sixpack

Aztec Gold is a gluten-free beer sold by Silly Yaks in Northcote. Recently I have had two in-store, but have been waiting for the local bottle shop to get some in to do a review. I rode out and got a sixer today from the bottle shop just down from the Silly Yak bakery itself. The afternoon was around 28C (historical averages for Nov are around 22C, but with 2005 shaping up to the hottest year is decades the temp today is no surprise) and it’s a ten minute ride or so each way, so by the time I got back I needed one.

The ingredients listed on the bottle are: “water, malted sorghum, amaranth, hops and yeast”, the main problem with a gluten free beer is replacing the malt so the sorghum and amaranth are filling in for today. No preservatives or colours are added, while that still doesn’t get it to the standard required for the sinisterly named “German purity laws” it is good to know it’s being done minimally.

Pouring the beer into the glass with a bit of a splash will get you a nicer head than angling the glass, the head doesn’t last as long as normal beer either but not to worry as I got a sizable head in my trusty frosted glass:

frosted

As can be seen the colour is a nice amber. The taste is hard to describe, one of the areas lacking most in language is the vocabulary pertaining to taste. What can be said is that it’s a very good facsimile of normal beer with a smooth taste. Nutty is probably a word that should also be used with regard to the aftertaste. The malted sorghum and amaranth are definitely at work here to get you a different result, but it’s not too a radical change. The site bills this as a pale ale and I would agree, but perhaps it’s a little heavier than say a tasmanian pale ale.

I used to love my beer, I recently did the gluten challenge (which allowed me to access normal beer for the first time in quite a while), and I did a very brief stint on the Farrar Hall drinking team back in my days at Monash and in the end all I can say about this beer is that it’s very good. However, priced at $25 for a six-pack this is going to have a hard time winning over converts who aren’t coeliacs but I imagine economies of scale will perhaps lower that price to a more reasonable point in the future. That said, it’s worth a gander if you see it on a shelf near you.