Peter Lalor reveals his top 20 beers to try in 2023
Whether you want a pale ale, a dark ale, a strong ale, a lager, a Pilsner, a sour, a stout or a non-alcoholic drink, then Peter Lalor has you covered. It is, as a beer drinker, the best time to be alive.
Have we reached peak beer? It certainly appears that the phenomenal growth of the past decade has slowed and the craft beer industry has suffered something of a market correction. Cold winds blew through the nation’s small breweries these past 12 months. After years of incredible growth, good brewers began closing premises, merging or just struggling to keep their businesses carbonated. Sydney’s Inner West Ale Trail wends its way round my neighbourhood and in the winter months there were plenty of furrowed brows and half-empty tap rooms. Pat McInerney at Petersham’s beloved Willie the Boatman alarmed locals in September with the announcement that he could be closed by Christmas; the Stockade Barrel Room had closed in March.
Industry consultant Nick Boots attributed the tough times to competition from spirits, wines and ready-to-drink beverages taking tap space in pubs, and economic headwinds that have seen overheads go through the roof. Electricity, fuel, malt, hops and rent all cost more – and these costs have to be borne by the businesses. Tax debts accrued during Covid are weighing heavily.
The good news, however, is that the sun is out now and things are looking up. At Willie’s the community has wrapped its arms around the brewery and the end is no longer nigh. And in November at least one new major business was opening on the Inner West Ale Trail, which traverses Australia’s craft brewing heartland. Word has it that veteran Chuck Hahn and his son will be opening another business in those parts soon.
I’ve been putting together this Top 20 Beer list for 20 years now, and writing about beer for closer to 30 years. When we started out, a new craft beer got the whole country excited. A new ale was a landmark occasion; I can almost remember where I was the first time I drank Little Creatures Pale Ale and Chuck Hahn’s Amber Ale. Home brewing was still a big thing and homies would set about creating the great beer styles of the world because you could not get them here. If we’d tried to put together a Top 20 any earlier there wouldn’t have been enough craft beers to fill it.
When I worked in a pub in Melbourne as a student we had “beer” on tap. One of them. One tap, one beer and the only choice your drinker had to make was the size of the said beverage. There were a few other beers in the fridge, probably an Invalid Stout and maybe a light beer. There were a few Euro lagers, but they were best steered clear of because they’d arrived on the second fleet and were well past their use-by date.
Things might be a bit rocky right now for the people making the beers, but they have never been better for the people consuming them. If you want a pale ale, a dark ale, a strong ale, a British ale, an American ale, a lager, a Pilsner, a Kolsch, a sour, a German wheat beer or a Belgian one, an imperial stout or an standard model, a Guinness or a non-alcoholic drink, then most places have you covered. It is, as a beer drinker, the best time to be alive.
Non-alcoholic beers are disturbingly good these days, too. In Ireland this year I tried a non-alcoholic Guinness and it was very impressive. With a wife who is coeliac, I also get to try all the gluten-free beers – and these, too, have gone to the next level.
I hope you enjoy this year’s Top 20 and that you keep drinking beers, not beer. Do it for your country and the economy.
PALE ALE
Coopers Brewery Original Pale Ale
There’s a pub in my neighbourhood that does great food but doesn’t serve the Green God and one that does serve it but has average food. I often end up at the latter. A beer capable of providing the same comforts as religion or true love, the Pale is a distinctly Australian old-world ale and has proudly held its line through famine, flood, the lager pandemic and world wars. A national treasure (as previously noted).
■ Pale ale
■ 4.5% alcohol, $5 (375ml)
■ coopers.com.au
Little Creatures Pale Ale
Little Creatures, Talking Heads’ best-selling album, heralded the beginning of the end of the outfit whose origins trace back to New York’s famed CBGB nightclub, but the arrival of this beer 23 years ago heralded a new era in craft brewing. Bought out by Big Beer, it’s holding its own among a sea of imitators and is still one of the best pale ales Australia has produced.
■ American pale ale
■ 5.2% alcohol, $6 (330ml)
■ littlecreatures.com.au
IPA AND HAZY
Mountain Culture Status Quo
Had two neighbours who were both huge Status Quo fans when we were in our teens, but their oft-discussed plan for a double wedding with Francis Rossi went down the drainpipe when both were knocked up by a pair of boys who were AC/DC fans. Anyway, young Australians voted Yes to the Status Quo as the number one beer at the Great Australia Beer Festival this year and it is a very good, juicy beer for the tropical hop lovers.
