Following on the from the post below, I’ve noticed that there are words in the Australian English lexicon that are, so far as I can see, unique to the country both in usage and understanding. I’m not talking about all the usual stuff which is pretty much either shortened versions of existing words (e.g. barbie, arvo),  rhyming slang (e.g. dead horse – tomato sauce, grundies – underwear),  or understandable with a little thought (e.g. ‘ropeable’ meaning ‘angry’).  No, I’m talking about the words that are widely understood by the general Australian population but have no obvious meaning to anyone who’s not lived here for a while. Words that politicians use, journalists on quality newspapers write and average people speak. ‘Schooner’ and ‘pot’ are borderline cases, as they have obvious meanings to general English speakers but in the context they’re usually used here – the pub – an outsider would have little idea of what they meant until shown the glasses in question. ‘Dag’ and ‘bogan’ are also borderline cases, as the close study of ‘Neighbours’ by a generation of British youth has made them understandable to at least some outsiders. No, the words I’m talking about are these:

Bingle

Cleanskin

Furphy

Rort

Skerrick

Spruik

Wowser

Two of these words have booze connections. Two more could occur as a result of a drink or two. Non-Australian readers: without cheating, do you know what any of these words mean? Australian readers: did you realise that these words are uniquely yours? I’m not keen on ‘bingle’ but I like all the rest. Any more for any more?

Some of you might have noticed a button at the top of this page marked Aussie Beer 101. Clicking on it (or on the link in the previous sentence) takes you to an area where I try to explain the basics of Aussie beer and its culture. It’s a work in progress, and subject to revision.

On a recent visit to Coffs Harbour I found an excellent source of information on Aussie glass sizes, which you’ll find reproduced at said page. Go educate yourself.

Taylor Walker

Sometimes namesakes happen by accident. I had a friend at school called Neil Bowie, whose elder brother was called David. His parents had the excuse of being (a) not particularly hip, and (b) producing their own David Bowie in 1967, before the Laughing Gnome had become a household name. The parents of my sister’s 1980s-era schoolfriend Elizabeth Taylor perhaps had fewer excuses.

Anyway, imagine my delight at discovering there is a current Aussie Rules player called Taylor Walker. Mr and Mrs Walker, living as they did in Broken Hill, were probably unaware that there was a London brewery of that name between 1781 and 1959, and that you can still see pub signs and paraphenalia carrying that name around London today as Carlsberg-Tetley, who now own the name, still used the brand until relatively recently.

I’m now off to try and convince Louise that we need to change our last name to Perkins so that we can name our first-born Barclay. Works for either a boy or a girl, I’d say.

Also Taylor Walker

Knowing Al, Knowing Lou

Funny how your wedding takes precedence over pretty much every other thing in your life for months on end.  I’m back.

Speaking of weddings, We’d found from attending other peoples’ that one of the new (?) must-dos is to have a personalised little bag of sugar almonds for each attendee on the table – these things are called bombonieres. Louise and I walk the line between enjoying tradition (even imported ones) but also rebelling against it, so we decided on a more personal (and useful) memento of our wedding. Beer. After all, what symbolises health, wealth, happiness, fertility and long life more than sophisticated homebrew?

For that is what we provided. A few weeks before the happy event we went to The Beer Factory in Seven Hills and, with the help of someone who knew what they were doing, followed a recipe to make 50 litres of a clone of Toohey’s Old (brew no. 208, if you want to have a go yourself). Perhaps it was the stinkingly hot day (40 deg C) or our usual cackhandedness, but we managed to rather overdo the yeast, scooping out handfuls of the stuff before it absorbed into the brew. Our expert didn’t see us doing this so we think we got away with it, but it meant the three-week wait for the beer to brew was more anxious on our part than it might have been. We may also have been less than precise with some of our other measures which means that we’ll never be able to make exactly the same beer again.

On a much cooler Saturday our friend Peter drove us back to The Beer Factory to help us bottle the stuff. After sterilising the bottles we were set up by a tap and, after a quick taste or two, we set to filling 90-odd half-litre bottles and whacking crown seals on them.

Louise and I had decided that “no. 208″, a great name for a bus, was a bit boring for our wedding beer. It took a surprisingly short amount of time for us to come up with “Old Ball & Chain” as a suitable substitute and Louise set about designing the label, using Old Melbourne Gaol and Abba as her main influences.

