Hottest 100 Beers 2015 - My Top 5 Votes
So as 2015 officially came to an end, it seemed the right time to submit my votes for the Local Taphouse/GABS/Australian Brews News/Crafty Pint Hottest 100 Australian Craft Beer Poll for 2015 (There's still plenty of time for you, too, to vote, and you should). As I've done the last couple of years, I wanted to write a few words (by which I mean many, many words) about the beers that made my list.
As usual, I'm in a particularly strong position to submit my votes, as I have strict criteria for my votes (it must be a beer I reviewed for the first time in the calendar year 2015), and excellent record-keeping of my beer scores, allowing me quite simply to select the five (Australian) beers from 2015 that had the five highest overall ratings.
Having said that, for the first time this year I decided to cheat a little, or rather relax some of the strictures on my voting rules, for a couple of reasons:
A) It was an excellent year for Aussie craft beer, and a lot of contenders entered a big foggy fold of potential winners
B) Despite it being an excellent year, there was not a large score range between my top 20 or so beers, so I felt each one should be given due consideration
C) Some specific reasons for including and excluding, which I'll get to, below
D) I can do what I want. Fuck you.
So bearing that in mind (especially the 'Fuck you' part), I'll do these in countdown order, my favourite of all orders, starting with...
5) Flaming Lamington - Nail Brewing (Bassendean, WA)
This is by far the biggest cheat of the year, and a remarkable laxity of my own self-imposed rules to allow me to incorporate this little firecracker in my votes. Basically, looking at the Australian beers I rated/reviewed in 2015, this doesn't even crack the top 20. It just squeaks in at number 40, in fact. So why is it here?
Firstly, the first and only time I actually rated and reviewed this was at the GABS festival in Melbourne. Each beer at GABS is as properly and equitably judged as any other, in that my first and initial impressions are the impressions translated into scores and comments and they stand irrevocably for life. The only trouble with this system is that sometimes my opinions - if not my scores - can be radically revised based on subsequent tasting. And that's precisely what happened with this.
It's an odd little beer: a coconut, chocolate lamingtony dark ale but with an inexplicable addition of chilli heat at the back, it's not only odd but almost incoherent, as an idea. So that makes it all the more remarkable that it's so tasty and interesting. And while my first impression was "very interesting, and very well-made, but for whatever reason not amazing", my interest and amazement in this beer grew with each subsequent sample I had at GABS, both in Melbourne and a week later in Sydney.
I also had the chance to grab a further glass of this at the Royal Albert a few months later and it was that latter experience that cemented it in my mind as a favourite beer of the year, and a worthy recipient of my number 5 vote.
4) TIE - Brockwell Brewedwell/Beazle Brew - Nail Brewing (Bassendean, WA)
Nail Brewing had a stellar year in my rankings. Not only did they manage to shine through with the remarkably idiosyncratic offering above, but I tried a couple of their more conventional beers for the first time and was equally wowed by both of them.
I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to retry the Brockwell Brewedwell this year, after I loved my first glass at the Kingston Public Bar in Newtown in February, as I've actually heard mixed things about it from other people. It may have been an especially good batch, or I may have been in an especially good mood.
Nevertheless, it curiously garnered exactly the same overall score as Nail's one-off release, the Beazle Brew, a similar red ale that I tried later in the year, again at the Royal Albert.
Both of these beers were, to me, traditional beer construction done exceptionally well. Big hop flavours, balanced and padded by generous malt bodies, making for palates that were exciting but also smooth and enjoyable. I think it's a quirk of my particular taste in beer that when hop-forward beers have big, bold malt profiles, I just love them more - the bigger and bolder the better. These two fit that bill perfectly.
When it came time to submitting my votes, I wasn't sure whether to include both, until I noticed that the Beazle Brew wasn't actually available on the voting site. While I could happily have added it myself, I've done that in previous years and it resulted in that beer getting exactly one vote in the entire poll. Therefore I gave my #4 vote to the generically-listed Nail Red Ale as a stand-in for both.
3) Golden Stout Time - Big Shed Brewing (Royal Park, SA)
Probably the beer that everybody knew was coming. While this wasn't a head-and-shoulders stand-out at an excellent GABS festival this year, it nevertheless emerged as my firm people's choice winner after a lot of deliberation and comparison.
This is largely a nostalgic beer, taking the caramel, honeycomb and chocolate flavours of a Golden Gaytime and merging them together into an intriguing and delicious beer. But what really caught my attention as I was whittling down my festival favourites was how much this cheeky little sprite managed the impossible task of tasting not just like a beloved childhood icecream but also like a beer.
