Thus Let Us Drink Beer
Six String Brewery Red IPA quartet + Wayward Brewing Everydays
Ever since the homage to slappin’ da six-string bass incarnated on Australian craft beer radar, Six String Brewery has been going from strength to strength, so after an initial coverage of their core range a couple of years ago as part of this series, it was high time to revisit to check on the state of affairs.
Based on how much I liked Six String’s initial tweaked riffing on the West Coast USA style red ale, with its characteristic toasty, medium-dark caramel, toffee, and dark fruit nuances dancing against a backdrop of deliciously balanced hoppiness, I was intrigued when I learned about them having pushed the envelope much further not once but three times.
Appropriately named “Double Trouble”, Six String’s red DIPA takes the characteristics of the aforementioned Dark Red IPA and amplified it by tripling down on the hops and doubling down on the malts. Clocking in at a respectable 10% ABV, this warming, velvety lil’ number boasts intense yet immensely satisfying bitter-sweet flavours, accentuated by tropical fruits with a thick candied, borderline chewable maltiness and a bitterness reminiscent of oaky tannins.
The Triple Dark Red IPA was originally brewed for the 2019 incarnation of the Great Australasian Beer SpecTAPular and it makes the other two Red IPA expressions taste tame in comparison with its boozy, deep malty backbone, resinous hops and tropical flavours complementing the dominating honeyed caramel and toffee notes.
The earthy result generates an almost syrup-like sweetness that is not only due to the heightened ABV of 12% reminiscent of barley wine, only to finish with a substantial mouthfeel on pronounced bitter and slightly spicy notes that reverberate for ages.
Needless to say, Six String’s Quadruple Dark Red IPA is one that you need to make time for. Essentially, it epitomizes everything Six String stands for in terms of bold flavours and proves to be an adequate brew to celebrate the brewery’s tenth anniversary next year.
Having teamed it up with a dram of Ardbeg Corrywreckan, this boilermaker became a lip-smacking evening filling exercise in rich, boozy (14% ABV) buttery toffee caramel deliciousness. Stating that this big bodied Quadruple Dark Red IPA has a massive flavour profile would be an understatement par excellence: Juicy and tangy raisins sit on a foundation of malt and blend in with resinous hops, lemony zestiness, sweet chocolatey overtones and nutty, cooked milk.
Given what Six String has accomplished in the realm of Dark Red IPAs by living up to their credo, i.e. the creating of amplified ales,, I can only hope that they will endeavour the same with their other hopped out variants.
Given the consistent high quality of the brews Wayward has been pumping up on a regular basis, it proves hard to contain excitement when new releases are being announced – especially when it comes to expressions that are meant to enter their core range of crowd pleasers.
Informed by the credo that the only constant thing is change, a willingness to evolve and an acknowledgement of the importance of connecting with different demographics with their releases, Wayward’s Everyday Lager replaces their delicately bitter Pilsner in their core range in a bid to offer something more approachable and a little less challenging on the palate.
For hop aficionados looking for a daily sipper and crafted with the traditional beer drinker in mind, Wayward’s light-bodied Everyday Pale Ale Easy Drinking Australian Pale Ale offers a straightforward taste profile with bright notes of honeyed tropical fruits and a subtle floral aroma with a crisp clean finish, courtesy of Australian Galaxy and American Cascade hops.
Two solid expressions that are sure to resonate with Pilsner and Pale Ale aficionados and since those bases are covered, I can only hope that Wayward focuses on what I love the brewery most for, i.e. the creation of quality IPAs and wonderfully delicious experiments not unlike their Sourade Blue Blast Berry Gose.
Fourteen years after the last production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera incarnated in Sydney, audiences on terra australis got lucky like twice this year: 
Young Henrys must have been one of the first breweries that we covered as part of this series and we have consistently covered its ascent from a quality brewery to an entity that became much more than the mere sum of its parts would suggest: In 2022, Young Henrys serves not merely as a magnet for beer aficionados but also as a haven for musicians, artists and an idiosyncratic melange of free spirits, who are attracted by the brand by its endeavours to pro-actively nurture collaborations with bands, magazines and whoever else feels right to partner up with. 
