{"id":858,"date":"2010-09-30T00:01:33","date_gmt":"2010-09-29T11:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=858"},"modified":"2011-06-18T20:26:26","modified_gmt":"2011-06-18T08:26:26","slug":"white-rabbit-dark-ale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/09\/30\/white-rabbit-dark-ale\/","title":{"rendered":"White Rabbit ‘Dark Ale’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"White<\/a>
White Rabbit 'Dark Ale'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have to explain to people sometimes<\/a>, at work, that if I<\/em> compare something to Little Creatures Pale Ale, then I think that thing is a very good thing indeed.<\/em> So I was curious to try something from White Rabbit<\/a>, a new-ish operation outside of my beloved Melbourne, and sort of East Coast Cousin to the famous Creatures.<\/p>\n

But when we had this at our stand at Beervana in August, I was a little meh<\/a> about it. It was something of a misunderstood orphan, really. Unlike the Stone & Wood, Bridge Road and Coopers beers we had, the Rabbit didn’t have anyone from the brewery over to talk about it — and the name threw us locals a bit, too; by “Dark Ale”, they mean Brown Ale rather than anything Portery, or further South.1<\/sup><\/p>\n

In between having it at Beervana and having it on tap at work, my friend Glenn (a former colleague at the College of Surgeons in Melbourne) was in town and muled over a few interesting-looking bottles of beer for me, in what is becoming<\/a> a neat little tradition (he’s repaid in Tour Guidery around Wellington’s Interesting Little Places). One of these was included, so I gave it another go. And was glad I did.<\/p>\n

\"White<\/a>
Diary II entry #17.1, White Rabbit 'Dark Ale'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Especially once you’re not expecting anything dark-dark (expectations can really<\/em> do funny things to how you taste a beer), it presents itself as pleasantly rich but still nicely easy-drinking. Lots of malt character, and a interesting little sideline of a certain sort of mustiness and a subtle fruity wineyness. This bottle was almost<\/em>-alarmingly sedimented, which also leant a nice big smooth layer of foam. It was interestingly-divisive, on tap at work; much of the Beer Nerdy crowd didn’t really go for it, but it was surprisingly good (given their usual prejudices against Australian beer and<\/em> things darker than gold) at winning over more ‘mainstream’ drinkers. I do always enjoy stumbling upon effective ‘evangelism’ beers; seeing people have that ‘wow, this is tasty’ moment when you give them something that goes against their preconceptions is a very rewarding thing, as a bartending Beer Nerd.<\/p>\n

\"White<\/a>
Diary II entry #17.2, White Rabbit 'Dark Ale'<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> White Rabbit ‘Dark Ale’ 30\/9\/10 muled over by Glenn 4.9% 330ml From memory, this is Little Creatures’ baby brother in Healesville, outside the beloved Melb. We had it at our stand at the Beer Festival, but it was a bit of a misunderstood orphan, as none of its people were over. I was a little meh about it, but I think the name threw my expectations — it’s really a brown ale, and as one, is rather good. Quite rich but still very easy, a little musty and a little winey. Seems to be a national thing; Moo Brew’s ‘Dark Ale’ was also a Brown. Not a lot of Aussie Porter… maybe it’s just usually too fucking hot. I should’ve said MOO BREW ‘DARK ALE’. I’m not good at making new habits.2<\/sup> This is definitely growing on me. The head is particularly impressive — big + smooth + resurrectable. (There was<\/span> an almost-worrying amount of sediment in the bottle; that’ll help.)<\/p>\n

\n

1: This might be (or might be beginning<\/em> to be) an Australian Thing; Moo Brew do it too with their ‘Dark Ale’. Maybe it’s just almost always Too Damn Hot for anything blacker and heavier — though of course, the delectable Coopers ‘Best Extra Stout’ is an obvious counter-example.<\/span><\/p>\n

