Collaborations with Italians – My Antonia and Caterpillar Pale Ale and Saturday Arvo rugby
My Antonia & spatchcock
For a blog based off the back of a Sydney harbour ferry, Back of the Ferry has a suprisingly diverse international readership. Recently, BotF was contacted by the Italian based distributor of some Italian beers, who’d actually spotted our stuff on the interweb. Despite obviously having read some of our posts, she was still prepared to meet us and offer us some samples for our consideration. Now, normally when we get a beer to sample we try to give it the full BotF beerporn treatment and tasting off the Opera House. One look at the beautiful looking bottle of My Antonia indicated that this should be sampled in a more contemplative surrounding with some fine food. The Caterpillar Pale Ale looked more conducive to a post surf settler at Byron, but we had different plans for it.
Caterpillar at Manly Oval
Collaborations between brewers are all the rage right now. We’ve written about Mountain Goat and one of their partnered offerings and barely a fortnight goes by without something on Crafty Pint or AusBrewNews announcing an upcoming collaboration. Both these offerings from Italy were collaborations – and damned fine ones at that, albeit completely different. The first (My Antonia) was a collaboration between a rockstar of US craft brewing (Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery) and a real pioneer of Italian craft brewing (Leonardo Di Vincenzo of Birra Del Borgo). The second was a offering from a Danish Brewer – Beer Here and another Italian Brewer – Beer Fist. My Antonia is a very serious, very well made drop. It is described as an Imperial Pilsner and is big in many, many ways. It’s a beer that should be treated like a good wine. Drink it slow, drink it with something that someone has taken an effort to cook. I took it to a dinner party where our hosts had killed the fatted calf – or in this instance a flock of spatchcocks. My Antonia is highly hopped (a fistful of hops added for every minute of a 60 minute a pre-boil period), but there’s also plenty of malt. The result is a rich, flavourful concoction, that one can enjoy sip by sip. There’s a story behind the name as well, but I’ve never been much good at literary study. Not sure on the retail price, but whatever it is, it is worth it.
Caterpillar at Rat Park
I wish I could find the back story to the Caterpillar Pale Ale. The label is one of the more picturesque and enigmatic I’ve seen. A Jabba-the-Hut-meets-the-Mad-Hatter-Caterpillar smokes what looks like a a Captain GoodVibes sized scoob as he accepts a goblet of beer from an enthusiastic looking Alice in a hop garden in which the two brewers crouch. The contents contain a great tasting pwerful pale ale. It’s a lovely cloudy drop weighing at a nice 6%. There’s a classic long lasting bitterness that is as good as it gets. The humour of the label makes one under estimates the quality of the drop. Both of these collaborations are worth seeking out.
What the caterpillar was smoking was cloudier
I took the Caterpillar Pale Ale to a couple of Club Rugby games on succesive weekends. Sydney Club rugby is a great Saturday afternoon activity, particularly when the afternoons are so fine. Manly and Warringah might be joined at the hip in Rugby League in the form of the Manly-Warringah Rugby League team, but in club rugby they are two fierce rivals. Manly play at Manly Oval which is a cricket oval in summer. I was lucky enough to watch the local derby between the two insular penisula rivals and naturally a rugged contest ensued. Manly won easily but the real winner was the traditional combatative atmosphere. The second Saturday was spent at Rat Park where the Warringah Rats met the once powerful Gallopin Greens of Randwick. Much to the sadistic joy of the crowd the Green Rats vanquished Randwick and consigned the “Green Slime” (the name many opponents of Randwick prefer to use) to an unprecedented 7th consecutive defeat. In fact Randwick haven’t won a game this year. The joy of club rugby is that you can enjoy the game without being cheek to jowl with fellow spectators, yet still enjoy good natured banter. It is almost sad about Randwick, but as someone who witnessed his childhood team thrashed repeatedly by the “Slime” it isn’t really that sad.
Sydney Half Marathon, Yeastie Boys Digital IPA
It’s a Sunday morning and the alarm goes off at 5.20am – absolute craziness is what most people would say, and they’d be right. However Sunday 20th May 2012 was the third Sunday in May which means only 1 thing - the running of the annual SMH Sydney Half Marathon (all you beer lovers knew that already of course). This year it turned 21. Happy 21st!
