Thus let us drink beer - the Oceania / Ireland Axis

Let’s start this instalment in Oceania before we branch out to the ole world:

Steinlager from New Zealand, given its telling name, is not hard to accurately classify as an European Pale Lager, which clocks in at an ABV of 4.8%.

Transparently  golden in semblance and highly carbonated with a rapidly deteriorating frothy and fluffy head, it starts out with a biscuity, grassy hoppy hay flavour before it plateaus at a level on par with the better emissions from the Czech Republic with hints of pepper. There is a distinct crispness and a light, melon watery mouthfeel to it that along with its grainy malt flavours and light tartness make it a nice, simple and straight forward yet satisfying go to on hot days, as it is easy to drink and quenching thirst. A solid lawnmower beer.

One of my favourite breweries from New Zealand is Panhead with its underpinning motorcycle / engine themes and aesthetic that pervades its portfolio like a red thread:

Their Quickchange XPA is an exercise par excellence marrying big hoppy flavours with a stripped-down malt chassis. Mosaic, Galaxy and Citra alpha oils with their mango, guava, pineapple and lychee characters, make for a smorgasbord of delicious nuances that are all individually to a whole that is bigger than the sum of the components and never overpowering.

Unfortunately, this is the only emission I have been able to try from Panhead and seeing how their website details a range of limited, special edition brews, this brewery and its aesthetic warrants a dedicated feature.

Certainly a brewery that keeps my gears well oiled.

James Squire’s 150 Lashes Extra Pale Ale makes up what it lacks in the ABV department (4.2% ABV) with flavour: Brewed using Nelson Sauvin and Amarillo hops this lively carbonated pale ale is a refreshing pale-gold Australian-style cloudy pale ale with restrained bitterness and a clean, unharsh finish. The use of malted wheat adds to its refreshing character delivering an ale with subtle hints of passionfruit, grapefruit and citrus.

Pouring light with its medium body, velvety texture, effervescence with a bit of fizz it proves to be a invigorating, pleasantly light one that with its tropical character and resinous pine feel is ideal for the hot summers on terra australis and very pleasant as an excellently balanced quaffer.

Detour to Ireland’s creamy ales:

Kilkenny, the melange of water, roasted malted barley, hops and yeast that was first brewed in 1710 at St Francis Abbey.

For many of these kinds of ales are an acquired taste and I understand why as I have only recently warmed to them myself: The 0,44 l Kilkenny can pours clear old copper color culminating in a creamy nitro head. Aromas are reminiscent of caramel, grainy malt and earthy light dried fruit result in a taste that navigates a spectrum between light sweet to medium bitter. The translucent ruby light body is creamy in nature, not overly carbonated and a finish that incorporates caramel and earthy, gentle bitterness at the finish.

Certainly, a beer that is nice to look at, with an immense history and imago to beat.

Now to the Irish kingpin and Kilkenny’s bigger brother:

Drinking Guinness on its home turf as well as in pretty much any Irish pub on this earthround is more of a ritual for faithful than merely having a brewski. With its very creamy thin beige head and black / dark brown body, Guinness is an experience, which adds to its charm.

Taste-wise its rich unique flavour is widely perceived to be an acquired one for sure and I have always wondered about the absence of stouty notes, which one would expect from the appearance alone. It is very creamy and smooth, lightly roasted and reminiscent of cold coffee with only a slight acidity and a rather short finish. The cans come with a widget to help maintain the frothiness that it usually comes with from the tap.

As far as the aroma is concerned, Guinness is a nice, rich ode to malt.

A classic, robust beer that pairs well with Jameson’s Black Barrel expression, a hearty winter meal and cold days.

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Photos by T

Water of Life – Mother’s Ruin

The neutral spirit Gin that is usually enriched with juniper, coriander, orange peel and angelica, not only experienced a renaissance in the old and new worlds but specifically on terra australis. The country is dotted with crafty, artisanal distilleries that channel their alchemy in playing with flavours and bringing gin related experienced worlds apart from what one associated with gin a mere decade ago.

Imbue Distillery out of Melbourne is one of them.

What makes a good gin is a well distilled base and a recipe that gives you the flavour you like.  If the base is good, then so long as you like the flavour, the gin is good. It's really a matter of taste.

Based on a foundation of using botanicals that have been foraged from the fringe suburbs of Melbourne, i.e. fennel, prickly pear, blackberries and dandelion, with their Suburban expression, Imbue Distillery’s founders Mel and Mick Sheard have created a spicy drop that is framed by the piny aroma of juniper, nuances of coriander, with hints of sunflower seed oils channelling grassy fennel and the warmth of ginger through to a citrussy and a crisp finish.

