Grand Ridge Yarra Valley Gold

Brewed by Grand Ridge Brewing Co.
Style: English Pale Ale
Mirboo North. Vic., Australia

Serve in English pint

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Out the bottle, cool but not cold. I picked this up in September last year and it has aged just nicely!
Toffee, rum and raisin icecream, wood and treacle, bitter burnt sugars, flowery hops, a hint of rose water, plums, prunes, the nose on this is so enticing, so alluring that the label on the bottle doesn’t do it any justice. It sits in the glass with a profound depth muddled by furious streams of minute bubbles. Its shimmering in the lights, an almost translucent deep tawny chestnut. A good inch an a half of rocky off white foam sits atop to hold in initial form until the glass empties producing a messy web of lace in its wake. Everything is in high gear in the mouth, from the rich malts to the weedy, bitter hops that reach into every nook and cranny with fervour. A generous hint of cocoa powder, pine resin and damp wood, some stinging nettles and flowery rose petals, toffee and treacle upfront and burnt, dark dried fruits adding to the assertively bitter swallow. Finish is a medly of aggressive hops and woody malts. It has just a little roasted nuts and sherry-like notes to aid in its complexity. This is bloody good stuff. Silky, soft mouthfeel and medium in body. It lingers oh so long in the mouth, a little residual sweetness of fruit sugars and a satisfactorily hopped out palate. All the hallmarks of a bigger beer wrapped up into a meagre 4.9% ale. Lovely!!! (33cL, No date stamp, Dan Murphy’s Mandurah)

355mL. Pours a clear to hazy amber with a medium, thick, rocky, yellow head with excellent retention and 360 sheety lace. Aroma is very rich platanos maduros, caramelized banana, old cantaloupe.Taste is old toffee, drying hops, grassy hops. Slightly medicinal like trying swallow a nasty pill and failing to get it down. Dry, nutty bitter palate moving to a bit suddy. No brewing flaws but very odd. Hard to love. Fairly bland.

28h October 2010
On tap at the White Horse, Parsons Green. Very hazy dark amber beer. Residual white head. Light dry palate that’s also softish. Soft creamy malt with a spot of tea. Tiny bit of orange hop. Minerals. Soft dry finish and a bitterish aftertaste. Drinkable.

Pours a curious amber colour, with sustained off white foam. Correct carbonation. Jersey caramel, vanilla shortbread cream biscuits on the nose. Quite enticing. The palate is rich, offering sweet candied flavours above new leather before collapsing in a monumental fashion into a bitter excessively hopped, coppery heap. The second sip isn’t quite as harsh. Infact, it improves as it warms up. Still, it’s an acquired taste. Not bad

Hazy light amber. Earthy aroma with a light citrus accent. Some nice fruity notes, light earthiness as well from oxidation. OK.

Bottle @ Beerfest Asia Singapore. Dark gold with lasting head. Smells like chewy malts. Has a medium body. Flavors are not at all what I expected. Is balanced but dull, unexciting, and muddled. Maybe there is a freshness issue? Will revisit.

330ml bottle. Despite being an English Pale Ale called Yarra Valley Gold, this is neither pale nor gold. It pours a murky, mud brown, with a smallish head. The most obvious aroma is toffee malt, but there are some hints of ripe apricot lurking in there. There is not much hop action to begin with, although it does build ever so slightly towards the finish. The body is full of malty toffee and caramel, with a bit of candied fruit towards the end. Not the most complex ale out there, but a good one if you are not after anything too complicated. Yet again, I am favourably impressed by Grand Ridge Brewery, and their willingness to brew in styles that are somewhat uncommon in Australia, to say the least.

Bottle 330ml. Great, tasty beer. Aromas of caramel, flowers, and grass. Taste is sweet, with bitter notes, and long length. Palate is velvety, and medium bodied. Brown, with a lasting, frothy white head.

UPDATED: MAR 20, 2010 From a 330ml bottle on 21/3/2010. Somehow the name of this beer seems inappropriate - sounds like a boring pale lager, which couldn’t be further from the truth. This a dark, bottle conditioned treat. Smells great - very malty and hoppy, with dried fruits. The flavour bursting with malt and fruit, and has a fabulous, satisfying bitter finish. A lovely beer which is full of character.

Bottle - golden with medium head. Full flavours with plenty of malt and hops. Bitter aftertaste.