You’re probably wondering why, on a beer blog there is talk of early Sunday mornings and half marathons. Let me enlighten you – this correspondent has taken part in this annual event since 2004 (I think, or maybe it was 2005). It’s the annual body cleansing period in which beer is not entered into the system for a period of time (again…..crazy talk on a beer blog I hear you scream). But before you click to another website, there is beer involved – an absolute cracking one at that!
The day prior to the run, I needed to ensure I had an adequate supply of the amber liquid as a reward for the hard slog of training in the weeks prior. The Beer Cartel in Sydney is a craft beer lover‘s heaven. The boys there help me in my quest to find a rewarding and untried drop after crossing the finish line. I was so entrenched in the beer purchasing process that I almost tried a free sample on offer – luckily I remembered that I had 21.1km to run first!
The great thing about the Sydney half marathon is that the course is within the city, which means the runners get to see some spectacular Sydney icons just as the sun is coming up and are free of the usual masses of people, cars and noise.
The picturesque Sydney half marathon course
The most entertaining part of the run is through Pyrmont – all the runners are given a massive cheer and round of applause at 7am from the patrons of the Casino night clubs who have just finished their “night” out and are heading home.
The vast diversity of running styles, running outfits and people is a real opener. There’s always a guy who runs 21.1km with a heap of coins and keys in his pocket – I see this every year and still wonder – why?!? It must be bloody annoying.
This correspondent finished the run in a respectful time of 1 hour 47 minutes.
Racing to the finish line to enjoy the Yeastie Boys Digital IPA
Enough about running already!
After almost 2 weeks without a beer, it was time to get stuck in. Of the recommendations from the lads at the Beer Cartel, the first bottle I opened was a Yeastie Boys Digital IPA. You guessed it – Yeastie Boys is a NZ crafter brewer. The Digital IPA is a limited release Indian Pale Ale.
Yeastie Boys Digital IPA – an agressive wee beast
If you’re after a subtle taste of malts and hops, stay away from this little puppy! Wow! This drop is extreme. As it rightly says on the bottle its “an aggressive wee beast”. Every single swig was an explosion of top quality malts and hops in my mouth, and it lasted forever. The beauty of this beer is that this explosion did not disappear as the end of the bottle approached – it was evident right down to the last drop. A highly recommended beer that this correspondent will be purchasing again and again – however, it is a limited release so I’m not sure if that’s going to be possible.
QR Code Beer
QR Codes are a funny thing. Personally, I think done right – they’re very useful. Problem is, most brands don’t know how to use them and often they fall very flat.
Guinness thankfully have used them very well in a recent campaign – combining Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (I’m sure Untappd was an oversight soon to be rectified)
The upshot for the 253 year old brewer is a very clever blend of good old-fashioned consumption and 21st Century marketing. The really clever thing is that unlike most FMCG marketing campaigns that require you to consumer before you can enjoy – this campaign only works when your chalice is full! How beer brand is that!
The possibilitites are endless with this sort of marketing as the QR Code can link to any website and with geo-location now a very real and powerful marketing tool – connecting 1 on 1 with your consumer is a doddle.
Click image below to view.
Kestrel Strong Lager, Judas and Chelsea Football Club
When I was a young fella, I spent 3 formative years living in London. One Saturday afternoon, the old man decided to take me to a football (aka soccer) game. We lived in South Kensington just off Fulham Road – so it was a choice between Fulham FC or Chelsea FC. As fate would have it, Chelsea were playing at home, Fulham were away and from that day forth – I’ve been a Blues fan. The excitement of being on the terraces in the 70′s when the players could barely be separated from the acts in the Top of the Pops was created a lasting impression on a less than 10 year old. Chelsea in particular was a glamour club, albeit in decline when I started to follow them. For a long time, being a Chelsea Fan was as futile as the other teams I’ve grown up to follow – anything from Cleveland, the North Sydney Bears and even the Eastwood “Woodies”. A good season was not be relegated and a good FA Cup run. Well, fast forward 39 years – and how that’s changed. Chelsea are now the Champions of Europe. It was a tough night – coverage in OZ didn’t start until 4.45am, the game went into extra time and then had to be settled by a penalty shoot-out. The nerves were shredded by the time the imperious Didier Drogba stroked home the final and winning penalty. Chelsea – Champions.
