Little Creatures Australian Pale Ale 5.2%

The most popular beer in the craft beer sector worldwide is Pale Ale.  This humble beer originated in England, transformed in the USA through the addition of citrusy West Coast hops and now has spawned a number of local styles of Pale Ale around the world.

In faraway Australia we tend to think of people only drinking vast quantities of Fosters, Castlemaine XXXX and other lagers. Whilst these beers account for most of Oz’s beer consumption there are now over 200 craft breweries in Australia. The growth in craft brewing has been inspired by the locally grown Galaxy hop which has a powerful tropical fruit/citrus aroma and flavour.

One Australian craft beer that has made its way to England is Little Creatures Pale Ale which is a fine example of the Australian pale ale style. It pours a fine pale orange colour and has a tropical fruit aroma.  The taste is very pleasant with apricot, orange and grapefruit coming through. If you find some American style IPAs a bit too citrusy then this could be the beer for you. The beer is made with whole Galaxy and Cascade hops and is bottle conditioned making it a real ale.

Little Creatures Brewery was formed in Freemantle, Western Australia in 2000 and is now part of the Lion Nathan group.  They also brew Amber Ale, Pilsner, Bright Ale, IPA and Summer Ale.  They have recently expanded and opened a second brewery in Geelong, Victoria to serve the Eastern side of Australia.

Australia does not have a distinct local cuisine but has borrowed from UK, USA, Italy and the Far East. Probably the most typical Australian dish is a minced beef pie served sitting in a dish of pea soup which is known as a “Pie Floater”. Whilst Australia lacks culinary sophistication it has always had a thriving music scene with many local bands achieving global success such as The Bee Gees, Little River Band, INXS, Crowded House and of course heavy rock giants AC/DC. My personal Oz favourite are Men at Work who took the world by storm in 1983 when their debut LP Business as Usual got to No 1, not only in Australia but also in the UK and USA.  They did release a couple of other albums and then seemed to retire from the music scene.

So pop down to your local chip shop and get a meat pie and chips (forget about the pea soup) pour yourself a lovely glass of Little Creatures and listen to Men at Work perform,  Down Under which got to No 1 in the UK singles chart in 1983 and was also on their No 1 LP Business as Usual.

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