This BotF correspondent had to drop a daughter at Toukley last night and was therefore off the beaten track. Stopped into a nearby public house for some sustenance for the journey home and picked up a stubbie of something not tried before. The Dam Hotel is described on the BotF Bar Review Map and I’d reckon it would provide a good service to the locals.
The only reason I chose a stubbie of Carlton Dry Fusion Black from the adjoining bottleshop was that I hadn’t had it before. It has now been ticked off the list, and I have taken one for the team. This is a horrendous mix-up of styles that is just all wrong. They’ve taken “a dry crisp clean” beer (ie bland as buggery) and brewed it with citrus and spice for a “uniquely refreshing beer experience”. The only unique thing abut this experience is that I can’t remember a worse one. Adding citrus and herbs is fine – the Belgians started it off – but there must be some art to it. This beer is a road smash and barely – no – not even potable.
A beer with Orange Peel and coriander is known as a white beer (see Hoegaarden), but I doubt the creators of this rubbish have enough grey matter to recognise the irony of calling this “black”. The website promoting this swill reckons its right for the 18 to 24 year old market. I don’t know what that generation did to have this inflicted upon them, but they can have it. BotF’s taken the bullet – you don’t have to.
back of the ferry 
[…] ALDI offering was worse than a beer launched by Carlton in 2010. Carlton Dry Fusion Black “graced” these pages in December last year and was pillioried. It is good to see that […]
[…] (both beers in the past tense), we’ve scaled the heights and plumbed the depths. I think Carlton Dry Fusion Black was the beer nadir reached on this site. One of these comes pretty close, but unless you are […]