Kestrel Super Lager
By the end of the game, I’d woken the family with cries of “nooooo” and “yeeessss” as the match ebbed and flowed. As much as I craved a celebratory lager – an appropriate example had to be set and I waited until a more civilised hour. A quick check of previous posts revealed that I’d already tried London Pride. The only UK beer I could find in a nearby bottlo that I hadn’t tried was a 500ml tin of “Kestrel Super Lager” from the “Crest Brewing Co”of Bedford. I think that this is brewed by a subsidiary of Wells & Young – which is fairly well respected brewer – but it is just very difficult to tell. If Well & Young is the owner, they may be being deliberately coy – because there’s a little controversy about these 500ml tins of super charged beers in the UK. Apparently these 9%ers are the favourites of the homeless and the target of a prevention campaign. “The campaign focuses on the fact that a single 500ml can of 9% super strength lager contains four and a half units of alcohol, which exceeds the Government’s daily recommended safe alcohol limit of between two to three units for women and three to four units for men.” Fair point – but if you ban these, the homeless move back to flagons of cheap red. The Kestrel wasn’t the worst experience. The alcohol is very prevalent, but there’s an underlying maltiness that comes through. Probably really cheap in the UK and I know that this has been the friend of many a UK student.
Judas
A better example of a super-strength beer is a tin of Judas. I picked this up for the reasonable $3.99 and wow – this was 500ml of Belgian splendour. It has that chunkiness of a Chimay, but not overwhelmingly so. There was a sweetness at the start, but it soon disappears and is replaced with a rich malty aftertaste. It is apparently a similar style to Duvel. Can’t find out why it’s called Judas and apparently doesn’t warrant its own website. Definitely worth a try – and a far more subtle super strength beer than the Kestrel.
The Quiet American, Happy Birthday Hemingway’s and fast centuries
A perfect pint and #beerglasphemy
On this day last year, pommy_ch, lamb0 and this correspondent were the 3rd, 4th and 5th person to have a beer on Hemingway’s first public opening night. A year later, this correspondent and BotF most infrequent correspondent – aka l0der – snuck in for a quick anniversary bevvy. The Hemingway’s boys have done well. The place thrives and they have stayed true to their original formula.
Happy 1st birthday Hemingway’s
As was wrote at the time, the boys had a pretty simple approach to beer – two taps with two quality beers. The Little Creatures Pale Ale remains the house beer, but they turn over the other tap from time to time. Luckily for manly drinkers their current second tap is the latest in the Little Creatures Single Batch range – “The Quiet American”. More on that later. The food is quirky and a hark to older times – but is damned tasty. It is great to see a small business survive the first 12 months and Hemingway’s was packed tonight. Free Little Creatures Pale will do that – but the crowd looked like kicking on.
The 700th in situ
The Little Creatures Single Batch series has produced some absolute rippers. The Big Dipper was probably the highlight – but they’ve all been good. They might have topped everything with their latest – “The Quiet American”. According the “Brewers Scribble”, LC have combined the best of a Trappist style with US style hoppiness. As an aside, I was travelling in Italy with a great mate in ’89. We were in the Sistine Chapel looking upwards at the famous ceiling when the awestruck silence was cut asunder by the strident tones of an American tourist who asked “Hey Walt – do you think they originally built this as a tourist attraction?”. Quiet American indeed. This is simply awesome, it is Trappist and Hoppy at the same time. It is a meaty sipper and beer hyperbole aside – actually lives up to the Brewer’s promise of being “thought-provoking”.