Sounds poetic? Damn, right – try it for yourself.

What’s in a name?

The one of the boutique distillery Garden Grown Gin (formerly known as Distillery Botanica) is a telling one.

What is special about trained herba- and horticulturalist Philip Moore and his artisan spirits is that they have recently entered a partnership with the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. The result is the limited-edition ‘Rather Royal Gin’ using botanicals grown in the garden of Australia's oldest living scientific institution., i.e. Pope John Paul roses from the Palace Rose Garden and mandarin leafs, lemon vernena, horehound, curry leaves, lovage and chamomile from the Spring Walk, which were enfleuraged to cold extract their perfumes.

Limited to a mere thousand bottles, proceeds from the sale of the well-balanced and highly-aromatic gin go towards the Garden’s conservation programs, aimed at the preservation of local biodiversity through the collection and banking of seeds as well as research and training.

More light was shed on the approach and craft to distilling the gin along with broader, more general information about the libation’s history, a live exercise in distilling and sustenance in liquid and cheese form at a specifically curated event at the Botanical Garden’s both beautifully adorned and serene premium venue The Calyx.

The emissions of a botanical blend using natural ingredients found in the Royal Botanic Gardens was shared and the presentations only substantiated the fact that the people behind the brand share a passion for creating premium artisanal spirits that offer more than the standard gins that have recently flooded the market.

Read more Water of Life entries here.

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Lead photo by @k.a.vv

John Waters: Indecent Exposure

University of California Press

You might know him from cult classics of the raunchier kind like Pink Flamingos or his emissions that appealed more to mainstream audiences, e.g. Hairspray. and other great, funny and raunchy movies.

John Waters is many things: Style icon, agent provocateur, artists and film director being only few of the many facets that comprise his personality and creative output.

Indecent Exposure is an ode to his photographic emissions from the early ninety-nineties to the present day and age. The eye candy is substantiated with essays by contemporary art aficionados and academic types along with an interview with Waters.

How would one describe Waters’ work you ask?

Hmmm, whimsical, at time deliberately in advocacy of bad taste, witty and more often than not vulgar for the sake of vulgarity but never without another dimension added to it and thereby provoking deeper thoughts regarding the state of affairs in this fact paced and often plastic world of ours.

A weak spot for the demimonde specifically that of his hometown Baltimore pervades every aspect of the book and his annual exhibitions form the foundation for this book, for which Indecent Exposure doubles as a catalogue.

The artwork of the book with its stained brown wrapping paper and John Waters being portrayed as a Pepping Tom is more than suitable and sets the right tone for his explorations of the (fake) world of celebrities and the gears that keep the machinery recklessly moving forward.

Despite having a Sendungsbewusstsein, John Waters is always delightful, playful and enjoyable and it is up to the beholder in how far one chooses to actively interact and dig deeper when it comes to embedded meanings, allusions and criticisms his oeuvre conveys and how it questions the status quo.

Water of Life – Whisky Co-op Sydney

Tasting curated by Scott (The Oak Barrel) at the Wild Rover

The age-old question - what makes a good whisky?

Many roads lead to Rome and even more to creating the water of life bottle of whisky, which vary across the gazillion of distilleries around the world let alone the ones popping up like mushrooms around terra australis’ on-going whisky boom.

Of all the spirits, whisky and its variants seems to be a focal point for the more enthused and passionate consumers, with a whole industry dedicated to catering to their every whim and need.

Started at The Wild Rover in 2012, Sydney’s members-only Whiskey Co-Op is one of them, yet it has something to offer that others do not, which to a large extent boils down to their curation of presenters.

Enter Scott Fitzsimmons from one of Sydney’s only specialist bottle shops The Oak Barrel.

Personally, I'm a lover and devoted follower of world whisky in all its many forms and have attended quite a few tastings, however, there’s few like the ones arranged by the Whiskey Co-Op as the stars are still the liquid emissions being proffered, yet they are set in scene in a manner that few other hosts are capable of.

Given the subjective dynamic part of the whisky fabric, Scott displays a deep understanding of what one of the qualities of tastes and flavours are: The creation of Proustian moments, where they trigger e.g. feelings of nostalgia and transport you via their engaging flavours to another place and time – an experience that results from your nervous system being fully engaged and creating an experience that culminates in more than the mere stimulation of your taste buds.

