Grand Ridge Brewery - Supershine

This is the Gippsland brewery’s extra strong ale, and by that its not your poncey 7% but a whacking great 11%. On pouring its a dark burnt wood colour, with light carbonation almost as if the bubbles are fighting through the liquid to escape. The potency of this could be seen by one line of bubbles zipping around as though they had drunk some of the ale and had forgotten which way gravity works!

The first sip is a powerful one. Malt and caramel with a punch in the mouth and a treacle syrup aroma.

In the mouth it is smooth and interestingly sweet. Oddly enough this beer makes me think of roasting a chunk of meat as it would make an excellent accompaniment to some beer or lamb.

At £2.40 a 330ml bottle it sounds a ‘doable’ price, however out here where bottles are usually $3 it is over double the usual figure paid. I bought four bottles, the aim being to add the other three to the collection and try them in the coming years as at 11% it ought to do well.