Memorable Ratings

[Kempicus]

I love rating beers on ratebeer, for me it's more about a reminder of interesting times or associations or just a place where i can let my mind dribble on about a beer....ratebeer has recently been struck down by some sort of plague and so ratings have been cut short.....until i saw this one by Stu (under yalnikim)....It's a beauty!

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/caulier-bon-secours-blonde/9665/13472/

This is exactly what i like about ratings, not a list of flavours, something that sparks the imagination!

[Stu McKinlay]

I've been conversing with Steve (highlandlad) from Sydney for a year or two. He read a couple of ratings and contacted me. Amazingly his folks, in the north of Scotland, know some friends of my Dads...

Here's one of his many great posts. This one reminded me to stop writing flavour descriptors and just have some fun. We're not beer judges afterall (a job I wouldn't wish upon anyone).

A few days after reading this a bottle of Billy B's Dark Malted Apple Beer turned up at my house. Bad timing? I'm still looking forward to trying it.

Nice pic of Oor Wullie on his profile too. One for the Scots amongst us. Before that he was "Norm" from Cheers.

[Stu McKinlay]

Murray's Icon 2IPA

By Sully
I think the rootin roos are on the label as it is a play on words. You know, a pun like. The 2 denotes number of macropods, and the IPA is Indigenous Pouncy Animals. The make love bit? Yeah makes a lot of sense since no bloody kangaroo has ever been useful in any of the wars we have fought. Where were they when Darwin was being bombed and what the hell did they do at Da Nang? Oh wait, I geddit, they are an Aussie Icon! And so should this beer be. While the whole DIPA thing seems to be distinctly American (just like diapers v nappies, but that is another story), this one from Murray’s brewery is a treat. I couldn’t wait to try this to such an extent that I cracked my first one of these from cellar temperature rather than the fridge. The result was no disappointment at all. The appearance in the glass, a Duvel snifter is a rich coppery colour with a fine creamy head, even at room temperature. The nose is a melange of citrus and toffee with the promise of a malty back palate in the tasting. Such it shall be. Beautifully balanced with the definite smack of floral and spicy hops combined with a caramello maltiness this one is a treat. Like the Scottish lad, my wife had a taste but then immediately declared me a loony for liking something so bitter. Meh, what does she know? She likes Pimms and lemonade. Anyway, Muzzah you have nailed this one old son. At $17 bucks a pop there are going to be many out there who will be amused with the label but shocked at the asking price. So what, that leaves more for those of us who love this. After all we can’t blame the brewer when our crappy federal excise laws discriminate against beer in favour of the fermented grape. I do sincerely hope this does get some more exposure and Murray can then perhaps expand production and as a result use economies of scale blah blah. I aim to drop a fifty on the weekend to get the equivalent of what is an impressive six pack. Now if I was going to say something corny in the end, which has nothing to do with the flavour constituents of the beer of course, I would suggest that you all say wallaby damned, I think I will hop to it and pouch a couple of these bewdies quicker than we can all say tsk tsk tsk to Joey for his Eccy thumping. But I won’t.


and by Highland Lad...
So we wait months for Murrays to bottle this and when it finally turns up at a local bottle shop it comes in a corked 750ml bottle labelled with a couple of kangaroos shagging under the slogan, "Make love not war". The label is eye-catching, sure, but not necessarily in a "Hey! There’s two kangaroos shagging! I must buy more of this product!" sort of a way. More in a "What pony-tailed marketing twat thinks that will sell beer?" sort of a way. The price-tag is fairly hefty and I’m wondering how many Australians will actually want to drink 750mls of imperial IPA in a sitting? I buy a bottle and I’m home now and ready to pour. It’s a beautiful amber-orange colour and raises a thick whipped-cream head that lasts superbly. This is a very good-looking beer. The aroma is softer than I expect but gorgeous - rough-cut Seville marmalade, lychee and passionfruit. There are muted malts in the background but it’s mainly about the hops. A restrained aroma, rather than aggressive. First sip and it has a beautifully creamy body. Not too thick for the style, but very smooth. Some double IPAs are overpowering but this is great. Peaches, pear juice and limes bedded in malts and capped by a huge wash of alpha acids. A minty mid-palate and some robust fusels in the swallow. My wife takes a sip and says it has grapefruit-pith intensity of bitterness. A few sips later, she declares that it tastes better "when it doesn’t touch your tongue". She pours the remainder of her glass into mine. I’m guzzling this stuff like water and the 7.5% abv is starting to kick in. This is incredibly morish for a double IPA. Damn, I’m feeling good! Look at those cute kangaroos. Hur hur hur! Thish ish grand stuff. I’ll just have a liddle more... Yeah, that’s the shtuff.... And one for the road... Aw crap! All gone? This sucksh! Whose shtupid idea was it to shell this in theshe crappy liddle 750ml bottles? Thish stuff should come in 2-litre bottles, minimum. And they should home-deliver. And there should be more kangaroosh on the label. Yeah. More kangaroosh... I’m gonna bed now... Get me shome more in the morning... (750ml corked bottle from Liquor on Parade, Kingsford)

I think these guys were having a good time!
Reckon this'll have a couple of people here salivating...

[Kempicus]

Damn right!!!

I once saw a 12 year old boy being shagged by a kangaroo in Adelaide when i was on a snake handling course....funniest thing i've ever seen....his dad was trying to bat the thing off etc...i reckon he should have just kept the camera rolling and bought it out at the kids 21st....

[Stu McKinlay]

My old neighbour got humped by a car-chasing Golden Retriever once. We were about 10. Come stains on the back of his t-shirt and saliva all through his hair, not a good look. We all rolled around the floor laughing (it was pre-ROFL and was outside so was technically not a 'floor' anyway). I can assure you he wasn't laughing... I now realise how traumatic it must have been but I can't help but laugh when I think about it.

[Kempicus]

hahaha i was LOLing up the wahoo when i saw that kangaroo 'on the job' his old man didn't seem happy with my hilarity!

[Stu McKinlay]

I once saw a 12 year old boy being shagged by a kangaroo in Adelaide when i was on a snake handling course....

that sounds like a metaphor for a trip to Thailand...

[Kempicus]

hahahaha me love you long time....

Nah a sanctioned MAF training course, no ladyboys were engaged....

[Stu McKinlay]

did you get up to Malted Apple Beer country while you were there?

I've got a 750ml bottle of each of the golden and the dark in the cellar... they came with a caveat to drink them with the gifter, so I have to hang on to them for another day. A beer mashed with apple juice instead of water... 12%... interesting.

[Reviled]

Thats more than interesting, make sure you let us know what they taste like...

[Reviled]

Man I dont think ive wanted a beer so much just by reading about it :o) haha

[Kempicus]

That is a great rating! :0)