was worse.     I now know how good I have it making my own beer and having it on tap.  I can make it exactly how I like it. Even better a keg costs less than a 6 pack of craft cans. 

I agree with you regarding the Young Henrys IPA, I thought it was absolute shit as well for the money they charged! Have you tried the young henrys natural lager? I could be going out on a limb here but i actually liked it, i thought it was the first lager by a craft brewery that id actually drink.

I didnt mind the silver bullets myself, they are pretty weak on flavour though but they are only 4.4% and the little flavour that is there isnt bad imo. I'm in the process of brewing an amped up version of reschs right now using pilsner/vienna and toffee malt that i've done the traditional way at between 7-10c with an extended lagering period on the yeast cake.

[Marty_G]

1 hour ago, BackyardBrewer said:

I'm in the process of brewing an amped up version of reschs right now using pilsner/vienna and toffee malt that i've done the traditional way at between 7-10c with an extended lagering period on the yeast cake.

I have made Reschs reproductions of Pils, DA and the old XXX. The recipes are in "Bronzed Brews" by Peter Symons, available from LuLu print on demand. 

[Journeyman]

Congrats on the break and a great spot. Especially not in tourist season.

If you can find it, try a Fixation IPA (or IIPA) and see what you think. It's from Byron Bay but they've expanded all down the coast and even to Adelaide so it should be around.

[Marty_G]

So what does this say about a brewers taste buds. Spent the afternoon having lunch and several schooner at the Rainbow Bay Surf Club... Had a 4 Pines Pacific Ale, Stone and Wood Pacific Ale and several or 5 or 6 Balter IPA.   Get home and knock the top of a Melbourne Bitter tallie and I think. That is the best beer I have had all day.   Beer preference is a funny thing.   

And L will leave you with an image from the walk home. 

[Dozer71]

9 hours ago, Journeyman said:

 

If you can find it, try a Fixation IPA (or IIPA) and see what you think. It's from Byron Bay 

Great beer, but far from Byron Bay. From that dirty place in Melbourne

[Lab Cat]

4 hours ago, MartyG1525230263 said:

Get home and knock the top of a Melbourne Bitter tallie and I think. That is the best beer I have had all day. 

Nothing to do with you being smashed by then...?

[Marty_G]

8 hours ago, Lab Cat said:

Nothing to do with you being smashed by then...?

I think it was the cleaner lager profile after the other beers. Sort of cleansed the palate. Bit like drinking water during wine tastings.  Or absolutely after 8 schooners I didn't care. 

[Hoppy81]

Too many breweries not concentrating on the grist, just cover it up with a truckload of hops.

[Journeyman]

On 11/19/2020 at 8:30 PM, Dozer71 said:

Great beer, but far from Byron Bay. From that dirty place in Melbourne

They NOW have a place in Melbourne but they started and (AFAIK) are still based in Byron Bay.

[Dozer71]

3 hours ago, Journeyman said:

They NOW have a place in Melbourne but they started and (AFAIK) are still based in Byron Bay.

Looked into this further as there is no mention of Byron on the fixation website. He started brewing under contract at Stone & Woods brewery in Byron before setting up in Melbourne (crafty pint website). All fixation byron bay searches show the address as Stone & Woods brewery. So started in BB, but not really based there.

Anyway, they still produce great beers.

[Journeyman]

1 hour ago, Dozer71 said:

Looked into this further as there is no mention of Byron on the fixation website

That's interesting. I first tried it in Bendigo back maybe 6 years back, met the owner and he came back a month or so later doing promo, laid out the hops and grains in bowls on the bar, talked a bit about how they started and got us drunk.

He definitely claimed BB as origin so maybe S&W were letting him use the premises to produce his beer at the start? Then Vic took off as a major buyer so he moved to Melb and started up?

Edited November 21, 2020 by Journeyman

[Journeyman]

1 hour ago, Dozer71 said:

Looked into this further as there is no mention of Byron on the fixation website.

Seems like it began in Byron, from the start. Meolb came later...
 

Quote

Less than a fortnight before avowed IPA fanatic Tom was to learn that his then employer, Mountain Goat, had been sold to Asahi, thus abandoning the independence that was so important to him, he'd wandered into Stone & Wood's Byron Bay home. Not knowing his way around, he walked into the office rather than the public area and found two of Stone & Wood's founders, Jamie Cook and Ross Jurisich, there. They got chatting about beer, the local industry, trends and so on, before going their separate ways.

What he didn't know then was that, following a trip to the States in early 2015, Jamie, Ross and co-founder Brad Rogers had been discussing the potential for an IPA brand in Australia. Thus, the chat with Tom fresh in their minds, when news of the Goat sale reached them the pieces began to fall into place. Just weeks later, Tom and his family were in Byron Bay overseeing the first brew of Fixation's flagship IPA.

