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What happens when a group of high profile sport, business and entertainment personalities get together over their unanimous love of craft beer? Brick Lane Brewing Co is what happens. Founded by Paul Bowker and Andrew Scrimgeour in 2017 the company also boasts shareholders such as Melbourne Storm chairman Bart Campbell and star Billy Slater, All Black’s legend Dan Carter, Eddie McGuire, Mick Molloy and restaurateur Shane Delia, and CEO of The Royal Bank of Scotland Ross McE

Porters and Stouts, along with Sours and Gose, are the styles that alienate most beer consumers. The flavours are so big and bold, and a world away from, say the beer “from up here”, that trying them can seem like a chore rather than a passion. A lot of consumers think that there is a seasonal window for drinking them, and to a certain extent, I think they are right. Whilst I can still enjoy a good dark beer at night during our warmer months, I would struggle with a big bol

Ever wonder just what teh heck a tannin is and how it works with your wine?

Westvleteren is a brewery founded in 1838 at The Trappist Abbey of Saint Sixtus in Vleteren, Belgium, the Abbey itself dating back to 1260. The beers that the monks brew are widely regarded as the best beers in the world, their Westvleteren XII (or simply 12 for short) is consistently ranked as the world’s best beer. The monks aren’t in the brewing business for riches or glory however. They only brew enough beer to support themselves and their abbey, and of the 10 Trappist m

In 2014, the family behind one of Australia’s most successful wine brands, , purchased the famous Barossa winery Peter Lehmann Wines from Swiss based The Hess Group. It followed the death of Peter Lehmann in 2013, who had founded the winery in 1979. It continues the rise and rise of Casella Family Brands, who produced their first bottle of wine in 1969 at their Farm 1471 near Griffith in NSW, with their first full vintage being crafted in 1971. The Casella family recognised

Most sports are broken up into summer and winter: Cricket for summer, rugby for winter for example. Whilst I firmly believe that beer is a 365 days of the year sport, there are definite times of the year when some beer work and some don’t. No-one has ever finished mowing their yard in Australia in the middle of January and said “what I need now is a pint thirst quenching stout”, they reach for the beers that are more refreshing, with more tropical and citrus flavours rather

Japanese whisky was once considered a bit of a novelty, with the Scottish Whiskies taking centre stage, and Irish and American whiskies (Bourbon is a whisky) being the main backing dancers. That all changed a few years ago when the God of World Whisky, Jim Murray, named the Yamazaki Sherry Cask Single Malt 2013 as the best whisky in the world in his 2015 Whisky Bible. Such is the respect for Jim’s palate that it made the world-wide community sit up and take note, particularl

Brouhaha: /ˈbruːhɑːhɑː/; noun;                 a noisy and overexcited reaction or response to something   Hidden away in the Sunshine Coast hinterland is the small town of Maleny, with its awe inspiring views of the Glass House Mountains, the Maleny Dairies and Gardners Falls that are, at least to this FNQ lad, brass monkey cold. Maleny is also home to brewpub Brouhaha Brewery, a place that has hit the ground running faster than most other craft breweries in Australia. Fo

With the year nearly over its time to look take a good hard look through the bottom of the empty glass at the year that was. There’s been a few noticeable trends this year, some of which have actually lined up with my predictions from the end of last year – that rosé will continue its steady rise and broaden its flavour profile to make wines that men will happily drink during summer, and that beer brewers would start to return to forgotten or uncool styles, Gose beer has sky

I’m a bit of a cricket tragic. I’m one of “those” people that can sit there and watch a five day test very happily. I think what I love about the game so much is that it’s one of the few, if not the only game, where everyone will sledge the opposition player, but then applaud that same player loudly for a well-played shot, or when that person rockets a near unplayable ball down the pitch and you hear that rattle of stumps. Some of my happiest Christmas’s have all been about

I often remark on here about how when we taste wine around at our regular “Wet Wednesday” sessions that its quite different from how we judge a wine, or beers for that fact, at competitions.  At a Wine Show you are taking a sip of the wine, aerating it a bit, and spitting, you’re looking at colour, flavour profiles, tannin and acid structure, mouthfeel and finish to name just a few points. Jotting down your notes and moving on to the next wine, in some cases you may have up t

Just over four years ago, Pirate life Brewing (PLB) burst onto the Australian scene. They took award after award on, not only the local scene, but also the international stage with their Aussie slant on their beers, creating beers that not only excited, but also challenged the palates of beer drinkers globally, whilst still working with the tastebuds back home. The story starts in the bitter cold of Scotland’s Aberdeen, where two young West Australians, Jared (Red) Proudfoot

The warm weather signals two things ...Christmas is just around the corner, and the inevitable Battle of the Bubbles is about to hit its stride. It’s also the time when everyone starts to look at their budgets for the upcoming Christmas, and starts trying to work out how they can afford it after dropping all their cash at the nags during the spring racing season. Sparkling wine has always been seen as the celebration wine, but it’s much more than that. It’s a great aperitif

Last year St. Hugo released the first annual release in their decade long “Legacy Collection”, a collection of super premium wines that will vary from year to year in varieties, blends etc. The Legacy Collection pays homage to the rich and compelling stories of the Gramp family, particularly Hugo Gramp who was killed in the Kyeema air crash in 1938. Not only did the crash take the life of Gramp when the DC-2 he was travelling in crashed into the side of Mt Dandenong whilst h

Summer is just around the corner and it gets anyone that has a wine collection, or is thinking of starting a wine collection, or heck, even just wants to be able to save a few bob and buy their wine by the carton, starts thinking about how to store the collection. Not all of us have a wine cellar, in fact what I refer to as my cellar is actually a spot under the stairs that has a three wine fridges. Wine is constantly evolving inside the bottle, it doesn’t like heat, or exce

Hops play a crucial role in the creation of good beer. They provide aromas, bitterness and flavour, depending at what time the hops are added, whether they are dry or wet, and pellets or whole cones will all make a difference on the final result.  Usually a range of hops are used, as each hop variety will impart different qualities. For example some hops provide more flavour and little aroma, others provide more aroma and little flavour. Usually a brewer will use two to thre

Over the last few months I’ve noticed a trend on a few of the social media sites I use and read. Generally the sites are polite, they are all about beer and sharing what’s good and what you can taste against what others taste. Yes I know that sounds all nerdy, but some people look at car or AFL websites, I look at beer and wine. The trend that has me confused is the sledging of the Yenda beer range, a range that is brewed by Australian Beer Company, a joint venture between

The way I look and review a wine is probably a bit different to how you would normally consume a bottle. I get a group of people around to our house every week, and look at a wine as a group, getting feedback on the wines, across a broad and diverse range. Anything that is particularly good, I will hold onto and try again the next evening, and see how its evolved after being opened for a while. This changes the tastes, some become more expressive and others fade off to become

Its funny how wines can taste when purchased from different bottleshops. It all comes down to how it’s been treated in transport. Factors like whether the pallet sat in the sun whilst it was being unloaded, even whether the pallet was in the middle of the shipping container or against the edge with the sun beaming on it whilst it was being transported up here, all have a bearing on how the wine will taste. We recently sat down to look at the new 2015 vintage from St.Hugo Shi

These been a lot of chat in the press lately about imports and exports, taxes being added to items coming through, the States not accepting iron from some places, and think I even heard the other day that we won’t be able to import small individual pieces off the US amazon site any longer. The conversation all started as we chatted about the imported range of rums from Rum Co. of Fiji , probably the best thing to come out of Fiji since the mighty Petero Civoniceva. Rum Co.