🍻Mazzle Reviews Beer (on his Birthday!) - Lobethal Bierhaus - A Beer Paddle?🍻
Beer and Wine Tasting While Turning 40!
Welcome to my second beer review while in Adelaide! Last week, the wife and I visited Adelaide to spend some time with family while celebrating my 40th birthday. As part of the celebrations we visited some local wineries and a brewery in the Adelaide Hills. I love the wineries of the Adelaide Hills, and have visited many of them before. But I had never been to a brewery in the Adelaide Hills before, so was very excited to visit the Lobethal Bierhaus. And it also gave me a great opportunity to write up my weekly #BeerSaturday entry.
The Adelaide Hills is a beautiful place. If you're ever travelling in Australia, it's well worth the visit. The wine regions in South Australia are spectacular, and the Adelaide Hills wine region is often overlooked.
Lobethal Bierhaus and their Specialty Beers
The Lobethal Bierhaus was established in 2007 and has won a few awards since opening their doors. They have 12 different beer styles on tap at any one time. Given that I don't get to visit often, I decided to try one of their 2 beer paddles on offer. I chose the paddle that gave me a chance to try their specialty beers. I love a good beer paddle (who doesn't right?), and this one did not disappoint at all.
tripadvisor.com has a lot of positive things to say about the the Lobethal Bierhaus. However note that these reviews are just as much about the location and food as they are about the quality of their brews
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I deliberately chose the specialty beers as the Lobethal Bierhaus does some pretty creative beers. I was excited to see that they still had their Christmas Ale on tap, which really sounded interesting with its Christmas pudding flavours.
The paddle came with an impressive selection of eight of their beers. All of these beers were very fine examples of the breweries range of beers and creativity in the brewing process. There are beers in this selection that were brewed with lentils, right through to beers that taste like creme brûlée.
So read on! Here's my summary of each beer on the Specialty Beer Tasting Paddle. At the end of this post each beer will be rated out of 5.
The Lobethal Bierhaus Specialty Beer Tasting Paddle
Fresh Hop
This is a very hoppy beer, as you'd expect from the it's name. The beer is very refreshing with hops on nose and palate. The hops are very prominent and dominate the flavour with a reasonably low bitterness.
Lentil Pale Ale
The combination of hops and lentils in this beer is just strange. But weirdly the beer is still nice, refreshing and definitely on savoury side. The lentils come through more in the aroma rather than on the palate. This was a strangely enjoyable beer however maybe not one that I would drink by choice.
Single Malt
This beer sounds like a whiskey but really wasn't. It did have a nice and malty aroma however. The beer was very low on bitterness and hops flavours and was simply a very light and malty beer. This was definitely one of the stand out beers of the selection.
Irish Style Red Ale
This really was just a nice and traditional red ale so I'm not sure why it was considered a specialty beer. It had hops malts on the nose which followed through to the palate. The beer came with more bitterness than the previous beers but was still light and refreshing enough to be a session-able beer. This was quite a pleasant red ale.
Extra Hopped IPA
This is a very hoppy beer both on nose and palate which isn't at all surprising given the name. It was weirdly low bitterness though, which makes this beer quite a favourite of mine. The citra hops added a lovely fruitiness to the beer. I’m a huge fan of this beer. Very drinkable and one that I will definitely come back to again.
Creme Brûlée Dessert Ale
Now we're really getting into the creative selection from this brewery. This really was a strange beer. There were hops, sweetness, and a slight bitterness on the nose with lots of sweetness (think caramel and candied sugar) on the palate. There were definite notes of vanilla on the palate as well but the vanilla wasn't easily identified in the aroma. This really was a strange beer. And even now, 24 hours later, I'm not sure if I enjoyed it.
Liquorice Stout
I'm not a stout expect but this came across as quite a light stout compared to what I have had in the past. The beer was low on bitterness with subtle notes of hops. There were light notes of liquorice on the palate and nose which wasn't overpowering. This was a very pleasant beer. I was quite surprised to find that the liquorice flavours came through in the aftertaste which made for a nice finish.
Christmas Ale
Wow. This beer was a surprise. The beer had complex aromas of sweetness and spices and was a very sweet Christmas beer compared to the ones that I tried during the Christmas season. There were some hops on the nose which was quite pleasant. The flavours definitely included the candied sugar that was included in the brewing process. The spices made this a very complex and enjoyable Christmas Ale and this was definitely the best Christmas ale that I’ve had so far.
