G’day Guys and welcome to the new monthly wrap up/accountability post on Beer O’Clock Australia. The idea I have is that I’ll put this post up in roughly the first week of each month & it will hopefully encourage me to finish this project at some point! I’ve already given up on the idea of finishing it this year with the amount of stuff I still have to do this year; I think a more realistic target is mid-2024.

Year of the Local

The state of play. Currently according to my list there are 233 breweries/brewing companies in Victoria. The only change to the list in June, possibly due to holidays, was Two Birds being closed by Lion. Currently I have 98 posts to right, beers from 37 brands to try & 20 breweries to visit. Legless Lizard Brewing was the latest Brewing Company to launch in late-May that I’m aware of.

June saw me visit 4 breweries, however only 1 of them was new for Year of the Local, Golden Hills. Two of them were in Spain, Tyris & Garage. I didn’t manage to try any beers from new Victorian producers; having already sampled a number of beers from the aforementioned Golden Hills.

Untappd

I’ve been slightly surprised how many comments/questions I’ve gotten since I stopped doing the Untappd posts. I mean there’s a very easy way you can find this data… In any case I got 24 badges in June, 21 of which were unique. The duplicates were all the same badge – possibly because I was in Spain!

  • Flamenco (4)

Flamenco (Level 6) – Naturally being in Spain I racked up quite a few levels of Flamenco. One of those levels was the Tyris IPA I sampled at the brewery in Valencia. It was a perfectly serviceable West Coast IPA with nice bitterness.

Ich Bin Ein Berliner (Level 23) – At another Spanish brewery, this time Garage in Barcelona, I unlocked a badge that I haven’t unlocked for almost a year; Ich Bin Ein Berliner. It’s a style that was everywhere a few years ago, but has really fallen out of favour yesterday. P9 is their Raspberry Berliner Weiss, which was nicely acidic and had loads of fruit.

Latitude for Latvia (Level 4) – When I went to Europe I knew I needed to find an Arpus beer, in order to unlock the back levels of Latitude for Latvia that have been waiting for this since the badge was launched. It was surprisingly easy – they’re one of the hottest breweries in Europe. TDH Azacca X Enigma X Citra DIPA was the first one I had & it was delightful! You can read more about it below as it was Week 25’s Beer of the Week.

Gluten-Free (Level 3) – Almost a year to the day since I last unlocked a level of Gluten-Free, I unlocked Level 3 with a Damm Daura in the pool at our hotel in Elche, Spain. The biggest compliment I can pay it is that I couldn’t tell it was Gluten Free! It’s the The World’s Most Award Winning Gluten-Free Beer for a reason!

Find the Source (Level 37) – In proof that there is still some progress on the YOTL front I unlocked Find the Source at Golden Hills Brewery in Diamond Creek – very kind of Dylan to make his Wedding Recovery Drinks at a new YOTL Brewery. Their Pale Ale was the beer, it’s a classic American Pale Ale with nice citrus and pine hop characteristics.

Beer of the Week

Week 22 – Sobremesa La Familia #3

The first drop from Sobremesa’s La Familia lived up to the hype I’d given it in my head. This was a gorgeously balanced! A dry hopped Blonde Ale that had been aged in oak for nine months. It was lightly funky with nice body and stonefruit notes.

Week 23 – Cantillon Drogone

I’m slightly horrified that I’m posting a photo drinking one of the world’s best lambics out of a coffee mug, but here we are. Cantillon Drogone with the groomsmen before Dylan’s wedding – delightful as always.

Week 24 – Slow Lane Whiter Shades of Ale

Witbier’s have fallen massively out of fashion in recent years in Australia; if they all tasted like Whiter Shades of Ale from Slow Lane – they wouldn’t have! This is a cracking example of the style – if you’re on the fence about the style broadly, buy it! If you don’t like this one – you don’t like Witbier’s.

Week 25 – Arpus TDH Azacca X Enigma X Citra DIPA

As mentioned above, one of the beer things I wanted to do in Europe was have an Arpus beer to unlock the Latvian badge. This was fruit forward, seriously dank and dangerously drinkable considering it’s an 8% DIPA that drank like a Hazy Pale…

Other Stuff

June saw Lizzie try and give Copper a jumper, which lasted less than a day before he destroyed it! It also saw him visit Kaiju, with his new winter outdoor mat. It also saw the first time we left him for any significant period of time as we jetted off to Europe – from the pictures we got from home he seemed to deal with it reasonably well! Anyway, I think this has been reasonably comprehensive. Let me know if you’ve got any thoughts or anything you’d like to see added to this over the coming months at angus@beeroclockaustralia.com.

Remember it’s always Beer O’Clock somewhere in the world!