November Cornerstone

January 2023

Hi-Hello Cornerstone Team!

Welcome to the summer edition of Cornerstone! Firstly apologies that we are a week later than normal, if you have been following along at home you would have seen that we are racing towards opening our new venue, which unfortunately got in the way of our normal Cornerstone packing. If you are astute and excitedly checking through the beers in your box you would also notice that there is no Kolsch. This is somewhat also related to our build which involved a refrigeration upgrade that didn't go to plan and our poor Kolsch suffered the consequences of broken chillers and we were unable to package. Little Hazy, however, is an absolute champion of a beer and didn't really care about the chilling being off (it was at a different stage of ferment) so we included a fresh can to keep your whistles wet.

As the school holidays draw to a close, I am excited to share Summer Holidays with you all, especially the parents, who may by now need a large bottle of beer and rest after juggling full-time parenting and full-time work for the last few weeks. This is a special beer that we won't be able to make again this year as the Victorian apricot season has been low and is all but finished and we have not secured any fruit. So, enjoy the bottle and grab another if you feel like you might want an apricot sour within the next 18 months... We have however secured some beautiful peaches and blood plums which will spend 6-12 months hanging out in our mixed fermentation beer. This will leave us extra time and space to do a little more work with wine grapes and wine by-products this year.

Our newest brewer Tashee says that Martyr, our Raspberry and Beetroot sour is the best beer he has tasted of ours... High praise, but I think it's pretty yum too. The rest of the box is made for refreshment with more sours, farmhouse and lagers for everyone to enjoy the tail end of Summer. With the cooler days on the way, we will be brewing some slightly darker beers this month to have them ready for the cool nights at the end of March, maybe a few Molly Rose classic Autumn lagers could be on the way in the next cornerstone box.

As usual, myself and the team would love to hear from you, whether it is constructive feedback, positive feedback or even just a note to say hi and if you are popping in to see the new expansion which is now open in a limited capacity please let us know beforehand or make yourself known to the bar staff. We always like meeting Cornerstone members, you are our favourite people!

Cheers,

Nic

November Cornerstone

Lets talk about the beers

When Life Gives You Brett

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4.6% | Farmhouse Ale

One of my longstanding goals is to can condition every single can of When Life Gives You Lemons to give it that final little bit of magic, the je ne sais quoi that elevates the best saisons in the world to things of utter beauty, so when good friend Sam Bethune of Fixation fame now with Bintani came to me to offer some fresh out of the lab brett that was designed for bottle conditioning, I knew exactly what I would do with it. Bottle and re-ferment some WLGYL. There was definitely no other name I could give it if it wasn't When Life Gives You Brett.

Summer Holidays

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5.1% Apricot Sour Ale

Apricots... The least excellent stone fruit? Turns out I love them in beer. This is the third year we have made this lovely beer. Creamy texture, great acidity and a delightful vanilla spice note. This beer has made it into our Foundation series of beers, which are the special ones that we make each year when the fruit is at its best. This year I almost missed the boat on apricots but managed to secure an 80 kg parcel of lovely apricots that we have plopped into 2 barrels which will spend the next 8 months hanging out on a blend of new, old and sour beer.

Martyr

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5.2% | Beetroot, Raspberry Spiced Sour

I'm going to get personal here. Every now and then I get angry, I get jealous and I get frustrated at different aspects of my corner of the beer world. It is a niche world that Molly Rose (and possibly some of yourselves live in) and after the myriad of emotions that I experience and internalise when thinking about it, I often come back to the fact that I own a brewery and I can make my own beer in my own way and the haters can go and get a can of double lactose smoothy sour if they want to. This red beer is a message to myself to not be such a whinger and make the best beer that I can and enjoy doing it my way.

Little Hazy Beer

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4.0% | Hazy Pale

Unfortunately, we had some issues with our glycol upgrades over the summer and our poor little Kolsch suffered the consequences. Luckily though, Little Hazy made it through and is bloody tasting great! So enjoy a little blue can.

