{"id":4051,"date":"2012-05-20T03:02:03","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T15:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=4051"},"modified":"2012-05-23T15:20:01","modified_gmt":"2012-05-23T03:20:01","slug":"gabs-paddle-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/05\/20\/gabs-paddle-1\/","title":{"rendered":"GABS Paddle #1: Everything \u2264 4.5% ABV"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tasting<\/a>
Tasting Paddle #1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I’ve mentioned a few times when talking about GABS, my Friday was very<\/em>\u00a0sleep-deprived; I only had two hours sleep on Thursday night — my nocturnal nature meshes not at all<\/em>\u00a0with early-morning flights — and wound up awake for some twenty-six hours. So I took it very<\/em>\u00a0easy, those first two sessions.<\/p>\n

I’m a dedicated flag-bearer for midstrength<\/a> \/ sessionable<\/a> beer, and was delighted to see that in a festival of (mostly…) one-offs, I was still able to assemble a paddle-worth of beers at-or-under 4.5% ABV.1<\/sup>\u00a0They were pleasingly varied, style-wise (though that did make figuring out a drinking order rather perplexing), which I took to be a good sign of the increasing health of this corner of the industry.<\/p>\n

I started with\u00a0Croucher ‘ANZUS’<\/strong>\u00a0— as did the\u00a0festival<\/em>, since this was officially beer #1 on the Big Board, and a fittingly trans-Tasman2<\/sup> way to begin what really was a genuinely Australasian<\/em>\u00a0festival. The Little Country wasn’t just there in a tokenistic way; a quarter of the beers were from over here, and from what I’ve read, a lot of Australians had a pleasingly eye-opening experience with New Zealand craft beer.\u00a0ANZUS is a 2.7% hoppy pale ale, which puts it in the same family as Hallertau ‘Minimus’<\/a> and Liberty’s ‘Taranaki Session Beer’<\/a>, and if that<\/em>\u00a0family is determined to have more offspring then I’ll gladly give them all the oysters and tax breaks I can to encourage the activity. Minimus was my ‘Beer of the Year’ for 2011<\/a>, together with its brothers-from-other-mothers, so I’m positively delighted to see more of them around. It was delicious, and well-balanced — no easy trick at that ABV — and refreshingly bitter. So far as one can tell from a festival-thimble, at least. It’d make a cracker addition to their full range — hint hint, Paul, hint hint.<\/p>\n

Next was the Sarsaparilla Stout<\/strong>\u00a0from country-Victoria’s Grand Ridge<\/strong>, a brewery I have some extra fondness for after a particularly-excellent birthday evening-and-morning spent there years ago. I didn’t notice the mention of licorice<\/em>\u00a0in the book until after my first sip — and man do I hate licorice — so the very-much black jellybean<\/em>\u00a0nature of the thing was an unpleasant surprise. But if that’s your thing, this’d be a damn-handy four-percent sweet stout to have lying around for wintery afternoons. The Mash<\/strong>3<\/sup> ‘Koffee Stout’<\/strong>\u00a0was only a touch stronger (or 0.3 of a touch, depending on how you calibrate these things), and much<\/em>more my speed, caffeine-fueled organism that I am. Sessionable coffee stout sounds like perfect Writing Beer, to me.<\/p>\n

I finished with a Pair of Weirds, one minor, one major. Hargreaves Hill’s ‘La Grisette’<\/strong>\u00a0was a bit of a history lesson, in both beer-style and words-of-French-origin terms<\/a>. The basic idea seemed to be of a blue-collar after-work Belgian; a less-funky old-style Saison, perhaps. The flavours evoked a lot of sweetness, at first, but it dried right<\/em>\u00a0out at the back of the palate and could indeed make for a wonderful hot-day restorative. But then, damn. Feral’s ‘Watermelon Warhead’<\/strong>\u00a0was one of those beers that was the talk of the festival — in the “no, fucking seriously; try it<\/em>” sense. An intensely sour Berliner Weisse, dosed with Watermelon juice and fermented in Chardonnay barrels, it was face-puckeringly surprising and brain-tinglingly fantastic. Alice Galletly likened it<\/a> — in this growd of nearly-five-dozen beers — to a palate-cleansing sorbet, and that’s bang on.4<\/sup> Making things even more impressive, it transpired that the ABV in the booklet (2.9%) was essentially a work-in-progress guess \/ estimate \/ number read of freshly-rolled dice; the beer was more likely around one point nine<\/em>, making it handsomely the most flavourful — and most charmingly odd — “light beer” I’ve ever had within grabbing distance, or been tempted to grab.<\/p>\n

\"Diary<\/a>
Diary II entry #212, GABS Paddle #1: Everything \u2264 4.5% ABV<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Original Diary entry:\u00a0<\/strong>GABS Paddle #1: Everything \u2264 4.5% ABV 11\/5\/12 in this absurdly gorgeous building back in the beloved Melb. (1) Croucher ‘ANZUS’ (2.7%) A little warmer thant I’d like, but still. In the Minimus mold, obviously, more bitter? Hard to tell from 85ml. (34) Grand Ridge ‘Sarsparilla’ Stout (4%) ~ and licorice root really<\/span> evident. Black jellybean. Subbed for a hop addition, so rather sweet. (58) Mash ‘Koffee Stout’ (4.3%) Much more my speed. Tasty, but subtle. (36) Hargreaves Hill ‘La Grisette’ (3.8%) A style I’ve never heard of, but kind like. Feels like it’ll be sweet, but dries right out. Weird, but worthy. (55) Feral ‘Watermelon Warhead’ (2.9%) My first Berliner Weisse, and it’s exactly as sour as I’d like. Tart and indeed Watermelonny. Still nicely round.<\/p>\n

