So I've become a stay at home dog dad. My little black lab had knee surgery on Monday which means I have to stay at home for a couple of weeks so that he doesn't do damage to his new knee.
But that means I get to catch up on the beer reviews that I started preparations for over the weekend. And by preparations I mean the drinking and photographing of beers.
This post is my entry into 
I love discovering fantastic breweries and this past weekend showed me two excellent ones. I have a sneaking suspicion that Jetty Road will become one of my top 5 breweries in Victoria. I did a tasting paddle at the brewery on Sunday and was very impressed with their beers.
Jetty Road are known for their American Pale Ale. And for good reason, it's quite simply an excellent pale. Since they opened their brewery to the public in January this year however, they've created a few additional styles of beer including an Amber Ale, an IPA, a Red IPA and a Dark Ale. Unfortunately, the Dark Ale was sold out on the day that I was there so I was limited to 4 beers on my tasting padde.
Jetty Road seem to be huge fans of aromatics in beers. Most of their beers had citrus, tropical or floral notes. Thankfully, this is something I enjoy as well so we were off to a good start.
This beer had strong citrus and tropical fruit aromas and was big on hops on the palate. The bitterness was moderate and well balanced. I can see why they're so well known for this pale, it's excellent in every respect.
I'm generally not a huge fan of amber ales so this one was never going to receive glowing praise from me. The aroma was full of citrus and tropical notes which followed through to the palate. The beer had mild bitterness and low hops intensity. It's a well crafted beer, but failed to excite me much.
This IPA was a little lacking to me. It had citrus and floral notes on the aroma but at what I thought to be a reasonably low intensity. On the palate the hops and bitterness seemed to be lacking a little. I'm used to IPAs that pack a real punch and this one didn't do that. It was definitely an enjoyable beer to drink but not one with the intensity of flavours and aromas that I tend to enjoy.
This was by far the winning beer for me. This is an IPA that packs a real punch. There were citrus and tropical fruits on the aroma, and a hops and bitterness intensity that hits you like a tonne of bricks. I could have sipped on this beer all day and it definitely goes down as one of my all time favourite beers. This beer alone will bring me back to this brewery time and time again.
| Beer | ABV | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| Pale Ale | 4.8% | 4.5 |
| Amber Ale | 4.6% | 3.8 |
| IPA | 6.4% | 4.0 |
| Red IPA | 6.7% | 4.8 |
All ratings are out of 5