Tinker

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Tinker

4.4%

This Tinker uses Kohia Nelson from Freestyle Hops which has dried passion fruit blended into the hop blend of Nelson Sauvin and friends. It's a bloody fun and delicious beer. We make Tinker semi-regularly and sometimes it hits the market and disappears and sometimes the same delicious beer is an absolute commercial failure and we end up selling 90% through the taproom. It's not the end of the world as it ages really nicely and develops lovely secondary characters but the variation in how it sells is frustrating. (FYI it's not winter vs summer. This is across the whole year's ups and downs)

Pacific IPA

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6.0% | West Coast IPA

Galaxy and wheat malt with a supporting cast of Citra, this IPA is a little throwback to the beer that I cut my teeth on, except a lot punchier. I always wondered what Pacific Ale would taste like if it was an IPA and I think this is it. It was (the last keg on now) a great IPA and I really enjoyed drinking it.

Grapefruit Shimmy

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2.9% | Radler

Now affectionately known as a Dadler*, we have added a new friend to our Radler range. This time grapefruit comes to the front and wiggles its lagery hips. Radlers are something that I want to make every sunny season. I am so happy that they gained a little more traction this year and can't wait to see them take over the world in summer 2023.

*mums and non parents are also encouraged to enjoy but it's harder to make puns for them.

Tan on Tan

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4.9% | Italian Pilsner

Working in collaboration with the team at Old Palm Liquor, we decided that an Italian Pilsner would be spot on for their house style of cooking. So we brewed it and here it is! Voyager malt, Hallertau Hersbrucker on the hot-side and Hallertau Blanc in the dry hop.

Smile With Your Eyes

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3.5% | Peach & Grapefruit Gose

I was informed that this was a Tyra Banks quote after I had printed the labels. This is of course why diversity in a business is important. My lesson is learned. The name speaks true of the beer; it is what it says. Aussie peaches and Aussie pink grapefruit with a little sea salt. I am really happy and proud of the balance of peach, citrus, salt and sour in a tiny little 3.5% beer. I hope everyone else likes it too...

Tan on Tan

Made with our mates at Old Palm Liquor, Tan on Tan is an Italian Pilsner that has been brewed to be clean, bitter and refreshing. Designed to be guzzled alongside delicious food from Old Palm, be sure to venture there for dinner if you're in Melbourne.

The arrival of the pilot brewery

Venue Update

The kitchen is nearly ready

How to make: Gose by 75

Ingredients

30ml Anther Australian Dry Gin

15ml Lemon Juice

10ml Simple Syrup

60ml Smile With Your Eyes Gose

Method:

Add gin, lemon juice and simple syrup into a shaker with ice

Shake well

Double Strain into a champagne glass

Top with Smile with your eyes Gose

Garnish with a lemon slice

Glassware: Champagne glass

Food Pairing: Goats Curd & Time Omelette with Cracked Pepper.

Meet The Team - Oli

How did you come to be a part of the awesome Molly Rose sales team?

In my previous role I was working in sales at Hawkers Beer and looking after the Inner North. During the covid lockdowns, I discovered this little brewery called Molly Rose and fell in love with a beer called Kuro. Since then, I caught up with Nic at festivals, had manya beer in the taproom and kept a close eye on what delicious things they were up to. Since opening they have been a brewery I have admired, treading their own path and putting out delicious beers without buckling to fads in the industry. Late last year, a great position opened up on the Molly Rose sales team and I was overjoyed to get the job despite being a heavily sleep-deprived, first-time Dad at my interview.

Where are your favourite spots in Melbourne to grab some takeaway bevy's?

Oh boy, the choices are endless! But a few of my faves are Mr. West, Natural Science & Otter's Promise. All of these guys are really really passionate about the products they stock and are great to have a yarn with, I always come away knowing more than I did going in.

If you could only drink one style of beer, what would it be and why?

Being a Pom, It has to be a 'Best Bitter'. Aussies often think our beer is warm and flat, and whilst it is slightly warmer and maybe a touch flatter, I would also argue that a lot of yours is too cold and fizzy. The cellar temperature of real ale allows for more subtle nuances in the pint to come forward on the palate, the interplay between spice, citrus and floral notes in a good pint of 'best' is something truly magical, and the lower carbonation, combined with a hand pull tap (sparkler on please) makes for a smooth, lacy pint that is nothing short of quaffable.

What's your favourite beer festival to pour beers at, and why?

GABS is always great fun, I love being able to catch up with so many industry friends under one roof as well as showcasing our brewery and our beers to people who may have never heard of us. I'm also a big fan of the Ballarat beer festival which we will be attending for the first time this year!

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November Cornerstone

January 2023