3.3 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
Beervana 09. More like an A/IPA than an ESB. Golden orange. Big hope nose with a noticable citrus character. More citrus hop in the flavour. Lasting bitter finish.
3.5 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 15/20
Draught at Grumpy’s Green, Melbourne. Pours dark amber with a medium white head. Aroma and flavour of tropical fruit, caramel malt and grass. Great bitterness and it’s surprisingly smooth. Agree that it’s an APA rather than ESB as packaged. A tasty beer.
3 AROMA 6/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 4/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
Pine orange and ginger aroma, orange appearence with minimal head. Flavour is a burst of tropical fruit with a big punch of resinous hops that leaves a long finish.
3.5 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 14/20
Tried on tap at the Taphouse St Kilda. Slightly hazy dull orange body with short head. Well balanced beer with the hops just in front of the malt character, passionfruit and citrus. After just having the Hopmother this was a lot smoother and more restrained. Told this was version 2 but who knows though it was delicious!
3.8 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 15/20
had this one on tap at the tap house. Nice golden colour, excellent head. Earthy, grassy and hop resin aromas, smells good. Nice hints of malt in the flavour, well balanced ale. Just tastes similar to a lot of ales out there at the moment.
3.3 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 12/20
Pours golden tending to amber with loosely packed collar of foam. Aromas are dominted by passionfruit (esb or apa) with some hinting caramel malt. Palate is relatively light, more tangy fruit (passion/orange) supported by resin/pine hop characters. Malt is there, but very much a supporting role. Finish is long and with lingering resiney bitterness.
Really pleasant drink, but in no way is it an ESB.
3.6 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 15/20
(Tap at Local Taphouse Spectapular). Probably my pick of the 40-strong lineup at the festival. Certainly not an ESB as we know it and correctly picked here as an APA. Front palate has stacks of fruit and passionfruit from the yeast and floral hops. Malt played a more subtle role for me. Dry finish with plenty of hop tang. Really good beer and would surpass the Pale Ale, although to my tastes the 2 share some similar qualities.
4 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 16/20
UPDATED: JUN 30, 2008 Golden with a fluffy white head. Massive hoppy aroma, reeks of dry hopped goldings which works so damn well, soft bready malts and fruity esters come through much more softly. Great mouthful, smooth and light but also complex and fairly bitter.. the malt character shines through a bit more here too. Flavours of piney, resiny hops and more of that beautiful rounded maltiness. The best beer I’ve had in quite some time. Bottle this stuff please I could drink it all day.
Update:
I’ve had this stuff a few times recently and tis cascade all the way... A full blown APA
4.1 AROMA 8/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 17/20
Had this on tap at the Hargreaves Hill Brewery in Yarra Glen.
It is bursting with fruity hoppiness with passionfruits leading the way.
It is a drink a lot of beer and it is to be highly recommended
3.3 AROMA 7/10 APPEARANCE 3/5 TASTE 6/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL 14/20
UPDATED: FEB 4, 2010 Old brewery version. Hazy amber with a very dense head. Aroma is possibly the pineyest (not sure that’s a word) of any Australian beer I’ve had, but in a good way. It’s all very well integrated with some nice, subtle, complementary esters and a chunky, fresh maltiness. The flavours are relatively indistinct and all on top of eachother, but in this case it works very well. Doesn’t finish especially bitter but the hop flavour lingers through enough to easily keep me happy. Just a simple, fresh beer served in top condition - top stuff. Probably the best beer I’ve had from Hargreaves Hill. (3.9)
Red Hill version: Massive passionfruit hop aroma (later revealed to be Nelson Sauvin), hazy and loaded with young beer flavours - very much my style. Thick, chewy malt, suspended yeast carries fresh citrusy hop flavour and good solid bitterness with a touch of (hop?) acid. Tasty, but quite different to both Red Hill’s beers or the HH version.(3.8)
New brewery version. Seems to have caught a mild case of boring. Hope it’s not terminal. Still a decent beer, but it seems the crystal malt has been upped significantly and the hops reduced. Still fairly hoppy, but not really any different to all the other hoppy Aus beers on the market, where it used to be utterly unique. (3.3)
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