A nice grainy taste. A clean lager, not a dirty lager. Geoff thinks knowing it's organic makes it all the nicer to drink, but Oliver thinks points should be taken off for that. A very nice, pale colour. Makes Geoff think of silos and grain elevators. Oliver is impressed because it doesn’t pretend to be a pilsner.

Geoff: "Not a great beer. Round as a beach ball, albeit a dark, Belgian beach ball."
Oliver: Not bad, not great. No reason not to drink it, but few reasons to do so."
You’d be happy with it if you went to Belgium and were served a stein of it. Well, you’d be caught in the moment. Unfortunately, we weren't in Belgium.

No smell to speak of, but a tasty beer. Thankfully we can’t discern the Pride of Ringwood finishing hops. Has a best-after date, which is often a good sign. Bottle conditioned. A “true vintage beer” – but unlike other breweries, doesn’t try to do too much with their vintage beer. Very smooth beer, easy drinking and delicious.

Light straw-coloured, very Tania (lacy) head. A fantastic beer – incredibly hard to fault. Nose isn’t quite right – not the sort of nose you’d expect for a pilsner. A nice, lingering bitterness. Really nice carbonation that tingles on your tongue. Oh so close to a five-star beer.

It’s actually a very nice beer, just not sure it’s a pilsner. We are a little bit troubled by the satanic-like image on the label. A freaky, bottle-nosed, winged, barb-tailed creature with chicken feet and an upside-down, cross-like pee pee that looks like it’s about to take a dump.
Oliver: "A nice enough beer that is not a pilsner – and I’m sick and tired of Australian breweries passing off dirty lagers as pilsners. Too fruity to be a pilsner. And where are the Saaz hops in this?

Doesn’t smell very appealing. Hints of the Paulaner spewiness. Just not a very nice beer even if it is a Monteith’s. This has just passed the best before date, so is possibly middle aged. Having said that, we don’t think it was ever that good.
Two stars - just.

States the latitude and longitude of where the hops and barley were grown, as well as the brewer. Also includes a spooky iPhone/QR code. It’s nice enough for a lager, but it’s still a lager. Clean and snappy – not a dirty lager. Gets kudos for the brand.

Smells sour and tastes sour. Quite refreshing given its alcohol content.
Geoff: "it just doesn’t do it for me."
Oliver: "I quite enjoy it – I like it. Although it is a little bit malty for a saison.
Marcelle: "I like saison, but I don’t like that."
Geoff declines to rate.

Intensely malty nose.
Geoff: "F--- that’s a malty bugger. I reckon shades of Bockin’ Good Beer, Ol." (Search this site for Bockin' Good Beer if you are unfamiliar with it.)
Oliver: "But in a good way. It’s malty and nicely balanced. Nice alcoholic warmth on the finish."
This beer has a thin, lacy head just like the Prickly Moses Farmhouse Ale. This is an end-of-the-night beer, which we were drinking at 4pm.
Geoff preferred the Farmhouse Ale, Oliver the Reserve De Otway. The rating is an average.

Malty nose, very cleansing ale. High alcohol, but it doesn’t taste so. A thin, lacy head. Bitterness creeps up on you – at first flush, tastes crisp.

The original and the benchmark of American pale ales. A tasty beer. Everything has been said. Whilst historically it is a remarkable beer, being the inspiration for American style pale ales the world over, in this 2011th year, other brewers have pushed the boundaries further.

Oliver: "A great colour. A classic English beer."
Generally doesn’t excite much comment.

Marcelle: "Clear bottle equals dodgy."
Oliver and Geoff (simultaneously): "Oh, my gawd!" (As avowed atheists, we don't use "Oh, my god".)
Oliver: "Smells like bourbon. That’s an amazing beer."
Geoff: "A novelty beer."
Oliver: "An amazing combination of flavours. Very light copper colour. Or dark straw."
Geoff: "A touch of lemonade on the finish, and whiskey and lemonade is not a good drink."

Oliver: "Magnificent copper colour."
Geoff: "Rich copper, not the copper of a wort chiller."
Oliver: "A fruity nose."
Geoff: "Pretty typically English."
Marcelle: "Mmm, malty."
Lisa: "A cigar box on the back of it."
Oliver: "Flavour is coming out as it warms."
Much discussion on optimal temp. A thermometer is produced…
OW: "I reckon it’s a great beer – a cracking beer. If I brewed this, I’d be a very happy homebrewer."

Geoff: "Well, it doesn’t taste like oranges. What does oranjes mean in Dutch? I’m sure it’s not because it tastes like oranges ..."
Google Translation tells us it means "orange tree".
Oliver: "Lager-golden. Lager-tasting. Easy-drinking. A little bit pilsner with its maltiness."

Geoff: "Aaah, from the American brewery that defined the American pale ale."
Oliver: "This smells a bit like spew, too."
Geoff: “Hints of ripe banana and spicy clove – yep, my spew smells like that too ..."
This presented a paradox – how could something that smells like spew tastes so delicious?
Oliver: I get more banana than clove on the nose. It’s also very cloudy. Easier drinking than the Paulaner, as it's more balanced. Not so sweet and more bitter.

Geoff: "Aaaah, brings back memories of Oktoberfest in Munich last year."
Mrs Pots: "Eeeeeeeekkkk!!"
Oliver: "Much more bubble-gummy than the Murray's Whale Ale we just had."
Geoff: "Hasn’t really travelled well."
Oliver: "A bit too sweet for me."
Mrs Oliver: "A bit of a girly beer, I like it."
Geoff: "This is the Munich hefewieizen, which is not a good thing (cf: Schofferhoffer). A little bit spew tasting."
Mrs Oliver: "A little bit early in the night to be making these observations, but I think I know what you mean …"

Oliver: "Rich, grainy smell. Very happy with this beer, a beautiful straw colour. Clumpy yeast."
Geoff: "Like the Delmonte suit – looks good, feels good, is (are) good. (one of my regrets in life is that I never owned a Delmonte suit)."
All: Label is good – complements the beer, simple, classy label.
Oliver: "Ye olde worlde meets new world – a wheat beer with American hops."

Before we drank this beer, Geoff regaled us with a story about his pre-schooler daughter who upon hearing on the car radio that Michael Beer had been selected to play in the Australian Test cricket team said, “You'd like him, wouldn't you, Dad?”.
Oliver: “I reckon this is a pretty good beer actually.”
Geoff: “You'd be happy if you made it as a homebrew. Yep, if you brewed it yourself you'd be rapt. Nice and malty, good malt on the nose.”
Lisa: “It's a good beer, but a little burnt on the palate … it's dumb.”
Brewed using an ancient method, where rocks heated by fire are added to the wort to boil it. This is, no doubt, the source of the slight smokiness.

Oliver: “Pours like the perfect beer. Tight, creamy head. Copper coloured.”
Lisa: “Ooooh. This is a beauty.”
Marcelle: “That's delicious. It's a pretty colour too.”
Lisa: “That is good. A brilliant beer.”
Oliver: “Really smooth-tasting.”
Long-lasting head. Perfectly carbonated.
Geoff: “This is the beer of the night so far.“ (That was before he tasted the Moo Brew Imperial Stout, though.)