The Hottest 100 Beers in Australia 2013

The Triple J Hottest 100 wasn't the only countdown on Australia Day. The Local Taphouse runs a Hottest 100 for Aussie craft beers each year. I've been aware of it for a few years, voted in it once before this year (2010 I think it was). This year I came across the list and I thought it was pretty interesting so I broke it down and wrote some reflections about it including 2 about Tasmania's absence from the list since this blog is Brew Tas.

1. Loads of pale, hoppy beer
There are 59 of them in total made up of 30 IPAs (including Black, Red, Rye, Farmhouse, Belgian and even some straight up ones), 18 APAs, 7 Golden Ales, 4 IIPAs. Add the other American styles that made the list and you've got 71/100. Thanks, America! Our voting beer drinkers think you've done a pretty great job.

I know some would bemoan such American influence but I think it's part of the exploration of more extreme beers and it will open the door for other interesting stuff over the coming years. Plus, I do love the hops.

Comparing to last year, there are 6 more IPAs, 3 fewer APAs, 5 more Golden Ales and three fewer IIPAs. While we're comparing, last year there were 8 lager/pilsner/bocks, this year there was only 4. There was only one Imperial Stout last year but this year there was 7. Also, Saisons were more popular last year with 3 compared to the 1 that made it this time around.


2. More IPA than APA

I was pretty surprised by the fact that there were 30 IPAs to only 18 APAs. If I'd had to guess, I'd have assumed that APAs were by far the preferred drink in Australia but at least for the kinds of people who vote in the Hottest 100 Craft Beers it looks like IPA is where it's at. I suspect there is a much greater quantity of APAs consumed thanks to Little Creatures Pale and a few other usual suspects but a larger number of good IPAs brewed. Last year the gap was more narrow but this year it's not even close. Lots of these IPAs are more restrained with the bitterness than their American equivalents but it's interesting to see a shift towards less conservative beer.

It's also interesting to me because there are no American IPAs brewed in Tasmania, at least, not part of a brewery's regular roster. There are 2 APAs although neither of them are amazing.


3. No Tasmanian beers in the top 100

I've got a review of this one coming up

I wouldn't have expected many but I thought there'd be at least a couple of them on the list. I guess it shouldn't be too surprising, the Tasmanian breweries are fairly small, our population is fairly small so there's not the distribution necessary to rate highly. The Hottest 100 is more popularity contest than definitive guide to quality. But part of me wonders how they'd rate if their distribution was wider? Could they compete? If I was a Tasmanian brewer, I'd take not being on the list as a challenge.

Are there really 100 beers in Australia better than the best Tasmanian beer? Well, some of the beers that do make the list are pretty ordinary so I'd say 'no'. I'd choose the Seven Sheds Kentish Ale and Morrison English Bitter over a bunch of the ones on the list.


4. The beers on the list are so different to Tasmanian craft beer
The other thing that really stands out to me is the difference between the kinds of beers that made the list and the ones that are brewed in Tasmania. It makes me wonder whether there's a real difference in mindset, like there is between East/Midwest/West in the USA or if it's just that Tasmanian brewers and drinkers are a bit behind the curve.

My hunch is that it's the brewers more than the drinkers. The local craft beer places in Hobart don't seem to have any problem moving the Sierra Nevada, Kooinda or Stone & Wood they have on tap. I guess with 7 microbreweries you're not necessarily going to have much diversity.

A quick whip around the brews visible on the websites of our 7 (Van Dieman, Morrison, 2 Metre Tall, Moo Brew, Wineglass Bay, Seven Sheds, Iron House. I think that's all of them) microbreweries shows:

APA: 2
Wit: 1
American Brown: 1
Hefeweizen: 2
English Pale Ale/Bitter/Amber: 9
Stout: 3
Porter: 2
Imperial Stout: 2
Irish Red Ale: 1
Pilsner: 2
Lager: 1
Belgian Pale (-ish): 2
Saison: 2
Spiced/Fruit: 2
Sour: 1

33 beers, 19 of which are based on English brewing traditions, 30 of which have their origin in Europe. American beer styles get less run than Belgian beers! No IPAs, not even a Golden Ale or Amber Ale!

