Prickly Moses Tailpipe Big Ass Brown Ale

American Brown Ale 7.1%

Ok, so the label is emblazoned with a large American car of 1950’s vintage.  In my books that’s a good start, say what you will about America, they’ve given us some fine looking cars.  Another good thing that America has is given us is the American brown ale, currently one of my favourite styles.  Much hoppier than their English counterparts, the American Brown is more of an after-dinner sipper.  The Brooklyn Brown is a good example of the style and, thanks to Palais imports, should hopefully be available here soon.

The beer describes itself as a “big ass” brown ale and marketing bullshit aside, that descriptor isn’t far off the mark.  The Tailpipe is big in every way, we’re talking big ass like Matt Preston.  You’ll want to savour the pour, it slides from the bottle like a velvet snake, creating a thick, rich looking chocolaty head.  The body is very dark brown, indeed almost porterish in appearance, and lace is abundant, a solid frothy cap lasting all the way to the bottom of the glass.  This is one seriously good looking beer, although the streaks of white sediment that collect near the bottom of the glass are a bit odd.

Things only improve on the nose, which is really sweet with candy and sherbet characters mixed with plum and a dry, roasty coffee aroma.

The promises made by the appearance and aroma are affirmed once you take the first sip.  An initial, solid hit of roasted malt is backed by a wet, organic earthy character spiced with tobacco leaves.  The espresso bitterness of the mid palate is balanced by a dry, port-like sweetness which carries onto the finish.

I hope no one takes this out of context but the Tailpipe feels pretty damn good in the mouth, very dense and tongue-coating with little in the way of carbonation.

To say I’m impressed would be an understatement; this beer delivers on all fronts.  Perfect on its own, it matched really well to a plate of barbeque spare ribs.  There are lots of good American brown ales crafted in this country at the moment, the Cavalier Brown and 2 Brothers Growler being notable examples but the Tailpipe really takes the cake, it is glorious in every way.  We’ll have to see how it stacks up next to the Feral King Brown...

Beer of the Week - Cavalier Weizen

Hefeweizen - 5%

I was first acquainted with this beer at Victorian Microbrewery Awards at Fed Square in Melbourne earlier this year and I enjoyed it so much I used three of my twenty sample tokens just on refills of this pleasing Hefeweizen.  It looks like I wasn’t the only one to enjoy it as the beer was voted both the People’s Choice and Best Wheat Beer at the event.  I left Fed Square with this fair Fraulein at top of my hit list.

Sadly this beer turned out to be harder to find than Osama, the search culminating in an ill advised invasion (Blackhearts & Sparrows in St Kilda) under false pretexts (“I’ll only be a second baby, just buying bottle of wine for my uncle’s birthday...”).  Having just polished the bottle off I can happily say it lives up to the memory, the guys at Cavalier have crafted a Hefeweizen of which Georg Schneider himself would approve.

The ample head is such a pure white, it would give the irritating twat from the Napisan ads an inferiority complex, this glorious, nay angelic, head crowns a almost startlingly clear golden body and leaves iceberg-like chunks of lace which never truly dissipate.  A nice dusting of yeast rests like silt upon the bottom of the glass.

 

The nose is really sweet with candied banana to the fore with a little vanilla and a freshly cut grass character.

The flavour is a decent balance between sweetness and tartness with nice bubblegum notes backed by bready characteristics and finishing with a bit of a zesty, lemony zing.  The tartness comes off a little abrasive but I don’t mind, it gives this hefe some balls, which is a good thing as many attempts at this style come off a bit weak, tending to be watery and lacking in assertive flavour.

The beer has a creamy mouthfeel, with medium body and carbonation, it goes down really easily.  Hefeweizens are at their best over a summer’s lunch and just the taste of this beer after so many months of Stouts and Porters has me anticipating the warm days to come.  

Cavalier itself is a very new brewery having only begun operations earlier this year in Melbourne, they are really small-scale at the present, batch numbers are handwritten on the bottles, so I’m not sure if any of their wares are available outside the state yet.  They also offer a Pale Ale which is brewed with Nelson Sauvin Hops and an American Brown Ale.  This is brewery I’m going to be watching with great interest...

Beer of the Week - Red Duck Belgian Vanilla Porter

Belgian Porter - 6.5%

 

My fondness for Red Duck beers began with their lovely IPA, The Bengal so when I saw the impending release of three dark beers some weeks ago it didn’t take much convincing to go and seek them out.  This is the second of the seasonals I’ve tried the first being the Queen Bee which bills itself as a honey Porter.  Nice enough but I felt that the honey flavours just weren’t as apparent as they should be in something which sounds as appealing as the words honey and porter would suggest.

