Razorback Red Ale

Razorback Red Ale is described as a balanced beer with a medium body, four malts in combination provide its rich malty sweetness along with its nutty and biscuit characteristics ... and it’s the roasted malts used in the brew which give Razorback its deep copper-red hue. 

Origin: Smeaton Grange, Australia

Alcohol/vol: 4.8%

Style: Red Ale

Average Rating: 6.75

Every chance you’ll enjoy

Danny’s tasting

Greetings and welcome to the offices of the Smoko where the “in tray” is the bar fridge and the recycle bin the “out”. Today we look at Razorback Red Ale. A quick look at the stubbie reveals a 4.8% alcohol level but more importantly than that it contains gluten. Don’t exactly know what to make of that. I guess if you are gluten-intolerant try just about any other beer ever made because I haven’t heard of it being in anything else ever.

Anyway for those without an intolerance to gluten you may be pleased to know that Razorback has indeed a place in your fridge (in the back left hand corner as it happens, behind the Coopers Pale Ale but in front of the Becks that some bastard left at your house).

I’ve tried this beer both in the middle of a session and on a standalone basis and it’s in the middle of a session that it does its best work. It has a nice dark red colour and a malty taste, quite a unique flavour in fact.

It does a great job in invigorating the taste buds when your 6th to 8th   beer is starting to lose its flavour and you your balance. I tend to think it’s an acquired taste if you have it as a standalone. Well worth a try though and kudos to Snowy Mountain Brewery for trying something different. Not a lot of Red Ales out there in beer land.

On a standalone basis I can only give it a 6 but if you want jumper leads attached to your taste buds at that point of the evening just before passing out, it rates up to a 7.5.

6.0

7.5

Craig’s tasting

As far as unique offerings are concerned, Razorback Red Ale is a market leader, at least in Australia anyway. The brewer’s claims are all correct and it most definitely works for me on a winters day. Contrary to the belief that only a warm drink or shot of Bacardi 151 can warm the cockles of your heart, Razorback makes the consumption of cold liquids on cold days very appealing.

Those who have or who regularly get out to watch their football team, wether it be the local team at the local sports ground or a national team in the biggest stadium will know what I mean when I say beer is at its worst when the world is cold. I can’t think of many things worse than having to sit in single digit temperatures fending off frost bite while I watch pretty much any team I support get hammered. Believe it or not, not even a beer or ten can make that experience any better. Perhaps there might be a huge market for Razorback Red Ale in selling solely at sporting grounds in winter only. For anyone who disagrees all I have to say is, there has never been and never will be a brewery in Antarctica, read into that whatever you wish.

On a final note I want to draw peoples attention to the fact that the Snowy Mountains Brewery by its very nature should be good at brewing beers that work in the cold. So while everyone is reading whatever they can into whatever they want  consider this. If they are good at brewing for the cold, how did they achieve this when it is brewed no where near the Snowy Mountains? At least for now anyway......www.snowymountainsbrewery.com.au

CRAIG

DANNY