Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Aussie Beers

One of the best things about traveling is experiencing new things in different parts of the world that you do not have access to at home. Examples include art, music, and food. Another one of these things is of course beer. On the plane flight down to Oz I decided that I would try as many different beers as I could and eventually write this post rating the beers that I tried.

Before I start this list there are a few things that readers need to know.
  1. I tried 23 different beers.
  2. I frequently tried new beers even when I could have drank a beer I had already found that I liked.
  3. All Aussie beer is served ice cold.
  4. Aussie beer is a lot stronger than American beer. Usually about double the percentage of alcohol .
  5. The vast majority of Aussie beers are lagers.
  6. The whole micro-brewery phenomenon is not as prevalent in Oz as it is in the US.
  7. The beers are listed in the chronological order they were tried with the first at the top.
  8. Aussies do not drink Fosters. They think the stuff is $#!%.
  • Tooheys Old :|
  • Carlton Draught :|
  • Tooheys New :(
  • Victoria Bitter :(
  • Red Back w/lemon :(
  • James Squire :|
  • Coopers Sparkling Ale :)
  • Coopers Pale Ale :|
  • Cascade Premium Light :|
  • James Boags Premium Light :|
  • Abbotsford Invalid Stout :|
  • James Boags Draught :|
  • XXXX Gold Lager :(
  • Hahn Super Dry Premium Lager :(
  • Swan Draught :|
  • Little Creatures Pale Ale :)
  • Crown Lager :|
  • Bootleg Brewery Raging Bull :)
  • Little Creatures Bright Ale :|
  • Little Creatures Rogers Beer :)
  • Emu Bitter :(
  • Emu Export :(
  • James Squire Porter :|

On the whole I have to say that I was relatively disappointed by the quality of beer in Australia. Most of it is flavorless piss colored lager. It certainly does drink easily - mostly because it is very cold -, and it does get you drunk. As the micro-brewery thing catches on more and more in Australia I think that there will be more good beers to choose from in the future.

The best beer I had down here was definitely Little Creatures Pale Ale. The brewery is a small one in Fremantle, Western Australia, that primarily ships its beers along the west coast of Australia.

3 comments:

Emily said...

come on, you've got to give us a better way to evaluate your evaluations? what does :( mean? Give us a metric! what kind of american beer gets a :) from you?

yes, the social scientists have taken over my brain. it happens.

Owen said...

Nope, all you get is non-metric analysis.

For the record all american macro-brewed beers (Coors, Budweiser, etc...) would get :( or maybe :| in very unusual cases.

American beers getting a :) would be Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Mendocino's Red Tail Ale, Down Town Brown, Fat Tire, and Full Sail's Rip Curl.

Papasan said...

Boont Amber Ale gets a :P from me as I try to lap it up.