My Festive Beers 2011

Mikkeller Red/White Christmas - Denmark (8% ABV)
What can I say about this quirky beer, a blend of Belgian style "Wit Bier" with "Red Ale" with added bitter tropical orange peel & loaded up with American hops (Tomahawk, Simcoe, Saaz & Amarillo).

A lovely hazy orange amber colour, spicy citrus aroma and flavour but with some caramel malt taste. Quite a crisp slightly bitter hop finish but it is not a bitter beer. Love the large chunky head and really couldn't taste the 8% alcohol content.

I certainly felt quite festive enjoying this super tasty ale, but I always enjoy Mikkeller's Beers.

Mikkeller "Happy Lovin' Christmas"- Denmark (7.8% ABV)
A very festive nicely balanced IPA with added pine needles & ginger. Nice slightly hazy amber with incredible, almost champagne like, lacing in the glass. I couldn't taste the adjuncts (pine & ginger), to me it was just a hoppy IPA taste. A special easy to drink festive IPA with a crisp rather than bitter finish.



Sierra Nevada Celebration Fresh Hop Ale - USA (6.8% ABV)
Another orange amber coloured festive IPA with a frothy white head. Brewed with Two-Row pale malt & English Caramel malt and loaded up with hops this is a real cold climate Christmas beer.

This ale has been dry hopped with Cascade & Centennial hops and bittered using Chinook hops. A very tasty bitter IPA with a crisp dry finish (Cascade hops give a lovely citrus flavour but can also be bitter). I loved the taste of this ale but was drinking it on a warm Australian Christmas day probably better suited to a different style of beer.

A wonderful festive American IPA.



Brew Dog "Trashy Blonde" - Scotland (4.1% ABV)
Don't be fooled by the name , this is nothing like a Belgian Blonde. It is brewed with Pale Malt, Caramalt & Munich Malt and flavoured with American Hops (Amarillo, Simcoe & New Zealand bred Motueka hops).

It is advertised as having  "sassy passion fruit hop" flavour, but I got more the spicy bitter citrus taste I would expect from Amarillo hops.

A pretty good session able beer well suited to a warmer Australian Christmas. I may be doing this beer a disservice comparing it to some flavour heavyweights but is was the poor cousin in my Christmas beers pack.

Hoegaarden Wit/Blanche-Belgium

OK, here is a beer that just about every lover of beer will have tasted, it was (and I suppose still is) regarded as an archetypal Belgian Wit Beer.

Hoegaarden is named after the town in which it is brewed. The recipe, including some coriander and dried orange peel, is similar to that used since 1445 when this style of beer was first made. It is not an exact replica as the beer is now mass produced with one eye on pleasing the masses. The beer is made using malted wheat and barley and is top fermented using traditional yeast strains. Hoegaarden is fermented at a higher than usual temperature because of the top fermentation process used.

This is a very good "wit bier" it is a refreshing beer, the presence of coriander and orange peel is just barely perceptible. The beer is partially bottle conditioned (some yeast & sugar added at bottling) giving it a tightly beaded head. It is also unfiltered giving the cloudy appearance. As you can see from the photo my wife also enjoys this particular beer.

SCORE 4.1

Prickly Moses Wheat Beer & Otway Ale - Australia

I have just spent a long weekend in Lorne for a bicycle race, loving beer as I do I was prepared to risk my race by "carbo loading" with my sports drink of choice.

I was looking forward to trying these beers on the upper veranda of  The Grand Pacific Hotel in Lorne , the lack of a bottle opener forced a side by side comparison.

The Wheat Beer is brewed with unmalted wheat together with malted barley. The brewer also uses Coriander and citrus peel as adjuncts in the brewing process. It pours a very pale colour with almost no head, it is a very refreshing beer but lacks flavour.  I prefer Feral White from Western Australia brewed with similar adjuncts and using a Belgian yeast strain.

The Otway Ale  pours a dark lager colour and again lacks head. This ale is brewed with crystal malt, is warm fermented and uses English hops. Not a full flavoured ale but it is easy to drink with a slight toffee maltiness with a balanced slightly hopped finish.

SCORE Wheat Beer 3.3
SCORE Otway Ale 3.5