Pint of Origin - Tasmania

Next week marks Good Beer Week in the calendar and as part of the festivities, The Courthouse Hotel in North Melbourne will be pouring Tassie brewed beers all week.

Van Dieman will have some TPA - Tasmanian Pale Ale, a wet hop harvest ale, and our Hedgerow Autumn Ale, a barrel aged sour beer on tap, with a "Meet the Brewer" session with yours truly on Tuesday 15th May from around 6pm for a casual tasting session.

Make sure you pop in for a pint or two at some stage during the week showcasing the best of Tassies' growing craft beers. Also on tap will be MooBrew, IronHouse, Seven Sheds, Two Metre Tall and newcomers Morrisons' brewery.

More Info: The Crafty Pint or Good Beer Week


The Courthouse Hotel, 86-90 Errol St, North Melbourne, Ph: 9329 5394

Attn all Double IPA obsessed canines

Via Beerpulse.com

A Warning about Dogs and Hops

 Posted on April 30, 2012 at 11:32 amby Adam Nason   

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Sponsored Guest Post:

Here at Northern Brewer we love dogs just about as much as we love brewing (maybe more). For many years, dogs accompanied their owners to work at Northern Brewer and freely roamed our offices. And for many of us, brew day is a wonderful opportunity to spend time with our canine friends. So when we heard about a customer’s scary experience after their dog consumed hops we were shaken and wanted to help. For wider education on the issue, we would like echo a very serious warning about dogs and hops.

Though research is not extensive, ingesting hops can be highly toxic to some breeds of dogs (Golden Retrievers and especially Greyhounds have been documented). There are many scary stories on homebrewing forums about dogs eating hops after unsuspecting brewers left unused hops out in a place accessible to their dog, or dumped their kettle trub and hop sediment into the yard, or had a hop plant in their yard that dropped cones on the ground. Some dogs that ingest hops rapidly develop a condition called Malignant Hyperthermia, in which the body temperature rises uncontrollably. This can be very harmful or fatal to the dog. Some symptoms are restlessness, panting, vomiting, abdominal pain, seizures, rapid heart rate, and high temperature. If a dog has possibly ingested hops and exhibits symptoms, they should be taken to an emergency pet hospital immediately for treatment.

This abstract from the National Institute for Biotechnology Information represents one of the few scientific confirmations of the issue, and this page has a record of one homebrewer’s experience (their dog was fortunately saved).

Keep your dogs safe!

Hedgerow Autumn Ale 2012

The basis of the recipe is the same as the 2011 hedgerow brew, six UK malts, German brewers gold, UK Bramling Cross and Slovenian Bobek hops are used as aroma and for dry hopping.   Hawthorn berries, sloe berries and rose hips were then added to the conditioning tank and the beer was allowed to sit for a 12 weeks on this mix, developing the subtle fruit flavours.

A further portion of the beer was aged in two, local vineyard, Moores Hill pinot barrels for a period of 16 weeks, with it being brought back into the main hedgerow beer and racked off. It was then conditioned for 6 months before release.

The beer pours an off-white head laced with a subtle berry aroma. There are certainly some aromatic French oak qualities coming out on the nose, as well as a few spicy notes.  The initial sip is quite sour and sharp, but as you work through the beer a ripe sweetness begins to develop and reflects the original hedgerow beer exhibiting a toasty malt character underlies the subtle seasonal fruit flavour.  Hints of peppery spice result in a semi soft and dry palate finish of this autumn ale, the barrel aged element brings that funky edge to the beer as well as the imparted tartness.

A style very rarely seen in Australia.

A keg or two of the 2012 release will make its way to the Courthouse Hotel, North Melbourne for Pint Of Origin as part of Good Beer Week 2012

The Crafty Pints' take on the beer here