Otway Organic Lager – 4.5% Alcohol

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

Over the last decade people have become more concerned with what they are putting into their bodies and the effect its production had on the planet. Brewing beer is traditionally a very resource hungry process and it has been good to see brewers trying to limit their use of planets resources. Mountain Goat has recently installed water tanks at their brewery for drinking water and solar panels on their roof to help with electricity consumption, and fortunately they are not alone.

The Otway Lager contains only organic certified hops, malt and rainwater captured at the estate and promises the drinker a preservative free experience. In a glass the Lager appears pale gold in colour with a medium level of carbonation and medium size head which didn’t hang around long before dying off completely.

The aroma is very fresh with mint, fresh cut grass, cloves, coriander notes on the nose. On the palate some banana, mango, pepper, bread and coriander notes laid over slightly sweet base. The Otway Lager is well balanced and ends extremely clean lending a lot it to its sessionabilty.

Verdict: Not as crisp as I would have hoped, the beer is still very good though the base malts work beautifully.

Score: 7.6 / 10

Link: Otway Estate

Where to find: Short of heading south of the border to Victoria, you can purchase their range online at the Otway Estate website.

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Mountain Goat – Organic Steam Ale 4.5% Alcohol

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009

mountain_goat

Hailing from the Mountain Goat brewery in Melbourne this Organic certified Steam Ale is brewed with a hint of wheat in the name of brewing an easy drinking beer. In a glass this number has a hazy pale straw colour, the head is smaller than average upon pouring and very quickly subsides to nothing but a thin lace covering. On the nose apple and citrus notes stand out accompanied by the odd mint note.

On the palate the drinker is initially greeted by grassy hop notes, although the bitterness seems to be very restrained. Further on grainy bread, yeast and apple flavours predominate eventually ending with a slightly sweet nutty character.

Verdict: Not bad from a bottle, very easy drinking and not at all unpleasant, i have previously tasted this on tap at The Local Tap House and remembered it having more depth though.

Score: 7.4 / 10

Link: Mountain Goat Beer

Where to buy: You should be able to find Mountain Goat Steam Ale for sale at any of the large Sydney bottle shops such as Dan Murphy’s.

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