Drinking with Possibly Australia's best brewery - Range Brewing

Australia has a number of beer awards - one of the most important for craft brewers are the Indie's - run by the Independent Brewers of Australia. They reward breweries and beers which aren't owned by big multinational brewing companies (Kirin and Asahi) which have about 90% of the beer market in Australia.

No they are about the smaller breweries would are making great beer which is more focused on ingredients and taste that profit margins.

And one brewery that took out three awards at these year's ceremony was Range Brewing (winning champion beer, best brewery in the state of Queensland and Best small or medium brewery in Australia) - They are based in Brisbane, which is a about 1800km from my house and their basic schtick is that they bring out 4 new beers, every Friday at Noon online and in their bar in Brisbane. They are generally sold out online by about 1pm and by the end of the weekend in the bar. So these aren't the easiest beers to find.

Although last week they opened a bar in Melbourne, about 6km from my house which is very very exciting - and they will be releasing the beers concurrently at both venues so I see a visit in my near future.

But back to the two beers my lovely brother managed to secure for me last week online.

This is South check West Coast IPA - and from the label you can get a pretty good idea of the type of brewery these guys are, this is a laid back Scandi simplicity to the whole things.

The beer itself is stunning, which I think you can tell from the photo - It is Golden colour, clear (I've forgotten what a clear IPA looks like) with a pure white head. It is wonderfully balanced. Sometimes West Coast IPA's can tend toward 'blow your head off with hops' but this one is very, very drinkable it has classic hop flavours, not too fruity but also not to resinous - really a gorgeous beer.

This one is perhaps a bit more of the moment. It's a Double IPA, and as you can see strays into the cloudier, loctose infused world of NEIPA's - It is bif on fruit based hops, perhaps not as good as the West Coast IPA but still a very very good beer, balanced, refreshing, if a little on the 'everyone is doing it now' side of history.

Of course the problem with a brewery that brings out new beers every week, that sells out every week means that I can't go back a buy more. I tell you what though it's one hell of a business model.

This post as always is part of #Beersaturday organised by @Detlev - you can read other people's beer stories in the comments of the main post

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