Van Dieman Brewing

Another brewery I tried whilst on holiday was Van Dieman Brewing. They produce a range of 6 beers from their brewery in Evandale, Tasmania. Very craft beer in focus, they have a decent range that includes an Imperial Stout, an Extra Special Bitter, and a Moreish Ale flavoured with sloe, rose hip and hawthron berries.

I managed to lay hands on the Ragged Jack Pale Ale (4.2%) and the Jacob's Ladder Amber Ale (4.2%).

Ragged Jack is a decent Pale Ale, pouring with the customary white frothy head over a clear golden coloured beer. It's a true Pale Ale (rather than the Australian Lagers that masquerade as such) using English Pale Malt and boasting a floral hop aroma with hints of sweet caramel. It has a full bitter mouth feel which lingers after you swallow however, it feels quite conservatively hopped. The head lingers for the full drink which is gone far too quickly. There is no wonder it boasts bronze for two years in a row in the Australian International Beer Awards as it is a well balanced and pleasant ale.
I would probably pair this with a Chicken Caesar or Chicken Mango salad. It deserve something light and fresh to accentuate it's delicate flavours.

3.5/4 Coasters

 This Amber Ale is excellent. It uses English Pale and Crystal Malts to create a dark cloudy coppered-coloured beer that boasts a generous off-white head. English Hop varieties provide the underlying bitterness but it's the malts that steal the show with a sweet malt aroma and yeast driven citrus notes. It's full flavoured and very refreshing. It's hard to describe such a decently crafted beer as it balances all it's flavours remarkably well, creating a refreshing and satisfying drinking experience.

4/5 Coasters

Mac's Brewery - selected tastings

Mac's is a 30 year old Brewery operating out of New Zealand. They produce a range of 6 lagers, two of which I tried whilst on a recent trip to Tasmania.

Now, I'm not really a stout man (apart from the occasional Guinness), but Black Mac (a dark beer) blew me out of the water. It's 4.6% and pours with a dense body under a dark cream head which does not stick around for very long. To be honest, it isn't missed because as soon as you taste it you are hit with a smooth caramel flavour that finishes with a lingering toffee bitterness, all caressed with a hint of smokiness. The low carbonation helps it to slide down and the chocolate malt aroma adds to the experience. There isn't a hint of coffee to be found, which to me seems unusual in a dark beer, but I'm quite happy with that. The bottle touts the Fuggles hops that are used to produce this astounding beer, but to be honest, they take a back seat to the toasted malts. This is a seriously smooth drink, and I daresay could be drunk quite easily in quantity.

4/5 Coasters

Next up was the Hop Rocker, a well-hopped Pilsner that sits at around 4.8%. I'm definitely a fan of hops, particularly in my lighter beers as I often find them devoid of flavour otherwise. The Hop rocker pours a healthy stark white head that sits over a clear pale straw body. In contrast to the dark beer, this head hangs around for the full pint.
Hopped with Nelson Sauvin and NZ Cascade hops, the drinker is presented with a wonderfully floral bouquet which imparts a wonderful freshness to the beer. The light body slips ever so smoothly down your throat but you experience the full hop flavour, that is balanced well to finish quickly without any lingering bitterness, making it a terribly refreshing drink. I was hoping for a bit of variety in my opinion of these beers, but unfortunately it turns out to be another beer that I would happily enjoy again, and again, and again. Even the good Doctor agreed that this was a first rate beer.

4/5 Coasters

Van Diemans Brewing - White Hills White Ale

This a bottle conditioned White Ale, produced by a Tasmanian brewery located in Evandale. Like all white ales, this is low-hopped and hazy, highlighting the flavours produced from the Belgian yeast and wheat malt. The bubbles are large and coarse which overpowers the subtle citrus flavours and I imagine it would benefit from a few months more in the bottle. Well balanced, there are no real stand-out flavours or aromas which makes this a nice, but nothing special beer. The coarse carbonation means I wouldn't choose this as a 'more than one' drinking beer.

