Beer Review – Bee Sting Honey Wheat Beer from Barossa Valley Brewing
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Forty Beers, at the time of my birthday beers gift, seemed so many, yet so few. However, fast forward seven months, and I’m only up to Number 12…. (although there have been a few unauthorised Beer Reviews as well)….
I was going to do another video beer review on the long weekend just gone, however I got side tracked with the amazing storms here in Melbourne. Golf Ball and fist sized hail stones – the likes I’ve never seen before made for some great video footage and excitedly nervous children. Many cars and houses were damaged during this storm – but given recent events in Haiti and Chile, a few dings on the car are nothing compared to their problems.
Beer Number 12 is “Bee Sting” from Barossa Valley Brewing. According to the label it is a Honey Wheat Beer, and I might just say up front that it’s an unusual taste, but it’s certainly very nice indeed.
Bee Sting beer has a slight hint of honey, however it is not really sweet like honey is. It’s got a slight after spice / after taste too, which is probably why the Barossa Valley Brewing website suggests their Bee Sting Honey Wheat Beer goes well with Asian and foods with a bit of spice. It still has the hop taste that good beers have and it is very crisp and light.
It is a very light coloured beer, yellow/golden, and very clear.
“It is 100% all natural, using only barley, hops, a little wheat and a touch of honey. We have created a drink with tantalizingly round flavours, free of preservatives, additives or chemicals,” suggests the Bee sting page on the Barossa Valley website. For those who don’t know, the Barossa valley is about an hours drive out of Adelaide, in South Australia. It is well known thought the world for it’s wine making, wineries, grapes, and all things wine. I was unaware of it’s beer making industry until opening this birthday beer.
“A complex but refreshing beer” according to the label – it certainly does beg for another to be had immediately… the 330ml bottle didn’t last very long before it was emptied…. which I suppose has to be a good sign.
I like it. As with several of the beers reviewed here on FortyBeers.com , I don’t think I’ll run out and buy cases and cases of these little fellas, but, having said that I’m really pleased this Bee Sting Ale has made up a part of my birthday beer stash.
In my humble opinion, I suggest that Bee Sting Ale gets very respectable 8 out of 10 on the Forty-Beers-Cheers-O-Meter.
Thanks once again for visitng FortyBeers.com. I’m certainly enjoying these beers, and writing / videoing these reviews is also proving to be more fun than perhaps it should be….
Stay tuned for another exciting episode. I’ll try not to make bad puns like my “float like a butterfly, drink like a bee” quip during the video.
Thanks,
Matthew
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Tags: Ale, Australian Beer, Wheat Beer
Beer – Interesting Facts 8
In ancient Egypt, two containers of beer were the minimum wage for a day’s labour.
Matthew
Tags: Beer Facts
Beer Review Golden Ale – Red Hill Brewery.
Ladies and Gentleman, boys and girls, welcome to FortyBeers.com – where it is Beer O’Clock all the time….
Especially on this VERY hot Melbourne summers day… 38 degrees celcius / 100 degrees fahrenheit makes for excellent beer drinking weather.
After the last few beer reviews where I broke away from the “birthday beers” format with my Special Guest Beer Reviewer, Simon, I thought it was time to return to the ‘fridge and grab myself another unknown wrapped up cold one.
So, here we are with Birthday Beer number 11, which turned out to be “Golden Ale” from Red hill Brewery, near Melbourne, In Australia.
Golden Ale, at first tatse, was great. And the second mouthful proved to be even better. A subtle and slightly sweet taste initially, it quickly gave way to a more European style hop sensation. It was, in fact, quite golden in colour, and had exactly the right amount of bubbles….. I didn’t count them, so I can’t quite put a numerical value to quantify “extactly the right amount of bubbles”, but it was juuuust right.
Crisp and dry, this Golden Ale is a beer to be consumed…. savoured slowly, quaffed quickly… it doesn’t matter, because either way it tastes fantastic.
Red Hill is an area about an hours drive south west of Melbourne, Australia. It’s in a delightful little part of the world known as the Mornington Peninsular, where there are beach towns and farm land in abundance. Red Hill is known for its wineries – some absolute gems of wines come from this area. Simon ( aka one third of my Forty Beers, and Special Guest Beer Review Dude) and his lovely wife Jen were married at one of these wineries.