The 700th
I enjoyed the Quiet American on tap at Hemingway’s and it was the 700th unique for BotF on @Untappd. Now in cricket, a fast century is applauded. We passed 600 on St.Paddy’s Day. It’s taken less than 2 months for us to hit the 700 mark. That is Gaylesque in speed (amazing what a trip to a new country will do). Some boys at Good Beer Week in Melbourne may have done 100 in a day – but 100 uniques in less than 60 days is pretty cool. Our first century was quicker – but that was like shooting fish in a barrel. We might struggle to keep this pace up.
A throwback sambo- chip butty
Happy 150th Coopers Brewery – cheers to Australia’s largest brewer
According to the Coopers Brewery website, it is 150 years to the day that Thomas Cooper unleashed the first batch of his eponymous beer on the South Australian public. 150 years later, Coopers Brewery has grown to become Australia’s largest brewer – yet has not compromised in any way (well, almost) on that journey. Coopers have survived and indeed prospered as a family owned company, whilst so many others have either disappeared or been taken over by multi-nationals. They started 7 years before Tooheys, 16 years before Castlemaine Perkins and more than 20 years before Fosters and now stand alone amongst those pioneers as brewers of note and steadfastly (South) Australian. Congratulations Coopers – and here’s hoping for another 150 years. I simply cannot think of anything better that has come out of South Australia – including the Chappell brothers.
Coopers Dark Ale
Coopers Beers have featured often on the pages of Back of the Ferry and on Back of the Ferry’s @untappd account. After much consideration, this correspondent is prepared to declare that Coopers Pale Ale is his go-to-beer. Coopers Pale Ale was also the subject of one of oompaloompa’s better reviews. It used to be Tooheys Old, but since I looked up Cyril Dickthorpe’s calorie and carb counter and saw that a Tooheys Old is like drinking a loaf of bread compared to the Pale (which remarkably only has 6.2g of carbs per stubbie) – it’s Pale Ale for me. The majority of Coopers Beers have a cloudy appearance, which I’ve always found comforting and re-assuring. The bottle advises this is a deliberate consequence that leaves a natural residue of yeast during maturation. Some novices are put off by the cloudiness and sediment that appears when their beer is rolled – I just reckon that it looks natural.
The Beer – the T-Shirt
I’ve always been a big fan of today’s beer – Coopers Dark Ale – and am surprised that it hasn’t graced these pages previously. I think I was hoping to get to Adelaide Airport and try it at the Coopers Lounge, which is the singluarly best thing about the Adelaide Airport. pommy_ch and I used to make a point of being very early for our flights when departing Adelaide – to get a good look at the merchandise and enjoy some fresh on-tap Coopers. This is a fine Dark Ale – nice dry finish, with good coffee notes. Love the colour as well – there aren’t many cloudy browns out there. Coopers have also announced that there’ll be a special celebration ale that chief brewer and 5th generation Cooper, Dr Tim Cooper, has knocked up. We’ll give that one the full beerporn treatment – as soon as we can get our hands on it.
Big Heads and Sharks
“Beer has been around in one form or another for over 8,000 years. During some periods in history it was the safest thing to drink.” – this is the greeting on the Philosophy page of the Burleigh Brewing website – brewer of BIGHEAD; Australia’s first no carb beer.
Whilst visiting the Southern Highlands Mrs Dickthorpe mentioned that we needed to top up supplies for an overnight stay. She emerged with a case of Pinot, a six-pack of Fat Yak (a firm favourite of BotF) and a single bottle of BIGHEAD.
She remarked, “A review is a must for a new brew, isn’t it?” Who was I to disagree!
The first sip didn’t give me The Fizz, but it did invite another sip which I’m glad to say was 150% better than the first and it got better and better from there. The “no carb” thing was an initial turn-off, but rest assured that updating the blog for the U9 Sharks was improved with the addition of this rather nice tipple.
A brief look at the Calorie King website reports that Fat Yak contains 11.7g or 4% Carbohydrate per bottle. So “No Carbs” can’t be that bad a thing if the taste is retained as it is in the BIGHEAD.
I don’t think it would be a very good session beer, but it’s worthwhile keeping a few in the fridge for a crisp whetting of the whistle from time to time.
Check out the Burleigh Brewing Co. They’ve got a rather good looking range.
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