Night of The Barrels at the Sail & Anchor Hotel Fremantle

A fun night of beer tasting, 8 special beers with matched foods, "The Night of The Barrels" at The Sail & Anchor Hotel in Fremantle was part of WA Beer Week. Some big tasty beers savored by about 100 enthusiastic tasters.

First up was a special barrel aged version of Feral's excellent Hop Hog, an already very good beer with the added complexity of Oak aging (5.8% ABV). This one got better as it warmed up slightly releasing the full hop aroma. This was served with barbequed Pork skewers a very good match.

The second beer of the Evening was Monk's 250 Imperial IPA (8.6%ABV) finished in oak. This beer was brewed to celebrate The Monk's 250th brew and to celebrate properly they threw in every malt and hop used in brewing their core range (12 malts & 13 different hops in all). This made for a proper, powerfully flavoured and textured  Imperial IPA. An amazing initial maltiness but with a delightful bitter finish. This big beer was superbly matched to spicy grilled Chorizo with lemon.

Next up was the Sail & Anchor Brass Monkey Oatmeal Stout aged for 2 years on French Oak (5.2% ABV). This was the last Brass Monkey Stout brewed at the Sail & Anchor. Lots of toasted malt flavour, quite chocolaty with a lovely smooth texture. Very nicely matched with some super hot beef pies.

A change of direction with the fourth beer Feral's Watermelon Warhead a sour Berlinerweiss (2.5% ABV). A light, very refreshing sour beer with a hint of watermelon.

Back to the powerful full flavoured beers with Moon Dog Great American Challenge wood aged strong ale (8.9%ABV).  Loads of toffee,malt spice and fruit with this one and for me probably the nights best beer. This beer was matched with a vegetable pizza (that's my daughter Jessica trying to get attention from her dad).

Little Creatures contribution to the evening was a Firkin filled with Day of The Long Shadow spiced winter ale, this one off batch with Cascade Hops. A very spicy cinnamon dominated beer went nicely with chocolate coated fresh strawberries.

Nøgne Ø don't brew bad beer and this God Jul 2010 strong ale (cold aged for 1 year) was no exception (8.5% ABV). Very malty beer with a slightly bitter finish and loads of complex flavours in the mouth. This was superbly matched with a deep fried  crumbed Camembert.

The evening finished off with Bootleg's Grandfather Barley Wine that had been fermented in Moss Brothers Shiraz barrels (9.3% ABV). A sweetish very much caramel tasting Barley wine with a hint of Shiraz tannin. A nice digestive to put a full stop on the evening.