This is a really common beer really... something we see all the time. It was very simple actually when I brewed it with my friend Scotty who is the head brewer at a quite under-the-radar brewery called Balter in southern Queensland, you probably haven't heard of it. We made a lager, I said it was typical, using Ryefield hops and all in July of 2019... so just your usual 20 month in-the-making beer you know. We made the beer together then and he took half and literally lagered (stored cold) in oak for its lagering to make an oak-lagered-lager, as you do, while the other half came to Sydney to begin its ordinary funkification in our barrels with our house culture. During that time in barrel, things changed a bit for everyone but the beer was still ticking along without a care in the world. Naturally, we had some apricots on hand after making St Henry 2020 and we thought this funky lager might like those, so we put them together for another 6 months before Scotty flew down to Sydney in December 2020 to help us bottle it. So really quite straightforward, and certainly something we see all the time in the beer world these days, I'd say it's a dime a dozen.
This beer was made in good friendship and released all the same. As something made for ourselves rather than for commercial reasons, we are donating the total proceeds from the sale of these bottles to the Stillbirth Foundation Australia to aid in their funding of research into prevention and education of stillbirth in Australia, something near us as a family brewery.
The label was illustrated by my wife Bernadette and depicts the Lyrebird on our Australian 10c coin, or Naran Naran in Dhurga, the language spoken from Jervis Bay area to Wallaga Lake in Yuin Country. Naran naran with its big legs and long claws, digs up more food than it needs and shares it with the other little birds. In Budawang storytelling, the naran naran was gifted its lovely singing voice by helping others, a sighting of naran naran is a reminder to look after each other and share.
Dime a Dozen is bottled into 750ml bottles and magnum and is 5% ABV. We will have 220 bottles [limit of 4 p/p] and magnums [lim 1p/p] available online on Friday 5 March at noon Sydney time as well as 80 bottles available at cellar door. Sorry no wholesale.