The Red Hill Brewery website mentions that they are ”a beer oasis in a sea of wine”. They make a big deal of growing their own hops, and it would appear that they are a destination – cafes, restaurants, bars, brewery tours, etc. While I have never been there, next time I’m in the area I certainly will make the time to stop by and have a look, and most definately a taste. Or two. Or three…… I’d better get my wife to drive home….
I like Golden Ale from the good people at Red Hill Brewery. On the Forty Beers Cheers O Meter, I reckon this is a very worthy 9 out of 10.
Stay tuned for more exciting episodes of FortyBeers.com !
Thanks,
Matthew
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Tags: Ale, Australian Beer
Beer Review Jamieson Beast IPA.
Ahh – another day in Jamieson, where the air is fresh, the atmosphere is relaxed, and the beers are plentiful. I can feel another “non-birthday” beer review coming on.
As mentioned in another post on this beer review blog, the sleepy little bush town of Jamieson is about 3 hours drive north east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 150 Years ago it was famous for gold mining. Now it is famous for, among other things, being the home of the Jamieson Brewery.
(note – I love Jamieson….it is my “happy place”. My wife’s family have a long history here. Jamieson is also famous for many other things – fishing and bushwalking for example – check out http://www.jamieson.org.au ).
My Australia Day long weekend in Jamieson with my family, and that of my friend Simon, was happily spent (partly) sitting under some trees, watching our children play and swim in the river, and sampling various amber fluids and foaming frothies.
Among these beers was the Jamieson Beast IPA.
The striking label on the Jamieson Beast bottle was the first and most obvious way to begin. The comic-style-cartoonesque picture of a muscle bound sabre toothed monster in the Aztec jungles traumatising the fair damsel in distress suggested that this was likely to be a beer that was not to be messed with….. or at least one that is likely to smack you over the back of the head if you aren’t paying attention.
First sampling of this Jamieson Beast was not as “up front” as the label would suggest – it was surprisingly and unexpectedly sweet and a little fruity.
A second mouthful brought the stronger hops flavours to the forefront for both Simon and I, and each mouthful after that tasted stronger. Overall, based on the label and the “IPA” style, I guess we were expecting something much stronger. This was not a bad thing, and in fact I doubt I would have liked it at all if it was any stronger.
A quick visit to the Jamieson Brewery website suggests that they have added “hops, hops, and more hops……we have added six hop additions” to the Jamieson Beast beer. The Jamieson Brewery / Lakeside Hotel website also has a list of stockists where their various offerings can be purchased.
As Simon mentioned in our beer review video above, the “IPA” stands for Indian Pale Ale – which is essentially a style of beer made with extra hops and extra alcohol. In the “olden days”, beer used to go off and spoil during the long ocean journey on the ships between England and India. The brewers (and the sailors too, presumably) at the time were obviously keen to stop this horrible disaster… they discovered that extra hops and extra alcohol would not only act as natural preservatives, but tasted mighty fine as well.
I enjoyed my tasting of the Jamieson Beast IPA, as did Simon. However, we both felt that this is a beer for savouring, not for swilling, and may be a case of quality over quantity. Sitting by the fire on a cool winters evening, preferably with a good meal, sipping slowly might see this beer put to better use – having several on a long, hot day during an Australian summer does not instantly spring to mind. And with a 7% alcohol content, I imagine life would get a little blurred around the edges if too many were consumed too quickly… 
All in all, a very respectable 7 out of 10 on the Forty Beers Cheers O Meter for this beer review. If you are in the area, or find yourself near a Jamieson Beast IPA, then by all means grab it and enjoy it !
Other Jamieson beers reviewed here on Fortybeers.com are:
Jamieson Pale Ale
Jamieson Beast
Thanks once again to the Special Guest of this beer review – the legendary beer connoisseur himself – Simon (thunderous applause)….. Without whom FortyBeers.com would be at least one third smaller.
And also thanks to my daughter, Kathleen, for providing the drumming in the background of the video during the triumphant opening of this beer.
Matthew and Simon
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Tags: Ale, Australian Beer, Beer Review, IPA
