When you brew beer in a farming region the world is your oyster – or in Mike Webster’s case, your sheep and your cow.
The Scenic Rim brewer has created a new Scenic Rim Brewery Milk Stout, brewed using the whey of sheep milk from Towri Sheep Cheese Farm and whey from the cows at Tommerup’s Dairy Farm.
Mike knew the farmers, Carolyn Davidson and Kay and Dave Tommerup, from local events and over the past 12-months they brewed an idea for a new collaboration to coincide with Scenic Rim Eat Local Week.
“I was approached by Carolyn at Towri to brew this milk stout,” Mike explains.
“They could only supply the whey. Tommerup’s said they’d also like to be involved so I did some research with a brewery on Bruny Island Tasmania. They have developed a similar milk stout with success.
“Normally you put lactose in your beer, in a powdered form, to add smoothness and take the sharpness of the roasted malt away.
“What we’ve done is use the lactose that exists in the whey of the cow and sheep milk.
“I was pretty scared originally as it has a fatty content, but it seems to be working well. Flavour-wise it’s brilliant. Like a chocolate milkshake but only better.”
Mike says the beer is 4.8 per cent alcohol and is very dark in colour, with a smooth head, similar to Guinness.
“It has a very smooth flavour, chocolatey. The mix is close to equal measure of cow and sheep whey. The concept was formed 12 months ago but I got really serious about three months ago. I love it, it’s become my favourite beer; a real winter beer.”
Another Scenic Rim brewer, Chris Herring of Beard & Brau Farmhouse Brewery, is finalising his Eat Local Week brew, a Dragon Fruit and Finger Lime Weisse Sour.
The brew features finger limes from Canungra Creek finger lime farm and dragron fruit from Tamborine Dragon Fruit Farm.
“The dragon fruit and citrus goes well together,” he says.
“The sour beer provides an old-fashioned lemonade characteristic – it’s like a dragon fruit/finger lime icy pole.
“It’s quite a light beer but has that sourness to it. We added the fruit halfway through the ferment.”
The Dragon Fruit-Finger Lime Sour will be on tap at The Pavilion Garden Bar at Tamborine Mountain for the 10 Years of Beer event on July 6 and available at the Winter Harvest Festival Aratula on July 8. It will also be available at various Gold Coast and Brisbane bars during July.
Scenic Rim Brewery Milk Stout will be on-tap at the Winter Harvest Festival at Aratula July 8, and over the bar at Scenic Rim Brewery at Mt Alford.