Here are the top 20 tins from ourmarathon tasting session.
Young Henrys,NSW,4.8% ABV
Score6.3/10
Cameron:A straight-up nice pale ale.
Balter Brewing,Qld,5.9% ABV
Dowling:There's mandarin on the nose. A bit of warmth and sweetness too.
Pereira:It definitely tastes like there's a higher percentage of booze present. Massive hop character.
Barossa Valley Brewing,SA,5.5% ABV
Score6.4/10
Pereira:An absolute bacon bomb.
Jemima McDonald:It sure does have a bacon quality about it. Smoky but light.
Stomping Ground Brewing Co.,Vic,5.2% ABV
Score 6.6/10
Wilson:Tropical fruit notes and high drinkability.
Pereira:It's on the lighter side but still has great body and character.
Garage Project,NZ,Bliss Lager 4.5% ABV. (Originally brewed for Attica,Melbourne,and now available retail.)
Score6.6/10
Pereira:Lovely. Light,fresh and crisp.
Jemima McDonald:There's nice fresh citrus notes – clean and bright.
Green Beacon Brewing Co.,Qld,6% ABV
Cameron:Fresh,chewy and well-balanced.
Jemima McDonald:Hell yeah. I dig the toffee notes and light bitterness at the finish.
Pereira:Super fresh. There's a honey-like malt sweetness and big hop grassiness.
Kaiju! Beer,Vic,9.1% ABV
Score6.7/10
Dowling:It's quite malty and chewy.
Pereira:Yep,it's very chewy. The massive bitterness lowers the drinkability for me.
Wilson:There's pine cones on the nose and an Aperol sweetness too.
Jordan McDonald:Yeah,I'm getting some burnt orange and toffee flavours.
Balter Brewing,Qld,IPA 6.8%
Jemima McDonald:It's quite floral on the nose but a little too bitter for me. I can appreciate it but probably couldn't enjoy a whole can.
Jordan McDonald:A really nice ale,properly balanced. There's a bit of mango about it.
Southern Highlands Brewing,NSW,4.5% ABV
Score6.8/10
Wilson:It's quite sweet.
Jemima McDonald:I think it's a nice,light ale. Golden honey flavours. I like it! Sweet and approachable.
Swill&Drill Brewers,NSW,4.4% ABV
Dowling:Drinkability is high. Fresh and clean.
Jordan McDonald:Complexity is low. It's a bit too sweet for me. But,yep – super fresh.
Yulli's Brews,NSW,6.2% ABV
Score 6.9/10
Wilson:Yes,it is quite bitter,but kept in balance. There's a sweet middle.
Cameron:It lacks a bit of finesse,but,yep – this is a good beer.
Kaiju! Beer,Vic,4.7% ABV
Jemima McDonald:It's a really nice light ale. Fruity and easy to drink.
Dowling:Yep,it's quite airy and fizzy in good way.
Jordan McDonald:And super tropical flavours too.
Pereira:I feel this beer was designed to be very,very smashable.
Newstead Brewing Co.,Qld,3.4% ABV
Score 7.1/10
Wilson:There's a bit of underripe mango on the nose.
Dowling:It's super tropical and has a nice natural flavour. I wouldn't be happy drinking a pint of it though.
Bennie:It's definitely another one you want to drink icy cold in the park.
Jemima McDonald:All beers should be judged by how good they taste in a park,really.
Clare Valley Brewing Co.,6.9% ABV
Score7.2/10
Jordan McDonald:You don't see many of these Celtic red-style beers anymore.
Pereira:It smells like an Anzac biscuit.
Jemima McDonald:Someone actually made an Anzac biscuit beer years ago and it's what got me liking beer in the first place.
Cameron:This is a big beer.
Bennie:Yep. That would definitely stop me in my tracks after one.
Woolshed Brewing,SA,4.1% ABV
Score7.4/10
Pereira:I don't like this new fruit-driven pale ale trend where the flavours taste artificial.
Jemima McDonald:Sure,it tastes artificial but I don't hate it.
Jordan McDonald:Yeah,I reckon it's really juicy.
Pereira:It still works because,unlike the creaming soda tinnie,where you only have three seconds of beer on the finish,this one actually tastes like a nice tart,sour beer.
Wilson:However,if we unveiled this and it was a pale ale it would be massively,massively faulty.
Bennie:That's always the way with wine judging too. You can be like"this is the best skin-contact pet-nat I've ever tried!"and then you unveil it and go"oh,right – it's Jacob's Creek".
Colonial Brewing Company,WA,6% ABV
Score7.5/10
Bennie:This is super clean.
Pereira:Most of the dark beers we've had today have been really sweet or really dry and this is balanced so well in the middle.
Wilson:Colonial's[wide-mouth] cans are good for getting aroma from the beer without pouring it into a glass,too.
Pereira:I love the super wide-mouth cans - Bentspoke Brewing in Canberra also use them. Although it can be weird drinking from a can where you can see all the beer at once.
Jemima McDonald:From a sales point of view,everyone loves the wide-mouth cans because they're a novelty.
Quiet Deeds,Vic,6.5%
Jordan McDonald:I don't dig how trend-driven the beer released by most breweries have become. New England India Pale Ale (NEIPA) styles are selling well,so now everyone has to do one.
Pereira:And remember when black IPA was a thing? Anyway,I enjoy this style of beer but I'm not looking for complexity.
Cameron:If NEIPAs are what punters want to drink over the next 18 months then it can be difficult for a brewery to resist making one – it's still a business at the end of the day.
Wilson:There's excellent balance here.
Cameron:Yep. This is a really seamless,well-made beer.
Sailor's Grave,Vic,5.8% ABV
Score7.6/10
Dowling:Wow. Smoky. And surprisingly sweet at the same time. I want to sit by a fire and drink this. I love it.
Bennie:High drinkability. You could smash this.
Pereira:That's what makes this beer so good. This style is normally something you can only enjoy in small measures.
Bennie:I think people forget that's what Guinness does best too. Everyone's like,"gross – steak in a glass – you can't drink one without getting full",but that's not the case at all. You would get fuller drinking VB than this.
Philter Brewing,NSW,4.2% ABV
Score7.9/10
Wilson:The drinkability of this is really high.
Pereira:I recognise this beer. It's the last beer I actually bought a case of.
Jemima McDonald:This is the one beer I would be able to drink a lot of. It's not bitter and leans towards the fruitier side of things.
Cameron:It's very elegant.
The Grifter Brewing Co.,NSW,5% ABV
Score8/10
Wilson:This is just a beautiful,fruity,fresh,in-your-face beer.
Dowling:There's flavour,but it's not too fruity or hopped to the point where it's annoying to drink.
Cameron:It's really well balanced. A great Aussie pale ale.
Dowling:It's so on the mark. Light and crisp and they've nailed the carbonation. This is an every-person's beer for every occasion – pub,home,park or on the road. It's not just a beer drinker's beer.
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