Fat Yak

Light amber coloured body with some bright copper tints and a very thin white head. Aroma of light fresh hops with more of a malty kick and a light floral and perfumey scent. Light to Medium-bodied; Pungent hop notes with a little caramel and perfume kick shows well with a good malt backbone throughout. Aftertaste shows more malt and caramel than hops, but also some interesting subtlties show through as well. Overall, an okay beer without too much of a unique flavour or one resembling an APA much - more of a typical amber ale. I sampled this pint on draught at Cookie in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on 02-January-2010.

Bottle at Cloisters tasting ... Thanks to Barry for this one ... copper ... light toffee hop nose ... dull fruity ... little toffee ... boring

From a 345ml lottle on 24/1/2010. Has quite a distinct floral, fruity aroma, which is reflected to some extent in the flavours which present on consumption. It’s downfall is that the truckloads of hops mentioned on the bottle don’t fully materialise, thus making it slightly too sweet, and a little one dimensional than it should be. Quite drinkable, but not a patch on Matilda Bay’s Alpha Pale Ale. Total score 3.1.

Re-rate on 12/5/2011 (bottle): Think I was just a bit generous with my previous rating. This is certainly on the bland side for an APA and just okay. However, it is curiously tastes heaps better on tap (more like 3.3-3.4). Rating 3.

Re-rate 29/2/2016. Bought a case when I couldn’t find my regulars at a decent price. A touch more underwhelming than I recall. Again, it usually tastes quite a bit better out of the tap.

Bottle. From the advertising I expectedto dislike this, it didn’t shout out quality beer. I was wrong. Whilst it’s not a great beer, it’s pretty decent. It’s clear gold with a passable off white head. The aroma is a pleasant mix of honey, caramel and flowery hops. The palate is unusual as the body is medium whilst the carbonation gives it a creamy mouthfeel. The taste is where it gets diffilcult. The initial taste is great; sweet malty foretaste, with some fruitiness making a nice transition to a reasonable hoppy bitterness, but then it all disappears. The taste collapses in your mouth when you expect the hoppy bitterness to give a long finish. I guess this may be a good idea for a session beer, but it left me a little disappointed.

Stubby. Pale amber with a dense off-white head. Faintly metallic citrus and stone fruit aromas. Thin body with slight early hop bitterness. Modest dry aftertaste. Very lightweight for the style. But I guess a better-than-usual bog-standard Australian session beer was what they were going for here and on that measure, they’ve done well. A gateway beer. [2.8] Coming back to this I didn’t do it as many favours as I recalled. Kind of dull caramel, but there’s some stone fruit and citrus. I don’t mind the modest flavour and it’s well-balanced. But it’s very watery.

ON-TAP: Pours gold/amber, good 2cm head shows reasonable retention and decent lacing.Key feature of this beer is the pungent cigar-like hops aroma that emanates from the glass, almost like a bag of fresh hops just opened for a homebrew. The expected floral hops and sweet malt are also present.Taste isn’t as impressive, some of the hops transfers through, but otherwise it’s just sweet malt and an incredibly weak (for the style) bitterness. BOTTLE: Aroma lacks the cigar character the tap version has, replaced with a green grassy aroma. Perhaps this is just due to freshness. Taste is a lot more malt dominated, a has a slightly more potent hoppy bitterness. More like an English Pale than an APA.