Cornerstone Club

Late January?

Happy New Year! And how is it the end of January already?

As usual we've been really busy the last two months bottling, kegging and canning so many beers! Many of which are in your Cornerstone box this month! You might also notice a new design for our Molly Rose special releases! We're really happy with the way that these have turned out and our graphic designer Claudia (who is responsible for Molly Rose branding) has done a wonderful job introducing a playful visual experience for our special releases, many of which are interesting and playful within themselves!

In December we pushed out a lot of beers just before and after our breaks! In January we have spent a lot of time playing with barrels, filling, fruiting (think sorting through, de-stemming and halving thousands of cherries), emptying and packaging them. Our warehouse in Preston is currently brimming with cans and bottles conditioning for future releases.

We have also welcomed Georgia onto the brew team and she is doing a smashing job! Since coming on board two weeks ago she has packed the new releases, smashed out brews, kept the brewery spotless, emptied and filled half the barrels in the brewery and brought good music to the day!

I could go on forever with updates, but instead... lets get to the beers.

Thanks for tuning in and supporting Cornerstone!

Cornerstone Club

Lets talk about the beers

Tonic Sour

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The Process:

This beer has been quite the process. A bag full of spices into the whirlpool, tea of cincona bark brewed, more spices added, oranges, limes and lemons added. Oh it was also soured with our house lacobaccilus. The base beer is finished and we will add one for ingredient before packing it all into cans and kegs.

The Story:

This beer doesn't really exist. It is in a stepping stone stage before we add one last final ingredient and release it. However since the beer is already tasting so good (we think so) and you can try the finished product in the next Cornerstone we thought it could be cool to flick you a can of our WIP Tonic Water Beer. As a hint we will add 50-100L in 2400L of beer and it will change the flavour and mouthfeel significantly without adding sugar or fruit.

Tasting Notes:

Woody earthy spices jump out of the glass and they are joined by citrus and aromatic spices over the palate. The clean tart beer finishes extra dry with the cincona bark providing a light drying bitterness reminiscent of that powerful gin and tonic you drank to keep the malaria away in the tropics that time.

Food Match:

Lemongrass grilled pork chop and broken rice.

No More Chatter

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The Process:

Brewed like most of our IPAs to be dry but not too dry and bitter but not too bitter. Coming in at 6.4% we bumped the IBU to 76 and whacked the beer with all of the most tropical hops we could find. Cashmere, El Dorado, Galaxy, Talus and Citra.

The Story:

We made this beer to punch a little harder than Skylight grabbing the citrus and turning it up to tropical. I chose my favourite hops of 2021 and put them all in! The combo didn't disappoint and I am sure that if he had this IPA up his sleeve Brian the Piranha wouldn't have to offer it twice.

Tasting Notes:

Tropical fruits of pineapple and mango join grapefruit and orange in this mouth coating IPA. There is a moreishness to the layers of hop flavour that unravel as can gets lighter and as usual there is a clean dry finish helping out that sessionabilty.

Food Pairing:

Burgers and fries

Little Hazy Beer

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The Process:

The main part of the process is the compensation for the low carb sweetness since Little Hazy is brewed with an enzyme to reduce the calories. We do this with malted oats and rolled wheat to give a pillowy mouthfeel. We also use a couple of hops that are known to add a perceived body to a beer one of which is the controversial Sabro (used in small amounts) and fermented with a yeast that which also assists with this.

The Story:

Little Hazy started as an experiment whether we could make a low carb beer taste delicious and we think we have.

Tasting Notes:

Pineapple, papaya and coconut play along with lychee and passionfruit their part in this refreshing beer. Soft and plush through the middle and dry and clean on the finish.

Food Pairing:

Cheddar on jatz at the park

Rest Day

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The Process:

We started with a low bitterness pale beer fermented with our house saison yeast before chucking in a whole bunch of peaches and a house made cinnamon tincture. In order to help with recovery we included the refreshing addition of a sprinkle of salt.

The Story:

Soft peachy and sweet spice aromas greet you from the crack of the can, a plush peachy texture bulks out the mouthfeel while a slightly salty and extremely refreshing dry finish makes this beer an absolute summer smasher. Perfect for after a run, ride, swim or mowing the lawn. Also good for breakfast.

Tasting Notes:

Vanilla, banana and clove dominate the aromas with pear, white pepper and herbal notes joining around the edges. Across the palate the same fruitiness and spiciness exists but is joined with a beautiful shortbread type malt sweetness and the finish is clean and dry with an even bitterness. Very moreish for a 5.5% beer.

