Granite Belt Brewery – IRA

Granite Belt Brewery – IRA

Stanthorpe, Queensland wine capital is the home from where this beer came from – Granite Belt Brewery – IRA (Irish Red Ale).

This ale pours a dark copper reddish colour, not t real frothy head that quickly drops away to lace the edge of the glass. Low carbonation. Aroma is sweet with notes of honey caramels, floral and spice. Has a light bitterness finish, sweet balanced caramel flavour. A smooth light bodied beer – Nice easy drinking sessional ale from an area dominated by wine.

I have another 5 Granite Belt Brewery brews that I’ll road test in the up coming weeks!

ABV – 5.0%
Style – Irish Ale
Scoured –

Granite Belt Brewery

Brewery – Granite Belt Brewery

Clown Shoes – Space Cake Double IPA

Clown Shoes – Space Cake Double IPA

Space Cake pours a clear darkish amber colour, the head is off white with a 10mm head that slowly dissipates to leave a thin foamy head with heavy lacing around the glass.

Has a barley wine style aroma with a heavy nose of fruity sweetness – lemon, mango, pine – from the hops and caramel.

Big hop bitterness to this brew, not overly sweet, with malty caramel flavoured backbone again with that barley wine style coming through in the flavour.

With all of the Clown Shoes brews their art work on their labels are always standouts and on this bottle it’s no different. What’s written on the bottle describes it well – “Why are Miracle Mike and his dog, Bionic, being chased by many evil laser beam shooting cupcakes and two giant layer cake mother ships? Because we’re straight lunatic fools? Well, maybe, but with a few brains cells remaining we managed to craft Space Cake double IPA, utilizing citrusy Mosaic hops and an immaculate West Coast style malt backbone. Dude… Chill out. Enjoy some Space Cake.”

Space Cake

A warming full bodied brew that you can definitely feel the 9.0% ABV when getting to the end of this 650ml Double IPA bottle. No more reviews tonight as some people have to work tomorrow! Me included! Another cracker brew from Clown Shoes.

ABV – 9.0%
Style – Double IPA
Sourced from – The Vine Liquor Mart Cleveland
Brewery – Clown Shoes Beer
Nationality – Ipswich, Massachusetts, USA

BrewDog – Dead Pony Club

BrewDog – Dead Pony Club

Slightly hazy amber colour with nice carbonation and head retention in the glass. The aroma hits you straight from the bottle when pouring, the fruity citrus smell of pine, passion fruit, lemon and grapefruit sweetness radiates from this low alcohol hop driven beer.

Come across as a full strength pale ale with nice flavours, starting with sweet malts then followed by the fruitiness of the hops and modest bitterness.

Overall a great low alcohol beer, very sessional with good flavours.

ABV – 3.8%
Style – American Pale Ale
Sourced from – The Wine Emporium
Brewery – BrewDog

4 Pines Keller Door – Imperial India Brown Ale

4 Pines Keller Door Imperial India Brown Ale

What do you know this brown ale pours a dark brown with a tan head that drops away to a fine ring around the glass edge. This Ale has a sweet citrus (lemon/grapefruit) aroma which is quite moreish to the nose. To taste it has a bold bitterness to it, with a good use of hops and malt. The roasted malts produce a nice caramel nutty flavour to go with the hoppy tastes of pine and citrus.

Great brown ale, smooth with a good hit of alcohol. A quality release from 4 Pines limited release dept – Keller Door.

ABV – 8.0%
Style – Brown Ale
Sourced from – The Vine Liquor Mart Cleveland
Brewery – 4 Pines Brewing Co.

Thomas Cooper’s Selection Celebration Ale

Cooper’s Celebration Ale

Twist Top! Pours a cloudy copper colour with a short lasting head, although well carbonated as you’d expect from this established brewery. The malt aromas come through more than the fruity hops scent. Has a mild malty sweetness, and a slight fruity hop bitterness.

Not a bad beer, but I prefer a beer with more flavour and heavier hopped.

ABV 5.2%
Sourced from – The Vine Liquor Mart Cleveland
Brewery – Coopers Brewery

Brew Dog Libertine Black Ale

Brew Dog Libertine Black Ale

This Black IPA beer is, as its name says, black in appearance with a slight reddish colour in the light and a beige head. The aroma is fruity and quite powerful from the Simcoe hops, with not much malt evident from smell. This beer has a nice hop bite,  a sweet bitterness with citrus, piney, and malt flavours.

A smooth easy drinking beer from these crazy Scottish brewers – actually watching series 2 of Brew Dogs ATM.

ABV 7.2%
Sourced from – Queensplaza Wine + Beer
Brewery – Brew Dog