■ New England pale ale
■ 5.2% alcohol, $7 (355ml)
■ mountainculture.com.au
Deeds Brewing Elementary
England, as they kept reminding us during the Ashes, is God’s gift to cricket and we should be eternally grateful for its magnificence … hmmm, could we compromise on accepting it as God’s gift to brewing, and us being eternally grateful for its ales? I love the English IPA style and this one with its reference to Sherlock Holmes and a short story extract on the label is a ripper.
■ English IPA
■ 5.4% alcohol, $14 (440ml)
■ deedsbrewing.com.au
Hop Nation Melbourne Fog
TS Eliot wrote of London’s tongued yellow fog in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Sinead O’Connor’s live version of the October uprising-inspired The Foggy Dew has been on repeat at our house since her tragic death, but Hop Nation’s tribute to Melbourne’s fog takes the form of a hazy pale ale that while neither inspired by poetry nor rebellion is a fine beer for when the evening sky is laid like a patient etherised upon a table.
■ Hazy pale ale
■ 4.8% alcohol, $7 (375ml)
■ hopnation.com.au
Heaps Normal Half Day Hazy
I discovered non-alcoholic Guinness in Belfast this year and have to say it was worth the scorn of the Irish bar staff. By now it has become apparent that this is a growth sector and there are some excellent beers out there in the 0-0.5% alcohol range. Old mates at Heaps Normal got a break on the field in Australia and this new hazy is better than some of the American pale ales getting passed around.
■ Hazy IPA
■ Less than 0.5% alcohol, $4.50 (375ml)
■ heapsnormal.com
-
Slow Lane Brewing Hop Detective
My rule of thumb when looking for a good coffee is never go to a cafe that has “bean” in its title. With beers it is to avoid anything with “hop” in the title, but in this case the rule has proved unreliable. It’s can-conditioned and takes its name from the Mogwai Sherlock yeast strain that’s popular in NEIPAs or Hazy IPAs, two styles that are about as different from each other as a latte is from a flat white. This beer is one excellent hop hit.
■ Hazy IPA
■ 6.5% alcohol, $9.50 (375ml)
■ slowlanebrewing.com.au
-
Hawkers Four Seasons Winter
One of Australia’s most consistent craft breweries, Hawkers set itself the task of brewing a quartet of beers using the same ingredients but for the four seasons. In autumn we got an excellent Red IPA and for spring a Hazy Double IPA. For winter we got this unforgettable 10% alcohol foot-to-the-floor-put-on-your-pyjamas-and-light-the-fire IPA that made me wish it was winter all year round.
■ IPA
■ 10% alcohol, $16 (440ml)
■ hawkers.beer
IPA
BentSpoke Brewing Co Crankshaft
A beer style that shares initials and bitterness levels with a well-known conservative think tank, this west coast IPA is made by the senior research fellows at Canberra’s excellent BentSpoke brewery. Twice voted Australia’s favourite beer and six times voted our favourite IPA, this one has an electoral record that would make any politician proud.
IPA
■ 5.8% alcohol, $5.50 (375ml)
■ bentspokebrewing.com.au
Prancing Pony Brewery Ten Year Beer
Cold IPA emerges from a trend toward using pilsner malts as the base for the traditional ale style and brewing at temperatures more common in the production of lagers to control the flavour profile. For 10 years this little South Australian outfit has been churning out a delightful range of beers with a distinctive malt swagger. They’ve done a great job with this latest style.
■ Cold IPA
■ 7.5% alcohol, $13 (500ml)
■ prancingponybrewery.com.au
STOUT
Coopers Brewery Best Extra Stout
I have tried imperial stouts, oat stouts, oyster stouts, milk stouts, nitro stouts, Irish stouts, pastry stouts, coffee stouts, barrel aged stouts, brown stouts, whisky stouts, bourbon stouts and every combination of the aforementioned, but Coopers’ straight up and down stout is the one of the few dark enough to counter the mood and liberate the light from within.
■ Best extra stout
■ 6.4% alcohol, $10 (750ml)
■ coopers.com.au
-
South Australia Brewing Southwark Old Stout
There was a gang of us back in the mid ’80s who’d hang out occasionally at a semi-squat in Thebarton and indulge in a bit of the local alternative culture. Was introduced then to this magnificently uncompromising stout in a grandpa long neck. Not so interested in the bang-for-buck ratios these days, but still up for the bang. Like its cohabitant at Coopers, this is a foundation beverage. An Australian classic.
