{"id":1489,"date":"2011-01-26T00:01:58","date_gmt":"2011-01-25T11:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=1489"},"modified":"2012-01-26T15:18:09","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T02:18:09","slug":"little-creatures-pale-ale-on-australia-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/01\/26\/little-creatures-pale-ale-on-australia-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Creatures Pale Ale on Australia Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Little<\/a>
Little Creatures Pale Ale, taken later with my new camera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Ordinarily, I have a fairly ‘involved’ Australia Day. Especially given that I’m not, you know, Australian. But it’s basically my favourite National Holiday, and I do wish our own Waitangi Day were more like it — something I’ve tried to implement, occasionally, with moderate success (if I do say so).<\/p>\n

My first Australia Day was in 2001, when I was a summer scholarship student at the ANU in Canberra. And it was freaking awesome. Blisteringly hot weather (which I’d usually vote against), the Triple J ‘Hottest 100\u2019 on the radio from 10am onwards, wading pools to sit in, barbequed food aplenty — and, on that initial occasion, a case of Coopers Sparkling Ale<\/a>. Now, I usually take the day off, buy some good Australian beer, and mooch around somewhere sunny (but with shade nearby), listening to the ‘radio’ over the internet. Owing to an overload of Extraneous Stuff this year, my plans were somewhat mucked-about, but I still made sure to get myself well-stocked with lovely Big Country beer — and was moved to note it in the Diary<\/em> at least, if I couldn’t have myself a proper Day.<\/p>\n

I’ve said it many times before<\/a>, but I really do love Little Creatures Pale. Coopers Sparkling was my first<\/em> good Australian beer, but Creatures Pale has become probably my favourite, full stop. “Favourite” is always a tricky title to hand out, especially when you’re a Big Nerd. But when you are the Big Nerd at a Big Beer Bar, people do ask. Often, and pressingly. And I think that if push came to absolute shove, Creatures Pale would be it. It’s just so reliably lovely<\/em>, nicely middling between ‘flavourful’ and ‘mellow’, and it also — keeping the situatedness of beer firmly in mind, as I always insist — just has, for me, so many<\/em> brilliant memories densely packed into the brainspace around it.<\/p>\n

The actual photos on this post are from about a month later, when I’d finally gone and splashed out on a new camera<\/a>. I’m enough of a weirdo about these things that I did pretty much insist to myself that the new gadget’s first beer photo be the beloved Creatures. You have to get these things off to good starts, you do. It’s a lovely piece of kit, and still enjoyably baffling as I get to know the nearly-innumerable bells and whistles.<\/p>\n

There is some bloody marvellous<\/em> beer-related photography going on at the moment, and if you’re not already acquainted with the work of Aaron Caruana<\/a>, Jed Soane<\/a>, and Robert & Kim from ‘Beer Lens’<\/a> (just to pick my three most-frequented favourites, which helpfully also manage to hit the Big Country, Little Country, UK and US buttons between them), you damn well should be. I know that good gear isn’t even half of what makes for good photos, but those are the sorts of people who make me want to lift my game.<\/p>\n

I’ve always loved the plea to use a glass for your Creatures, too, so was instantly presented with an excellent opportunity to take the macro settings for a spin, as well. I really like the result, with its awesomely-blurred Background Peter looking on. And seriously, folks, if a beer is worth drinking at all<\/em>, then it’s worth drinking from a glass. That’s the rule.<\/p>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> Little Creatures Pale Ale 26\/1\/11 $20\/6pk @ GG 330ml 5.2% Happy Australia Day! Though this is basically my tamest, since my first. Too much extraneous stuff, this year. But this stuff is just mandatory. And there’ll be a Cooper’s Sparkling, later. It’s just bloody lovely<\/span>. That’s the word. This is always my arm-twisted citation for all-round favourite, when people ask here at work.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Little<\/a>
Little Creatures Pale Ale, serving suggestion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Little<\/a>
Diary II entry #58, Little Creatures Pale Ale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ordinarily, I have a fairly ‘involved’ Australia Day. Especially given that I’m not, you know, Australian. But it’s basically my favourite National Holiday, and I do wish our own Waitangi Day were more like it — something I’ve tried to implement, occasionally, with moderate success (if I do say so). My first Australia Day was … Continue reading Little Creatures Pale Ale on Australia Day<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,15,12,8],"class_list":["post-1489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-australia","tag-pale-ale","tag-photogenic"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":442,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/10\/02\/little-creatures-bright-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1489,"position":0},"title":"Little Creatures ‘Bright Ale’","author":"Phil","date":"October 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The golden ale little brother to the very-much-loved Creatures Pale, 'Bright' isn't as socks-off-knocking as the classic Critter, but is bloody lovely. Reminiscent of fellow Australian legend Cooper's 'Sparkling', it's lively, fruity, and (like I said; there's no better word for it) lovely. Really, I'm only surprised that it (apparently)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Little Creatures 'Bright Ale'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Little-Creatures-Bright-Ale-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":403,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/08\/28\/croucher-pale-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1489,"position":1},"title":"Croucher Pale Ale","author":"Phil","date":"August 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Croucher Pale Ale, from Rotorua, but with none of that city's usual aromatic downsides. An after-work drink, and a pretty damn good one. It's a little bit Little-Creatures-esque, what with being a pale ale, but not being a thwack in the head with a fistful of hops. More just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Croucher Pale Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Croucher-Pale-Ale-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1459,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/01\/10\/matilda-bay-fat-yak\/","url_meta":{"origin":1489,"position":2},"title":"Matilda Bay ‘Fat Yak’","author":"Phil","date":"January 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It does seem to me that (though the traffic in both directions is still painfully slow) the Australians are having better luck at getting good New Zealand beer available over there than we are with the vice-versa, over here. We do manage to get some goodies at work, though, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Matilda Bay 'Fat Yak'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Matilda-Bay-Fat-Yak-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":823,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/09\/23\/coopers-original-pale-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1489,"position":3},"title":"Coopers Original Pale Ale","author":"Phil","date":"September 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This entry from Diary II is unique (so far), in that it contains absolutely no tasting notes. Coopers bloody-lovely Pale is something I've had umpteen times before, but had never given its own entry; the Diaries were never about recommendations for other people, originally, and I knew this well enough\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Coopers Pale Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Coopers-Pale-Ale-signed-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":520,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/10\/07\/3-ravens-55\/","url_meta":{"origin":1489,"position":4},"title":"3 Ravens 55","author":"Phil","date":"October 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"3 Ravens 55 American Pale Ale. \u201c55\u201d because of five hops and five grains, apparently -- and first made for the occasion of their fifth birthday as a brewery. It's made from barley, corn, wheat, oats and rye -- which makes me want to say that it feels more \"American\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"3 Ravens 55","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/3-Ravens-55-APA-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1021,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/11\/01\/west-coast-brewing-pale-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1489,"position":5},"title":"West Coast Brewing Pale Ale","author":"Phil","date":"November 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"My friends and I became very fond of the West Coast beers when we stopped for a night in the tiny town of Blackball, and had more than a few at the \u2018Hilton\u2019. Their lager and dark are certainly nothing socks-knocking in craft beer terms, but they're well made, tasty,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"West Coast Pale Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/West-Coast-Pale-Ale-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1489"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3829,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1489\/revisions\/3829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}