Food Pairing:

Chilli and dukkah poached eggs sauted greens and sourdough

Nectaron

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The Story:

First we our Skylight IPA malt bill and turning it up to 11 with NZ hops but that wasn't enough for us as we decided to do things a little differently and fermented this beer out with our favourite Kveik yeast to make the beer extra fruity and little left of centre. Fermented hot and dry hopped 2,3 4 times with Nectaron as the leader and Wai-iti jumping in behind for a little support role.

The Story:

NZ hops and Carwyn Cellars invited us to join them in a mixed pack with 12 cracking Aussie breweries celebrating Kiwi hops. We were lucky enough to be awarded the coveted Nectaron hop which has been the talk of the town with its stonefruit and tropical flavours taking IPAs by storm across the world. If you are keen on getting your mitts on some more Kiwi hops there are still packs via Carwyn Cellars.

Tasting Notes:

Woahhweee, this beer is big bold and full flavoured. It is also somehow integrated. Pineapple, passionfruit, stonefruit, guava, citrus are all big in this all NZ hopped beer. It's very hard to determine what flavours and aromas come from the fruity Kveik yeast and what comes from the Nectaron and what comes from the Wai-iti.

Tasting Notes:

A pavlova covered in stonefruit, passionfruit and mango

Lager #3

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The Process:

Look guys you're learning that I like to keep things simple here. This beer is Voyager Veloria with Voyager Pale malt 50:50 to give great bready, biscuitty notes and a clean crisp finish from each malt respectively. We use Tettnang and Hallertauer Hersbrucker to give a whack of hop flavour and have started using local yeast lab Bluestones Pilsner yeast which leaves a ripper malt character in the lagers we have made.

The Story:

To be fair at first I only brewed this because I love brewing and drinking lagers and I keep brewing it because everyone else seems to love drinking it too so it seems like a win-win! While it's definitely not a tradional helles as the hoppiness is a little high, I think this only improves on the beer and makes it a bit more suitable to our climate and very tasty.

Tasting Notes:

There isn't much room to hide anything is lagers but that's the beauty of it. In this beer the delicate malt and hop aromas waft out of the glass everytime you take sip through that creamy tight white foam. Refreshing, delicious, full flavoured and clean as whistle.

Food Match:

Pretzel with mustard. BBQ at the park, bowl of crinckle cut salt and vinegar chips.

Raspy-Berry

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The Process:

It really was a simple one. Take some well balanced farmhouse beer with a little tartness and complexity, put lots of raspberries in and let them sit for the winter.

The Story:

It's a hard word to say for a 2 year old but they definitely know that they are a delicious. We were fortunate enough to score 50kg of raspberries from a Mornington peninsular farm this time last year and 40kg of them were lucky to make their way into a barrel of beer after all the snacking....

Tasting Notes:

Blooming hard to say anything but raspberries in here. It smells of raspberries, it tastes of raspberries. It's very yum and very drinkable. Just make sure there are not too many people around when you crack it...

Food Match:

There are a bunch of ways to enjoy this one I think. First thoughts are triple cream brie, second thoughts Tarte au Chocolat with whipped cream. I think it would also match wonderfully to an eye fillet with some kind of sweet glaze, like a balsamic or cherry reduction.

Nectarined

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The Process:

Pretty similar to the Raspy-Berry in fact we used the same blend of slightly tart complex farmhouse ale and threw a bunch of delicious fresh victorian nectarines on top! We let the magic happen in the barrels and the rest is history!

The Story:

We have used a lot of peaches in beer so we thought it might be time to give their less fuzzy cousins a go! We were able to source some amazing fresh nectarines and chopped them just enough to fit them into a barrel, seeds and all!

Tasting Notes:

This beer has the depth of flavour and texture that only comes when great beer meets great fruit and they spend time together. To me (Nic) it is not clear that nectarines were the culprit but just that stonefruit has played a big role in making the final product. Ripper notes of spice and vanilla come through behind the upfront fruit and leave a lovely long and delicate finish.

Food Match:

Seared Duck Breast With Prosciutto, Sage, and grilled nectarines.

Little Rose Skin Contact Farmhouse Ale

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The Process:

After emptying 3 barrels of farmhouse beer that had been ageing on grapes and grape skins for 9 months we refilled them with a fresh clean farmhouse ale. The 3 original beers have been bottled and will feature in future Cornerstone releases but for now they rest. The second fill of these barrels had softer more delicate characteristics of the grapes we used and tasted so good blended together that we decided to release it as skinsy rose type blend that you see in this pack.

