Summer beer tasting guide

Sitting enjoying a nice cold one at sunset at Penrith Panthers*, pondering why wine gets the privilege of having all the descriptor words, Sandra, Bron and myself decided it was high time to do a proper beer tasting. So we set a date and, not unusually, dragged Sarah into the shenanigans.

The following findings are designed for those who come to the beer tasting table with an open mind, a clean palate and no bias towards their favourite beer they've been swilling since they were 16! I'm keen to know whether you agree with our impressions.

We divided the beers into batches starting with the basics and moving upmarket from there. We also tried to drink them roughly in order of lightest to heaviest, finishing with a desserty treat.

Ok, so our formula isn't really scientifically valid. "Get to the reviews!" I hear you cry.

• Melbourne Bitter: Yeasty, light appearance, sour, tangy. Watery - not flavoursome! Lack of body, insipid. Drinkable... No aroma.
• VB: Slightly darker and weaker taste than MB. Short-lasting flavour.
• Calton Draught: This one got the tick of approval out of the "cheapies". Aroma is lighter and more yeasty - not overly overpowering - and crisper, with the added bonus of a better quiz than the XXXX which is coming next.
• XXXX: I was pleasantly surprised at this one as it is known to my friends as "death in a can" and there have been fights over who has to drink it when given a choice between XXXX and another beer on a deserted island. "The trivia on the bottle cap is stupid - cricket - who knows this stuff!" "No aroma, but it tastes like an outdoorsy beer - it's all salt and sweat."

Moving up in the world a little bit now ...

• James Squire Golden Ale: Thick head, darker in colour, smells sweeter - "too flavoursome for a bingey night out".
• Coopers Pale Ale: A "more drinkable" beer, more fizzy but it goes down smooth with a yeasty finish. The "drinking a lot of beer beer".
• James Squire Amber Ale: We like this one better than the golden ale - tastes like burnt honey with a touch of berries. A golden colour, smooth, with a woody aftertaste.
• Blue Tongue Lager: Although one taster said it tastes like wee, others agreed it was sweet, thin, fruit, crisp, tastes like apple, and girly (not a disparaging remark).
• Boags Draught: After educating one team member that Boags isn't pronounced "Bow-ags", we decided this one had a darker colour, not too strong a smell, and a nice medium taste of honey. But to our palates it tasted like Carlton Draught - why pay more?!
• Cooper's Sparkling Ale: Yeasty, heavy and thick, more alcohol than Cooper's green and not as easy to drink.
• James Squire Pilsner: Honey, yeasty, complex flavours.
• Bees Neez: Got a tick from us - surprisingly light in colour, smells lightly of honey. We like it more than the James Squire.

Now on to the meals-in-a-can:

• Coopers Best Extra Stout: Dark, smells and looks like soy sauce or burnt vegemite, tar, bitumen... get the picture?
• Guiness Extra Stout: Fizzy texture, like coke, lighter and better than the Cooper's stout.
• Monteith Crushed Apple Cider: Looks like water in comparison! Very fizzy, no head, sweet but not as sweet as most ciders - and a welcome relief after the stouts! 

Which brings us to our next challenge: Cider tasting!

The winners: In conclusion, our favourite cheap beer was the Carlton Draught, our "drinking a lot of beer beer" is Cooper's Pale and Bees Neez and Monteith's Apple Cider won us over in the flavour stakes. All I can say is thank goodness we did this important evening of research.

*We were visiting Penrith on a rollerskating adventure. That's a post for another day.

Glamping! Or, Busting the myths of camping

Those in this world who screw up their noses and say to me "camping? Haven't you heard of this marvellous new invention called hotels?" are really, truly missing out! To help them understand why, I want to bust a few of the myths about camping, 2011-style. Glamping - glam-camping - as it has come to be known.

Myth: "The toilets are always stinky!"

Actually, pit toilets have come a long long way! Ventilation systems and ways of breaking down that what fills them have had fabbo breakthroughs in technology and a modern pit toilet usually makes you wonder how on earth "they" (the people who install toilets in remote places?) got the toilet there!

Myth: "Tents are impossible to put up and always leak."

Most tents now come with colour-coded poles so it's pretty hard to go wrong. Even the cheap and previously nasty brands are much higher in quality than they ever used to be. Spend the money and buy a decent tent, and let your dad's old mouldy one stay right where it is at the back of the garage.

We use a Black Wolf Mojave for car camping and yes, it's big, designed to sleep about 6 people! But you can spend comfortable days lolling about inside in comfort if it rains, and it has an amazing ventilation system of little flaps and straps that meant it was by far the coolest tent at the entire camping and 4WD show where we bought it in high summer.

Myth: "Camping is uncomfortable and dirty".

Ohhhh no it isn't. Grab some 4WD sleeping mats for home-bed comfort (save those blue foam rolls for padding the truck when you're moving house), a solar shower (black plastic - heats up when it sits in the sun - genius), and some gour-met food and you're on your way. A folding chair with inbuilt pillows and insulated pockets for drinks should complete the picture.

Our "5-day esky" is supposed to keep food cool for yes, 5 days, but apparently that experiment involved dry ice and opening the esky just twice a day for 30 seconds at a time, not every 30 minutes from the time of the first "brekkie beer" til bedtime.  But it certainly will keep your glamping fare - vino, cheese and chocolate - icy cold for the length of a weekend. Get one with wheels or you will regret it when your camping buddies stop at the bottlo on the way and fill it to the brim with heavy beverages!

Myth: "There are no camping spots nearby."

There are good spots everywhere, you just need to know where to look! A National Parks annual pass for the car works for me in the same way as my gym membership - I've already paid for it so I had better use it and get my money's worth.

Keep an eye on my blog for tips and hints on good camping sites in Sydney's surrounds, but don't expect me to give away all our secrets at once!

Sneaky Sydney spot #1: Flint & Steel Beach

So the trick to finding an empty beach on a Sydney weekend sadly involves some hard work!

We headed to Flint and Steel Beach near West Head - parking the car at the top of the hill and descending 150 metres in just over a kilometre and panicking the whole time about what the walk back up would be like! Still, it's a small price to pay for this kind of secluded paradise.

The snorkelling wasn't the best and there's no amenities but it's lovely to get away from the city on the weekend... pack a picnic!

The fantastic Wild Walks website has details about the 2.1km return walk.

View Larger Map