Bondi Red Natural Ale

Nice flavor & aftertaste in this ale. Crisp & pleasant. Good going down. Nice head & defintie keeper!

Not so much a microbrew as a marketing exercise. The ’Bondi’ brand will mean it should sell moderately well to tourists and novelty-seekers. Best bits: preservative-free; reasonably inviting aroma with some herbal and tobacco notes. Worst bits: thin body; abrupt finish; and as Mullet observes, it’s not red. Better than the same brewer’s Blonde but only marginally.

The Bondi Beer Company is a new brewery from Bondi (Sydney), who in short don’t make a great beer. It was a darkish amber colour with a bit of a hazy appearance. The aroma and flavours weren’t great, nothing really stood out, except one large fault, the levels of diacetyl were way too high, one could drink it, but by the end it was getting hard. Maybe they will improve with time, who knows. Considering that they plan it to be a direct competitor to James squires amber ale I think they have a long way to go.

Very orangey colour that doesn't appeal. The head lasts for a short time leaving the glass looking a bit flat and muddy. A bit of vegetable in the nose but not a lot of anything else. The taste is poor and the wheat probably detracts from the body of the beer but who really cares? It is a thin and flavourless beer. I wish, I really wish, that we could have some brewers actually thinking about the essential ingredients of beers, and follow up with a real attempt at breweing something with character. I am getting tired of paying $4 for crap.

Smells dodgy - canned tomatoes, rust. Much more flavour than the Blonde - caramel, a hint of chilli flavour (seriously) but not the heat and just-perceptible bitterness. Oh yeah, this beer ain't red. It's light amber at best.