Move over wine, it is beer’s time in the Gold Coast sun as a new wave of local breweries show that beer doesn’t have to be just a pale amber lager.
While beer is best known through its many pale amber versions, these craft breweries are showing the beer can have real flavour and can literally add colour to your bar or dining experience.
The coastal stretch from Surfers down to Byron has shown itself to be a beery powerhouse with some great small breweries mixing things up in the beer market. Rather than try and compete in the same space as the large national and international brands, these craft breweries are exploring new flavours and resurrecting old styles. In doing so are making the beer market much more colourful in the process.
The black
Show many people a beer that’s even a shade darker than amber and they’ll often respond with, ‘I don’t like dark beers’. But for Brennan Fielding, co-owner and brewmaster at Burleigh Brewing, that’s just because they haven’t met the right one yet. He says that for people whose only experience with dark beers is with dry stouts, such as Guinness, they are missing out on flavour.
Fielding, who originally hails from America spent many years brewing in Hawaii before moving to the Gold Coast with his Australian wife, recently launched a dark lager made with coffee called Black Giraffe.
“Pretty much all I drink is water, coffee and beer,” Fielding says.
“I drink coffee when I brew and when I was brewing in Hawaii there was a micro coffee roaster right next door, so it seemed like a great combination.”
If your first reaction at the thought of a coffee beer is to screw your face up, wait until you try it. Because of the malts that are used in the brewing process, dark beers can have a range of flavours. They can naturally taste of chocolate, caramel, toffee, liquorish and even coffee, not just the dry, slightly astringent and very roasty flavour of Ireland’s national drop.
Burleigh’s enhances the naturally occurring coffee flavours by partnering with local coffee roaster Zaraffas who created a special coffee blend that is added to the dark lager during the brewing proccess.
Brennan says this year’s coffee blend has a mocha flavour.
“It’s really almost cocoa that comes through, but it’s definitely coffee,” Fielding says.
With coffee shops on every corner these days, this is a beer that is bound to appeal. Just like coffee, it is a beer that is especially good when paired with vanilla ice cream or chocolate.
Year round Brennan also brews 28 Pale Ale, a copper-coloured American-style pale ale, named after a legendary 28 day stretch of perfect surf that Burleigh enjoyed in the 1970s. You can check out the complete range of Burleigh beers at their regular Brewhouse Bash, held at the brewery from 5pm to 8.30pm on the first Friday of September, October and November.
The Red
Byron Bay’s Stone & Wood brewery has made a big name for itself since opening in 2008 through its signature beer, Pacific Ale. This pale golden and cloudy aromatic beer bursts of the scent of passionfruit through the late use of Galaxy hops in the brewing. It is one of the most highly awarded Australian beers of the last several years but, despite its success, brewer Brad Rogers wanted to add some colour to his range.
“We wanted to create something that looked interesting, that was flavoursome but that was still not too heavy,” Brad says.
The result is Jasper Ale, a beer whose colour is modelled on the rich red volcanic soil of the Byron Bay region. The mahogany coloured beer is a big surprise to beer drinkers expecting a roasty flavour as the malt character is toffee with just a hint of an earthy chocolate, balanced by a spicy hop character.
With its darker colour and slightly richer flavour, it’s the perfect beer for those few weeks of the year when the Gold Coast temperature falls below tropical.
“You drink with your eyes first and there’s something warming about a darker beer that makes it perfect for an Australian winter.”
Brad is quick to acknowledge though that it’s available all year round though and still has a place paired with a steak at a summer barbeque when satisfaction and not endless refreshment are the aim.
The brewery also brews a special annual beer that draws its inspiration from medieval brewing. White hot volcanic rocks are added to the brewing kettle, in a process that replicates pre-industrial boiling techniques. When they hot rocks come into contact with the malt sugars they scorch them, creating toffee flavours in the finished beer, which makes it a great accompaniment to rich meats such as lamb.
The Blonde
The term ‘blonde’ has come to be synonymous with low-carb lagers and light-flavoured pale beers, but the description harkens back to brewing in Belgium where the terms blonde, wit and blanche are used to describe beers that are just lighter coloured than the brune or brown beers, but not less flavoursome.
“People get surprised when they try our blonde,” says Callum Osborne, head brewer at Mount Tamborine’s MT Brewery.
“They turn up and see the Belgian Blonde tap and have one, thinking it’s going to taste like the mainstream blonde lagers.
“Instead it’s got a malty body with flavour like raisins and a big punch of citrus hops, it throws them a little,” he laughs.
“When we explain to them why it tastes like that, they really get into it though. It’s what we call a ‘gateway beer’, it’s a real introduction to the darker beer styles.”
Osborne says that the beers go with the brewery’s onsite cheese factory, which makes for a really good combination.
“People know that cheese can have flavour, so when they learn that we make beer and cheese they understand that we’re going to make beers with more flavour too.”
Details:
Stone & Wood Brewing
4 Boronia Place, Byron Bay NSW
Burleigh Brewing
17A Ern Harley Drive, Burleigh Heads
Brewhouse Bash, 5pm to 8.30pm on the first Friday of September, October and November.
MT Brewery
165 Long Road, Mount Tamborine
Open 7 Days 10am – 5pm. Open late Friday and Saturday.
