Lion’s Malt Shovel Brewery has been busy in lockdown putting the finishing touches on a new limited edition IPA called Our Green Beer, which has sustainability at its heart. Drinks Digest beer editor Barbara Priest put it to the taste test this week.

When my editor Alana House posed the question “Are you interested in tasting a green beer?” I was intrigued. The ‘green’ in ‘Our Green Beer’ refers not to the colour – thankfully – but to the seriously green credentials behind it.

During a virtual tasting, brewer Max Cook explained that every beer tells a story, and the story behind this beer is impressive.

Malt Shovel recently joined forces with Yume, a certified social enterprise that uses innovative technology to prevent commercial food waste, to source 500 kilograms of Kellogg’s cereal by-product for the beer.

The by-product has been used as one of the base ingredients to make a beer that showcases how well the circular economy can work across FMCG.

For Malt Shovel, sustainability is not a new concept. Our Green Beer is a showcase of what creativity, imagination, and collaboration can do – or as Malt Shovel call it – ‘Beersiness’.

Cook wanted to celebrate the brewery’s environmental initiatives at every stage of the brewing process, starting with the brewery’s carbon neutral accreditation with Climate Active, and use of renewable energy sources.

“Basically, we just wanted to do this beer in a way that was a little kinder to the planet,” he said. “In terms of ingredients, we used malt from Gladfield – a supplier deeply committed to environmental sustainability. Soon they will be able to burn bio-fuel to kiln their malt and they reuse all their steeped water to irrigate their barley, whilst moving to BOPP malt bags, which keep the product fresh and use 50% less plastic than other malt bags.

“Hops used for brewing can also have a hefty carbon footprint. They are bulky and have to be cold stored and cold transported, so we decided to use concentrated hop products in the beer to reduce the bulk load of hops required to be refrigerated.

“But the real highlight is obviously the key ingredient – a half a tonne of Kellogg’s household name cereals sourced through Yume that otherwise would’ve gone to waste, which in combination with novel hop varieties such as Sabro and Loral, give this beer a truly new-age flavour profile.”

So, how does it taste?

The beer itself is a gorgeous, rich, hazy amber, with a thick foamy head. The silky mouthfeel accentuates the initial caramel notes, then there’s a rush of the bright flavours of grapefruit, pine, citrus, coconut, and surprisingly, creaming soda. The IPA hoppiness (or happiness as autocorrect suggests – which is also true) makes a refreshing drop which not only makes you feel good, but is good for the planet too.

Our Green Beer is available at https://maltshovelcraftgarage.com.au/ and select retailers.

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