Sebastian Reserve 08 is here!
Sebastian Reserve, the new vintage beer from Matilda Bay - is finally here! Following on from the success of our MB21 and Grayston Reserve, this years vintage is even better than the last!
Our third very limited release vintage beer has not been named after a child of the team like our Grayston Reserve, but we are still keeping it in the family. Sebastian is named after the pet duck of one of our Matilda Bay brewers. Sorry Sebastian, with our brewers dedication to beer, there just isnt the time there used to be to play fetch.
Sebastian Reserve is a strong dark wheat beer brewed with 5 different malts and 2 noble hops - tettenanger and hersbrueker.
Fermented using our classic Redback yeast, it has a complex chocolate and toffee flavours with aromas of banana and caramel. Sebastian Reserve is unfiltered and unpasteurised, so it still has some live yeast in the bottle. So we reccomend that you grab a few bottles to put down and try at a later date.
This beer is great with Duck, but Sebastian would prefer that you tried it with blue cheese or venison. Unfortunately, Sebastian (the Duck) is boycotting our beer dinners and is dedicating himself to becoming a professional soccer player.
Click here to see him in action!
So keep an eye on this page and our 'Where to get it' page because these 'out-there' beers are extremely limited realease brews and are only available in a few of our partner venues and for a short amount of time.
Our partner stockists and on-tap venues are listed below or check out our 'where to get it page'
Grayston Reserve 07 - Matilda Bay welcomes two new additions to the family!!!
"A delight for all those who love wheat beer...after one or two glasses it does have that quality which is very compelling and you may find yourself wishing you had a few more in the cupboard."
-Bob Anthony, The Tweed Daily News
"Grayston Reserve caresses the tonsils with a solid, warming finish and shows potential for intensified flavours over time..."
-Ray Jordan & Vic Crossland, West Australian
Grayston Reserve 07 is a strong, dark wheat beer brewed using Matilda Bay’s classic Redback yeast. Unfiltered and unpasteurised the brew still contains active yeast in the bottle which will help this beer age and develop over time.
During the creation of this beer, one of the Matilda Bay team celebrated the birth of his first son and in a moment of ale inspired genius, the guys thought it would be fitting to name the second vintage beer after Jake Grayston Player.
The beer is brewed with a blend of five malts which combined with the yeast fermentation characteristics, gives the beer chocolate and toffee flavours and aromas of citrus, cloves and bananas. In Grayston Reserve a single hop variety, Hersbrucker, has been used as a nod to classic German order and simplicity. This hop imparts a smooth bitterness and spicy, resinous, herbaceous characteristics that complement the yeast spiciness beautifully.
Grayston Reserve is an extremely limited release beer available in 750mL bottles in selected venues nationally and on draught in a small number of hotels in Western Australia - get out and have a taste!
NSW & ACT
Toxteth Hotel, Glebe; Liquor on Parade, Kingsford; Sackville Hotel, Rozelle; Porters Liquor, Northwood; BWS, Gladesville; Leura Cellars, Leura; Cellarbrations at Valentine; Kahibah Liquor Mart, Newcastle; Warners at the Bay, Warners Bay; Figtree cellars, Wollongong.
And in the ACT- Canberra Cellars, Belconnen
TAS
Gasworks Bottle Shop, Hobart
QLD
Chalk and Cheese, West End; Chalk and Cheese, Teneriffe; Spotted Cow Hotel, Toowoomba
SA
Norwood Hotel, Norwood; Royal Oak Hotel, North Adelaide; Melbourne Street Cellars, North Adelaide; East End Cellars, CBD Adelaide; The Duke of York, CBD Adelaide
VIC
Caulfield Cellars,
Caulfield; McCoppin's, Abbotsford; Purvis Wine Cellars, Surrey Hills; Yarraville Cellars, Yarraville; Corky's Liquor, Traralgon; World Beer Shop,
Essendon
WA
Old Bridge Cellars,
North Fremantle; Liquor Barons, East Fremantle; BWS, Alfred Cove; The Queens Tavern, Highgate; City Beach Fine Wines, City Beach; De Vine Cellars, Inglewood; International Beer Shop, Leederville; Cellebrations, Kingsley
Grayston Reserve is ON TAP:
VIC
Gunn Island Hotel, Middle Park; Cherry Tree Hotel, Richmond
Barking Duck or was Brad Barking Mad?!
"The combination of spices complement each other and along with three varieties of hops creates a complex nose that finishes with a slightly tangy beautifully refreshing rush over the palate. Translation: it tastes bloody good".
