Beer of the Weekend #14: Tooheys New
Before I go on to the tasting I’d like to let everyone know about a phenomenal young boxer: Yuriorkis Gamboa. I’ve seen him fight three times and he’s impressed me each bout. He’s quick, strong, and smart. He KO’d Al Seeger tonight on Friday Night Fights to raise his record to 11-0. Nine of those wins were by knockout.
Remember Yuriorkis Gamboa. On to the tasting.
The beer this weekend is Tooheys New brewed by Toohey’s Brewing of Lidcombe, Australia.
I did an odd thing tonight at the BevMo! on Beach: I went against my gut feeling. I walked to the back of the store and didn’t see anything interesting in the fridge wall, so I looked over the Oceania shelf. The blue wrap of Tooheys (I’ll get to that later) caught my eye. I had overlooked it once before and it was unavailable the next week, so I thought it was time to take it home. But I didn’t want to make my decision without walking down the western craft brew aisle first. A couple stouts caught my eye. All of a sudden I became thirsty for dark beer. I didn’t want to blow off Tooheys again, especially since I knew it may not be available the next week, so I went against my gut feeling and headed back to Oceania and took the Tooheys sixer to the register. I almost — almost — forfeited my position in line to take it back and grab one of the stouts, but I stayed and brought it home. I knew it wouldn’t be a bad decision. The stouts would be there next week (hopefully).
Serving type: Six 12.7-ounce bottles. Aussi-style.
Appearance: Golden, deep straw blonde with a foamy, bitter head.
Smell: Grainy and grassy, yet I get a slight hint of hops.
Taste: Surprisingly, it’s rather bland, but there’s something unique there. No hops at all; the palette is clean and tasteless. The grains make it taste like nothing I’ve ever had before, and I can’t pin down anything similar.
Drinkability: Lager-like, so the drinkability factor is high. It’s decent and inoffensive. A good daily brew.
Fun facts about Tooheys New:
-Serving temp: 35-40°F. (Damn, that’s chilly!)
-Alcohol content: 4.6 percent.
-Food pairings include barbeque, Indian, Thai, Monterey or Pepper Jack cheese, and shellfish.
-On the Tooheys New website the front, age verification page says: “By entering this site, you acknowledge that you are over the age of 18…” That’s right — the drinking age down under is 18. Why couldn’t I have grown up in Australia?
-It’s all about rugby for Tooheys New. It’s the official beer of Australia’s national rugby team, Super 14 Rugby tournament, and the rugby union Shute Shield league. They also sponsor numerous Aussi horse races.
-Each bottle cap has TWIST OFF ONLY printed on the edge. I’ve never seen that. It also has an Aussi trivia question and answer printed on the inside. My first bottle had this:
Q. What is Western Australia’s faunàl emblem?
A. Numbat.
-Tooheys New is the infamous blue wrapped sixer I mentioned in a pervious Beer of the Weekend post (I can’t find it for some reason). It’s even cooler than the Coopers Best Extra Stout carrying case.
It’s as if all six bottles were shrink-wrapped in plastic. My roommate said, “It’s probably cheaper than cardboard.”
When I pulled apart the cut in the plastic I thought of the leathery eggs in the “Alien” movies.
The Quiet Man’s grade: Blandness is a negative, but uniqueness is a big positive. Shrink-wrap, too. B-.
Remember Yuriorkis Gamboa. On to the tasting.
The beer this weekend is Tooheys New brewed by Toohey’s Brewing of Lidcombe, Australia.
I did an odd thing tonight at the BevMo! on Beach: I went against my gut feeling. I walked to the back of the store and didn’t see anything interesting in the fridge wall, so I looked over the Oceania shelf. The blue wrap of Tooheys (I’ll get to that later) caught my eye. I had overlooked it once before and it was unavailable the next week, so I thought it was time to take it home. But I didn’t want to make my decision without walking down the western craft brew aisle first. A couple stouts caught my eye. All of a sudden I became thirsty for dark beer. I didn’t want to blow off Tooheys again, especially since I knew it may not be available the next week, so I went against my gut feeling and headed back to Oceania and took the Tooheys sixer to the register. I almost — almost — forfeited my position in line to take it back and grab one of the stouts, but I stayed and brought it home. I knew it wouldn’t be a bad decision. The stouts would be there next week (hopefully).
Serving type: Six 12.7-ounce bottles. Aussi-style.
Appearance: Golden, deep straw blonde with a foamy, bitter head.
Smell: Grainy and grassy, yet I get a slight hint of hops.
Taste: Surprisingly, it’s rather bland, but there’s something unique there. No hops at all; the palette is clean and tasteless. The grains make it taste like nothing I’ve ever had before, and I can’t pin down anything similar.
Drinkability: Lager-like, so the drinkability factor is high. It’s decent and inoffensive. A good daily brew.
Fun facts about Tooheys New:
-Serving temp: 35-40°F. (Damn, that’s chilly!)
-Alcohol content: 4.6 percent.
-Food pairings include barbeque, Indian, Thai, Monterey or Pepper Jack cheese, and shellfish.
-On the Tooheys New website the front, age verification page says: “By entering this site, you acknowledge that you are over the age of 18…” That’s right — the drinking age down under is 18. Why couldn’t I have grown up in Australia?
-It’s all about rugby for Tooheys New. It’s the official beer of Australia’s national rugby team, Super 14 Rugby tournament, and the rugby union Shute Shield league. They also sponsor numerous Aussi horse races.
-Each bottle cap has TWIST OFF ONLY printed on the edge. I’ve never seen that. It also has an Aussi trivia question and answer printed on the inside. My first bottle had this:
Q. What is Western Australia’s faunàl emblem?
A. Numbat.
-Tooheys New is the infamous blue wrapped sixer I mentioned in a pervious Beer of the Weekend post (I can’t find it for some reason). It’s even cooler than the Coopers Best Extra Stout carrying case.
It’s as if all six bottles were shrink-wrapped in plastic. My roommate said, “It’s probably cheaper than cardboard.”
When I pulled apart the cut in the plastic I thought of the leathery eggs in the “Alien” movies.
The Quiet Man’s grade: Blandness is a negative, but uniqueness is a big positive. Shrink-wrap, too. B-.
Comments
Post a Comment