■ Stout
■ 7.8% alcohol, $5.50 (375ml)
PILSENER
Badlands Brewery New World pilsener
Out there at Orange the weather gets bitterly cold and that’s perfect conditions really for making a classic bottom-fermenting beer. Wonderful brewery and one that understands the difference between a lawnmower lager beloved of Australians in work shorts and this classic malt style, which they’ve tricked up with Nelson Sauvin hops. Great flavours.
■ Pilsner
■ 5.3% alcohol, $6.50 (355ml)
■ badlandsbrewery.com.au
White Bay Gantry Crane Pilsner
Pilsner – so noble, so elegant, so wise – suffers from its association with the boorish, inbred lager so beloved of louts and The Big Breweries of Yore. For decades craft brewers were unwilling to devote the time (it ferments for longer) or investment into the fine Bohemian malts and Czech hopping that the noblest of beers demands. Things, thankfully, have changed of late and White Bay’s is a brilliant craft version of a classic beer.
■ Pilsner
■ 5% alcohol, $9.50 (440ml)
■ whitebay.beer
BITTER
Hargreaves Hill Extra Special Bitter
At some point Australian brewers slapped the “bitter” label on standard lagers, but traditionally this was and still is an ale that found expression in every corner of Britain, and to this day holds pride of place among the hand pumps of English pubs. ESB was a stronger version for export. The traditional English bitter places more emphasis on its malts (ale, crystal, chocolate) than its hops. A pint of cask conditioned Hargraves would be heaven, but a can of it will do.
■ 5.2% alcohol, $6.50 (375ml)
■ hargreaveshill.com.au
LAGER
Willie the Boatman Rogue Draught
Up at my local they used to call this Marrickville Lager, which seemed fair enough because Newtown had its Newtowner, but now it’s been rebranded and sent out into the big bad world. Another one of those beers designed for those sick of floral notes and tricky compilations, the Rogue has a more complex flavour profile than your average “draught”. A rose by any other name …
■Lager
■ 4.2% alcohol, $6 (375ml)
■ willietheboatman.com
Yulli’s Brews Karaoke Kingu
Thirty years ago, when Michael “Beer Hunter” Jackson released his authoritative Beer Companion, rice was only ever mentioned as an adjunct; in America and Australia brewers used it to keep the beer light and fresh. Over the years it became more closely associated with crisp Japanese lagers and is emerging as a distinct category. A process once sneered at by full malt snobs is gaining respect and this is a great easy-drinking example.
■ Rice lager
■ 4.2% alcohol, $6.50 (375ml)
■ yullisbrews.com.au
Hawke’s Brewing Hawke’s Lager
When the last thing the world needed was another brew pub, these geniuses introduced to Sydney the Bob Hawke Beer & Leisure Centre and Lucky Prawn Chinese restaurant complete with pool room, trophy cabinet and succulent ’70s stylings. (Stand by for the John Howard 1950s Tea House and Ale Rooms.) Like many crafties Hawke’s pumps out a lager for the average punter – but this is one of the best I’ve had. The people’s lager?
■Lager
■ 4.2% alcohol, $6 (375ml)
■ hawkesbrewing.com
GOSE
Sailors Grave Brewing Down She Gose
Gose is a style that has risen from the grave. Originating in the 1300s in Germany, it was a naturally fermented (sour) beer with a notable saltiness as a result of the local water. The last dedicated brewery closed in the 1960s – but enter the craft beer revolution and next thing you know it is internationally popular. There is no better example than this brilliant gose brewed with seaweed and salt from Victoria’s southeast coast.
■ Gose
■ 4.5% alcohol, $6 (355ml)
■ sailorsgravebrewing.com
WHITE ALE
White Rabbit White Ale
Originally an east coast offshoot of Little Creatures, White Rabbit is now owned by the big corporates so you often see its Dark Ale on tap in the big pubs. But the White Ale is harder to find. I’d forgotten how good this local version of a Belgian white ale is. Good flavour profile from the bitter orange, coriander and juniper, it is a reliable easy drinking but interesting beer.
■ Belgian white ale
■ 4.5% alcohol, $6 (330ml)
■ whiterabbitbeer.com.au