 

The Belgian Vanilla Porter though, this is on another level.  Luxuriant is the only word that can be used to describe it, like the Murray’s Best Extra from a few weeks back this is a dessert style porter, a good weapon to deploy when someone asks for a port or fortified wine.

 

Pours very dark with little in the way of any highlights, the head vanishes quickly, replaced by a spider web of latte coloured lace.  From appearances there seems to be a fairly high amount of carbonation for the style, with tiny bubbles breaking the surface in rapid succession, almost like a Belgian Strong Golden Ale, although this may be more due to the glass I’m using (Chimay Goblet).

The aroma is enticing; the most dominant characters are candied banana from the Belgian yeasts and sweet banana.  Don’t be fooled though, this isn’t some sickly sweet novelty, there is a solid chocolaty malt hiding beneath and a slight hint of cherry.  There is a definite boozy character wafting from the glass too.

The flavour is rich and malty, starting sweet with vanilla twinned to cocoa, the tartness of cherries and presence of alcohol reminds me of a cherry-ripe chocolate bar and prevent the beer from becoming unbalanced.  The finish is drawn out and smooth with a warming, malty flavour reminiscent of a hot chocolate.       

The carbonation I observed earlier doesn’t really make itself too apparent in the mouthfeel which is smooth and mouth coating with a medium body, it seductively dominates the palate like some fast talking, fur coat wearing, ivory cane wielding pimp.  This is highly recommended, I feel it would be a good gateway beer to introduce, over dessert, to a female friend whom wouldn't normally drink beer, especially one as dark as this.

Places of Note 3 - The Prince Alfred

355 Bay St, Port Melbourne VIC 3207, Australia

Sunday - Thursday: 4pm to late
Friday: 12noon to 1am
Saturday: 4pm to 1am

http://www.princealfred.com.au/

There was once a time when, rather than being full of overpriced boutiques, German cars and odd- looking dogs, Port Melbourne was a den of vice and filth, the sort of place where even the venereal diseases packed heat.

Before air travel the area was one of the main gateways for many of the people and goods entering the country from overseas.  Full of hard men who worked the docks or within the many factories that rose above the small cottages and terraces of the working class like great soot stained mountains of brick and sandstone, the place was also home to some of the more unsavoury elements of society such as the notoriously corrupt Painters and Dockers Union.

 

I often wonder what someone from back then would think while, on their way to a day of labour doing God only knows what, if they knew that the same cramped terrace their family shivered in, would one day be bought at auction for over a million dollars by some Vespa-driving yuppie.  The world is an odd place...

Now, the thing about hard men is they tend to enjoy a drink and therefore need somewhere to attain the aforementioned, so really old, stately looking pubs are pretty thick on the ground in Port Melbourne.  Be warned though, this is deep in wine country now, where beer is being served it is most likely going to be Stella.  Enter the Prince Alfred.

Next to the Library in Bay Street, the Prince Alfred is my vision of what a pub should look like.  It isn’t a craft beer bar, more just a smart looking pub which just happens to offer really good beer, like the owners have actually put some thought into what they are offering.  There is something there catering to every strata of beer drinker, Carlton Draught and Pure Blonde for the great unwashed, a few white-belt craft beers like LC Bright and White Rabbit Dark followed by the big guns, Mt Goat Steam Ale and Prickly Moses Otway Ale along with Napoleon & Co Cider for those whom are that way inclined.  The bottle list, although not extensive, holds a few surprises and has something to suit most moods. 

The food is excellent and, given the area, in no way pretentious or overpriced.  The steak on Tuesday  steak night ($15) is a decent size and hasn’t had the shit pounded out of it with a rolling pin while the chips are hand cut too, which is all class.  I’ve also noticed is that the specials often incorporate beer as an ingredient in some way, beef and stout pie, lamb shank braised in dark ale, pilsener battered trevalley and chips, to name but a few dishes I’ve seen on offer.

 

Being an avid disciple of the chalk and felt, it distresses me there are so few places I can drink good beer while enjoying a game of pool (Royston excepted).  The Alfred boasts two pool tables behind the rectangular central bar, both are in good shape for pub tables, the felt has no damage, chalk is easy to find and the cue’s don’t look like they’ve been cracked around someone’s head.  The tables are both positioned well with no close walls to interfere with your shots no matter what the angle.  

