A tasting at the Redoak

Last weekend I managed to get myself - wife and kid in tow - down to the Redoak on Clarence Street, Sydney for a few hours. Their selection of craftbrews is exceptional, with a multitude of different styles to chose from, but I found myself particularly impressed with the three described below.

1. India Pale Ale:- This was not available over the bar, given away on the night in 50mL sample tasters prior to its impending release. In my opinion it is a premier example of a British-style IPA, with plenty of hop character - but not enough to be "in-your-face" - and it had a slight residual sweetness to offset the strong hop bitterness. A very easy-drinking IPA, but if you are a fan of the over-the-top Imperial IPA's, you may be dissapointed. Personally, I loved it.
2. Honey Ale:- Being a mead fan, I love tinkering around with the addition of honey to my brews. To date however, I have found it exceedingly difficult to retain a large amount of honey flavour once fermentation has run the gammut, and I had all but given up on it. This particular brew blew me away with its astoundingly strong and fresh honey flavour, and has made me even more determined to brew something similar. Another easy-drinking brew that, despite the large honey flavour, is in no way cloying.
3. Redoak Reserve:- What trip to any microbrewery would be complete without a taste of their signature brew. The Redoak Reserve is a masterpiece of brewing. Malty, and with a thick mouthfeel, this brew lacks any of the cloying sweetness one usually associates with such a high gravity beer - in fact it remains quite dry, with a massive hit of flavour from the chocolate and crystal malts. The dryness is actually so significant that I am inclined to believe some dehusked specialty grains such as carafa-special may be employed. Hops were fairly low, if I recall correctly, or it may simply be that such an obvious forefront of malt subdued any hop character it may have possessed. However, this lack of hop flavour in no way detracted from what was a delightful, warming indulgence.

I had the opportunity to meet with Dave Hollyoak, the owner and brewer, and we chatted briefly about his beers and processes. It turns out we share a love of Belgian style ales and I was treated to a twelve month old bottle of his St Nicholas Tripel-style ale. Once again he not only hit the mark, but exceeded it in terms of flavour and quality.

Now The Redoak is not an inexpensive night out, but nontheless it remained virtually yuppy free for the part of the evening I was there. The prices are within the range of what I would call "average" for such high quality craft brewed beverages, with the exception of the Redoak Reserve which hits the hip pocket at a staggering $15 for 50mL - but damn is it worth it! For a good night of sampling a reasonable range, expect to fork out roughly $100 - $120. For a really good night you could pay upwards of $160, but in the end we don't treat ourselves to such an indulgence every week, so drink up!

Cheers,
TSD

P.S.- Redoak hold a special four course "beergustation" menu once a month, where each course is served with beers specially selected due to their compatibility with the food on offer (or perhaps more accurately, the food is matched to the beers). During the course of the evening the staff will talk you through the history of the beers, and David himself apparently attends to discuss the brewing methods used to create them. These dinners cost about $60, but unfortunately do not come with a glass of the Reserve. I would personally recommend coughing up an extra $30 for a double shot of the Reserve - served in a cognac-style glass - and savour the changes in flavour as the beer warms up in your hand. Apparently, if you don't give the beer at least a half-hour to fully warm up, you might miss some fairly awesome changes in profile. I only got a regular serve (50mL) and couldn't resist downing the lot in the span of only fifteen minutes - I will know better next time.