Apart from the ability, Scott’s “technical” knowledge of everything spirit related is a nice melange of a borderline scientific approach to thoroughly understand each component of the production process paired with an unbridled enthusiasm and a respect both the craft that goes into it as well as the audience that creates the stage for him to guide them.

Taste can obviously not be being led by price or grade alone, even though mostly it is the stigma attached to it.

The way Scott approaches his elaboration makes those considerations irrelevant as the way he approaches the curation of tasting events is informed by what makes his heart pump, which was backed by him paying homage to new emissions, e.g. Starward’s excellent and affordable grain-barley hybrid  Two-Fold (which we recently elaborated on in a previous feature) or a dram of Speyside’s fairly modern Speyside distillery Tamnavulin, which is something that has not even been familiar with me on a name basis.

Given the expert selection of the six whiskies of the night, they spoke for themselves in terms of complexity and balance.

However, it was due to Scott’s expertise that his elaboration inspired your humble narrator to take a sip and approaching it from a different perspective, which changed how the character, smoothness, finish was perceived and resulted on an X-factor being added and the creation of an additional dimension.

A fulminant first tasting of the Whiskey Co-Op that has set the bar high for things to come.

Read more Water of Life entries here.

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Lead photo by T, Bundaberg photo supplied

Water of Life

Bass and Flinders Distillery and Bundaberg’s 130th Anniversary Spiced Small Batch Release

Good god, the gin industry – especially on terra australis is exploding with new distillers popping up like mushrooms. Given the myriad of flavours and infused variants, it was only a matter of time until somebody actually started working with them.

Hailing form the shire of the Mornington Peninsula, Bass & Flinders Distillery has refined a Truffle Gin, which aligns perfectly with their mission statement of producing premium emissions while honouring and accentuating local produce.

The earthiness the Australian Black Perigord Truffles sourced from the depths of the volcanic soil underneath Red Hill farms rest on a foundation of juniper and are flanked by nuances of angelica root and calamus root. The fact that the gin is made with Bass & Flinders’ own grape based spirit, which is produced in-house by distillation of Victorian wine, which adds a velvety, creamy texture to this drop.

Being a whiskey aficionado, I very much welcome the fact that the Truffle Gin is best served neat. This is not another novelty experiment but a delicious artisanal beauty that you would want to get your hands on before the limited edition sells out.

Now, while the Truffle Gin is an excellence introduction to Bass & Flinders, the discovery I present next takes things to the next level:

Take Australian Chardonnay grapes, double distill them and let them mature for for a minimum of five years in oak barrels as Bass & Flinders is focused on releasing a premium product and willing to wait until they feel it is truly ready:”

Ochre Aged Grape Spirit – a refined brandy that upon the first sip unleash a mélange of aromas ranging from fruity nuances to oaky and vanilla notes with a lingering finish that makes one lust for another glass.

The fact that the Ochre is such a delicious and refined spirit is almost a shame as the bottle it comes it is something that enhances and adorns any liquor shelf with its hand-made leather label.

If you are remotely partial to enjoying Cognac and Armagnac, you have not lived until you have exposed your palate to this “Aged Grape Spirit” (Bass & Flinders Distillery abstains from referring to it as a “brandy”) and you would want to get your hands on it quickly as there is only limited supply.

Slight change of gear:

130 years of Bundaberg Rum

Started by a group of mates in 1888, award decorated Bundaberg Rum is as Australian as it gets when it comes to

Master blending, ingredients carefully sourced from what Queensland have to offer and its drinks range and its rum expressions enjoy iconic status on terra australis.

To celebrate a hundred and thirty years of channeling their rum crafting alchemy, Bundaberg Rum completes the quartet of their Small Batch release series with a Spiced expression: The result of the of the blend of aged reserves with rum mellowed in heavily charred American oak barrels, before being infused it with notes of thirteen different spices (to signify the thirteen decades of Bundaberg’s heritage), clove, hints of anise, fruit nectars, caramel citrus zest and the trademark Bundaberg “je ne sais quoi”.

There is certainly no shortage of spiced rums on the market but from the first sip of this anniversary expression, one can tell that extensive research had been conducted prior to its release to ensure that the essence of what makes spiced rum work is encapsulated, i.e. dry spices, the token orangey tinge, cinnamon, vanilla and a nice dry finish.

While rum is usually not my preferred tipple of choice, Bundaberg’s limited Spiced Small Batch anniversary release is an exercise in well-balanced complexity and I cannot imagine that it will last long on the shelf given the popularity of their core range.

Read more Water of Life entries here.

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Lead photo by T, Bundaberg photo supplied