Frequently Asked Questions

What is this blog about?

Someone once said ‘Bring me your wounded and I’ll make them well. Bring me your thirsty and I’ll feed them a beer’ – or something like that. This site is intended to feed the curious, enlighten the darkened, and open up the world of beer. I’ll provide indepth reviews of beers you may not have heard of, beers you’ve been too afraid to try, and probably some of your favourites. You might agree with everything I say, or you might think I am totally missing something that you appreciate. Either way, don’t be afraid to let me know.

While yes, there may be other beer review websites, mine is different. I’ll tell it how it is, in words anyone can understand, and you might just have a bit of fun reading it.

How will beers be critiqued?

The important thing to keep in mind when reading these reviews (and indeed adding your own) is that beer is not just a drink. It is an experience. The overall experience needs to be reviewed and not just the throwing back of a liquid.

With that in mind, I will use the following to critique/review beers:

• Aroma – this is a crucial element to any good beer. A bad aroma can instantly ruin the experience, a pleasant aroma can instantly add some serious street cred
• Taste – this will be assessed according to drinking from the bottle, and from the glass. I’m not a beer snob by any means and certainly do not subscribe to the fact that beer needs to be drunk from a glass. I have, however noticed that drinking from the glass can produce a different taste – sometimes better, sometimes worse
• A word from the wife – Being open to most beer styles, my wife will give a brief review from her side of the fence
• Accompanying food – this is a nice to know assessment based on my own food tastes. Listen to this advice if you need it, ignore it if you don’t
• All-nighter beer? – I’ll give a yes/no rating on whether each beer in my opinion could be an all-nighter
• Time taken to finish bottle – The time I give for this item will be a good indicator as to how much I enjoyed the beer. If I say 20 minutes for one 375mL bottle, you can be assured it was a real mission to finish – and yes, I finish every beer I start
• Label review – A well designed label can really sell a beer to me. If it has something tough on it like guns or missiles, robots, or a dead guy holding a knife, it will earn great points. If it has something like flowers and fairies on it (yes there is a beer I know of that had exactly this) it will fail in the label arena. While a label doesn’t affect the taste it’s important to know if it’s cool or lame

I’ll add other information as my reviews progress – feel free to suggest others that I can add. 

What other information will be provided for each beer?

I will include the following information for all reviewed beers:

• Beer style – Ale or lager
•  Brand name
• Alcohol percentage and # of standard drinks
• Cap type – Twist or You’ll need an opener
• Volume
• What the label says – Sometimes the label can make you believe a whole range of rubbish such as ‘it has aromas of freshly cut grass while the taste will make you think of ferry floss on a ferris wheel’. I’ll list what the label says but I’ll tell you how it really is
• What the label really means: Cutting through all the marketing mumbo jumbo, I’ll tell you what they really mean

Can I suggest other beers for Mason to review?

Absolutely! There is no way in hell that I will ever know of every beer available on the local and international market – and that’s where you guys come in. Tell me your favourite beer, tell me your worst, or just tell me the name of one you’d like to hear my thoughts on. If I can find it, I will drink it, and I will review it. If I can’t find it, but you know where I can get it, you just may find that I remove a small piece of your spleen while you sleep and then move to Nicaragua.

What beers does Mason enjoy?

The list of beers I love is so massive I would have to download the entire contents of Google, print them out on to A4 paper, laminate half of the pages, and then use a highlighter to find hidden messages pertaining to Michael Jackson’s facial reconstruction surgery while taking a big ol swig of a great tasting pale ale.

I often tend to gravitate towards ales under my own direction but that doesn’t limit my choice by any means.

I will, give a special cheers to my current top of the barrel favourites Little Creatures Pale Ale, Boags ‘Strong Arm’, Coopers Pale Ale, and Rogue’s ‘Dead Guy Ale’. But that’s just this week!

I just can’t get enough of the Mason Hell-Cat Beer Blog. When will this site branch out into other media?

Well! Did you know we are now on Facebook? Type in ‘Mason Hell-Cat’s Beer Blog’ and join our group. You’ll have exclusive access to behind the scenes photos, tips, and discussion boards. Stay tuned for our Youtube channel, or otherwise search for masonhellcat for some of my previous stupidity.