SpecTAPular beers  #
Thursday, 10 Jul 2008 12:36PM
The following is a table of beers I tried at the Local Tap House SpecTAPular. On the day I was keeping track of the beers I had in the excellent little pamphlet provided, writing little comments against each one, the time (when I remembered) and maintaining a "three tick" system.

I've converted my ticks to smileys. No smiley means I could take it or leave it.

Each sample was 60ml. There is a strong lean toward the beers that were available upstairs, as going up and down the stairs was inconvenient.

Time Brewery State Beer Smile!
12.30pm Mountain Goat VIC Hefeweizen [good]
Matilda Bay Brewing Company VIC Redback Pale Ale
Malt Shovel Brewery NSW Mad Brewers Raspberry Wheat Beer [good]
Mash Brewing WA Mash Black Lager [excellent]
Potters Brewery/Hunter Brewing NSW Smoked American Pale Ale [excellent]
Wig & Pen Tavern & Brewery ACT Velvet Cream Stout [great]
Red Hill Brewery VIC Imperial Stout [great]
Five Islands Brewery NSW Parkyn’s Shark Oil [great]
Murray’s Craft Brewing Co. NSW Grand Cru Belgian Tripel [good]
1.35pm Temple Brewing Company VIC Temple Saison [good]
Scharer's Brewery NSW Scharer’s Bock [good]
Bright Brewery Fainters Dubbel VIC Belgian Abbey-style Dubbel [great]
Jamieson Brewery VIC Son of a Beast Double IPA [great]
2.22pm Barons Brewing Co. NSW Black Wattle Original Ale [good]
2.25pm Holgate Brewhouse VIC Holgate ESB [great]
The Little Brewing Company NSW Wicked Elf Pale Ale
Mt Tamborine Brewery QLD Mountain Bitter [good]
3.10pm Otway Estate Brewery VIC Prickly Moses Belgian Strong Ale [good]
Coopers Brewery SA Dark Ale [good]
3.30pm Moo Brew TAS Moo Brew Imperial Stout [great]
Paddys Brewery NSW Paddy’s Rye [good]

Most of my written comments are fairly useless, but a few are worth sharing.

I excitedly wrote that the Mash Black was "Awesome".

Son Of A Beast was "Bitter. Reminds me of fish, or sushi?"

Moo Brew Stout was "Very Stouty." I know exactly what that means, but I'm not sure you do.

Hunter Smoked America Pale Ale was "Intense! Smokey!". Indeed it was. It was like drinking smoke. I loved it.

I noted that you could kind of taste the bubble gum flavours described in the Murray Grand Cru blurb, but only just. It was more a smell, like Lipton's flavoured tea-bags.

Parkyn's Shark Oil "smelt of caramel" and was "very bitter".

Wig & Pen Velvet Cream Stout had a strong "Coffee and Chocolate" flavour, more so than most "chocolate" beers.