Unlike my people's choice winner from 2014 GABS (and also my #1 beer of 2014), La Sirène's Praline, this isn't just a transfusion of delicious chocolatey flavours into liquid form. This had a real, roasty bitter kick at the back, just to jolt you back to reality and adulthood, but with enough of that chocolatey-caramel goodness to remind you of how good life can be.
For this vote I went strictly by rating, as my initial impression of this beer remained positive throughout the festival, yet was only in direct comparison that I realised it had come out on top.
2) Bantam IPA - Two Birds Brewing (Spotswood, VIC)
After I actually had a bit of a rant in my write-up of last year's hottest 100 about the monotonous repetition of pale ales and IPAs as you go through the list, I have to add my own vote this year to one of those same little offenders.
Maybe it was just the beautiful weather on a day in February - as I sat at 33° Craft Beer Bar in Manly, looking out over the Corso and sipping this beer (and obviously furiously typing tasting notes into my phone) - that made this beer stand out so much from an enjoyable but generic pack of pale, hoppy ales. Or maybe it's just the love and the craft that come through in every sip.
As with most people, I have an issue with the marketing term "session IPA" - beer's answer to life insurance, a product nobody wanted or needed but suddenly everyone started offering once one person suggested it was necessary - but occasionally a beer comes along that makes the non-style make sense, even deserve its existence.
Such an example is Two Birds' Bantam IPA, that packs in a whole shitload of hop flavour, aroma and even bitterness, but without the aggressiveness: it's all softened to create a smoother drop that can be sculled rather than sipped. And the particular hop blend used in this one hits right in my sweet spot: predominantly fruity but with enough of an edge to garner respect.
I would still side with those who would call this a more complex, hoppy pale ale rather than a 'session IPA' but even considering this as just a pale ale, it's a particularly excellent and enjoyable example, and a deserving recipient of my number two spot.
1) Hoppy Gonzales - Shenanigans Brewing (Enmore, NSW)
A hoppy 'jalapeño ale' might seem like an odd choice for beer of the year, but it's in fact a really predictable one, when you consider this comprehensive list of things that I like:
- Hoppy beers
- Chilli beers
- Beers that are impeccably well crafted and delicious
And when you consider that Shenanigans' Hoppy Gonzales meets all of these criteria, it really should have been your immediate thought when you first decided to read this post (Hi, Mother!) if, of course, you knew about all of these things upfront.
Hoppy Gonzales was a pretty late addition to my consideration set, as I happened to come across a bottle while shopping at Platinum Liquor, and having been in Europe, or frantically busy planning for my Europe trip while this did the rounds on tap, I snatched it up.
I think such an audacious concept as a hoppy chilli beer can work in one of two ways: either by socking you in the face with its fuck-you conceit, or through carefully walking the tightrope between the two big flavours to achieve an unlikely and precarious flavour equilibrium. And despite the loquaciousness of the term I just invented, an unlikely and precarious flavour equilibrium is what they achieved. It does sock you in the face with its complex hop palate and the bite of chilli heat on the back, but by far the most impressive thing was the transition between the two extremes of flavour, that just made it impossibly drinkable and wonderfully enjoyable as a sip 'n' savour beer.
The boys from Shenanigans have proven time and time again - both professionally and previously in homebrew competitions - that they are inventive and ambitious but also careful craftsmen of flavour, and this beer is the perfect showcase for those two important aspects of craft brewing.
It was actually predictable and inevitable when this beer was released that I would end up loving it a lot; so much so that I can comfortably declare it my beer of 2015.
Honourable Mentions - Beers that just missed the cut
Not everything can of course make my list, but all of these beers were great in their own way, and missed out either due to my manipulation of my own self-imposed rules (see point D, above) or due to just falling shy of the cut-off score. However, each one of these beers also deserves a mention if by name only. In no particular order except alphabetical by beer name:
55 Pale Ale - Riverside Brewing (Parramatta, NSW)
Atomic Lemon, Lime and Bitters - Bacchus Brewing (Capalaba, QLD)
Full Metal Anorak - BrewCult (Derrimut, VIC)
Imperial Aussie Tukka - Newstead Brewing (Newstead, QLD)
Marsellus Wallace - Duckstein Brewery (Henley Brook, WA)
Pash N Dash - Modus Operandi Brewing (Mona Vale, NSW)
Saison d'Heretique - Australian Hotel & Brewery (Rouse Hill, NSW)
Samurye Rice Lager - Dainton Family Brewery (Carrum Downs, VIC)
Smoked Chilli IPA - Morrison Brewery (Invermay, TAS)
White Jasmine Green Tea IPA - Modus Operandi Brewing (Mona Vale, NSW)
As usual, I'm in a particularly strong position to submit my votes, as I have strict criteria for my votes (it must be a beer I reviewed for the first time in the calendar year 2015), and excellent record-keeping of my beer scores, allowing me quite simply to select the five (Australian) beers from 2015 that had the five highest overall ratings.
