Moondog are one of the pioneers of the Melbourne craft brew scene, they were producing weird out there beers way before everyone else. In fact when they launched way back in 2011 they claimed they would never bring out the same beer twice. Reality kicked in at some point and they realised that was never going to work if they wanted to actually make money.
And make money they did they are now reasonably large for a local craft brewer and as well as producing some pretty standard lagers and pales and even Seltzers they still produce weird out their beers on the regular - there bar in Preston 'Moondog World' has about 30 different beers on tap of theirs at any one point. Untappd tells me they have produced 491 different beers over the years.
The pinnacle of their weirdness though is the annual release of 'Jumping the shark' which as the name suggests is just the most ridicilous things they can think of putting in a beer. Over the years they has included Sex-trupple freeze distilled IPA, a Saffron infused Red Ale aged in Hungarian Oak, A Rye barrel aged Imperail Stout, and a Vanilla and Maple barrel aged stout.
Doing some maths on the stat I gave you before you will know that it was recently Moondogs 10th birthday and as such they asked the people to name the best Jumping the Shark and then they would rebrew it for the people as a celebration.
And the winner was 2013's Jumping the Sharks which was a Cognac Barrel aged Black Truffle infused Imperial Stout which weighed in at a hefty 15.5%. So in 2021 there released the rebrew - same recipe (different equipment as they have moved locations since 2013) but nominally the same beer.
As luck would have it I happened to still have a bottle of the 2013 version. Why? Who knows, I can only surmise that as I moved house in early 2014 it got put in storage then, spent about 4 years in the cellar and then wirdly has actually been sitting in the back of our fridge for about 2 or 3 years (along with a 2015 version - I think I was looking for a 2014 to make some wort of vertical tasting)
So when it got re-released I made a deal with my brother, he would buy the new one (it's $30 a bottle) and I would bring the old one and we would taste them together, so when we were away together last weekend it seemed like a great time to do it.
So what do they taste like? Well the first point is that they are still both astoundingly good beers, they are big, boozy and just so unusual. Neither of them have much carbonation, and the mouthfeel on both is silky and smooth and they are both sippers.
The different is really the presence of the Truffles - it is very pronounced in the re-brew version. Now if you like truffled this is amazing, if you don't then I imagine it's a little off-putting. The Truffled have faded in the 8 year old version perhaps not surprisingly and what is left is a malt-driven barrel aged imperial stout, which would stand up against almost any beer in this style.
So for a beer tasting eight years in the making it was pretty amazing. We do have a left over bottle of the Re-brew siom maybe if they re-brew re-brew we can give is a re-run just like Happy Days.
Wow, a very nice comparison here. You’re lucky to have this old version back from the early years of the brewery! The beer sounds like a killer one!
Indeed, it’s very difficult to have different beer every time and yet stay profitable. I can see it here in Bulgarian breweries too. But the key is, maybe, to have a portfolio of couple of beers that are brewed regularly and on the other hand have some seasonal ones that are a bit different every year.
Cheers!