I’d recommend the Beer Factory experience to anyone who wants to brew themselves some beer but doesn’t have the time, space or ability to home-brew properly. 50-litre batches should perhaps be shared between two or three friends, as (a) it’s a fun few hours out together, (b) it lessens the workload, (c) it reduces the amount of fridge space you’ll require to store them, and (d) it means you don’t have to drink 100 bottles of the same stuff in a relatively short time. Believe me, we were craving variety after “only” working our way through the 40-odd bottles we didn’t give away. It works out relatively cheaply too, especially if you can provide your own bottles, which of course you can recycle, and don’t bother with labels.

So how did it taste? Well, my first thoughts were that it was like a cross between Toohey’s Old and Newcastle Brown Ale, and on further consumption I’d stick with that. Alas, the yeast issue mentioned above did leave a slight apple-like aftertaste which is, I read, the hallmark of unfermented yeast in a beer. Oops. But it didn’t really detract too much from the good swiggin’ dark beer.

Post script: on a trip to Kiama recently I had a couple of schooners of Kent Old, a beer not often found on draught these days, and was shocked to find that, lack of apple taste aside, it was pretty much identical to Old Ball & Chain. Looked the same too. So if you want to taste what our never-to-be-repeated wedding beer was like, seek out some Kent Old. Bizarrely, the place I’m told you’re most likely to be able to do this is…Newcastle (NSW).

The Local Taphouse, Melbourne’s best pub (and soon to open a branch in Sydney), has compiled a list of the 100 favourite Australian beers as voted for by “hundreds of people… from around Australia”. I’d suggest that this was not a sample worked out to adequately represent every beer-drinking person in Australia, otherwise the list would have been very different. Still, it gives me a few names to conjure with, and something to argue with in due course.

The full list is here, but, to aid the lazy, here’s the top twenty without the need to click:

Fozzie probably doesn't realise that this gesture is offensive to non-Americans

In the comments on my Kent Brewery post, Megan (of Burwood) asked me to keep my eye out for Warka Strong, a Polish beer she was fond of but having trouble finding in Sydney. Well, I took my first trip to 1st Choice Liquor on Willoughby Road, Naremburn yesterday (on the 273 bus route), and amongst the fine selection of local and imported bottles… there it was.

I bought a bottle ($4.something) to see what Megan might like about it and I was pleasantly surprised. Most Polish beers I’ve tried before have been dull lagers or dull strong lagers. This is strong  (7%, about 2.6 standard drinks in a 500ml bottle) but not dull at all, with a vaguely Belgian witbier taste. Heavy on the banana aroma too which means that it’s safe from Louise. I’d drink it again.

It looks like 1st Choice have a new branch at 158 Liverpool Road in Ashfield, which my sources tell me is quite near Burwood.  With any luck they’ll have Warka there too! I love a happy ending.

A night at home alone, so time to try some of the bottles in the cupboard. Two stouts and a porter, from weakest to strongest. Yes, I know, a Sydney summer night is not the time to be drinking strong dark beers, but my internal season-adjuster-thingy hasn’t flipped over yet. Two summers in a row (if you can call what I experienced in London between June and August “summer”) have confused me no end.

The first contender tonight is Hatlifter Stout, from the Grand Ridge Brewing Company of Gippsland, Victoria. Grand Ridge definitely err towards the boutique end of things, with an interesting range which includes a very nice Scotch Ale (not on their website now) which I tried a while ago, a Belgian Blonde, and a premixed Black and Tan for those too lazy (or tight) to mix their own.

Hatlifter Stout

The Hatlifter poured a dark ruby colour, with a yellowy head which dissipated quite quickly. There was a caramel smell with a definite whiff of alcohol, which as this is only 4.9% (1.3 standard drinks/bottle) was surprising. The first taste was vanilla, followed by maltiness, a bit of licorice and a definite coffee flavour in the aftertaste. A smooth taste and one that did not grow tiring as the glass emptied. Worth drinking at cellar temperature, I’d say. I’d definitely drink this again.

From a micro to a macro for the next bottle - Cascade Stout. Cascade is the oldest surviving brewery in Australia, originally founded in Tasmania in 1824, but since (I think) the late 1980s part of The Fosters Group (CUB). Despite now being part of the evil empire (and from the sound of it, they weren’t exactly innocents in the old days anyway) they make decent enough beers, which I’d take over a New any day.

