James Squire Brewhouse Currency Lad

An intriguing hoppy "Bavarian style lager". Arrives with a slight haze and a small, enduring head. Very fresh, hoppy aroma with some biscuity malt and limey tartness. Quite a "green" and enticing aroma. Medium bodied, with a smooth mouthfeel. Fresh and citric on the tongue, showing lychee and gooseberry. It’s a perky customer, but it became a bit sticky and cloying near the end of the glass. Bit too sweet for mine and not especially refreshing on a warm day at Darling Harbour. (Draught at the brewpub)

21 Sep 05 - Fruity hop aroma with a touch of sulphur note. Cloudy yellow-orange colour with sheet lacing and lowish head. big fruit hop flavour. Tangy grapefruit bitter hop finish, but a bit over the top for me.

This probably needs to be renamed to include the reference to a lager because I am told the Sydney version is an ale. How odd. Served too cold of course and so there is a questuon as to whether the haze is due to the chill or settle in the keg. Very good head and eventual lacing. The aroma is soft and fruity with a hint of the hops to be sampled in the taste. I am told that the hop rate is about 50 IBU which is evident, as is a peachiness in flavour that I would have associated with an ale. There is a biscuity presence and a lightly malty profile that is a little unbalanced by the bitterness. Bitter on the back palate but not so parchingly so that you wouldn’t order another. Yeah, served in middy (sorry pot) glasses for $5 a pop.

Called a "Fruity Bavarian Lager" Aroma: Initially sulphur followed by sour grapefruit and other fruity esters. Appearance: cloudy apple juice yellow with a flat head and some sheet lacing. Flavour: Some sweetness folllowed by lots of hop and grapfruit. Palata: Thin with lingering grapefruit bitterness.

I was pretty fired up to hear the bar person describe this as "very hoppy" and damn, they sure were right. I have no idea what style to enter this as, they describe it as an "intensely hoppy" Bavarian lager (Helles?) but it really tastes like an IPA fermented with a lager yeast. It must’ve come on very recently because it looks like a milkshake - it’s thick with yeast and I think it affects the flavour. Pale colour, decent head anyway. Massively hoppy, citrusy aroma with sulfury hints of lager yeast underneath. Big Hallertau-esque character too; like Hallertau on steroids. There’s perhaps some (white) grape (not wine) character, but I was really searching for it because of the hop variety and any subtle nuances are lost when you have hops in such high concentrations anyway. Any malt flavour is overwhelmed by the massive, citrusy hop character, though the malt is obviously there because it doesn’t seem out of balance. Bitterness is big and very harsh to the point of really being a problem. I think the suspended yeast is making it considerably worse, but I’d imagine that even when it clears subtlety won’t exactly be it’s strong point. In any case, I think I’ll be re-rating this at several points in the immediate future so will report back. A very, very interesting experiment - good on the Brewhouse people for having a crack at something really (REALLY!) different. Also, the appalling use of capitalisation in the commercial description is the brewery’s fault, not mine.
RR: Went back a couple of weeks after the original rating and it still hadn’t cleared to my surprise. Lots of passionfruit now which I didn’t get previously and a fair hit of sulfur which I don’t mind. It’s just still ridiculously harsh and bitter. The whole "just shovel in a bunch of hops" recipe they like to use works really well with Speculator but it doesn’t work nearly as well here. It’s like they didn’t realise that Nelson Sauvins are a ridiculously high AA% hop. Also, they no longer serve it in pints. They claimed it is because of RSA reasons because it’s 6% abv(!), though they’ve always served pints of the 5.5% Speculator. (I wonder if they serve doubles of spirits...) The cynical amongst us might suggest that they are doing it so they can charge $5 a pot... Dropping it 0.3 points.