I like to think of the Prince Albert as a glimpse into the future, a pub to cater for all tastes.  On a final note, I’ll say just this.  Between 5pm – 6pm each night there are $3.50 pots of everything.  That is all.      

  

Beer of the Week - Mornington Porter

English Porter 6%

Mornington Peninsula are a brewery whom have never once failed me, like some sort of craft beer battleship (The Beersmark! Anyone? Hello?), each successive beer I’ve tried has hit like a barrage of 475mL - sized shells.  I tried their 2IPA at some point and it blew me away, if all the other Double India Pale Ales were wrestlers Mornington’s would be Andre the Giant just stomping on faces. 

So, fast forward a few months to last Sunday at the Tap House where I sat and ogled this dark beauty.  Big-ass mocha coloured head (I think mocha’s a colour) atop aforementioned midnight dark body.  Smelt nice, mocha, although tilting more towards coffee than chocolate, with a good earthy undertone to give it a bit of depth, there’s also a slightly vapoury, sweet liquor character to the whole affair.  Harlot.

The flavour is assertive, lots’a dark fruit and earthy flavours at the beginning, becomes a bitter finish with chocolate and coffee and the slight tartness of sour cherries.  Add the soft, velvety mouthfeel of this Porter into the equation and you’re left with a beer which serves equally as well as a winter’s afternoon session beer, or as a contemplative after-dinner night cap. 

Possibly my favourite Australian Porter and on par with my NZ favourite, Emerson’s London.

 

Beer of the Week - Mountain Goat Coffee IPA

Coffee IPA (Seriously). – 6%

I can understand why some people may feel that local craft breweries should spend more energy on the perfecting of a well known style like Pilsener or Bitter, rather than crafting some opium infused, quadruple hopped, imperial star destroyer of a purple 2IPAxLambic Guerzer hybrid.  Myself though?  I am not of that opinion.  It’s the inventiveness of some of the brewers and the lunacy of some of their creations which helps make the craft beer world so absorbing...

That being said, I approached this beer with a healthy dose of scepticism, my mind couldn’t really consolidate the idea of Indian Pale Ale and coffee.  Luckily, Mountain Goat don’t dick around and have produced a really nice ale, well suited to order once the main course has been cleared away.

It looks good, smallish white head on a clear, noble looking red tinged oak.  The nose is fruity, mango backed by fresh coffee beans, not roasty like you’d expect, but with an organic earthiness which gives it a lot of depth. 

 

It tastes a bit odd at first but as the glass warms and you get used to the flavour you start to enjoy it.  A really well rounded fruitiness of mangoes, paw paw and rockmelon is followed by a mild espresso- like earthy bitterness. 

The coffee flavours do not dominate and are in balance, although I felt it didn’t have that more assertive bitterness you’d expect from something calling itself an IPA.  Either way, the flavours worked together really well, I hope Mountain Goat keep making this, maybe as a Rare Breed, because it is an enjoyable beer that I’d gladly have again.

Beer of the Week – Murray’s Best Extra

Imperial Porter 8%

Okay, technically the beer of last week, sue me.  I must say, I’m having difficulty seeing where the line between an Imperial Stout and an Imperial Porter is drawn, not that I’m complaining mind, for something as excellent as this the brewers could call it a Syphilis Stout for all I care, I’d still drink it.  The more I think about it I can’t help but liken this beer to the character of Omar Little from HBO’s The Wire, beyond the somewhat effeminate grace it is hard as nails, heed my warning friend, this is not a beer with which to fuck...

    

The Best Extra is as dark as they come and pours with a large, cream coloured head which leaves a thick, sticky lace coating the glass.  The nose is out of this world, sweet chocolaty caramel fudge but rounded with the faintest hint of sultanas and a slight roasted nuttiness.

The palate begins with the same sweet chocolate/caramel notes soon joined by a dry, fruity rum and raisin character.  Mid-way through the malty sweet chocolate flavour transitions to the firm bitterness of dark chocolate twinned with espresso which builds to a balanced, slightly spicy, finish.  There is a pleasant, long aftertaste of sweet plumb and dry dates. The mouth-feel is exactly what you want in this style of beer, firm yet yielding and duplicitously smooth. 

 

I imagine this being best enjoyed as a warming after dinner beer to accompany dessert.  The brewers suggest it matching it with chocolaty desserts, I wasn’t able to test this as fully as I would have liked, as all I had available was a Cadbury’s Favourites Moro which I found at the bottom of my bag.  Not a very good example to test the beer’s matching potential but I did discover the Best Extra doesn’t match too well with lint.  Then again, few things ever do...

Murray's comin'!