The Story:

Making wine is a lot of fun and it attracts fun people. We were lucky enough to score some great grapes from Heathcote that we experimented with to make some amazing beers that you will see sometime soon and also lucky enough that there are a wave of winemakers who are trying to utillise as much of their grapes as possible and passing "waste" products from their wineries to breweries to see if we can extract some goodness. Which we certainly can. Little Brunswick Wine sent us some of their Tidy Town Moscato Giallo skins after they were done with them. Our idea was that if we can get great flavour out of used wine skins then why can't we try for a second use ourselves. It worked pretty well and we will definitely do it again.

Tasting Notes:

The blend of these three beers is pretty special, there are bright notes of strawberries, guava, pinapple alongside more savoury tones of sage and tobacco. The overall beer is bright young and fresh with a refreshing acid line an orange wine type rounding tannin that softens out the finish.

Food Match:

Georgian Eggplant Rolls with Walnuts

Little Rose Shiraz

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The Process:

The barrel that this beer came out of previously had some sour, complex farmhouse beer added to 60kg of grapes and aged for 8 months. The beer was so intense and delicious that we decided to re-use the fruit again and we put some young farmhouse ale in the barrel.

The Story:

We were lucky enough to score some great grapes from Heathcote that we experimented with to make some amazing beers that you will see sometime soon. We also made a wine out of the same grapes which is pretty yum.

Tasting Notes:

We tasted this beer first out of all the grape beers at 3 months old and it was so surprisingly excellent and ready to be drank that this Little Rose project was brought forward. It also brought about the name of the project as this beer shows the character of shiraz rose with notes of bright strawberries and a savoury backbone. It's light bright, fun and ohh so pretty.

Food Match:

BBQ spring lamb

Little Rose Nero D'Avola Farmhouse Ale

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The Process:

The barrel that this beer came out of previously had some sour, complex farmhouse beer added to 60kg of grapes and aged for 8 months. The beer was so intense and delicious that we decided to re-use the fruit again and we put some young farmhouse ale in the barrel.

The Story:

We were lucky enough to score some great grapes from Heathcote that we experimented with to make some amazing beers that you will see sometime soon. I (Nic) handpicked this Nero d'Avola in Heathcote and drove it straight back to the waiting barrel.

Tasting Notes:

I love how much varietal characteristic comes through from the wine grapes into the final product even on the second use of the grapes. This beer shows great notes of red fruits and plums along with a balancing herbal tobacco savoury character.

Food Pairing:

Mushroom Rissotto

Home Made Tortillas

Friday tacos! I wanted to impress my friends so I made my own tortillas and then realised I’ve been living under a rock my whole life. I filled my tacos with spiced chicken, quac, spicy capsicum sauce and corn salsa! But you can fill these yummy torts with whatever your heart desires!

Ingredients

Tortillas

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 2/3 cups hot water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

My Ingredients for Fillings

2 large chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

1 small onion, chopped

1 large jalapeno, finely chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 teaspoons chilli powder

1 teaspoon cumin

½ teaspoon smoked paprika or chipotle

salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste

juice of ½-1 lime

Tomato, chopped

Corn

Coriander

Avocado, mashed

How to make this

Tortillas

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt.

Add the water and vegetable oil and using your hands, mix together the dough until it is a cohesive ball and all of the liquid has been absorbed. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour 1 tablespoon at a time, as needed. (The dough should be soft and Playdoh-like in texture, but not sticky.)

Transfer the dough onto your work surface and knead it about 10 times until it becomes smooth all over.

Divide the dough into 12 equal balls then flat each ball slightly into the shape of a hockey puck. Flour each piece of dough on both sides then set them aside and cover them with a towel.

Heat a large nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat.

Roll out one piece of dough into an 12cm circle then transfer it to the hot pan. Cook the tortilla for about 1 minute then flip it once and continue cooking it an additional 30 seconds or until golden brown spots appear on both sides. Transfer the tortilla from the pan into a towel and cover it while you roll out and cook the remaining tortillas.

Inside:

In a large skillet brown chicken pieces, onion, pepper, garlic, and olive oil over medium heat until chicken is cooked through.

Add tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika or chipotle, salt, pepper, cayenne, and lime juice. I sometimes will add 1/4 cup of water or chicken broth to make it a little saucy. Serve with desired toppings.

Mix with tomato, corn and coriander and put avocado on top!

