Little World Beverages has established itself as a big player in the Australian beer world as the owner of Fremantle’s Little Creatures Brewery and more recently in Healesville, Victoria, with the White Rabbit Brewery.

Building the business on high quality and flavoursome, but marketable, beers is proving a winner and has seen the first beer from White Rabbit crack the Top 10 in the Critics’ Choice with White Rabbit Dark Ale grabbing the number 7 spot.

The brewery describes the beer as “an intriguing dark ale that moves to it’s own beat, our minds set about creating a beer that contradicted itself….rich dark and flavoursome but at the same time ever refreshing….malt driven but with the aromatic lift of generous doses of hops.”

Raisin like ester characters derived through its open fermentation bind a balancing act of flavour with a malt bill that rewards the parched palette with a rich, dark colour without losing any sessionabilty qualities, which we love so much in a beer.

Passed through a hop back generously laden with whole hop flowers and then dry hoped in the open fermenters, at 4.9% abv this is a dark ale with plenty of reassuring bitterness….

Contributing critics, Geoff Huens from Beer Cartel commented on the bravery of the brewery to use a dark beer as it’s first beer.

“Creating a dark ale as the first beer staple was a gutsy move in a lager drinking country. The brewers at White Rabbit have made this uncustomary method work – hats off to them,” he wrote.

Which sums it up nicely.

If we’re going to end the all-too-often heard refrain, “I don’t like dark beer”a beer like White Rabbit Dark Ale could do it.

The Critics’ Choice: Australia’s Best Beers
RRP $14.95
Available from bookstores & newsagents from April 1, 2011

www.beerloversguide.com.au

We’re giving readers a chance to win one of four copies of The Critics Choice: Australia’s Best Beers. Just tell us in the comments below which beer you think should be the choice for Australia’s best beer. Winners will be chosen at random from the comments.