My Stubbie: Part 2

Australia is the land of beer. I don't really have any statistics to back this up, but it seems as if Australia consumes more beer per capita than any other place I've been. Many Americans enjoy a good beer or two after work. The Germans love a good tall one with dinner. An average Aussie however, doesn't think twice about finishing a six pack on a Tuesday night.

Ages ago when I first got here, I described the beer drinking culture and expressed my vow to find the best beers in Australia. Now, the small microbrews, made in house are always the best, but I won't include them here. I traveled the country, trying every new beer I stumbled across and now, I have compiled a list of my five favorite and five least favorite beers in Australia.


Five Favorite Beers:

Razor Back Red Ale

This is probably my favorite popular beer in Australia. Refreshing, goes down smooth, but has a bit of hoppy bite. This is hard to find though. Most Australians don't even know of it.

Little Creatures Pale Ale

This is a popular Western Australia beer. Sadly, it doesn't get out East too much. It is quite a mild pale ale; Aussies are pretty straight forward with their beer tastes. Thankfully, it has enough of hoppy bite to compliment the bit of sweetness in the flavour.

James Boags Premium

It is mainstream in its flavour. Not a beer that'll challenge a person much, but quite tasty. I find that all of the beers from Tasmania are delicious. It must be the water.

Tooheys Old

This top fermenting ale used to be quite popular, but has fallen out of favor to it's son, Tooheys New, which also isn't too bad. Old is a black ale with a nice dark malty flavor. Not as hoppy as I like, but it is a nice refreshing dark beer that isn't too heavy.

Carlton Draught

Now, this beer is nothing special. Very mainstream lager, but it has proven better than its other counterparts. In general, this is just a good refreshing beer to have on a hot day. At the pub, I'll typically order this; it's cheap and isn't filling.

Other beers worth note: Cooper's Pale Ale, Cooper's Stout, any microbrew from western australia, Pure Blonde, any beer not mentioned from Tasmania, Carlton Cold.


My Five Least Favorite Australian Beers

Resch's Draught

This is easily the worst beer I had in the country. It is a just a boring lager. In general, you can't go wrong with a boring lager, but Resch's actually has an offensive taste. I didn't even finish the beer I ordered. It is widespread on the New South Wales coast. It doesn't shock me that a beer this bad has a name so close to retch.

XXXX Gold

XXXX Gold is the official beer of Queensland. It has hilarious commercials, but the beer itself it utterly forgettable. It doesn't taste bad, but it isn't remarkable enough to be worth spending money on. It is also a mid-strength beer, so if you just drinking it to get drunk (like everyone in Queensland seem to do) it doesn't even prove effective. XXXX Bitter, its stronger cousin is a bit better, but still forgettable. I toured the Castlemaine Brewery, where this is made and they have two beers (of course only available on tap in the brewery) that are incredible! You have to wonder why the brewery would horde the good beer they make, yet produce millions of bottles of the bad beer.

Emu Bitter and Swan Draught

I'm going to group these two Western Australian beers together because I'm a bit fuzzy on their specific tastes. I tried them both on the same night when Erin's beau Damian took me out on a crazy night on the town. I only remember that both were terrible.

Victoria Bitter (VB)

This is a notorious Australian beer. It's extremely popular (yet everyone claims to hate it). Every sporting even seems to be sponsored by it. It the unofficial beer of the Aboriginal Community and has a reputation for causing horrible hangovers after drinking only a couple (this is in fact true). Germans and Brits seem to love it, oddly enough, which is strange since both typically have amazing tastes when it comes to beer. I give VB credit, because unlike most Australian beers, it actually attempts to have a taste, unfortunately, it's a bad taste.

Other mediocre beers: Crown premium lager, Tooheys Extra Dry, anything light or midstrength except for Pure Blonde, Cooper's Sparkling Ale, George's Draught.

Conclusions

In general, Australian beer is unremarkable. Now, maybe I should wait until I'm thousands of miles out of country before posting this; Aussies stand firmly by their beer. When they learn I'm an American, the second thing they say to me (after some sort of crack about George Bush or our government) is some insult on American beer. I'll admit, the beer that we export is terrible, boring, and weak; simply alcoholic water. But, our microbrews are some of the best beers in the world. Just try a Fat Tire, Dead Guy Ale, or a Summit IPA and tell me I'm wrong. The problem is that we don't produce enough of these to export. If you take an typical Australian beer and hold it against a typical American beer, I'll take the Aussie beer hands down! But give a microbrew (American or Australian) any day.

And to follow up on my own beer making attempts. The pumpkin stout after six months in the bottle has turned out beautifully. It doesn't have any pumpkin taste, which may have been a blessing, but it is undeniably a stout. There is something missing from it that I can't pinpoint, but it stand as a decent light stout. My other ale I made was fantastic as well! Though this wasn't from my own recipe, but a kit.