I knew that our range was heavily influenced by English beer but I didn't realise that it was as much as 57% of the total. That's crazy. My hunch is that when people discovered 'craft' beer down here, they didn't discover American craft but rather found out about the good beer that's existed in Europe for hundreds of years, particularly the English ones as that's the part of Europe we look to first. I know that even in 2010, the vast majority of international craft beer available in Hobart was from Europe with a little bit from NZ and Sierra Nevada was just about the only US beer. Actually, I think there was some Rogue available too. With that kind of introduction to craft beer, I guess it's not surprising that we're more European in outlook. I could be completely wrong about that though but if I am, I would like to know what the reason is.

Obviously it's not 100% fair to compare the results of a poll where the voters self-selected with the total brewing output of one state but it is interesting that Tasmanian brewers generally aren't brewing the kinds of beers that the national craft beer consumers obsessed enough to vote rate very highly.


5. Notable Winners & Losers

The Australian craft beer royalty did about as expected: Bridge Road win with 7 beers in the top 100. Mountain Goat, Little Creatures, Feral & Holgate got 6. Personally I don't get why Holgate did so well unless they've improved dramatically recently. My best experience with their beer has been 'good', my normal experience with them has been 'meh'. Either way, not top 100 material unless I'm missing something. Stone & Wood got 5. Big wins there for Stone & Wood and Feral Brewing with better returns compared with last year's results.

It was also significant that Moondog got 3 on the board this year as they expand their reach while Temple Brewing failed to score 1 this year. Presumably because they were shut down for a fair part of the year. Also failing to register 1 beer in the top 100 was James Squire and Gage Roads Brewery, a couple of the bigger 'craft' brewers in the country and Matilda Bay only had 1 entry in the top 100 with their Fat Yak. It's interesting that these popular crafty breweries didn't make the list and is probably an indicator of the kind of people who did the voting.

There are way too many beers on the list that I haven't tried, hopefully this year I can change that.


6. Division by State
VIC: 46 (from 17 breweries)
NSW: 24 (from 14 breweries)
WA: 11 (from 3 breweries)
QLD: 10 (from 7 breweries)
SA: 9 (from 5 breweries)

Victoria was the big state winner of course. More in NSW than I expected although they're down 10 entries from last year. There were also less in Queensland than I expected. None in Tassie as I already went on about at length. South Australia did very well considering they didn't have any 'big' winners. That's probably what made Queensland's total less than I expected too, lots of love spread out between lots of breweries.


Conclusion
So there you have it. Breweries brewed beer in 2013, people drank it and liked it, especially if it was hoppy and American. Victoria remains a long way ahead of the rest of the country. If you want to start a brewery in Tasmania, try brewing something that isn't English in it's origin. Not because English beer is bad but because diversity in beer as in many things is good.

Tasting notes: Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale

This was the second beer for Jason's birthday BBQ. Brewed on December 14 and bottled on December 28. This tasting was on January 12.

Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale
OG: 1.057
FG: 1.011
IBU: 44
ABV: 6.1%

Aroma: Definite Maris Otter aroma, the 'sharpness' of white grapes/gooseberries, honey, herbal and dank.
Appearance: Gold moving into orange. Fairly hazy. Moderate head that thins out after 5 minutes but leaves some lacing all the way down the glass.
Flavour: Lightly herbal bitterness that's pretty much bang on for style and quite enjoyable. Lots of creamy malt, probably a bit much malt. It has that fruitiness that I can't describe but is very Nelson Sauvin. More malt sweetness than I'd expect for a 1.011 beer.
Mouthfeel: Low-medium carbonation and a creamy mouthfeel.

A normal beer on a kids' seat or a giant beer
on a normal seat?

As I mentioned in my post when I brewed this beer, this is a recreation of an extract brew I made several times back in 2010-2011. Jason and I both feel pretty nostalgic about it so I had high expectations of the beer and my brewing. I haven't used Nelson Sauvin much since those days, partly because I was Sauvined-out for a while and partly because I had bulk supplies of other varieties. It's nice to be reunited with the hop and they certainly provide a nice highlight to the drink but it isn't quite the beer I'd like it to be.

