Jamieson The Beast IPA

Brewed by Jamieson Brewery
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Jamieson, Victoria, Australia

27/12/2009. 303ml bottle courtesy of Highlandlad - cheers. Pours a deep rose gold with a creamy white head. Pleasant tropical fruit aroma with lashings of caramel... it’d make a nice ice cream. More of the same in the mouth where the caramel doesn’t overwhelm but does slightly over buffer the hop character wanting to get through. Need a little more bitterness and hop flavour. A nice new world IPA that’s very well made, and certainly very drinkable, but just falls short of being memorable.

In general the cyrstal malts are overpowering in this beer, but it has a nice balance with some caramel and tropical fruit notes. Full bodied. Not a hop bomb by any strech, but enjoyable, but lacked the complexity I was hoping for. Still full marks for a well made beer.

As coarse and unrefined as the name suggests, but just the ticket when you need a hop fix. With Murrays Icon now only available seasonally, this strong IPA pretty much has the east coast market to itself. I hope they make squillions. This is fine but there’s room for improvement. This is very much the typical thick, chewy Australian take on the style and I’d love to see a local brewer produce a lean, stripped-back hop monster like Surly Furious. But back to The Beast. I like the cartoonish label - in a world of dull corporate liveries it’s nice to see a brewer have fun. In the glass, this was amber with a low head. The aroma was muted for a beer so boldly named but promising. Toffees, passionfruit and tropical fruit cordial. Thick, chewy palate - nice caramel malt base, very American in feel. Big wallop of hops - lovely. Grapefruit zest and a lively bitter-sour finish. Nice work and a regular on my beer shelves when I can find it. (330ml bottle from Platinum Liquor)

Unbalanced and overpowering with very little character. Murky and dull. ABV comes through. Not good.

Copper, modest off-white head. Fruity hops and resiny aroma. Some citrus too, and gooseberry. Deep toffee flavour with complex hops. Bitter, chewy finish. Plenty going on. The name suggested something less classy. Good.

Bottle. Pours a nice deep orange with a small off white head. Aroma is about resiny hops and some malt sweetness. Quite fulled bodied, the sweet malts dominate originally wth some caramel. Then the hops kick in. Great well balanced beer.

Wow. Now this is good. Well balanced, If a tad heavy on the malt. Floral and fruity nose, unflitered pour producing a wonderful dark orange body. The hops were floral perdominately, and left a nice bittnerness on the back of the tongue. Personally i would tone the malt down a bit (this is full bodied) and amp up the hops a bit and this would become a world class beer. Still very, very good. Well done Jamieson!

pours amber/orange, with solid head, a little cloudy. aroma of citrus hops and sweet malts. lots of hops in flavor, allong with plenty of cara malts even a tiny bit of something dark going on there. Full body, medium carbo. Quite bitter. Yum.