Homebrew Review: Highetbrau

Good beer comes in many shapes and sizes, and just like a lot of things making your own can be even more rewarding and enjoyable than the commercial stuff. Highetbrau have been in the beer making game for a couple of years now - starting like so many homebrewers with pre-hopped malt and adding sugar. But good beer doesn't just mix itself up like cordial and brewer Jason Highet quickly moved on to crafting his own ales. And what wonderful ales they are!

It today's world of mass produced lagers and commercial craft beers it's easy to forget that the technical process of brewing beer is relatively simple. Boil malt, add hops, pitch yeast and wait. The real trick is in the detail. Highetbrau follow that simple ethos and it's the attention to detail where Highetbrau beer shines. Every brewer knows that cleanliness is next to beeriness and Jason is logical and methodical when it comes to preparing both his beer and his equipment.

You can find out more about Jason's philosophy over at booze bros, but for now I'll just straight into the good stuff. Today I tried 3 beers, Amberbier, Feijoabier and Darkbier.

First the Amberbier. Well it lives up to it's name and it's certainly Amber, as well as being impressively clear for a homebrew. Being an Amber Ale there is tremendous breadth in what the beer might be like, but there's really only one way to find out... There are lovely nutty and caramel aroma's with hints of citrus. The taste is full of caramel and grains with the distinctive bitter sticklebract hops finish lingering. Delicious and very easy drinking!

Then it was time for the Feijoabier. Very pale and tantalisingly cloudy. Clearly it's aroma is of feijoa but what's impressive here is that it smells like it was picked yesterday, fresh and sweet smelling. On the taste, the first thing you notice is light smooth texture with wonderful sparkling effervescence, then comes the feijoa taste which reveals a nice and light malty finish. Incredibly refreshing and this makes me hunger for warm sunny summer afternoons.

Then we meet the Darkbier. The aroma is classic porter - chocolate malt and coffee. In the mouth it definitely has the lighter body of a porter but quite surprisingly the rich depth of flavour that you might usually associate with a bigger stout. Subtle and effective hints of the chocolate malts and a lovely dry finish. 

All up, these beers are fantastic. They all have unique characteristics both reassuring of style and showing the spirit of experimentation that many craft brewers strive for.