I like Golden Promise in an American Pale Ale, especially if the hopping rate is on the high side. However, I think Maris Otter was a mistake. It's nice but it's just a bit much in this beer. On the positive side, Nelson Sauvin can easily be a bit much all on its own but that isn't a problem in this beer. The malt definitely keeps some of the Nelson Sauvin aggression in check. Some of the rough edges of the hop emerge but not in an unpleasant way. They're flavours that are interesting and can be safely explored which might not be the case in a less malty beer.

Overall I'm a bit disappointed with it but it's a decent beer with no production faults, just one or two recipe weaknesses. It's bigger than I was intending and the Maris Otter was a last minute inclusion to the recipe so this it's a bit different to what I had in mind. It did the job for the BBQ and the next one will be better.

Next time: use Golden Promise or an Australian pale malt. If I did that I'd probably use a gentler hop for the 60 minute addition and maybe reduce the other additions a little bit so the Nelson Sauvin doesn't overwhelm the malt completely. I don't think it'd take much effort to make this a great beer.

Tasting notes: The Lorax Pale Ale

This was the 3rd beer I brewed for Adam's wedding but the first I've gotten around to writing tasting notes for. It was brewed on November 30th and bottled on December 14th.

Aroma: Pine and passionfruit greet you at the door. There's a little dankness with them.
Appearance: Very nice clear gold colour with a couple of fingers of clean white head that diminishes slowly. Lots of happy little bubbles shooting to the surface.
Flavour: Nice maltiness that supports the hops but doesn't take away from them. With the hops there's a herbal quality there along with more of the same hop flavours as in the aroma.
Mouthfeel: Carbonation on the high side of medium and moderate bitterness for a pale ale.

The kind of quality photography I bring
every time

It's not high praise but this beer more or less does what it's meant to do. There are no fermentation-related off flavours or off flavours of any kind that I can detect. It's clean, the malt is good and the hops are decent. The problem is that the hops aren't exactly what I'm after. It's easy to find a good hop combination, it's much harder to find a great one. I have a hunch that the Simcoe I used was past it's prime. The overwhelming impression I get with the hop aroma and flavour is of Columbus. There's some Simcoe in there but it's not as assertive as it should have been. And the result is nice, but it's not stellar.

I'm pleased with the malt character. The Golden Promise and biscuit malt work really well together. It's not very prominent but it does let you know that it's there. I'm very happy with what Bill, my malt guy in Launceston, has produced. I hope he goes all the way and starts his own malting business one day.

It's a nice beer. A pleasant beer. At a wedding in a garden on a Summer's day, it's not far off from where it should be. But I'm drinking this in my bedroom on my own and it's a setting for a more critical assessment. If I bought this at a bottleshop I'd enjoy it but not be impressed by it.

Next time: Use hops that are absolutely fresh! Refine the combination or work out a different combination of hops in pursuit of that winning blend.

Birthday Brew #2: Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale

Obligatory hydrometer shot

The original extract version of this beer was one of my early brews in 2010. At the time I didn't know that different hops could have different levels of bitterness let alone what alpha acids were. For about 7 or 8 batches I brewed the same pale ale with different varieties of hops. The first 5 or so worked well because the hops all had an AA% fairly close to the original recipe, the 2 after that I used Saaz and East Kent Golding. They didn't give anywhere near enough bitterness but it did force me to work out what was going on.

Nelson Sauvin was a revelation. That crazy fruity aroma climbed out as soon as the bottle was opened. So fresh and bold. Of course there were plenty of commercial hoppy beers around but there weren't many highly hopped beers brewed in Tasmania and the hoppy beers from outside the state tend to lack something in the freshness department. Now I take the freshness of home brew for granted but it was so exciting back then.

The spine of the recipe is essentially the same as the wedding pale ale except that the gravity was increased slightly and the Crackerjack biscuit malt in the wedding beer was replaced with Victory in this one. The hopping rate is similar to the original extract recipe with the dry hops increased a bit.


Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale (22L batch)

Jason hard at work

OG: 1.054 (1.057 measured)
FG: 1.010 (1.011 measured)
IBU: 44 (estimated)
EBC: 12
ABV: 5.8% (6.1% measured)

95% Golden Promise
5% Victory malt

10g Nelson Sauvin @ 60 minutes
20g Nelson Sauvin @ 15 minutes
40g Nelson Sauvin @ 0 minutes
60g Nelson Sauvin @ dry hop

Estimated pitch of 230 billion cells of WLP 090

I added 9g CaSO4, 3g CaCl2, 3g MgSO4 to up the calcium and lean the Cl2:SO4 ratio towards the sulphate and hoppiness. I also added 150g of acidulated malt to adjust the mash pH.