Having said that, for the first time this year I decided to cheat a little, or rather relax some of the strictures on my voting rules, for a couple of reasons:
A) It was an excellent year for Aussie craft beer, and a lot of contenders entered a big foggy fold of potential winners
B) Despite it being an excellent year, there was not a large score range between my top 20 or so beers, so I felt each one should be given due consideration
C) Some specific reasons for including and excluding, which I'll get to, below
D) I can do what I want. Fuck you.
So bearing that in mind (especially the 'Fuck you' part), I'll do these in countdown order, my favourite of all orders, starting with...
5) Flaming Lamington - Nail Brewing (Bassendean, WA)
This is by far the biggest cheat of the year, and a remarkable laxity of my own self-imposed rules to allow me to incorporate this little firecracker in my votes. Basically, looking at the Australian beers I rated/reviewed in 2015, this doesn't even crack the top 20. It just squeaks in at number 40, in fact. So why is it here?
Firstly, the first and only time I actually rated and reviewed this was at the GABS festival in Melbourne. Each beer at GABS is as properly and equitably judged as any other, in that my first and initial impressions are the impressions translated into scores and comments and they stand irrevocably for life. The only trouble with this system is that sometimes my opinions - if not my scores - can be radically revised based on subsequent tasting. And that's precisely what happened with this.
It's an odd little beer: a coconut, chocolate lamingtony dark ale but with an inexplicable addition of chilli heat at the back, it's not only odd but almost incoherent, as an idea. So that makes it all the more remarkable that it's so tasty and interesting. And while my first impression was "very interesting, and very well-made, but for whatever reason not amazing", my interest and amazement in this beer grew with each subsequent sample I had at GABS, both in Melbourne and a week later in Sydney.
I also had the chance to grab a further glass of this at the Royal Albert a few months later and it was that latter experience that cemented it in my mind as a favourite beer of the year, and a worthy recipient of my number 5 vote.
4) TIE - Brockwell Brewedwell/Beazle Brew - Nail Brewing (Bassendean, WA)
Nail Brewing had a stellar year in my rankings. Not only did they manage to shine through with the remarkably idiosyncratic offering above, but I tried a couple of their more conventional beers for the first time and was equally wowed by both of them.
I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to retry the Brockwell Brewedwell this year, after I loved my first glass at the Kingston Public Bar in Newtown in February, as I've actually heard mixed things about it from other people. It may have been an especially good batch, or I may have been in an especially good mood.
Nevertheless, it curiously garnered exactly the same overall score as Nail's one-off release, the Beazle Brew, a similar red ale that I tried later in the year, again at the Royal Albert.
Both of these beers were, to me, traditional beer construction done exceptionally well. Big hop flavours, balanced and padded by generous malt bodies, making for palates that were exciting but also smooth and enjoyable. I think it's a quirk of my particular taste in beer that when hop-forward beers have big, bold malt profiles, I just love them more - the bigger and bolder the better. These two fit that bill perfectly.
When it came time to submitting my votes, I wasn't sure whether to include both, until I noticed that the Beazle Brew wasn't actually available on the voting site. While I could happily have added it myself, I've done that in previous years and it resulted in that beer getting exactly one vote in the entire poll. Therefore I gave my #4 vote to the generically-listed Nail Red Ale as a stand-in for both.
3) Golden Stout Time - Big Shed Brewing (Royal Park, SA)
Probably the beer that everybody knew was coming. While this wasn't a head-and-shoulders stand-out at an excellent GABS festival this year, it nevertheless emerged as my firm people's choice winner after a lot of deliberation and comparison.
This is largely a nostalgic beer, taking the caramel, honeycomb and chocolate flavours of a Golden Gaytime and merging them together into an intriguing and delicious beer. But what really caught my attention as I was whittling down my festival favourites was how much this cheeky little sprite managed the impossible task of tasting not just like a beloved childhood icecream but also like a beer.
Unlike my people's choice winner from 2014 GABS (and also my #1 beer of 2014), La Sirène's Praline, this isn't just a transfusion of delicious chocolatey flavours into liquid form. This had a real, roasty bitter kick at the back, just to jolt you back to reality and adulthood, but with enough of that chocolatey-caramel goodness to remind you of how good life can be.