The Beer Data
Beer | Type | Origin | ABV | Rating |
---|---|---|---|---|
Fresh Hop | Pale Ale | Lobethal, SA | 4.2% | 3.5 |
Lentil Pale Ale | Pale Ale | Lobethal, SA | 5% | 3.0 |
Single Malt | Pale Ale | Lobethal, SA | 5% | 4.0 |
Irish Style Red Ale | Red Ale | Lobethal, SA | 5.6% | 3.5 |
Extra Hopped IPA | IPA | Lobethal, SA | 5.9% | 4.5 |
Creme Brûlée Dessert Ale | Dark Ale | Lobethal, SA | 7.6% | 3.0 |
Liquorice Stout | Stout | Lobethal, SA | 5.8% | 4.0 |
Christmas Ale | Stout | Lobethal, SA | 7.8% | 4.5 |
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Now that is a "Paddle Pop" for adults only!
It’s the best kind of paddle pop. :D
Weird seeing Lobethal without all the lights. Like Mt Buller in Summer.
I love Lobethal. Such a great little town. And the drive up there was way too much fun. I may have given my passengers a mild heart attack on the way back to the city. :)
Ok. I've determined that we have a very similar beer profile. Low bitterness, high citrus. Bingo. And I would like that Christmas Ale, too, by the sounds of it.
This means that at some point we will need to drink a few together.
Great post, my friend! I will have to write a similar post on a few of my favorite local breweries here...
Cheers, and Happy Birthday!
I need a good holiday. Might have to head over your way. I also have a large amount of wine to work through and need a drinking buddy who will appreciate it.
Thanks for the birthday wish! It was a great day despite the transition to a new decade.
haha I'm in!
Wow, seems like a great collection of beers you tasted! Almost all of them seem interesting. And 12 beers constantly on tap is a great number! Definitely would like to try the fresh hops one and the Creme Brûlée Dessert Ale!
Cheers!
The dessert ale is well worth a try, just because it is so different. I couldn’t do a schooner of one though. The amount on the paddle was all I needed of that one.
The best IMO
I've had the Chimay Blue before and really enjoyed it. That looks like a different beer though. I actually brewed up an ale that was meant to closely mimic Chimay Blue. It turned out really well. I still have about 30 of them left. :)
If you're a beer fan, you should jump on the #BeerSaturday competition and write up some reviews. :)
Wow those are decent pours. Were they butcher glasses?
Maybe you can explain the beer glass name lingo and sizes for each state in another post :-D
That’s not a bad idea. :D
What would you call them? They were like large shot glasses. The picture probably make them look larger than they actually were.
Happy birthday and thanks for sharing! All of those sounds good to me, with the exception of the lentil beer. I like trying different things, but I'm not sure what to think of that one... I'd love to try a licorice stout though. I'll definitely have to be on the lookout for any local breweries that make one.
Yeah the Liquorice Stout was a bit of a stand out. The lentil pale ale was surprisingly drinkable though. I was expecting a disaster when I saw it on the list to be honest. I'll try any beer once though. If someone thought that it sounded like a good idea then there must be something to it.
Even that weird Tonic flavoured beer that I had a few weeks ago had some positive things going for it.
Heh, true. I'm also a fan of giving everything a shot. One of the weirder beers I've had was called "Dillsner". It was a Pilsner that used a certain hop that gave it the flavor of dill. The beer tasted like I was drinking a typical pils mixed with pickle juice. Very strange... but not bad as long as you like dill pickles ;) That being said, it was simply an experimental beer in a brewery's tasting room, so they don't actually produce it for market.
That beer sounds terrible. I like pickles.. but in solid form.
Haha, I actually liked it, but I wouldn't drink more than 1 at a time. My 2 friends I was with were not overly keen on it...
Excellent use of the word paddlely.
I thought so too. :)
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Happy birthday! Great way to spend the day, beer/wine tasting is so much fun!! As is visiting where they're made. Never seen a lentil beer before though, did it have a bit of tartness to it? (i've got some lentil crisps which are really nice and are tarty-ish - they go oh so well with beer). And that IPA sounds amazing, just my kind of brew.
Do you home brew as well?