Fat Yak Pale Ale...

To be perfectly honest, this is not the first time I have enjoyed a Fat Yak. Last Christmas up Fingle Bay way the local pub had this fine pale ale on tap. I had never heard of it before, and figured I should give it a shot. I have not seen it since. Well, not until earlier this evening in that fine liquor store also known as Woolworths. So, I purchased a bottle for AUD 3.85 (or there abouts).

The Fat Yak Pale Ale is an Australian Pale Ale and it is produced by the Matilda Bay Brewing company. Matilda Bay is based over in Western Australia. However, the Fat Yak is produced in their Dandenong, Victoria, operation.

The beer is a reasonable 4.7% alcohol volume (or the equivalent of 1.3 standard drinks) and the bottle encourages the holder to enjoy it responsibly. I am enjoying it responsibly, and I could probably enjoy it responsibly over and over and over again.

The beer is supposedly brewed in a garage. My guess is that this is just a marketing myth that is designed to get people into the idea that the operation is small-scale and that the beer is truly unique and different from anything else out there being brewed in other micro-breweries.

The beer does not drink like it is loaded with hops, which is kind of surprising considering that the label says that it is loaded with the stuff. Yet, it did have noticeable hops and malt flavours. I really do need to drink more and learn more. The flavours were a little bit of a mish-mash for me. There were noticeable caramel-malt flavours. Also, there was some citrus flavours combined with a fruity aftertaste, passionfruit, I think.

I enjoyed the Fat Yak. I would have no qualms about drinking it again.

Beer Reviews...

I have a desk calendar that reviews a different beer each day for 365 days, awesome. I am thinking that it might be a good idea to plan all future holidays with beer in mind. But, in order to justify this, I am thinking that I need to start a new blog. However, in the meantime, I will review the beers that I drink here. I can always move these amateurish posts later on.

I am thinking that I will also need to do a "beer appreciation" course to brush up on the proper terminology and 'stuff' to make it look like I am a real aficionado or is it beer connoisseur?

Anyways, I was in Woolworths earlier on tonight for the sole purpose of buying bread. Nevertheless, the beauty of Woolies is that there is a bottle shop attached. I figured that if this plan to review beers was ever going to get underway, it was a case of now or never.

So, the next couple of posts are reviews of beers that I have enjoyed, or not, with photos taken by me.

I hope that these post prove as enlightening for you as they were warm and fuzzy for me as I drunk the reviewed product.

Maybe a someone will read these reviews who employs professional beer reviewers....heaven (which one might need a prayer for)!

Ahhhh...Brocciflower!

Just some miscellaneous stuff that came off the mobile phone.

This is a picture of a brocciflower. Not too hard to work out, is it? A cross between a broccoli and a cauliflower. This specimen was taken at out local Woolworths supermarket a little while ago now.

Moonwalking in Wal-Mart...

The video is a mere 9 seconds long and is over before you know it. You will have to, and want to, replay it a number of times.

Very cool! I wish some one had moonwalked in front of me in Woolworths earlier this evening, it would have put a smile on my dial for sure. Feel free to share it round.

Eating Your National Animals

Just a short musing on eating your national animals or more specifically those animals that make an appearance on your coat of arms. This musing comes about as a result of a grocery shopping trip during the week.

One of the things that I have noticed since being back is the myriad of products available on supermarket shelves that once were the exclusive domain of specialty shops or health food stores. I am not sure that this is indicative of a more health conscious community or just a community that prefers to get all their shopping done in one spot and at the same time.

Anyway, I have noticed that my local Frankins and Woolworths supermarkets stock a wide range of kangaroo meat products from sausages to steaks. I have eaten kangaroo meat on many previous occasions. However, I was pretty certain that Dyah had not eaten kangaroo before, so I thought why not, and bought some sausages.

We ate them for lunch with some steamed veggies.

They were an excellent meal. The meat was gamey but then you would expect such when eating kangaroo meat. We have this running joke in our house at the moment about what things taste like. Will has some floaty toys that he enjoys munching on during his bath. His personal favourite is the turtle. Long story short, it has always been, and continues to be, amusing to me that when people eat some strange meat that the question is; what does it taste like? If the answer is that it tastes like chicken, then why not just eat chicken?

I have also eaten emu meat (and ostrich meat). This means I have eaten both of the animals on the coat of arms of Australia.

So, my question is this; Is there anything inherently wrong in eating the animals that take pride of place on your national coat of arms?

I could never eat the Indonesian national emblem as the Garuda remains a mythical animal as far as I can tell.

Petrol Prices...

Some of my loyal readers might prefer the term gasoline. However, in my part of the world it is known as petrol.

This is just a short musing on the fluctuating prices of petrol in Sydney. I recall hearing about how the price fluctuated but had paid little attention to it. After all, I was living in Jakarta and not driving so it really did not make that much difference to me. Now that I have returned to Sydney and drive every now and then I tend to notice these things more.

The price over a seven day period fluctuates between 108.9 cents a litre to around 126.9 cents a litre. Now, what is interesting about this is that it does not seem to be based on any movement in crude oil prices, but rather what day of the week it is.

Tuesday is the cheapest day and Friday tends to be the most expensive day. It also helps that on Tuesday I get a discount of 4 cents a litre because I have a Woolworths loyal shopper card.

I wonder why such huge fluctuations that are not based on changes in the crude oil price are acceptable? Surely there must be a breach somewhere of some code...then again, I guess not as the practice continues.