Distinctive pepper aromas hit the nose immediately, followed by inviting dark fruit. This beast of a beer pours an incredibly beautiful, golden amber colour with a nice, fine head. Between the smell and the colour of this beer, I knew this beer would live up to its label.

Young’s Special London Ale exhibits flavours of nutty caramel, toffee and candied fruit. A myriad of complex spicy hops makes this beer an interesting drinking experience.

As an unpasteurised, bottle conditioned beer, I believe Young’s Special London Ale will further develop and the depth of flavour will become more complex and rich over time.

The beer is dominated by hop flavours but has notes of pine and citrus. Whilst it is a rather bitter beer at 55 IBUs, it is well balanced with slightly nutty malts.

I thoroughly enjoyed this beer and for its depth of flavour and hop strength, I would place ACME near the top of the American IPAs that I’ve tried. I recommend pairing this beer with a Thai-style char-grilled tamarind snapper (pla rad prik).

Well, the old guy clearly wasn’t happy being shipped all the way from America to Australia as the rim of the bottle cracked off upon opening with many small glass fragments being impossible to see in the dark gloom of the stout. Luckily, I didn’t swallow any glass during the review process.

Just like his beard, Old Rasputin is nice and strong at 9% ABV, but certainly well within the expected range for a RIS. The beer shows a nice rich dark colour upon pouring (although I  was mildly disappointed with the lack of complete opacity) with mocha-coloured head of fantastic fine texture with good retention. However, the old guy’s age shows a little when it comes to the taste, which is no where near as strong as I was expecting. I believe a good RIS should really knock you over with a freight train of flavour. Despite this, Old Rasputin has a smooth roasted flavour with mild coffee aromas and with very slight input from the hops. The mouthfeel is very malty, but relatively “dry” for an RIS. Due to the less intense flavour, this beer makes a good first RIS to try as it’s far easier to drink that most.

Note the chipped rim...

I’d suggest coupling this Baltic gent with a roaring fire, a winter night and a piece of fruit cake.

5AM Saint pours a deep amber colour with moderate head, exhibiting distinctive citrus aromas but also a noticeably grassy smell. I found the taste rather unusual and strangely addictive. Huge amounts of herb and dried flowers smack the tongue. Later, grapefruit and pine emerge from beneath and balance out the herbs. Hints of toffee and nut are also present in the mash-up.

A strangely enjoyable beer with characteristics similar to an IPA.

Here’s what the Brewdogs themselves have to say:

Deep brown in colour, Big John is bold and dominates with a roasted malt sweetness. Remnants of banana and clove seem to remain stuck in Big John’s beard and perhaps accidentally find their way to the mouth. The bourbon provides an interesting smokiness and a unique charred favour from the oak barrels.

An enjoyable beer for those long winter nights.

Whilst exhibiting a slight citrus, smooth malt taste, the hops in this beer aren’t strong enough to bring about decent bitterness or flavour depth. I’ve had other Hefe Weizen beer-styles before and they definitely exhibit stronger, more interesting flavours than this interpretation. This beer would do well with an extra punch of hops to give an added mouth hit.

Enjoyably refreshing, it makes for a perfect BBQ beer.

The aromas are dominated by wood-fire smoke with hints of grapefruit and lemon. The colour of this beer is deep copper and pours with a small head that quickly disappears.

Smoking food or, in this case beer, typically weakens the underlying flavours. For this reason, food that is smoked must have naturally strong flavours that don’t dissapear after smoking. A good example is smoked cheddar cheese. Cheddar possesses powerful flavour for a cheese and for this reason tastes brilliant when smoked as the flavour remains.

An IPA was a good choice for smoking as it traditionally is very full flavoured due to the level of hops and alcohol content. The AB Smoked IPA has a surprisingly light bitterness for an IPA and the smokiness embedded in the beer weakens the power of the hops. This seems to actually make the beer well-balanced and very enjoyable. The flavours are typical for an IPA – fruit driven with nice spice. As you drink more of this beer, the smoke flavours will decrease.

Overall, this beer is a unique drinking experience and certainly recommended. This is a seasonal beer, so check out Hart’s pub over the next month or so before it runs out.

Exhibiting strong citrus and curious pine aromas this beer immediately took me away from South Beach, to an image of a log cabin set within the heart of Yosemite, surrounded by mighty pine trees and a wood fire.

Deep copper in colour, Celebration ale has an earthy malt sweetness with distinctive toffee and caramel flavours. After the first sip, an intense bitterness from the hops takes over and interesting flavours of pine and spice emerge.

The finish is long and the bitterness lingers – this beer really warms you up.

The beer is straw coloured with moderate carbonation. I can’t tell you about the head retention because I drank it from the bottle. Judging from the maltiness and carbonation, the head would be medium texture and would hang around for a while. This pale ale brings a strong floral aroma with an interesting citrus overtone. The first sip brings a heady mix of flavours of orange and summer blossom esters that could be attributed mainly to the cascade hops, but also the magnum and perle bittering hops used. The beer has a very nice malty mouthfeel and solid bitterness.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale would be fantastic for a lunchtime meal of seafood, such as spiced calamari. For those who like them, gourmet salads would also be a good choice with this beer. Finally, spicy Asian dishes would also complement this fine ale.

The malts in this beer have faint hints of pepper and nut and the hops provide a nice herbaceous bitterness. Personally, I would like this beer to have more flavour, but as it stands it lends itself well to barbecued seafood.

I would recommend this beer for those looking for an alternative to the standard Aussie lager and want to venture into something a little more interesting. For those looking for a more complex, flavourful beer, go with Little Creature’s Pale Ale.