Cascade Stout

To the bottle in question then. Cascade Stout is part of their “Craft Collection”, so I’d expect it to have something a bit extra in the taste. Advertising has misled me again. The main taste I got from this was a metallic, bitter one. There was a slight creaminess to it and it had quite an attractive roasted smell, but otherwise it was pretty dull and quite a bore to finish. As you can see from the picture it was the darkest of tonight’s brews, an opaque black with an attractive tan head. Quite strong, at 5.8% (1.5 standard drinks/bottle), so useful for getting drunk but not a lot else. Rather a disappointment.

And to finish it’s back to Murray’s Brewing Co for Murray’s Best Extra Porter. A birruva monster at 8% (2.1 standard drinks/bottle), Murray accepts that’s it’s only “vaguely” in the porter style, and throws the “imperial” * word around too. I was reminded of a Belgian Dubbel, but not a great example of that variety. It didn’t smell of a great deal, had a bittersweet taste and, again, I felt bored with it by the time my glass was empty. Head stuck around though.

Murray's Porter

And another thing. For the third time with Murray’s beers, part of the bottle has come away with the crown cap – that’s twice with Pale Ales and once with the Porter. Not good.

Another reason not to drink straight from the bottle

At least all the glass stayed in the cap...

So, the clear winner of the night was Grand Ridge’s Hatlifter Stout. I shall be getting some more of those some time soon, probably from Dan Murphy’s (Willoughby Branch), my new source for vaguely interesting beers. Meanwhile, as the temperature hits 35 degrees celsius, I think I’ll leave Stout Party 2 (Cooper’s, Sheaf, Abbotsford…any other suggestions?) a few months.

*Originally used on some nice strong brews sent to the Russian royal court, ”imperial” is now the word American microbrewers affix to their stupidly-strong stouts when they want to give their expensive tramp juice pretensions.

I’ve been drinking a lot of this recently, since the nice lady in the bottle-o next to Waverton Station recommended I try it one warm November evening. Murray’s Craft Brewing Co are a Northern NSW brewery very much in the North American mode, with a strong emphasis on hoppy IPAs and (their word) “extreme” beers, and all that matching-beer-with-food malarkey. Set up in 2006 by Murray Howe, they’re already winning awards, including one for the beer I’m drinking tonight: Murray’s Nirvana Pale Ale won Bronze in the American Style Pale Ale class at the 2008 Australian International Beer Awards.

head disappearing already

It’s a lovely golden colour in the glass, with a head that doesn’t stick around as long as I’d like.  There’s a pleasant hoppy bitterness, initially quite striking but one that subsides quite quickly. A definite orangey hint to the aftertaste but not so much as to be off-putting. Towards the end of the glass it seems a bit ho-hum, but the hit of a new one is most welcome, and at 4.5% (1.3 standard drinks) it’s sessional enough that you can do that.

Murray’s is available in more bottle shops than you might imagine in NSW. It comes in 4 packs rather than the usual sixer, which is perhaps a way of cushioning the drinker from it’s rather, ahem, boutique price – $16 for my last fourer. It’s available on tap in an increasing number of bars, which is a good thing. I had a schooner of the Nirvana in the Albion Place Hotel the other day and it was just as good as it is in the bottle. Those of you passing through Northern NSW can go to The Pub With No Beer in Taylor’s Arm, which despite it’s name is the Murray’s Brewery Tap. I’m sure the detour will be worthwhile, as long as you’re not the designated driver.

These are pictures of the Kent Brewery site on Broadway, Chippendale, just down the road from Central Station, taken earlier this month.

The Kent Brewery was opened in 1835 by Sydney’s original big brewery, Tooth and Co. In 1983 Carlton & United (CUB) took over Tooth’s and brewed VB and Foster’s (amongst other things) here. In 2003, it was sold to developers and finally shut in 2005, the beers formerly brewed there now being brewed in Victoria and Queensland on cheaper real estate, I’d imagine. It will eventually be the usual mix of swanky apartments and retail/office space. Details of the closure announcement are here and more history than you might ever need to know is here. You’ll be pleased to hear that the gates (pictured in the last two pictures above) will remain, although I bet they wash off the residue on the tiles from the original “Tooth & Co Limited Kent Brewery” lettering, which you can still just about see.

The last picture above was a prize-winner in the second annual A Good Beer Blog / Stonch’s Beer Blog Xmas Photo Competition. Thanks Alan and Jeff! I’d never heard of Beaus’s All Natural Brewing Company before but I’m looking forward to receiving their t-shirt and hat in due course.