Stepped mash: 64C (45 minutes), 72C (15 minutes) and a 78C mash out.

21/12/13 - Brewed with Jason and Huw

01/01/14 - Dry hopped with 60g Nelson Sauvin

04/01/14 - Bottled

48 bottles ready for the birthday bash!

Wedding Beer Catchup #3: The Lorax Pale Ale

Earlier in the year I brewed a beer with my friends Adam and Will. It was a simple extract pale ale with some Weyermann CaraAmber for a bit of interest. It was hopped with Simcoe and Columbus and turned into an easy drinking, 4.6% pale ale with a huge tropical fruit juice flavour and aroma. When Adam asked me to brew for his wedding, this was one of the beers he wanted.

Instead of doing an extract batch, I decided to translate the recipe into all grain. True to form, I ended up playing with the recipe a bit so that the similarity between this recipe and the original is mainly in the hopping. I got some biscuit malt from Bill, a great bloke up in Launceston, who's been malting and roasting barley at home. Crackerjack, his biscuit malt reminds me heaps of Sao crackers we used to have growing up. My first batch using his malt got infected so I was keen to give it a shot here. I also increased the OG a little because the other wedding beers were all planned to be between 3.5-4.5% abv.

The Lorax Pale Ale (21L batch)

There's no real connection between the two except for the colour

OG: 1.051
FG: 1.011
IBU: 38 (estimated)
EBC: 10.1
ABV: 5.3%

95% Golden Promise
5% Not For Horses Crackerjack malt

30g Simcoe @ 60 min
30g Simcoe @ 0 min
50g Simcoe @ Dry hop
50g Columbus @ Dry hop

1.5L starter of WLP 090 (estimated pitch of 230 billion cells), fermented at 18C

60 seconds of oxygen

I added 8g CaSO4, 2g CaCl2, 3g MgSO4 to the mash to raise the calcium and get the sulphate levels to enhance the hoppiness and 125g acidulated malt for mash pH correction.

Stepped mash: 66C (40 minutes), 72C (15 minutes) and a 78C mash out.

30/11/13 - Brewed with Adam and Will

8/12/13 - Added dry hops

14/12/13 - Bottled

Tasted on 11/01/14

Brewday: Pale Ale & Blonde Ale

Another two beers brewed on Sunday. I'm trying to make up for lost time.

My first ever craft beer, July 2004

First up is an American Pale Ale. For my money, American Pales are one of the harder styles to perfect. Not because they require such a high level of technical skill but because just about everyone brews one. They're common. Boring. Too often they taste as if the brewer's paying their bills rather than sharing something they believe is genuinely worthy of being shared.

So even though I'm just brewing for myself and friends, I'm in search of a Pale Ale that isn't just another Pale. As I go, I'm slowly building a list of preferences and ideas to divine the shape of the platonic Pale Ale. The big thing is that I like it to be fairly dry. It needs to be light enough to be drinkable and to my taste, crystal malt is often the enemy of the drinkable Pale. It shouldn't taste sweet. It shouldn't smell like caramel. I like to shoot for a FG of 1.010. That contributes to the perception of a firm bitterness. With aroma, I want the hops to be both generous and cohesive. It's easy for a brewer to get excited and add multiple aroma hops but the result can often be competing rather than complimentary aromas.

The gold standard

So with that in mind, I brewed the first version of the recipe below earlier this year. It received very positive comments from everyone but at 6.4% abv and 45-50 IBUs it was pushing the style limits. That isn't really a problem for me but I'm planning on brewing this beer for a mate's wedding reception so I thought I'd try a version that was a little more accessible. Last time I used CaraAmber as the specialty malt but this time I've got some biscuit malt from a guy in Launceston who's begun malting and roasting barley. This is my first go with his malt and I'm looking forward to the results. When I weighed out the biscuit malt I had a little taste and it reminded me of Sao crackers. I don't know if they still exist but it took me back to being a kid and having a couple after school with vegemite or cheese. I love how aromas and flavours can do that. I've gone for Cascade hops because they're still amazing after all these years and I wanted to dial in the base recipe before I turn my attentions to trying to combine 2 or 3 hops into one delicious package.

