Victoria Bitter Original Ale

Brewed by Carlton & United Breweries (CUB)
Style: Bitter
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Draught at an awful karaoke pub in CBD, Melbourne (WTF was I doing there?). Pale amber. Sweet with some Pride of Ringwood hops in the nose. Dusty and fruity with clean mouthfeel and low-medium bitterness. Not much better (if at all) than VB.

[3 years vintage - thanks for making this happen Anne] Deep amber with medium off white head. Sweet malty aroma with notes of plums and caramel. Sweet and malty flavor with overripe plums and caramel. Somewhat oxydized but otherwise ages very good.

Bottle at Kookfest 06. Amber, bubbly off white head. Yeasty aroma, highly carbonated, has some caramel. Some hop on end. It’s fine. Some drinkability.

Bottle. had it at a slightly warm temperature, and it actually didn’t taste too bad. Pretty crap, sure, but coming from Carlton and United not that bad. Which, unfortunately, is still pretty bad. Some slight sugary honeyed notes, with touches of some sort of fruit, don’t know which, maybe pawpaw. Fizzy, dusty and metallic Pride of Ringwood character to finish. Pretty smooth, with minimal chunder characters like the regular stuff. Unimaginative, but, yeah, it could have been worse i guess.

Bottle, at Kookfest, September 2006. Amber colour. Not surprisingly, its better than normal VB and does have some hop bitterness although it’s a bit tinny. Sweetish, with some cardboard notes. Mainly inoffensive though and doesn’t drink too badly.

bottled. i dunno, could have been worse. slight pride of ringwood aroma with a bit of compost and faint pineapple. similar flavour to regular vb, perhaps slightly less artificial but still pretty bad

Kook’s Farewell Toast. Sweet, characterless, sticky malt. Mild citric hops. In the style of Sierra Nevada via Little Creatures. But done with a budget in mind.

In the bottle at Coogee Bay. Wow! I really liked this beer. Pours a light amber with a medium ivory head that leaves trabeculae of lacing of such an interesting design. The aroma is roasted and malty. The flavor has an up-front malty palate that is followed by a bolus of toasted caramel. Really good taste to this one. has a fairly nice level of blended bitterness. My bottle’s production date was "19 Jul 06", so I would imagine that the bottle was fairly fresh. Could shipping age be a problem with so many dissatisfied reviews? Regardless, my rating really rocks the boat here.