I read somewhere that many brewers and wine makers used to shy away from using the label "organic" for some reason noted inferior quality. I think that practice has changed along with the public perception. Again, I think, we, as drinkers tend to have the perception that anything made with certified organic ingredients is more "pure" and "less messed with".

As one of the few deliberately labelled Organic beers available in this country, Redoak Organic Pale Ale approaches "Ale Perfection"

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Continuing the theme of Australian made Belgian styles is Temple Saison.

A Saison is traditonally a Wallonian (French speaking part of Belgium) farmhouse brewed ale.

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I had the chance to visit Brussels for a weekend last year. We were visiting friends who were living there. There were the usual "What do you want to do when you visit?" emails exchanged before the trip. My response was pretty simple "drink beer and eat chocolate" - which our friends made happen, including a great afternoon working through the beer menu at the famous bar below the Theatre de Toone.

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This weeks beer of the week comes to you from Las Vegas. We are here with an assorted group of family members following a family wedding in California.

I am fortunate to have two members of the travelling team join me for this post, Corey and Sarah.

We chose a venue, "Pour 24" a bar within the New York, New York complex. Open 24 hours with 24 US micro brews on tap.

Unfortunately, we only had time to try three...

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Our iphone application - Aus Pubcrawl went on sale today.

Between Greg, Morgan and I, it has been a huge, but rewarding effort.

Most of the work to make this happen had to be scheduled around our day jobs.

You can purchase the app here. For much less than the price of a beer, you can generate all sorts of pub crawls in every major city in Australia. Next, the world.

Sorry about the extended absence. My day job caught up with me. I have resolved to implement a new time management regime and most of all, remember that writing this blog is actually fun.

There are a few beers, mostly made by Matilda Bay that have that instant "everyone I know loves this" aura about them. You know the ones, Fat Yak in 2009 and Big Helga in 2010. I have found another one.

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One of the happiest days of my life was spending a day at the Great British Beer Festival last year. Cracking open a 3 Ravens English Ale took me right back to that day.

There is something truly magical about a simple hand crafted ale. No over hopping, no double hopping no nineteen varieties of malt. All these things have their places, but so does simplicity.

If this beer was a restaurant dish, it would fall into the "high quality, simple ingredients done right" category.

It has a well balanced and well flavoured taste, nothing predominates. Just that wonderful combination of flavour and texture that makes you feel like you in are in one of those quaint English country pubs, just as the sun sets.

I scoured Gordon Ramsey's "Great British Pub Food" to come up with a suitable companion for this beer and found it - a Cornish Pastie.

Interesting. I was expecting that huge whallop of flavour and that pleasingly bitter aftertaste you get with highly hopped IPA.

With this beer, not so much. Don't get me wrong. The flavour is there. Its just that is a little more cautious, a little more restrained. The nice surprise is the 7% alcohol content. Most of the high alcohol content beers I have tried have generally been less than subtle with flavour. The bengal is a notable exception.

It has a slight floral undertone which is offset again, by a slight nod toward bitter at the end of the swallow.

This is a great beer after a hard day, when you just want something pleasant, drinkable with a high ABV...

Despite the name, spicy food should go nowhere near this beer. If I was in the UK - a very nice match for a good quality scotch egg. I'm not, so without further reminiscing about the wonders of British pubs, I would drink this with another British pub dish that has been exported...shepard's pie or an ale braised pie.

I also think I should get some points for not doing a St.Patrick's themed post.

Here is a sneak peek from our iPhone app.