Thorogoods Billy Bs Golden Malted Apple Beer

Brewed by Thorogoods of Burra
Style: Fruit Beer
Burra, Australia

Serve in Flute, Shaker

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Bottle 750ml. Amazing beer, it has the best of both worlds. Aromas of apple, caramel, oak, and alcohol. Taste is sweet and acidic, with a long-lasting and warm alcoholic finish. Palate is syrupy, sparkling, and full bodied. Amber, with a frothy white head.

UPDATED: JUN 17, 2006 Bottled. Billy B’s Rock Sida 2000. Hazy amber coloured. Huge acidic aroma of apples, vinegar and pineapples with some notes of fruit sirup and Obstler. Acidic flavour with some sweetness. Loads of fresh and slightly unripe pineapples, apples and pears. Dry and acidic. Lambic-like complexity. Lingering finish with some bitterness. Extremely good and interesting. Thanks a lot Mullet!

This is one of the most unique alcoholic beverages you will ever taste. From the small mid north town of Burra, South Australia. A potent dose of Cider that is quite like a beer. Not for the faint hearted it’s 12% of goodness with a musty taste that grows on you to the point you may develop an addiction. Almost like Cider crossed with Sulphuric Acid but that is definitely not a bad thing.

This beer has brilliant subtle apple aromas, with the both the sweetness and tartness of the apples making into the beer’s aroma. The appearence is a transparent golden yellow-orange hue with a touch of cloudyness from residual yeast and apple sediment. The taste is a appley sweet beginning followed by a more malty taste and moves to a good tart palate that complements the apple and malty balance. Overall, an absolutely delicious apple beer.

UPDATED: AUG 6, 2006 This tasted intensely sour, like it was still alive, sharp apples, banana fruit tingles, some fertile old dirt from under an apple tree. What a standout beer, bloody amazing. Bloody intense!! ReRate: Still mindblowingly acidic, makes your cheeks stick to your gums. Amazingly clean flavour, so dry and acidic yet a wonderful balance between apple and malt. Somehow manages to keep a full palate despite its dryness.

Wow. Where do I start? I guess by saying that these guys just keep on amazing me with every new cider I try. This one was the best yet. It’s definitely the first "beer" I’ve tasted where the liquor is apple juice too (and it’s disorged too!), though I’m sceptical as to whether or not this is actually hopped as it tastes more less exactly like a cider. Anyway... the bottle was an absolute bitch to open. I ripped the bulbous part off the cork off after about five minutes so I had to resort to using the trusty waiter’s friend. It looks pretty much like beer - a light amber colour and very clear. It pours with a massive champagne-esque head which doesn’t stick around very long (in fact this champagney fizziness is probably my major gripe with this beer/cider, more on that later though). Initially the aroma is a touch on the mild side, though it opens up a lot as it warms. It has that amazingly deep stemmy, fruity, jelly character that all Thorogoods stuff seems to have, mixed with a vanilla-caramel oak character, sea air, a touch of champagney yeastiness and the faintest hint of vinegar (mmmmm). The aroma really brings back memories of sitting in a tent at Kellybrook drinking scrumpy, though it’s more the air heavy with pressed apples than the scrumpy itself. Bubbles initially fill the mouth (it’s like they stay in solution perfectly in the glass only to explode inside your mouth) which is pretty off-putting. It starts with a big, clean, fruity sourness at the front of the tongue but it doesn’t burn the back teeth like Cantillon’s stuff does. It’s pretty dry but has just enough fruity sweetness to give it perfect balance. There’s a very slight salty-mineral note and though the tannins aren’t really noticeable at all they must be there because it has a nice firm body and isn’t at all flabby/boring/sweet/insipid. Then there’s a tiny bit of puckering, Rodenbach Grand Cru-ish salt-and-vinegar chips very late in the piece with some champagney fizzy, alcohol dryness. Alcohol flavours are otherwise completely absent (compared to a sparkling wine of similar alcoholic strength the lack of alcohol flavour is stunning (though the alcohol is definitely there - I felt it in the morning)). This is just an unbelievable product created by truly bizarre means. Wow. Wow.

Tasted 09/03/2009. 750ml bottle courtesy of, and shared with, TheGrandmaster. Happy 3rd birthday Frankie. Pours rose gold, a little hazy, with a big creamy foam that subsides to nothing but resides all the way to the bottom. Not far past ’flat’ in the carbonation stakes. Big funky acidic nose, floral and slightly minerally, reminiscent of the best lambics. Fritha picks a room full of peachy notes upon entering from the outside. She’s right, it is a bit "furry". It’s fatter than I expect in the mouth andI’m reminded of the girl who once called me a "chubby chaser". The malt character is subdued, this is certainly apple leaning, but it has a big mouthfeel that a cider could never achieve... even a French one. Spicy and somewhat sweet but with a long, complex acidic and tannic finish - this beer/cider is one for good guys. Can’t taste a nughty hop pellet anywhere in this big boy. More a digestif that a apertif. We drunk it at the wrong time of day, which makes me think we should have another. Fritha thinks I’m "a bit funny" for the rest of the night. I think I’d sleep better if I’d had the whole bottle myself.

Bottle with yalnikim. Pours a beautiful golden amber. Lambic-like sweet and sour on the nose. And yes, that peach - always takes a woman’s nose to pick up such nuances. Full on sourness on the palate - that really bites in the finish - but with an impressive creaminess too. Loveit! Would make a perfect after dinner drink, joined with cheese.

UPDATED: AUG 26, 2009 [Bottle] Pours reddish-amber with a tiny off-white head. Aroma is huge and outstanding. Almost like a fruitier Rodenbach, but not quite as sour, with great funk, very faint acetone notes, some blackberry, and barrel after it warms. Taste has a very nice balance between the tart, light cheese and funkiness and, the big apple, with a little orange playing in there too. Full mouthfeel, smooth, and a nice lingering finish. Wow. This beer went way beyond any expectations that I had for it. Incredibly well made, dangerously drinkable, and has almost no signs of alcohol. I keep wondering if I’m rating it too highly, and then I have another glass and it convinces me that it deserves it and that I could even maybe go a little higher. I’m going to be buying another of these.

rbsxg05. cloudy amber with a quickly disappearing head. huge aroma - cream cheese, merlot, old sofa and apples still on the tree. full and tingly in the mouth, i could feel it in my gums. very sour in a lambicised way, could feel my gut responding immediately. still has a real freshness about it and a bit of apple syrup sweetness. a true original. delicious