2: Perhaps I should explain why I chastise myself for not writing in capitals (here, as once before<\/a>). They’re kind of like little visual hyperlinks, so that I can more-readily see what entries talk about other entries, basically. Things got quite hard to navigate with 300+ entries in Diary I<\/em> — though I was still capable of occasional Rain Man-esque feats of spookiness like turning instantly to the page that contained the more-than-a-year-ago diary entry for Stone & Wood’s (delicious) ‘Draught Ale’ when Brad from the brewery saw my book and asked if his beer was in there…<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to explain to people sometimes, at work, that if I compare something to Little Creatures Pale Ale, then I think that thing is a very good thing indeed. So I was curious to try something from White Rabbit, a new-ish operation outside of my beloved Melbourne, and sort of East Coast Cousin to … Continue reading White Rabbit ‘Dark Ale’<\/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":[27,6,15,37,8],"class_list":["post-858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-ale","tag-pages","tag-australia","tag-gateway","tag-photogenic"],"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":858,"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":131,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2004\/04\/11\/jamieson-mountain-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":858,"position":1},"title":"Jamieson \u2018Mountain Ale\u2019","author":"Phil","date":"April 11, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Jamieson Mountain Ale. 330ml, 4.9%, $3ish, 11\/4\/04, at home. \"Dark wheat beer\". Brown-black. Weird. Seems stuck halfway. Not bad, per se, but not wheat and not dark. Can't see it winning friends. Stick with La Rossa. Afterthoughts, October 2010: Oh, so very far to go until proper Beer Nerdery,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Jamieson 'Mountain Ale'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1012-Jamieson-Mountain-Ale-300x201.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":97,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2004\/01\/12\/holgate-brewhouse-white-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":858,"position":2},"title":"Holgate Brewhouse \u2018White Ale\u2019","author":"Phil","date":"January 12, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Holgate Brewhouse White Ale. 5.0%, 330ml, $16\/6pk, at home. Bottle conditioned, but the tiniest amount of sediment. Wheat beer, very mild taste. Refreshing on a 40\u00b0 day. Not gold, light, cloudy. Like flat L&P or some random chemistry set piece. Matches our couch. Bubbles don't stay. Afterthoughts, October 2010:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Holgate Brewhouse 'White Ale'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1006-Holgate-White-Ale-300x234.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":303,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2007\/12\/10\/orkney-dark-island\/","url_meta":{"origin":858,"position":3},"title":"Orkney ‘Dark Island’","author":"Phil","date":"December 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Orkney Brewery Dark Island. 10\/12\/07, $6ish, 4.6%, 500ml. Watching House. Very black, but the bubbles don't hang around. Smells of the usual dark ale stuff, but quite light. Feels almost foamy, aerated. All this isn't negative, it's just less full-on than expected. Good dark ale, with zestiness and not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Orkney Dark Island","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1043-Orkney-Dark-Island-300x220.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":484,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/10\/05\/red-hill-scotch-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":858,"position":4},"title":"Red Hill Scotch Ale","author":"Phil","date":"October 5, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Pouring a hazy dark amber with a reddish tint, this surprised me by being a good deal lighter than I was expecting.\u00a0 It's nicely fruity and smooth, but stays a bit too 'small' in the taste department for me. \"Scotch Ale\" just makes me expect massive great big fullness, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Red Hill Scotch Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Red-Hill-Scotch-Ale-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":266,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2006\/05\/14\/youngs-special-london-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":858,"position":5},"title":"Young’s ‘Special London Ale’","author":"Phil","date":"May 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Young's Special London Ale. 500ml, $5, 6.4%, 14\/5\/06. Bottle conditioned, and it shows; gorgeous bubbles. Dark amber color, big round taste, malty + with hops for, well, England. All-around wonderfully beery. Brilliant, but definately not for everyone. Afterthoughts, October 2010: Everybody ready? We're about to fall off another cliff\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young's Special London Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1034-Youngs-Special-London-Ale-300x207.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858","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=858"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2862,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858\/revisions\/2862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}