Sunsets

A long, hot, humid day. A crackle of thunder. A thick, still lull after the rain. A burnt orange sun simmers and slips from the sky. Sunsets’ is our very first lager release and, like the first big thunderstorm of the summer, is long overdue. 

What took us so long? Well, we both love them (Nick Italian Pils, Angus anything German) but we wanted to bring something a little different to the table. So, after a lot of back and forth and a few false starts, we settled on a seldom-brewed style, Vietnamese Lager, and enlisted arguably the most experienced lager brewer in the country, John Meehan, to help us bring our dream beer to life.

John, Dan and Brett at Flat Lizard Brewing are a blast to brew with and just so generous with their time and expertise. John, in particular, has probably forgotten more about brewing lagers than I’ll ever know! Simple, crisp and refreshing like a Japanese Lager but with a little more personality thanks to small addition of jasmine rice in the mash and a late fleck of lemongrass in the kettle, Sunsets draws its inspiration from Bia Hoi, the incredibly popular fresh beer sold in pubs, street corners and from the back of motorbikes across Vietnam. Angus, who came up with the recipe, says it best: it’s a cold beer for a hot day.

Light-bodied, refreshing, crushable and deliberately uncomplicated. Sounds bloody good to me!