TALLBOY AND MOOSE HEY PRESTO
A day at the beach isn’t always a watercolour painting – sometimes we get burnt! The same can be said for life's journey. Fortunately, applied correctly (i.e. consumed over a conversation with a mate) this cold craft can be a soothing lotion, helping ease the pain.
Origin – Preston, Victoria
ABV- 4.5%
Size- 440mL can
Style- Lager
On my honour, I promise that I will do my best, to do my duty to my God and the Queen of Australia, to help other people, and to live by the Cub Scout Law. Now, I’m not encouraging underage drinking, or condoning the time when as a young Boy Scout, I snuck a few cans of Resch’s Real Silver Bullets from my dad’s fridge to enjoy with our rollie bark cigarettes. But I can’t pass on the coincidence that the two leaders of my wolf pack had the scouting names Tallboy and Moose.
Given Dan Hall’s towering height of two metres and Steve’s Germain’s Canadian accent, it's clear that the inspiration for naming their brewery didn't come from the movement with over 50 million boys and girls around the world. Yet the connection between good beer and good times outdoors in the woods cannot be denied. Perhaps it was this correlation, combined with the time Germain spent growing up in Ontario that inspired the likes of the Sunray XPA? – the sole beer that was a permanent pour at their brewpub for the first two years. Having been at brewing capacity pretty much since pulling open the doors of their brewery in suburban Melbourne in 2016, aside from the Sunray, it was very much a series of limited releases, with one or two new beers every week. So when doubling their capacity with the purchase of an old Colonial Brewing tank recently, one that offered the opportunity to dedicate production to packaged beer, it was only fitting that one of the first few to be canned was this lager – one that begs to be taken into the wild and shared with friends.
Double dry hopped-with Motueka and Mandarina Bavaria, unlike many of today's hop-heavy offerings the Hey Presto is a light and easy, drinkable and delicious, trail-friendly beer. Pour it into your empty baked beans tin, and the first thing you notice is its amber-tinged, golden hue. The nose is all malt mixed with mandarin, a slight hint of lime and a little stone fruit. The taste hikes up the same trail as the nose, with a super clean, super dry character.
So next time you pack the camping gear for an epic hike through the woods with the Scout patrol, don't forget to sneak in a few of these seemly adventure-inspired tallboys. Oh, and of course don’t crack them until the littlies are tucked up tight in their sleeping bags.