I’ve been hearing about Lord Nelson beers for ages now. They have a pub hotel in Sydney which I was planning on visiting this weekend. They’re such a micro brewery that I thought you could only get it in Sydney. I found a 6 pack in Byron Bay for $26. That’s by far the most expensive 6 beers I’ve ever bought from a store. You could order 6 full pints of great craft beer at a bar in America for less than that.
It was worth it. Instantly I knew this beer was tops. I didn’t have a proper glass around, but even from the bottle it’s better than 99% of beers I’ve had.
I won’t sully the beer with one of my dumb reviews so I’ll just give it the score:
Lord Nelson Old Admiral 4.9/5
I can’t wait to visit the hotel this Sunday. I’ll be so sad if they’re closed.
This is the last of my Grand Ridge beer reviews. So far the Bitter and Yarra Valley stick out in my mind as being 2 things I’ll miss about Australia (unless Grand Ridge Brewery has a heart and sends some cases my way).
Man, my curtains sure are ugly. I’m glad I’m moving out of this apartment soon.
Yeah, this one is great too. I’ve met a lot of Aussies that say they don’t like pale ales. They seem to mostly like lagers here. I can understand that. I think I must prefer bitter beers because this one is fairly bitter. It’s not as malty as the Yarra Valley Gold, but I still love it. I’d like to go back to my classic wrestler motif now:
If this beer were a classic WWF wrestler it would have to be Jake “The Snake” Roberts. It’s kind of an underdog in a world full of VB, but it’s a hard worker and worthy of your respect. After a hard day of work this is the kind of manly beer that mates deserve to reward themselves with. Not VB.
Grand Ridge Gippsland Gold Pale Ale: 4/5
Today we have the Grand Ridge Yarra Valley Gold ale. I’ve been a bit disappointed and pleasantly surprised with Grand Ridge Brewery so far. I think they just have so much that they’re not going to please me with every beer they have, and that’s totally fine with me. I loved the Grand Ridge Bitter, let’s see how the Gold goes.
This is probably one of my favorite beers. It’s hoppy & malty. They describe it as being ultra hoppy, but I’d rate this as the perfect amount of hoppiness. It’s bold, but well-balanced. You know you’re drinking a beer.
If this beer was a person it would be Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat; a well-rounded wrestler & champion body builder.
Back to the Yarra Valley Gold. You should try this right away. Unless you’ve been brainwashed by VB or Miller Lite into not respecting your taste buds, this will be the only beer you’ll ever drink again. This really hits the spot. I tried it after an 11 hour work day and it was the perfect thing to wind down with.
Grand Ridge Yarra Valley Gold: 4.1/5
Grand Ridge, if you’re reading this, please export to America. Specifically, to my house so I can show my mates how great Australia is.
an-american-in-australia asked: From Facebook: What has been your favorite moment so far? Favorite food? Beer? And so on...
I think my favorite moment was stay in a cabin in the Bunya Mountains. So far, I think I only posted pictures of a magpie eating a moth on the balcony. I’ll get to showing off the whole place eventually.
Favorite food is a toss up between a lamb kebab, fresh fish & chips, and properly cooked kangaroo. Oh man, forget all that. Meat pies win forever. Pavlova, lamingtons, lemon lime bitters, gee whiz. The food here is great.
As far as beer goes, I’m always discovering fantastic new brews.
Are all brews I’ll miss. There’s more, but those reviews aren’t published yet so I’ll keep them a secret for now.
The legendary copyright-infringing Duff Beer is here straight from Germany. It’s not an Aussie beer, but being a Simpsons fan (up until around season 12 at least) I couldn’t pass it up.
It’s not in a can (tinny) so that’s 1 strike against them, but the design is a pretty faithful adaptation. There are Duff cans out there, but you’ll have to go to Europe to get your hands on one. Interestingly there was a brewery in New Zealand that brewed Duff before The Simpsons even existed. Fox sued them and being a small brewery they opted to change their name instead of go out of business in court fees. If you read the link above you’ll see how breweries are able to legally brew a beer and name it Duff. I think it’s still fairly nebulous and subjective, but it raises some interesting points on interpreting the law for virtual worlds such as a cartoon or the internet.
Do you want to know how it tastes? Would it matter if you saw it in a store?
As far as novelty beers go I’d say it’s better than most. Duff is depicted as a beer for the lowest common denominator. I’d say this fits the bill, but gives you more quality than something as offensive as VB or Milwaukee’s Worst.
It’s a decent lager. You probably won’t hate it. You definitely won’t buy it again though.
3/5
P.S. Here’s something new from the makers of Duff Bier:
I’d like to know from any German experts out there if those are considered grapes in Germany before I poke fun at them.
At the risk of sounding like Seinfeld, why is it called grapefruit anyways? It seems pretty lazy to me. At least call it Sour Orangefruit (Citrus squirtus inthe eyeus) so people have a better idea of what they’re getting in to. Can you make wine or jam from a grapefruit? Well, I guess you could, but I’ve never heard of such an obnoxious thing.
I think this my first real ginger beer. I’ve never been drawn to it before. I like ginger ale, and I like beer. Why haven’t I tried this before?
This is the 2nd XXXX summer beer I’ve reviewed. It’s very light, crisp, and easy to drink. You can really taste the ginger, but thankfully it’s not overpowering like I expected.
This would make a good outdoor party beer as it won’t make you feel sluggish like some of the heavier beers out there. It’s not for every day. I imagine I’d get sick of the ginger pretty fast. I guess I like ginger beer, I don’t know. I’d rather go for something more traditional like a James Squire Pale Ale.
3.1/5
