Ocho Beer

For obvious Covid reasons, I’ve been unable to visit breweries as my normal rate.  Thus I’ve been writing about the individual beers I’ve been discovering and enjoying during the lockdown.  However, I have been splurging a bit on craft beer. One such splurge was a mixed case from a fantastic Tasmanian brewer called Ocho Beer. My affinity for Tasmanian beers is well established (see Last Rites, both brewery and Puddle Maker, Bruny Island, etc). And Ocho Beer firmly belongs in the conversation with the best brewers the Apple Isle has to offer.

Ocho Beer is a nomad (or the slightly less PC ‘gypsy’) brewer. So they have the brewers and the recipes (both top notch in this instance), but no brewery of their own.  Instead, they brew their beers at other breweries (which appear to be Van Dieman Brewing and Miners Gold Brewery, both in Northern Tasmania).  So as Ocho Beer is a brewer whose wares I have extensively sampled, but doesn’t have a brewery I could visit even if we all weren’t under lockdown, it was the perfect brewer to write about during our current socially isolated state.

I first had Ocho Beer in a bar on Salamanca Place when I was in Hobart last year for a long weekend away.  The bar (Jack Greene’s for the record) had an extensive craft beer selection. But I clearly remember thinking the Ocho beers I had were easily the pick of the lot.  So ten months later, when I convinced myself that I deserved a nice case of craft beer to help me through the lockdown, I was delighted to find that Ocho had a ‘Lockdown Pack’ for precisely this occasion.

The Lockdown Pack included the seasonal Red IPA, Woolly Mammoth Double IPA, Rainbow Hills Double IPA, and Happy Place Hoppy Farmhouse Ale.  For good measure, they also included the West Street Ale and Fog on the Tamar Hazy Ale from Miners Gold Brewery.  That West Street Ale is actually a really good straight forward tasty ale.  And Fog on the Tamar is even better. In a market flooded with hazy IPA’s, it stands shoulder to shoulder with the really high quality offerings out there. Enough to make me consider a trip out to Beaconsfield next time I happen to find myself in northern Tasmania. However, for the rest of this post, I’ll focus on the beers brewed by Ocho.

The Red IPA was a nice warm, malty, almost caramelly example of its genre.  And how could you now like a beer with that kind of dark ruby red colour.  The malts are clearly the star of the show here. But the big hit of hops sneaks up on you (as much as a big hit of hops can) for a great balance and absolutely delicious beer.

The double IPA’s were most definitely all about the hops (and rightly so).  The Rainbow Hills was probably my favourite of the whole pack. Massive hops, but not to the extent that it drowns out all other flavour.  There’s a complexity there with the expected hints of pine and citrus, but also with a bit going on in the background I can’t quite put my finger on.

The Wooly Mammoth (a joint effort with the also excellent Deeds Brewing), on the other hand, has much more than a bit going on I can’t put my finger on. It has a whole crap-ton I can’t put my finger on.  It’s got the taste equivalent of a distortion-heavy early Pink Floyd song.  A kind of tasty beery fuzziness. But through the wave of taste distortion is a massive undercurrent of hoppiness. This is still a double IPA after all.  There’s even a hint of sea salt at the very end for a very different, but not unpleasant finish.  Definitely one of the more unique DIPA’s I’ve had. 

The Happy Place farmhouse ale was the last one out of the box.  And the name is perfect. Farmhouse ales aren’t necessarily usually my favourite.  Sometimes the combo of wheaty/sour is not quite to my tastes.  But the hoppy kick just balances the whole beer beautifully to make it an extremely enjoyable brew.

If I had to recommend just one, it’d be the Rainbow Hills IIPA.  But to be honest, it’d be hard to go too wrong with any of the options.  Ocho Beer may not have a physical brewery of their own, but jeez they know how to make a good beer.  While actual brewery tours may be off the table for a little while longer yet, taking a stroll through Ocho’s excellent selection was a pretty damn good substitute in the meantime.