GRASSY KNOLL BREWING VALLEY LAGER
Don’t let COVID19 kill the conversation, rather lubricate one (virtually if req!) with this wonderful drop.
Origin – Bondi, New South Wales
ABV- 4.8%
Size- 375mL can
Style- Lager
While it's the less known grassy knoll overlooking Sydney's Bondi Beach - as opposed to the infamous park in Dallas where 63% of American's still believe the real shooter of JFK was located – that is the face of the gypsy operation, the heart and soul of Grassy Knoll Brewing is located 500km further north.
Growing up in Nambucca Valley on New South Wales' north coast, Jeff Argent like so many others living in rural Australia sought out the buzz of the big smoke. Having played dozens of gigs with indie quartet Pirra at pubs in and around Bondi, it seemed like as good a location as any to call home for a few years. So he loaded his drums, some clothes, a surfboard and his homebrew kit, and set off. Between performances, Jeff was honing his craft, but it was when The Spring Street Social in Bondi put his beer on tap at the event that things exploded. From that point, Grassy Knoll was born, with Jeff soon joined by friends from back home, Jack Lhuede and Ben Boorer. The trio began brewing commercial quantities of their Sessional Ale at Frenchies, which soon filled fridges all over the eastern suburbs, and every pub within a hundred miles of where the lads grew up.
But just as life was looking up, everything came crashing down when Jeff's twenty-three-year-old brother was tragically killed in a motorbike accident on the family farm. Enrolled in brewing diploma to help sharpen his skills, and such an event zeroing the mind on what's really important, Jeff went all out on technique to pull together Grassy Knolls second offering - a craft that celebrates his community in the Valley and pays tribute to his brother Aaron. Employing the German rule of using only four ingredients, the lads produced this SMaSH beer; Single-Malt and Single-Hop. So, what does it taste like raise a glass of craft lager to the important things in life? Refreshing! The Valley Lager is a beer that delivers hints of livelier fruity characters, including a tinge of mandarin with that familiar grainy malt profile from good European lagers. It's then all wrapped up with a light bitterness that sends you away thinking it'd be perfect for enjoying on a... grassy knoll.
Oh, and that's Aaron sitting on the hills of his mother's property who features on the can design, not a mystery shooter ready to assassinate a tractor driver!
