Blog — Page 38 of 275

Coastal Stone and Big River Distilling

Manly Spirits - Coastal Stone

Well, this one has been a long time in the making…

Manly Spirits and their quality gins have been on our radar for the longest time and we have been making a beeline every time we discovered a booth of theirs at gin tasting conventions.

Needless to say, when we learned about Manly Spirits having released their very own single malt whisky brand, i.e. what has become known as the ‘Coastal Stone’ Element Series, it was high time to zero in on their endeavours.

Comprised of five unique and distinct whisky styles from five different casks, the Coastal Stone Element Series started out with a  Sherry cask style, with the remaining expressions, i.e. shiraz, port, bourbon, port and pinot meant to be released over the next couple of months, with the common denominator being that the first fill casks have matured for an average of four years with the barrel selection from Tasmania and South Australia having been informed by Scottish policies. The nomenclature of the series is a telling one as the casks have intentionally been exposed to the unique climate, the maritime elements and raw nature of Sydney’s Northern beaches, with the ingredients sourced locally, thereby adding a distinct grain to glass approach. 

The first expression of the Coastal Stone Element Series I got to acquaint myself with was the Sherry cask, the bouquet of which tingled my nostrils with cherry,  rich dark cocoa tinged notes and cinnamon spicy highlights courtesy of the Seppeltsfield first-fill Apera and Sherry Casks.

What was promised on the nose, was continued on the palate with especially the cherry and chocolate nuances materializing on the top of the mouth with an elegant viscosity, backed by dark fruity flavours and a welcome dose of vanilla.

The elongated finish meanders between stone fruity and oaky territory before culminating where the journey started, i.e. dark chocolate.

Next up was the Bourbon Cask expression, which won me over straight away with its vanilla and burnt biscuits exerting their appealing magic upon uncorking. 

On the palate, things open up and while vanilla still takes on centre stage, it is flanked by apple, borderline cidery, warm honeyed notes, before being rounded out by a sweet and oily finish, set against an interestingly oaky and leathery component. 

A well rounded early highlight with an immense level of depth and a perfect companion for a boilermaker in combination with a Mountain Culture IIPA.

While I find the Pinot and Shiraz expressions intriguing , the highlight of the wine casks informed variants was the Seppeltsfield Tawny Port casks based Pavlovian response evoking Port expression.

At cask strength, this little number is a tour de force in vibrancy: 
An orangey, creamily sweet nose opens up a spectrum that ranges from stone fruity nuances to cherries and vanilla cake, which with the first sip seamlessly transitions onto the palate by adding peppery and nutmeggy highlights that sit against a backdrop of a foundation comprised of raisings and bourbon vanilla.

The beautiful, near endless finish leaves one lusting for another dram with its tannic and sweet highlights that reverberate and linger with spicy remnants. A hell of a delicious dessert dram.

My only grievance is that due to having had mini samples, I have yet to encounter Coastal Stone’s award winning designer bottles, which are fabled to have eroded contours of weathered cliffs and capped with a sandstone stopper.

Big River Distilling

Within the five years of its existence, Canberra-based Big River Distilling has established itself as a veritable heavyweight on the firmament of Australian craft gin distilleries, which is not further wondrous given the Chief Beverage Engineer’s expertise and highly developed palate in the realm of winemaking and viticulture, which served as a foundation from which he set out to reinterpret and innovate what gin could be.

If I had a pinpoint the DNA of Big River Distilling’s approach to channelling its alchemy in the realm of artisan gin creation, I would condense it to the middle ground between citrussy, savoury, herbal and floral notes in a bid to pay homage to the Canberra terroir as well as to local botanicals , thereby counterpointing alcoholic notes and the endeavour to have it culminate in a crisp finish. 

The fact that Big River Distilling’s bottles are easy on the eye with labels being created by local artists does not hurt either.

My first exposure to Big River Distilling was via their core expression, i.e. the Canberra Dry Gin, which is essentially a nod to the much lauded, tried and tested London Dry style. Infused with botanicals from the Canberran environs, it adds an idiosyncratic note and sense of place and character to it.

With juniper notes assertively taking centre stage, flanked by the grounding, earthy characteristics of angelica root, liquorice and cassia, the subtly nuanced citrussy highlights are derived from a melange of lemon myrtle, oranges, coriander and lime.

