A few years ago I looked at the range of beers coming out of Sydney’s Endeavour Beer Company.
I remember talking via emails with the brewer and part owner Andy Stewart at the time, discussing how these beers could hold a little bit of bottle age, and evolve in the bottle. They had sent a couple of samples of their 2010 and 2011 releases of each of their two beers at the time, the True Vintage Pale Ale and the True Vintage Amber Ale, with the range having expanded since.
I’m willing to put my hand up and say that I was probably a little mistaken with the Endeavour True Vintage range, and it took me while to get my head around their beers. You see I decided at the time that I enjoyed them so much I put a few cartons of their 2011 away, trying them over a period of time. However they didn’t hold on for as long I would hope, the 2011’s only held for about two years, while the last of the 2010’s flavours fell away about 6mths after I cellared them. I was annoyed that the beers didn’t hold as long as I had expected. I enjoy seeing how cellared beer can evolve, how, if you’re patient and put a couple away for a few years you will be rewarded with complex secondary characters due to the brews being bottle conditioned (and don’t think I’m not aware that I could be classed as a bit of a tosser for cellaring beer).
What’s taken me so long to get my head around them is that wording of “vintage”. I fully expected them to hang in there for a few years, much like the Coopers Vintage or Crown Ambassador would, but that wording reflects the fact that the beers are made with ingredients sourced each year and will reflect yearly variations in the ingredients, not the fact that the beers will carry vintage aging. So if that particular year had a higher than usual or later than usual rainfall, the hops may not be the best, or if there was a late wet the barley may not carry the same nuttiness when its malted and roasted. It’s much like how a wine can vary from year to year, vintage to vintage with its flavours, one year a red wine will show spice and cedar over fleshy dark fruits, next year it will have a greenish-sappy edge to it with unripe almost tart fruit. One year a $15 wine will carry well for 5 years, the next it’s a drink now to 12mths option.
And that’s where I’ve gone wrong with them. I haven’t really treated them as being a TRUE VINTAGE beer. I haven’t accepted that there will be variations in them.
This point was brought home to me a few weeks ago when a mate dropped by with a couple of the Endeavour brews to look at, and I really enjoyed them. It was like discovering those 2010 and 2011 beers all over again. Yes the beers still only hold two years in them, but if you can get past that mindset, the idea that “vintage” doesn’t equate to “aging ability” you will be reward with some of the most interesting flavours in craft beer, flavours that evolve from lemon/lime to tropical and pineapple, or biscuity malts maturing to dark fruit cake.
Endeavour is based in Sydney and founded by three good mates, founding brewer Andy Stewart, Ben Kooyman and Dan Hastings. They released their first beer in 2010 wining a swag of awards both nationally and internationally and recently opened the Endeavour Tap Rooms Sydney at the rocks.
#endeavour
The easiest three to find in FNQ:
Endeavour Vintage Beer Co. Reserve Pale Ale 2015 – a pretty interesting example of the new style of Australian Pale ales this, interesting tropical notes, along the lighter pale pink tropical fruits, guava, dragonfruit, mamey sapote and herby notes. Those flavours are wound around a malt backbone balanced with good bitterness, long tasty finish to it too.
Endeavour Vintage Beer Co. Reserve Amber Ale 2015 – a malt driven, dark amber with copper edges to it in the glass, light caramels and toffee notes on the nose with a touch of dried fruit, on the tongue it shows strong earthy malty notes balanced nicely by the bitterness. Great toasty finish on this too.
Endeavour Vintage Beer Co. Growers Golden Ale 2016 – They’ve packed a bit of flavour into the 4.2% ABV, very clear style of beer this, its pale lemony-gold colour, herby hoppy tropicals and citrus notes on the nose with late spicy notes. The flavour is light but quite flavoursome, balances the malts with those tropical notes well too.