3/5 Coasters

Hobgoblin Extra Strong Ale

Hobgoblin and the other brews produced by Wychwood Brewery are among my favourite British beers, and so I was very excited to get my hands on a recipe for the beer characterised by the axe wielding goblin.

The Hobgoblin

This is my third all-grain brew and was a full day effort thanks to the many hiccups I had with my new three ring burner on the balcony (incorrectly sized connections). 

The guardian of the mash tun

The grain bed

My new burner

This beer takes a variety of specialty malts for the colour and Styrian Goldings for the flavour and aroma.

This batch uses reclaimed Irish ale yeast from my Amber Ale brew. I'm looking forward to tasting the result!

Gravity: 1.050 (Target 1.059). FG 1.010 (target 1.016) ABV 5.7% (target 5.5%)

Yield: 19 litres (target 18.9 litres)

Brew method: All-grain with US batch sparging.

Notes:My final gravity was off quite a bit, but I'm hoping that I can reclaim the ABV during fermentation (my last all-grain batch ended up .010 lower than the predicated gravity). I'm unsure as the cause to this. On the recommendation of a couple of fellow beer lovers, brewers and chemists, I compensated for liquid lost during the boil by adding water near the end. It could be either this or inefficiency in my sparging. 

McNeill's Firehouse Amber Ale

This is another beer that uses East Kent Goldings for it's bittering, flavouring and aroma hops. This simple Amber Ale, coloured with US Crystal Malt, gets dry-hopped with Cascade to give it a bit more character.

Gravity: 1.054 (Target 1.055 - 1.056). FG 1.017 (target 1.016-1.017)  ABV 5.3%

Yield: 19 litres (target 18.9 litres)

Brew method: Extract with US batch sparging for the specialty grains

Notes: Straight forward brew. I transferred it to the secondary fermenter for dry hopping after about 5 days to ensure there was still some yeast activity to ensure a layering of CO2 (which will prevent oxidisation). I also boiled up a small amount of DME and finings to kick start extra fermentation and to hopefully clear the beer a bit more before bottling. This was all added during the dry hopping phase.


I also reclaimed the Irish Ale yeast from the brew for my next three beers: HobGoblin Extra Strong Ale, Tom Mik's Imperial Stout and, Shipyard LongFellow Ale.

Mountain Goat India Pale Ale review

Beautifully coloured and delightfully hopped, this IPA combines the pineapple and passion fruit flavours of galaxy hops with the bitter pine tones of cascade. A lovely aroma over a well balanced body makes this a very nice example of the style. Wheat and English Crystal malt provide the dark amber colour and the pleasant, full body. A short bitter finish rounds off this great beer. An excellent drink for enjoying with friends over a good lamb curry.

Indian Summer Pale Ale - Tasting notes

Method: All-grain

Specialty grains: US crystal malt.

Hops: Northern Brewer (bittering), Cascade and Williamette (flavour and aroma).

Yeast: London Ale (liquid)

Comments: This beer fermented much further than the recipe suggested it would which is why I ended up with a much higher ABV. I have yet to work out why this happened.

ABV: 6.2% (the recipe suggests 5.0%).

Yield: 16.5 litres

Tasting notes: This was ready to drink after 4 weeks and is a very refreshing brew.

It pours with a white frothy head made from large bubbles over a cloudy pale amber beer. The hops are very noticeable in this brew with hints of stone fruit and a melon finish. Well carbonated after five weeks with a medium body.

This is a beer designed to be drunk in a pub accompanied with pub food - imagine a plate of thick cut chips with aoli and serving of lemon pepper calamari.

What I learnt: This was my first all-grain brew that was done properly. It makes a complex and satisfying beer. The only downside of all grain to extract brewing would be all the additional equipment required and additional hours you need for sparging and cooling. It really does make you feel a little wasteful using a wort chiller to get the temperature down however, I can see no other way, something that hasn't been an issue with my extract brews (where I use bricks of ice to bring down the temperature). 

Would I make this again? Maybe, but probably not. It's a complex beer and you could only manage one or two at a stretch before it began to labour on you. There are plenty of other Pale Ales out there to try before I come back to this recipe.