4 C's of Yorkshire

CASK ALE

Yorkshire is a county in the north of England and is home to some of the most widely-known of British breweries. Samuel Smiths and Timothy Taylors to name a couple. The beers made in Yorkshire are not far different from anywhere else on the island with breweries sporting assortments milds, pale ales, bitters, IPAs, porters and stouts. They just seem to make them their own way. They use water from their own wells, hundred-year-old copper brewhouses and open fermenters to best serve ancient top fermenting yeast strains (sometimes the open fermenters so old they are made from slate.) The beers are best served from cask, pulled through a sparkler to give some spritz and solid half inch of white creamy foam. If you ask a local what the best beer in the world is they will point to the one they are drinking.

CRAFT BEER

You would think that in an area where such a high quality beer is and has always been produced there would be very little uptake of new styles of beer, but you would be wrong. My visits to Northern Monk in Leeds and Magic Rock in Huddersfield proved this wrong. Both are making American/new world inspired beers and nailing it.

Their taprooms are great and their local support is fantastic. To take modernity one step further a highlight in Leeds was bustling hip bar that served craft beer and Indian street food, an amazing combination that should not have spent so little time together.

COUNTRYSIDE

The Yorkshire countryside is stunning with rivers, lakes, drystone walls and little cottages spotting the rolling hills and green fields. Whether driving between small towns or perhaps on the train between stops on your own Ale Trail, the scenery is just as delightful as… a well-balanced pint of bitter.

CURRY

I love the passion for tradition in Yorkshire. Tried and true local breweries and pubs are treated with reverence and respect. But newer trends are not completely rebuked. The migration from south Asia in the 20th century has turned Yorkshire cities such as Bradford into a curry hub! If as a visitor you were not convinced of their prowess, the numbers do not lie; Bradford is the reigning Curry Capital of the UK and has held the title for 6 years running. A British tradition which is wholeheartedly embraced in Yorkshire is a late night curry after an evening enjoying fine beverages. At first I was hesitant but after sampling a few midnight kormas served with a naan as big as the table you just cannot deny the satisfaction of heading home to bed with a belly full of delicious curry.

Vegetable gyoza

Ingredients

Ingredients

250g plain flour

cornflour, for dusting

For the filling

200g white cabbage

4 chestnut mushrooms

1 carrot

4 water chestnuts (optional)

thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated

2 garlic cloves, finely grated

3 spring onions, finely sliced

2 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for frying

1 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp saké, Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry

For the dipping sauce

6 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

crispy chilli oil(optional)

How to make this bad boy

STEP 1

If you’re making your own dough, tip the flour and 1 tsp salt into a bowl. Bring a kettle to the boil and measure 150ml boiling water. Slowly pour the water over the flour while mixing with a spoon to form a stiff dough. When the dough is cool enough to handle, tip onto a surface and knead for 10 mins until smooth. Wrap the dough and chill for at least 1 hr. Alternatively, you can use 25-30 shop-bought gyoza skins.

STEP 2

Meanwhile, coarsely grate the cabbage, mushrooms, carrot and water chestnuts, if using, then tip into a bowl. Add the ginger, garlic and spring onions. Heat the oil in a wok, then tip in all the veg and stir-fry over a high heat for 3 mins until softened. Drizzle over the soy sauce and sake, and cook for 2-3 mins. Season to taste. Tip back into the bowl to cool completely.

STEP 3

Divide the dough in two. Scatter a surface generously with cornflour and roll one ball of dough out until paper-thin. Use a 10cm cutter to cut out rounds of dough and pile them up (they won’t stick because of the cornflour). Repeat with all the dough, re-rolling the trimmings until you have about 25 skins.

STEP 4

To assemble, sprinkle cornflour on a tray and have a bowl of cold water ready. Hold a skin in the palm of one hand and put a teaspoon of the filling in the centre. Dip your finger in the water and wipe around the inside edge of the skin. Bring the edges of the skin together, pinching pleats along one side. Space them out on a baking tray and freeze, then tip into a bag and put back in the freezer. Will keep for three months. Can be cooked from frozen.

STEP 5

Heat a drizzle of oil in a non-stick frying pan with a lid. Fry, flat-side down, for 2 mins until golden. Add 100ml water to the pan and cover. Cook over a medium heat for 3-5 mins until the water has evaporated and the gyoza is cooked through. Remove the lid and leave the gyoza to sizzle on the bottom for a minute. Mix the dipping sauce ingredients together, then serve with the gyoza.

A brief history of the Saison

What is a saison? Often called a farmhouse ale - a saison is a style of beer originating in the French-speaking Wallonia region of Belgium. It is normally accepted that a modern saison will be dry, have a high carbonation, be fruity and be a moderate ABV of around: 5-8%.” Past that loose description, the saison allows lots of room for interpretation and creativity.

