It was the Australian Ice Hockey League Finals last weekend, I actually attended the Semi Final on the Saturday where my team, the Melbourne Mustangs were defeated by the CBR Brave, you can check out some shots I took of the game here:
https://steemit.com/sportsphotography/@harveyword/sports-photography-aihl-ice-hockey-melbourne-mustangs-vs-cbr-brave
So this brings us to the final on Sunday, we are watching at home, and we need an appropriately themed beer, because,w ell that’s what you do.
Now Ice Hockey is not a big game in Australia, the league only has eight teams, they are semi-professional and the biggest arena in Australia, in Melbourne, where the finals are held supposedly holds 6,000 people, games a streamed on Youtube and the only TV coverage is delayed on cable. It wouldn’t be in the top twenty most watched sports in Australia, so when we had this idea we didn’t think we would have much luck finding anything particularly hockey related.
Our best chance was a Canadian beer, but we don’t get many of them in Australia, and those we do a French Canadian and sophisticated not Ice Hockey like.
But then I had a vague memory of Wayward brewing out of Sydney had a beer named Slap Shot, and that would be close enough so off I went to find it.
And here it is Australia’s only Ice Hockey related beer, complete with a puck and some ice hockey sticks on the label. Why it’s named Slap Shot is anyone’s guess, I can’t find a back story for it anywhere, it’s not even listed on Wayward’s “our Beers’ page, and as mentioned Ice Hockey is tiny in Australia so it’s not a clever marketing ploy.
The beer itself is a Black IPA, which I guess has a link in that it’s a) American Style b) Aggressive and c) Full bodied so a little bit like Ice Hockey I guess. (Apologies to Canadians)
But the strange thing is this isn’t actually that full bodied and aggressive, at least not by Black IPA standards, the blackness (which indicates the maltiness and roastiness of the malt flavours) is actually on the brown side on black. On top of this sits a nice creamy off white head.
It’s a balanced beer (almost like a skater on a blade) so the hops are not really aggressive either, you can tell it’s going to good when you smell it and the fruity, citrus tones hit your nose and in the sip, the hops are a gentle pine and citrus flavour.
All of this combined with an amazing silky mouthfeel and you have a fantastic beer. Not as aggressive as I expected, or indeed as a ‘all or nothing’ Slapshot’ in hockey, but rather a finessed shot that glides past the goalie.
If you are in Australia go find this beer, it’s amazing, and go watch your local Ice Hockey team play, you won’t really understand what’s happening but it’ll be entertaining.
For the record the CBR Brave beat the Sydney Bears in a great game that went into overtime.
And as always this post is part of Beer Saturday -0 details here: https://steemit.com/beersaturday/@detlev/65-weeks-the-steemit-beersaturday-challenge-like-to-have-your-beer-story
