By Dion Clark

Newstead put on a pretty great little party last week for the launch of Fresh Eleanor, a wet hopped beer with 100% fresh Galaxy. Held at the main brewery in Milton, affectionately and efficiently known as Milstead. There was a tasting paddle of other’s fresh hop releases, a tour of the brewery, and some serious food. I rubbed shoulders with a veritable who’s who of Brisbane brewing, and I liked it.
 

It was great to see the inside of the brewery. The canning line was running flat out filling cans of Fresh Eleanor (see above). So, I was pretty happy to get stuck in to a can handed to me by Mark himself. Canned ten seconds before. Pretty fresh I guess.
 

The long “grazing table” was an excellent feast. Packed with a massive range of vegetable dishes, dips, pickles, relishes, cheeses, crackers, breads, and select meats. Looked great, and really great quality. Seriously tasty eggplant chips.

The particularly exciting thing about this launch is that it’s just the first of a series of limited editions to go into cans. These are made with printed labels, meaning that the cans can be quickly adapted for special product lines.

Suffice to say I had a pretty fun night.
 

Oh yeah the beer! I really liked that too. It’s not a hops punch in the face, but instead has a lovely delicate tropical fruit or lychee character. It has a slight straw character to it also. All in nice balance with a clean malt backbone and restrained bitterness. Mark told us it was made with a small bittering charge, and then the remainder of hops added at whirlpool.