\n

1:<\/strong> There were actually six<\/em>\u00a0in the book, it turned out. I missed one — Moo Brew’s ‘Belgo’ — entirely. But, to atone, I had a whole glass on the Sunday. You’ll see it here soon.<\/span>
\n2:<\/strong> Let’s just ignore, provisionally, the rather-fraught third (‘US’) member of that Treaty<\/a> and focus on the ‘A’-‘NZ’ relationship for a moment — my guess is that Croucher are referring, all at once, to being a New Zealand beer at a festival in Australia, brewed in a vaguely-American style.<\/span>
\n3:<\/strong> This being from Mash Brewing in WA<\/a>, not from the Mash Collective which operates out of Stone & Wood in NSW (which also had a beer in the lineup). It’s probably a very<\/em>\u00a0good sign that breweries are proliferating rapidly enough that their names are starting to collide.a<\/sup><\/span>
\n— a:<\/strong>\u00a0See also, for example, New Zealand’s plural ~Dog beers: ParrotDog, Rain Dogs, Black Dog.<\/span>
\n4:<\/strong>\u00a0Watermelon Warhead was also tied — with a Wig & Pen beer that became my GABS Glass #3 — for the lowest-posted official IBU rating, at a ‘paltry’ 6<\/em>. Which just goes to show you, among all the hop-fashion and bitterness-chasing, that sour beers really can deliver intensity<\/em>\u00a0from a whole \u2019nother direction.<\/span>
\n\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I’ve mentioned a few times when talking about GABS, my Friday was very\u00a0sleep-deprived; I only had two hours sleep on Thursday night — my nocturnal nature meshes not at all\u00a0with early-morning flights — and wound up awake for some twenty-six hours. So I took it very\u00a0easy, those first two sessions. I’m a dedicated flag-bearer … Continue reading GABS Paddle #1: Everything \u2264 4.5% ABV<\/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":[26,6,15,14,12,42,11,48,10],"class_list":["post-4051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-belgian","tag-pages","tag-australia","tag-nz","tag-pale-ale","tag-sessionable","tag-stout","tag-2012-05","tag-wheat"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4187,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/06\/15\/gabs-paddle-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":0},"title":"GABS Paddle #2: Random Favourites","author":"Phil","date":"June 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The final Sunday-afternoon session of GABS was considerably lower-key than the ones which came before. There were fewer attendees (a shade less than the Friday afternoon session, perhaps would-be visitors were off being dutiful offspring for Mother's Day), and the whole machine of the thing was running with now-practiced smoothness\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tasting Paddle #2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/GABS-2012-Tasting-Paddle-n2.1-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4125,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/06\/28\/post-gabs-afternoon-taphouse-mooch\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":1},"title":"Post-GABS Afternoon Taphouse Mooch","author":"Phil","date":"June 28, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"When you're waiting for your plane home to Wellington, when you've been staying with friends in the near-Southern suburbs of Melbourne, when you're in a post-Spectapular state of beery bliss mixed pleasantly with mild lethargy \u2014 and when, perhaps, you're me\u00a0\u2014 there really is no answer to \"what shall I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Post-GABS Taphouse Tasting Paddle","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Post-GABS-Taphouse-Mooch-tasting-paddle-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4189,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/06\/15\/gabs-glass-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":2},"title":"GABS Glass #4: Moo Brew ‘Belgo’","author":"Phil","date":"June 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading the Big Book while waiting for my Food Coma to subside and my brain to ramp back up to some semblance of walking-and-talking ability, I noticed that I'd missed out a sessionable beer from what I thought\u00a0was an exhaustive set of five. Shamefully so, since it was from Moo\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Moo Brew 'Belgo'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Moo-Brew-Belgo-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4193,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/06\/03\/beer-diary-podcast-s02e02\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":3},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast s02e02: Australia","author":"Phil","date":"June 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"And now, a brief interlude for a long-lost podcast episode. We recorded shortly before\u00a0I went away to GABS in Melbourne -- and immediately before George and I went along to Hashigo Zake's marvellous little 'X-Ale' festival in the still-empty ParrotDog brewery.\u00a0We take the chance to catch up a little on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcast episodes"","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Two Moon Dogs and 'Melon Gibson'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Moon-Dogs-and-Melon-Gibson-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4083,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/05\/23\/gabs-glass-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":4},"title":"GABS Glass #1: Garage Project ‘Double Day of the Dead’","author":"Phil","date":"May 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"At GABS, I was understudy for Local Taphouse's Guy Greenstone, who was set to host 'Beerista' introductory tasting sessions at the 'Craft Beer College' series of free seminars running at the festival. He had a run-in with pneumonia, but was looking hearty during Friday's Session One, so I seemed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Garage Project 'Double Day of the Dead'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Garage-Project-DDOTD-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3973,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2012\/05\/12\/gabs-day-one-photos\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":5},"title":"GABS 2012: Day One Photos","author":"Phil","date":"May 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"So, I'm back in my dear old Melbourne taking full advantage of my well-timed unemployment to attend GABS: the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular. It's rather a treat, and will warrant a proper write-up (or several), but I just want to use the last few moments before my sleep-deprived brain implodes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Observations"","block_context":{"text":"Observations","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Main Hall, looking East","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Malt-end-daylight1-150x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051","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=4051"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4149,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051\/revisions\/4149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}