Badlands Brewery Pale Ale

Badlands Brewery Pale Ale

Orange NSW | 4.6 per cent alcohol

The name and labelling take me back to the 1960s when a much more youthful Clint Eastwood was battling rustlers and rattlers in TV’s Rawhide.

The first sip reinforces the impression and suddenly I’m sitting alongside Ry Cooder, tumbleweed rolling by, as he sparingly plucks the theme for Paris Texas.

This is a beer that’s aridly dry, that’s puckeringly bitter, but that’s refreshing, washes away the dust, then bangs its fist on the bar and asks if you’re ready for another one.

First impressions are of aromatic, spicy, herbaceous hops and of the associated cleansing astringency, but there’s also a whack of malt providing satisfying fullness to the palate. Just the beer for summer and one that could easily sustain a session.

Yep, no doubt about it, bang that fist on the bar again, twist my arm and I might, just definitely might, knock the top off anothery.

For the record, Badlands Brewery is located on the outskirts of Orange in central-western NSW. It’s run by Jon Shiner, a skilled home brewer who decided his shed just wasn’t big enough for him and his beer — and that there was a whole bureaucratic nest of rustlers and rattlers to contend with on the byways to the Badlands.

Visit http://www.badlandsbrewery.com.au