Tag: Mountain goat

The day Australian craft beer lost its innocence

Mark Simpson1 Comment

As I stared at my phone, my first thought was it was a joke or hypothetical. Surely not. Not one of Australia craft beer’s most beloved producers and great ambassadors almost universally loved and admired for their gateways beers and their special releases alike; a longtime industry stalwart who had fought the good fight and won so often that they were making really headway across the nation for craft beer; surely they wouldn’t be selling out.

But it was true, Mountain Goat had sold out. Hot on the heels of US counterparts Lagunitas, Mountain Goat also cashed in by parting with ownership to a macro beer producer. And all that craft beer momentum and positive beers are a changin vibe documented on this blog and countless others over recent years, and for which Mountain Goat had played such a pivotal part, all seemed a little less righteous than it had only yesterday.

You see Mountain Goat were supposed to be the good guys and the big beer companies were the bad guys but now it all seems a lot more complicated. The truth is it probably always was.

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Beer and Coffee – a perfect match?

Mark Simpson2 Comments

Coffee and beer are both bitter tasting, body-altering, and potentially complex liquid substances. They also both have their ‘geeks’ who extol the virtues of different styles, pontificate over the flavours in their drink and who seek out more complex flavours and combinations for imbibing their liquid substance of choice. It only makes sense then that coffee and beer geeks would eventually get together and combine their love of all things bitter in the one drink.

A number of beers with coffee have been released by Australian craft brewers and coffee houses and growers in recent times and the combinations of beer and coffee are becoming more creative all the time.Read More »

A Beer Pilgrimage

Mark Simpson2 Comments

Everyone has their own story to tell about their journey to better beer drinking. Here is mine…

I remember the first time I drank the nectar of the Gods. My parents were having a dinner party at home and while they were talking and drinking, I snuck into the laundry, and plucked a bottle of VB from a sink filled with ice. After forcing down a few gulps, I tipped the rest down the drain, and wondered what the fuss was about.

Nevertheless, I persisted with beer, mainly because I had to, it was a rite of passage. I forced down warm cans of Melbourne Bitter in the park, pitchers of Carlton Draught at suburban pool halls, and pints of VB at the local pub. I learned to drink beer if not enjoy it.

And then I had that first Eureka! beer moment when I stumbled across a beer called Little Creatures at a hip bar in the city. Its taste was unlike anything I’d ever had before, it exploded on my tongue, bursting with flavour. Without yet even realising it, I had discovered the beauty of aromatic hops.Read More »

Best brewery in Australia: Murrays or Feral?

Mark Simpson3 Comments

Murrays and Feral Brewing are the cream of the crop when it comes to Australian craft beer, as no other brewers have experimented across such a breadth of styles with such positive results (although a few are on the case, see The Contenders further below).

I’m a sports fan and like to turn everything into a competition, so it isn’t enough to say that these two breweries are the best, I need to find out which one is the true champ of Aussie craft brewing, so I’m going to break this down, a beer at a time, to determine which brewery takes the title.Read More »