The Malt Shovel Brewery’s offshoot label, Mad Brewers, has this week launched their latest offering – Hoppy Hefe.

The hop-heavy hefeweizen certainly isn’t a common style, with Brooklyn Brewery making one, and partnering with German brewery Schneider to collaborate on one as notable examples. The first that I can recall in Australia was by Ian Watson, now at Murrays, who brewed one during his stint at Queensland’s MT Brewery a few years back.

It’s an interesting style with plenty of complexity and the Lion-owned Squires version certainly pulls no punches in the hops department. They describe it as a cross between a Hefeweizen and an American wheat wine and they’re certainly not engaging in too much hyperbole in that description. At 35 IBUs it’s well over double the standard for a Bavarian style wheat beer. The flavours are full and rich and, even as someone who likes hops, I found the mix fairly intimidating. The 640ml bottle was too much to drink alone and is a good size and a good beer to share.

Beer geeks can say what they like about the challenges of Squire’s 150 Lashes and Sundownder Lager, but this is certainly a beer that carries through plenty of flavour and interest.

Once again though, the brewery’s ‘Summer Release’ comes to us well after Australia Day, not leaving many of the media releases’ “hot Australian summer” nearly finished with no “lazy days” to enjoy it in, now that we are all back at work. I cannot begin to understand the seasonal strategy here, unless it is to prevent seasonal releases distracting beer drinkers from Lion’s main aim of selling vast volumes over the main beer buying period of Christmas?

Anyway, seek it out. It’s a flavourful and interesting offering from a sometimes timid range. [MK]

Details: Style: Hybrid cross between a hefweizen and American wheat wine and then lots of late hopping. ABV: 7% Malt: Pale and light crystal barley malts and 45% wheat malt Hops: Citra and Motueka IBUs: 35

Other notes: Course filtered but cloudy. Pastuerised.

Media release is below, as is on-tap availability. You can read more from the brewers on their blog.

Media Release

Oh those Lazy days of the hot Australian summer. It can mean only one thing…. you guessed it, another limited release beer from those crazy Malt Shovel Mad Brewers. Having focussed their energy on brewing plenty of the finest James Squire beers for the Christmas and New Year festivities, come February it’s time to have a little fun with our summer release. At my urging, this year they have turned their attention to the wheat beer style, but typically it is not a classic wheat style that will be offered up by our Mad Brewers team.

Brewers Rob Freshwater and Dayton Coffey have combined to craft a wheat beer with serious attitude. The name says it all. Hefeweizen, is a traditional German wheat beer style, “hefe” being a prefix meaning yeast (some yeast retained). Our Hoppy Hefe however, is a cloudy wheat beer brewed with an outrageous late hop addition creating a strong fruity -citrus hop aroma. While also taking some inspiration for extremes from those “beardy-weirdy” American hop-head brewers, our team, as usual, were not content to follow the plan and stick to using only U.S. hops, nor to use traditional German wheat yeast.

So get ready for a beer with a difference.

The result of their labours is a 7% alcohol by volume mongrel of a wheat beer with no claim to nationality, but one that will happily back pack its way around Australia this summer, while stocks last.

Mad Brewers Hoppy Hefe is presented in its usual 12 x 640ml bottle, per case format and will be available in selected good liquor stores nationally from 14 February 2012, for a limited time only. It will also be available on tap at the James Squire Brewhouses and Brewbars plus a number of selected bar accounts in each state.

The 640ml bottle is the perfect size to share with a friend over a meal and our brewers recommend you try this beer with a spicy Gumbo, a spicy Seafood Paella or for the more timid, perhaps with Chilli Mud Crabs.

Recommended retail price is $79.99 per case and $9.99 per bottle.

Only 8,700 cases have been bottled so make sure you get some straight away.

NSW Collaroy Beach Club, Collaroy Local Tap House, Darlinghurst Northern Star, Hamilton South’s Leagues Club, Merewether Burwood Hotel, Merewether Marlborough Hotel, Newtown 30 Knots, Grand Hotel, Sydney Yardhouse, Sydney Penrith Panthers, Penrith Hotel Delany, Newcastle Manning Bar, Sydney Arc@UNSW, Sydney Hero of Waterloo,The Rocks Fortune of War, The Rocks Pyrmont Bridge Hotel, Sydney Docks Hotel, Sydney Tipple, Surry Hills Greengate Hotel, Kilara Parkview, Erskineville

ACT All Bar Nun, O’Connor Edgars Inn, Ainslie Phoenix, Canberra ANU, Canberra George Harcourt Nichols, ACT

QLD Norman Hotel, Buranda Boundary Hotel, West End The Fox, Sth Brisbane Platform Bar, Grand Central Hotel, Brisbane Zi-Bar, Brisbane Board Walk Tavern, Hope Island, Gold Coast The Spotted Cow, Toowoomba

SA The Elephant, Adelaide Highway Inn Hotel, Plympton Colonist Tavern, Norwood Cumberland Arms, Adelaide CBD Wellington Hotel, North Adelaide Wheatsheaf Hotel, Thebarton Holdfast Hotel, South Glenelg The Dublin, Glenelg

TAS The Squires Bounty, Hobart New Sydney Hotel, Hobart Cock n Bull, Launceston

VIC The Portland Hotel, Melbourne Transport, Melbourne Leftbank, Melbourne The Plough, Merniong Lily Blacks, Melbourne Young and Jacksons, Melbourne The Royal Mail, Melbourne The Steampacket Hotel, Williamstown The Great Northern Hotel, Carlton Public Inn, Castlemaine Newmarket Hotel, Kyneton Bayden Powell Hotel, Collingwood The Fox, Collingwood Lincoln Hotel, Carlton Montague Hotel, Sth Melbourne Maori Chief, Sth Melbourne The Local Taphouse, St Kilda Barkers, Hawthorn Collins Queater, Melbourne Beer De Luxe, Melbourne

WA The Norfolk, Fremantle 5 Bar, Mount Lawley The Garden, Leederville The Grosvenor, East Perth Settler’s Tavern, Margaret River The Pour House, Dunsborough The Sail & Anchor, Fremantle