What I love about the Canberra Dry Gin is the well-calibrated spectrum of flavours, with the aforementioned being further accentuated and rounded out with Australian mountain pepper leaf, which adds a distinctly spicy and savoury dimension without being overpowering. 
The remarkably long finish culminated with the slightest hint of cucumber, leaving one lusting for another sip.

Given the complexity of the drop, I find that adding tonic is only detracting from the experience and I can only hope that Big River Distilling is considering to branch out into the creation of their own whiskey range soon.

The Formative Years – Flipside Fanzine

In the late 1980s / early 1990s, they were two American punk rock fanzines that served as global sources of information and de facto bibles of the scene with their consistent presence covering the ever-changing underground communities:  Maximumrocknroll and what was originally incepted in 1977 as Los Angeles Flipside. 

With the common denominator of both outlets was the fact that they had a cast of highly opinionated contributors, Maximumrocknroll adhered to its fanzine aesthetic throughout its existence, while Flipside morphed from a black-and-white photocopied fanzine released in an edition of 1,000 copies to a widely available professionally published veritable magazine with glossy web offset printed covers, eventually growing big enough to warrant being printed in both the US and Germany to be distributed locally across two continents.

Inspired by one of the first independent labels on the West Coast, i.e. Dangerhouse Records, Flipside Records started alongside the fanzine and left an indelible mark with not only its 7” releases but especially the fantastic 12” compilations, with the three volumes featuring a wide variety of both established and up and coming punk bands accompanied by a newspaper style booklet with photos and lyrics.

Over ten volumes, the video arm of Flipside started out releasing live footage along with interviews of bands  Big Boys, Social Distortion, Final Conflict, Corrosion of Conformity, The Dicks, Adolescents, et cetera, which offered for many European scenesters the first occasion to actually experience some of the current trailblazing bands in their natural habitat.

Summa summarum, Flipside was one of highly desirable  zines at a time where information was hard to come by and updated one on punk scenes in all the cities of the US. I never not read it cover to cover, took notes and by snail mailing the bands and labels I found out about, became part of the of the scene myself.

For anyone not familiar with Flipside, I recommend the recently Ten Year Anniversary Paperback, which compiles scans of issues one to fifty.

When Aaron dreamt up the Search/Play/Repeat concept it focused on what he was listening to that month. Sharing the joy of finding old music, new to you.

Well, I’ve kind of coopted it when I take the reins, but so it goes. Each writer at SPB does our own thing.

And in April’s playlist, I’m sharing songs from a variety of things that SPB has written about, or in a couple cases, just stuff that’s showed up in the mail and we dug it enough but didn’t have time for something more in-depth.

In short, if you like something here, seek out more by the artist of course. And maybe play around with our site search function to read more.

The Formative Years - Sick Of It All 

In the 1990s, any band that was able to lay claim on being remotely associated with the state of New York was more than warmly welcomed with open arms in Germany, thanks to ZAP magazine and its efforts in relentlessly championing bands from New York.

I quite liked SOIA’s self-titled 7” on Revelation Records as well as their debut album Blood, Sweat and No Tears on Relativity Records and was quite excited to be able to hitch a ride to see them live in 1991. The show was a lot of fun and I made sure to check in on them whenever I could as they evolved, became more successful and an accomplished tour de force in the realm of live shows. 

Case in point, Sick Of It All’s live incarnation at Rheinkultur 1994, which to this day remains one of my funnest concert experiences: After playing a set at another big European festival in the Netherlands, SOIA ran from the stage, jumped on their bus, drove to Bonn, ran straight to the stage and burst straight into belting out songs, most of which had appeared on their 1992 album Just Look Around.

Capturing the band between their Revelation Records / In-Effect Records days and the signing of their first major label deal, Just Look Around remains a timeless masterpiece that has withstood the test of time with not merely its well composed, compact songs, but also the polished production which nuancefully accentuates SOIA idiosyncratic aggressiveness, with drummer Armand Majidi providing the foundation, thereby elevating SOIA’s song-writing into new spheres. 

Having evolved and determined to not merely release a Blood, Sweat And No Tears part 2, Just Look Around had it all – the underlying raw simplicity the clobberin’ Alleyway Crew sound became known for, more thought-through, energetic song-writing chops infused with catchy guitar harmonics, a myriad of beautifully drily composed, varied breakdowns and the singing style shifting quite a few notches towards screaming.