For this vote I went strictly by rating, as my initial impression of this beer remained positive throughout the festival, yet was only in direct comparison that I realised it had come out on top.
2) Bantam IPA - Two Birds Brewing (Spotswood, VIC)
After I actually had a bit of a rant in my write-up of last year's hottest 100 about the monotonous repetition of pale ales and IPAs as you go through the list, I have to add my own vote this year to one of those same little offenders.
Maybe it was just the beautiful weather on a day in February - as I sat at 33° Craft Beer Bar in Manly, looking out over the Corso and sipping this beer (and obviously furiously typing tasting notes into my phone) - that made this beer stand out so much from an enjoyable but generic pack of pale, hoppy ales. Or maybe it's just the love and the craft that come through in every sip.
As with most people, I have an issue with the marketing term "session IPA" - beer's answer to life insurance, a product nobody wanted or needed but suddenly everyone started offering once one person suggested it was necessary - but occasionally a beer comes along that makes the non-style make sense, even deserve its existence.
Such an example is Two Birds' Bantam IPA, that packs in a whole shitload of hop flavour, aroma and even bitterness, but without the aggressiveness: it's all softened to create a smoother drop that can be sculled rather than sipped. And the particular hop blend used in this one hits right in my sweet spot: predominantly fruity but with enough of an edge to garner respect.
I would still side with those who would call this a more complex, hoppy pale ale rather than a 'session IPA' but even considering this as just a pale ale, it's a particularly excellent and enjoyable example, and a deserving recipient of my number two spot.
1) Hoppy Gonzales - Shenanigans Brewing (Enmore, NSW)
A hoppy 'jalapeño ale' might seem like an odd choice for beer of the year, but it's in fact a really predictable one, when you consider this comprehensive list of things that I like:
- Hoppy beers
- Chilli beers
- Beers that are impeccably well crafted and delicious
And when you consider that Shenanigans' Hoppy Gonzales meets all of these criteria, it really should have been your immediate thought when you first decided to read this post (Hi, Mother!) if, of course, you knew about all of these things upfront.
Hoppy Gonzales was a pretty late addition to my consideration set, as I happened to come across a bottle while shopping at Platinum Liquor, and having been in Europe, or frantically busy planning for my Europe trip while this did the rounds on tap, I snatched it up.
I think such an audacious concept as a hoppy chilli beer can work in one of two ways: either by socking you in the face with its fuck-you conceit, or through carefully walking the tightrope between the two big flavours to achieve an unlikely and precarious flavour equilibrium. And despite the loquaciousness of the term I just invented, an unlikely and precarious flavour equilibrium is what they achieved. It does sock you in the face with its complex hop palate and the bite of chilli heat on the back, but by far the most impressive thing was the transition between the two extremes of flavour, that just made it impossibly drinkable and wonderfully enjoyable as a sip 'n' savour beer.
The boys from Shenanigans have proven time and time again - both professionally and previously in homebrew competitions - that they are inventive and ambitious but also careful craftsmen of flavour, and this beer is the perfect showcase for those two important aspects of craft brewing.
It was actually predictable and inevitable when this beer was released that I would end up loving it a lot; so much so that I can comfortably declare it my beer of 2015.
Honourable Mentions - Beers that just missed the cut
Not everything can of course make my list, but all of these beers were great in their own way, and missed out either due to my manipulation of my own self-imposed rules (see point D, above) or due to just falling shy of the cut-off score. However, each one of these beers also deserves a mention if by name only. In no particular order except alphabetical by beer name:
55 Pale Ale - Riverside Brewing (Parramatta, NSW)
Atomic Lemon, Lime and Bitters - Bacchus Brewing (Capalaba, QLD)
Full Metal Anorak - BrewCult (Derrimut, VIC)
Imperial Aussie Tukka - Newstead Brewing (Newstead, QLD)
Marsellus Wallace - Duckstein Brewery (Henley Brook, WA)
Pash N Dash - Modus Operandi Brewing (Mona Vale, NSW)
Saison d'Heretique - Australian Hotel & Brewery (Rouse Hill, NSW)
Samurye Rice Lager - Dainton Family Brewery (Carrum Downs, VIC)
Smoked Chilli IPA - Morrison Brewery (Invermay, TAS)
White Jasmine Green Tea IPA - Modus Operandi Brewing (Mona Vale, NSW)
posted by Sean's Beard at 6:43 PM
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