Two Wrongs Pale Ale 2.0 (19L batch)
OG: 1.053 (measured)
FG: 1.010
IBU: ~36 (the 0 min addition probably makes it at least 40)
ABV: 5.5%
EBC: 10

95% Golden Promise Malt
5% Bill's Biscuit Malt

10g Cascade @ 90 min
25g Cascade @ 30 min
15g Cascade @ 20 min
15g Cascade @ 15 min
15g Cascade @ 10 min
15g Cascade @ 5 min
40g Cascade @ 0 min
100g Cascade @ dry hop

US-05 yeast

I raised the calcium, magnesium and sulphate levels to enhance perceptions of the hops.

Mashed with my standard schedule for making a highly fermentable wort: 62C/68C/72C/78C for 30min/30min/15min/10min.

I also brewed a Blonde Ale on Sunday but I can't type much more now so I'll add that info to another post.

Tasting: Galaxy Pale Ale

So the ill-fated Galaxy Pale Ale is now mostly in bottles. It's tasting pretty good although it isn't what I intended at the time. Fortunately I made several mistakes instead of just one. Each one added up to leave me with a beer that's somewhere in the Pale Ale/IPA vicinity so it's worked out well enough.

Galaxy Pale Ale

Aroma: very aromatic, floral, fruity, with a 'sharp' passionfruit aroma. It actually smells very similar to my Baby IPA which used Nelson Sauvin and Amarillo together. I'm quite relieved that it lost the 'dirty tea towel' smell that it had when I bottled it.

Appearance: pale golden colour, slightly hazy, 3cm head that left some lacing.

Flavour: assertive bitterness, some maltiness but it's largely buried in the hop flavour. The similarities to the Baby IPA continue with the hop flavour. Some citrus, some passionfruit, some resiny kinds of flavours.

Mouthfeel: the carbonation is just shy of medium and it suited the beer very nicely. It'll probably carb up a bit more, I'm drinking it with only 13 days in the bottle. It's quite dry and suits an IPA or Pale Ale pretty well.

Overall: Well, this isn't the beer that I intended to brew but it's still ok. Not amazing, but decent. If I was going to brew it again as a Pale Ale, I'd probably try to squash some more malt flavour into it and add some other hop varieties. This was my first time using Galaxy hops and they haven't wowed me. They're nice enough but not really doing it for me in a single hop beer.

As an experiment, I saved 5l in a glass jar and added some WY5112 Brett Bruxellensis to it. It's sitting in a dark cupboard and I'll see how that's doing in a few months.

Brewday - Imperial IPA

I'm still sick, still mostly stuck in bed, but still really keen to be brewing. My solution is to make someone else do the work while I get the rewards. The problem is that there are way too many beers I want to brew.

So on Friday my brother came around and was my brewing slave. I've got a 40l electric urn on its way so this is hopefully the last time I'll be brewing a half-sized batch on the stove. I was pretty keen to try out Galaxy hops for the first time and brew something big and imposing.

And that was my mistake. Thanks to a pot that was more full than usual and a gutless stovetop and really bad efficiency, we ended up with too much wort and an OG of something around 1.050. I should have known that it wouldn't work out properly with the equipment I have. Oh well, the first sample tasted delicious and it's just possible that it won't end up as nasty hop juice.

What it should have been: Recipe on Hopville

Artist's impression of the finished product

'Battlestar Galactica' 11.5l

OG: 1.081

FG:  1.016 

IBU: 128

4kg Pale malt

175g Table sugar

60g Crystal 120 ebc

40g Caramunich II

35 Galaxy @ 60 min

40 Galaxy @ 10 min

40 Galaxy @ 0 min

45 Galaxy @ Dry hop

Yeast: US-05

I took a sample yesterday and it tastes like it's going to turn into a nice Pale Ale. I don't know what happened with the bittering hops, it should be bitter enough to dissolve my tongue. But it's not, instead, it looks like it will turn into a happy mistake.