Saisons are known as farmhouse-style ales because they were originally brewed on working farms. Long before refrigeration, Belgian farmers used the cooler winter months to brew beer. Saison actually means “season” in French, a reference to the fact that saisons was brewed seasonally. Using ingredients farmers, they brewed their beer to be stored and drank in the hot, busy summer months. Not coincidentally, the french cousin to the saison, known as bière de garde (translation: beer for keeping), originated just a few miles south, over the French border.

How to make: Beergarita

One of the best summertime drinks out there, the beergarita!

Beergarita

Main alcohol you need:

Tequila Cointreau (orange liqueur) Lime juice Beer

Ingredients: 30ml (1 part) Tequila, 30ml (1 part) Cointreau, 30ml (1 part) Lime juice and 60ml+ (2 part or more) Lager #3

Preparation: Stir into glass over ice, garnish and serve.

Served: On the rocks

Garnish: Salted Rim + slice of lime if you're feeling up to it

Drinkware: Tall glass

Origin: South America

Food Paring: Anything that involves tacos or salsa!

Meet The Team - Devon

How did you get into the craft beer industry?

Where I come from in California is huge in craft beer so most of the hospo jobs I worked through college were in microbreweries or craft beer bars. I ended up just really vibing with the whole industry and always found myself gravitating toward the communities wherever I was.

How did you start with Molly Rose Brewing?

I was running a restaurant and wanted to get some MR beers in because I was a fan, so I reached out and when Matt came to meet me he mentioned that they were expanding and looking for another rep. I had been wanting to make the transition back into the beer world and also was looking for a career change so I decided to throw my name in the hat. I had toyed with the idea of repping before but wanted to get to know the Aussie beer world a bit more before diving in, that and I wanted to find the right fit; I wouldn't want to work for just anywhere and MR was right in that goldilocks zone for my style.

What is your role at Molly Rose Brewing and why do you like it?

My role is a sales rep, I build and maintain relationships with venues that share our interest in high quality craft beer. I love my role because I am a people person who gets a lot of satisfaction from interaction. Being out and about and seeing what makes Melbourne really tick, learning people's stories and experiencing their world is invigorating to be a part of. I get to share incredible beer and with people who really appreciate it or better yet I can open their eyes (mouths) to a world they did not know existed. It isn't a bad feeling to be the guy who always shows up with good beer as well.

What is your favourite Molly Rose Beer?

Really unfair question because I'm pretty sure I haven't tasted my favourite yet! Every new beer that comes out is always so exciting but if I have to choose I'd say When Life Gives You Lemons. I believe WLGYL is really the best example of our approach and style. It is perfectly balanced, classic with a modern twist and refreshing enough to session on with or without food. I also just love that there is a consistent and quality farmhouse in a can available year round, it's a pretty special thing if you think about it.

What is your favourite food, and what Molly Rose Beer would you pair it with?

Growing up in California my real soul nourishing food is Mexican. I love fresh and spicy salsas with grilled and slow cooked meats. Tangy, bright, hot and savory flavors are what I seek out. Deciding what beer to pair depends on what I'm cooking but since it's summer time I find myself at the BBQ pretty often, grilling up marinated steak and chicken and putting it on warm corn tortillas with homemade Pico de Gallo. Simple yet classic and so perfectly balanced, the taco is a kindred spirit to the Lager in my palate's cosmic connection. Lager #3 and tacos, that's it.

Contact

Cornerstone Club

Late January?

Cornerstone Club

Lets talk about the beers

Home Made Tortillas

Ingredients

How to make this

4 C's of Yorkshire

Vegetable gyoza

Ingredients

How to make this bad boy

A brief history of the Saison

How to make: Beergarita

Beergarita

Home Brew Recipe - No More Chatter

Meet The Team - Devon

Thanks so much!

Thank you!

See you next delivery!

Are you 18 or older?

Your cart is currently empty.

Contact

Cornerstone Club

Late January?

Cornerstone Club

Lets talk about the beers

Home Made Tortillas

Ingredients

How to make this

4 C's of Yorkshire

Vegetable gyoza

Ingredients

How to make this bad boy

A brief history of the Saison

How to make: Beergarita

Beergarita

Home Brew Recipe - No More Chatter

Meet The Team - Devon

Thanks so much!

Thank you!

See you next delivery!

Popup

Are you 18 or older?

Your cart is currently empty.