-Greg Thom, Herald Sun
"The blended spices, hops and two ‘crazy’ yeasts meld into an extremely complex spiced and fuity drink, flavours and aroma beautifully balanced with just a touch of bitterness".
-Vic Crossland, The West Australian
"It may have a whacky name but this is one duck you’ll probably be happy to be out for".
-Courier mail, Queensland
"This is probably not the beer for the average pub-dwelling schooner consumer, but if you’re adventurous, it’s a treat".
-Greg Duncan Powell, Sydney Morning Herald
"Everything is balanced in Barking Duck. The spice, hops and yeasts are in perfect harmony, so nothing overpowers. It delivers a mouth-puckering punch of floral flavours before a tartness and mild bitterness refresh the palate".
-Matt Connors, Time Off
"All Bark, mild bite".
-mX
"With a cloudy appearance and a spicy fruity aroma that refreshes the palate, Barking Duck complements most tastes".
-Jeff Gordon, Melbourne Times
"A secret blend of herbs and spices, plus two hops, two yeasts, oats, wheat and barley results in not some weird porridge but a very interesting spicy beer".
-Who Weekly
"Even though it has multiple flavours coming through, it remains light on the palate and the after taste is fantastic".
- Tweed Daily News
After a short but well deserved coffee break with Crema, Barking Duck was released and judged third in the world for its class at the 2006 World Beer Cup. Although originally planned for a limited release and only on tap, there were countless requests (and the odd threat) to re-release it so in February '07, it was released again on tap and for the first time in a bottle.
Barking Duck was our interpretation of the little known and very diverse Belgian Farmhouse beers, traditionally made by farmers to feed their workers during summer and harvest; nutritious, safe to drink (the water wasn’t) and refreshing.
Made before hops became commonplace in beer so other spices were used as flavouring. It was a time before commercial breweries so each beer was unique to the family farm that produced it.
Barking Duck was produced in very limited quantities and combined wheat, oats & barley, two yeasts, three hops and a blend of spices including cassia bark.
We thought that since we were playing around with some different spices that we might as well get some spicy characters from an unconventional blend of hops. The hops used were East Kent Goldings for bitterness; Czech Saaz for flavour & aroma and German Hallertauer for flavour & aroma. The key thing for us was balance so we kept each of the components at a low enough level so that nothing dominated. It sure was a pretty complex beer.
Although we went non traditional in the recipe, we did stay with tradition on the filtration. We didn’t do any! It was unfiltered and unpasteurised and, a s a result, the beer was a bit cloudy in appearance. That cloudiness was from the live yeast (two kinds were used) cells left behind in the beer.
Complex, refreshing and very fruity in aroma & flavour with mild tartness and a medium bitterness, Barking Duck was a real treat! It had a pale golden amber colour due to the blend of malted wheat and barley. Coming in with an alcohol of 5.5% (abv), it was very drinkable on its own but also worked well with the classic Mussels & chips, Salmon or with a nice piece of aged cheddar.... Mmmm....
CREMA
"Matilda Bay's Crema breaks the mould entirely by marrying subtle coffee flavours with pale malted barley and wheat. And somehow it works- the creamy mouthfeel and restrained coffee hit produces a totally unexpected palate experience"
-Willie Simpson, Sydney Morning Herald
"Crema could ease anxiety for reticent beerists who must wait until noon for a beer. It is a masterstroke: becuase it melds two of Australia's top two sitting-down pastimes drinking coffee and drinking beer"
-Mike Gribble, Adelaide Advertiser
"Crema has a deep lemon-gold colour with creamy smoothness and crisp wheat beer acidity"
-Chris Shanahan, Canberra Times
If you fell in love with our coffee beer Crema, you might want to quickly head out to your local stockist and grab yourself one last bottle because it is about to be replaced with our Barking Duck. Crema is still available in some places but it would be best to call ahead beforehand to make sure.
After the success of Barking Duck (judged third in the world) Matilda Bay’s Brad Rogers went to work crafting the next ‘out-there’ beer – Crema, is a first for the Australian market. As the name suggests, it is a smooth easy drinking beer, brewed with premium organic, Australian grown Arabica coffee beans.
A self confessed caffeine addict, Brad installed his new pride and joy, his very own coffee roaster at the Matilda Bay Garage Brewery. Not content with just perfecting his morning espresso he decided it was time to create a coffee flavoured beer, using his own hand roasted beans.
Crema has a pale light straw colour and is cloudy in appearance from being unfiltered. The beer is hand crafted using malted wheat and barley and fermented with ale yeast, with the addition of Australian Arabica coffee beans to the brew. Crema has a really aromatic toasted, nutty, coffee character and is smooth, soft and creamy on the palate.