Thus Let Us Drink Beer – Philter + Akasha Projects

As a beer lover there are few things as tempting as meandering through Marrickville on your way to a gym session, trying to avoid the allure of the myriad of craft beer breweries en route, most of which we have already covered as part of this series.

Philter and its former yoghurt factory brewpub HQ is a prominent etablissement on my daily journey an one that has been on my radar for the longest time, not only ever since I tasted their immensely quaffable XPA in 2018 and learned about the feat that with Samara Füss, they had installed one of the most experienced head brewers that terra australis has to offer at the helm of fine-tuning the nuances of their brews, but since their brewpub and overall decidingly stripped back, retro-style aesthetic is one dedicated nod to Australiana from the 1980s.

Needless to say, when I learned about Philter giving birth to limited IIPA and Double Red Ale releases to complement the line-up of their accolade decorated unfiltered sessionable emissions and living up to their tagline “Seductively Beer”, I could have not been more taken with what materlized on my palate.

Truth be told, I find red IPAs an acquired taste and for every devilishly delicious discovery, I come across a handful feeble attempts of trying to perfection the balancing of bitter-, malty-and hoppiness. 

Enter Philter’s Double Red Ale.

Rusty in colour and clocking in at a solid ABV of 8%, upon pouring one is charmingly overwhelmed by an avalanche of a powerfully aromatic melange comprised of zesty and passionfruity highlights, which dance on a solid foundation of resinous pine and biscuity malt flavours, culminating in an artfully calibrated distinct bitterness.

Given the aforementioned experience, I could not wait to try Philter’s IIPA.
Where the Double Red Ale trumps with a heavy riffing on bitterness, the IIPA sits comfortably in the sweet end of the citrussy hop spectrum, informed by the quadriga of Mosaic, Citra, Sabro and Idaho 7, the bitey flavour of which are further accentuated by syrupy malt notes. 

In essence, this babyh encapsulates everything I love about a well-crafted IIPA – bold, heavy on the resinous components yet balanced enough to let shine through more subtle bitter and tropic notes.
With an ABV of 7.7%, it lends itself as a borderline perfect accompaniment to a dram of cask strength Islay whisky.

There are Australian craft beer breweries and then there is…Akasha.

If you follow this series, it would not have gone unnoticed through our previous laudations of Akasha Brewing that we harbour a weak spot for the Five Dock based brewers and the way in which they channel their alchemy in crafting Pavlovian reaction evoking hoppy emissions.

I do love Akasha Projects, which is the arm of their operation that complements the core range with more experimental beer, most of which expertly dial things up to eleven in the respective realm and every year around Easter, I am holding my breath for both Akasha dusting off their signature beers as well as creating new bold expressions.

Akasha’s Wooden Leg IIIPA is exactly what the name would have you think – an over-the-top wonderful tour de force in hoppyness. Essentially, it is an homage to a wooden chunk that holds up Akasha’s old cold liquor / water tank and a nod to the spirit of ingenuity that possessed to their head brewer and his willingness to experiment.
If you look up an accomplished IIIPA in the dictionary, chances are that there will be a photo of Wooden Leg to illustrate a great example of how the best of the triumvirate of Centennial, Amarillo and Simcoe hops is combined to result in an expertly balanced fruity manna with piney highlight that rests comfortably against a backdrop of solid bitterness. Yum x 3.

Another revamped Akasha Project Number that got the 2022 treatment is the Triple Fire Amber Ale, which is again a telling name. Amber in appearance, Centennial and Cascade hops for the foundation for what flavour-wise lands solidly in pronounced malty and biscuity territory. Clocking in at 10.5% ABV, the Triple Fire is dangerously moreish with its caramel character that is further nuanced by citrussy highlights. Another winner that craft beer aficionados are bound to lap up.

Akasha Project’s most curious release however is a Sour, an Imperial Berry one to be precise: I dig a good Sour but more often than not, which it would pack a bit more of a punch, which is exactly what this expression does. With a tartness and acidity that is exquisitely calibrated based on vanilla, lactose and oat notes and counterpointed by a berry informed sweetness, this is an exercise par excellence in a lively sour that proves to be a perfect companion for a dram of Ardbeg 10. 

Word around the campfire has that all three aforementioned expressions, especially the Imperial Berry Sour, are very limited in nature so do not blink and get on it.