From: https://www.craftypint.com/brewery/277/Fixation-Brewing-Co

[Marty_G]

On 11/20/2020 at 3:51 PM, Hoppy81 said:

Too many breweries not concentrating on the grist, just cover it up with a truckload of hops.

[RepSpec]

On 11/19/2020 at 7:26 PM, MartyG1525230263 said:

.   Get home and knock the top of a Melbourne Bitter tallie and I think. That is the best beer I have had all day.   Beer preference is a funny thing.   

 

Certainly is...good to see you chose one of the most underated of the Megaswill! Love that MB has become a "hipster" beer to drink in Melbourne. So many places (restaurants) sell it in the long necks!

Ive found i have done a full circle when it comes to beer and im only 34 (well i am next week lol)

I started on the basic stuff. Tried a bridge road pale and it changed my life. Then found IPA's and had many write off sessions on the Mornington IPA and the like. Then discovered sours (thanks to their Brain Squeeze) and love them now. Also dabble a bit in Saisons if i find one somewhere...But recently have gone back to drinking Megaswill.

Still would prefer something fancier, but price point is a big factor (now 5 month old baby). paying $80 for a slab of the good stuff...its hard to do.

[Marty_G]

53 minutes ago, RepSpec said:

Certainly is...good to see you chose one of the most underated of the Megaswill! Love that MB has become a "hipster" beer to drink in Melbourne. So many places (restaurants) sell it in the long necks!

The thing with the swills and reason they became popular is they were good beers. When you read the history of beer in Australia if highlights that the beer market has never been stable. producer were always trying new recipes to improve market share.   The ones that stayed were the ones that the punters liked. 

Back in the day there was not the selection of hops that there are now so the beers had a flavour sameness to them that was changed by grist yeast and hop volumes. Before PoR was developed in about 1960 nearly all the beer producers in Australia used EKG and Cluster as they were grown in Tassie or noble hops like Saaz. The world was larger in the context that global the supply chains were slower.  

In the 80's things changed when Bond Brewing bought so many Aussie brewers. Things were rationalised, recipes changed, mega breweries built and that trend has continued up to the point where modern crisp beers are virtually tasteless were developed.  

That is one of the reasons that the older beers like MB and Reschs draught beers are having a resurgence with younger drinkers. They are good drops with flavour.  Not hit you in the face NEIPA tastes that are so complex the hops get lost in a fruitcup cordial taste. But "Old School" beer tastes that are good.   I am an old dude and with my beers i try to replicate the flavour and balance of beers from the 60's and 70's except i use a variety of Noble, English, Kiwi, Aussie and American hops.   To my way of thinking that is what Furphy is. It is an old school Aussie recipe with new Aussie hops to give it subtle modern flavours.  The grist is Vienna and wheat with small bitter of Topaz and small flavouring of Vic Secret.   It you did the same recipe with Cluster Bittering and EKG flavouring it would be a beer from the 50's.   

[Bribie G]

You have hit the nail right on the f'n head.

Couple of weeks from now we are going up to see kids in Queensland and will be staying at the RSL motel in Woolgoolga NSW, just to the north of Coffs Harbour. The highlight will be fronting up to the bar for numerous schooners of Reschs Draught where it is one of the best selling beers to the older demographic.

It's basically a 1950s beer on the same grist and hops but just got a yeast change when Reschs got taken over by CUB and they replaced the original yeast with a version of Fosters B strain, but still kicks the total arse out of modern horrors like Great Northern or Iron Jack. There is malt character, fullness and a lovely finish that doesn't have the mouseshit aftertaste of VB or TED.

Melbourne Bitter is another good example - another beer that still has flavour and aroma. Although it was always a bottled beer I believe they started putting it on tap in Melbourne recently.

[jamiek86]

1 hour ago, Bribie G said:

You have hit the nail right on the f'n head.

Couple of weeks from now we are going up to see kids in Queensland and will be staying at the RSL motel in Woolgoolga NSW, just to the north of Coffs Harbour. The highlight will be fronting up to the bar for numerous schooners of Reschs Draught where it is one of the best selling beers to the older demographic.

It's basically a 1950s beer on the same grist and hops but just got a yeast change when Reschs got taken over by CUB and they replaced the original yeast with a version of Fosters B strain, but still kicks the total arse out of modern horrors like Great Northern or Iron Jack. There is malt character, fullness and a lovely finish that doesn't have the mouseshit aftertaste of VB or TED.

Melbourne Bitter is another good example - another beer that still has flavour and aroma. Although it was always a bottled beer I believe they started putting it on tap in Melbourne recently.

I have only drank reschs a few times think it might have been their pilsner if have one? Was when I had family to visit in the ACT and picked it up from supermarkets that sold alcohol. I thought it was fairly good but wasn't sure if it was really the beer or the fact that I was on holiday and it was something different. I'll have to try MB again the last time I drank it was 16 and under-age and had way too many.