Murrays Pilsner 4.8% Alcohol
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
New South Wales may lag behind Victoria in the number of craft breweries we have, in my opinion though it doesn’t matter as we are lucky enough to have my favourite brewery in Australia, Murrays Craft Brewing Co. Located at Port Stephens north of Newcastle, Murray’s head brewer Shawn Sherlock is constantly pushing the boundaries with beers that taste great but never seem to fit exactly within a style.
That said when I saw a bottle of Murrays Pilsner sitting unloved in the fridge at Vintage Cellars I had to buy it! Pouring the bottle into a glass gave a cloudy straw coloured brew with a medium sized head around 2- 3 cm high which slowly subsided over the space of 10 minutes. The aroma was very full on, packed with pine, clove, herbal and floral notes straight after pouring. With bread notes coming through later after the majority of volatiles wafted away.
On the palate this beer has a somewhat oily mouth feel and leads with a big hops hit that just seems to keep building right to the back of the palate, with a slight malt sweetness that shines though around mid way. The flavours that come across are very similar to the aroma with big grapefruit, passion fruit and pine flavours, whilst finishing dry and crisp.
Verdict: This beer is very heavy hitting on the flavour front, after the first sip i thought this beer was not for me due to the intensity. But it did seem to mellow as it warmed and had one me over only a few sips later.
Score: 7.8 /10
Link: Murrays Brewing Company
Where to buy: I have seen this Pilsner for sale at Dan Murphys and Vintage Cellars on occasion, both seem to stock bits and pieces of the Murrays range but it seems to be luck of the draw as to what is on sale during any given day.
