What are we drinking this month?

Each month we’ll highlight what we’re liking with a quick rundown about why. There’s nothing really special here, it’s just what we happen to be drinking. It might be old, it might be new, it might be hard to get, it might be easy.

Take a look at previous beers of the month.

Shenanigans Brewing The Dude’s Abide

Beer of the Month – September 2016

Shenanigans Brewing are a gypsy brewery from Sydney. They’ve been around since 2014 and are still growing. Shenanigans seem to have pretty good distribution around New South Wales and Canberra, but aren’t terribly widely known beyond that. It’s unfortunate because they make some damn fine beer.

It’s often difficult to balance interesting or experimental flavours with a beer that are still easily drinkable. Their own website says they “aim to craft unique, flavorful, quality beers to satisfy drinkers with inquisitive minds and discerning tongues.” This is a challenge, but a challenge worth stepping up to. And if the Dude’s Abide is anything to go by, Shenanigans has risen to this challenge extremely well.

I’m the Dude, man

What’s in a name?

The Dude’s Abide is described as a White Russian Imperial Stout. For those not familiar with the movie The Big Lebowski, the main character, known as the Dude, enjoyed drinking White Russians. Shenanigans set out to make a Russian Imperial Stout that was pale. This beer looks like a Pale Ale, but it has obvious Stouty goodness, chocolates, and obvious lactose characteristics that give it similarities to a White Russian. It’s a Stout, but it’s white.

It’s a strange beer to order at the bar. Ordering a Stout and getting something pale, yet with the body of something bigger.

There’s no better name for this beer than naming it after the Dude. And if you’re not familiar with the Big Lebowski, many more references in this review are going to be confusing.

Careful man, there’s a beverage here!

And what a beverage it is!

As mentioned, it’s a Stout that doesn’t look the part. But it smells like a Stout and it tastes like a Stout. This beer is pretty malt driven that are able to leverage the lighter grains used to create the colour. It’s thick and has some vanilla in it, while the eyes are expecting more hops since they’re expecting a pale ale.

The body is thick and creamy, once again surprisingly so. There seemed to be some lactose in this beverage to both thicken it up as well as add to the all in all White Russian vibe. It’s thick, creamy, and lovely. The team from Shenanigans managed to sneak some coffee and subtle chocolate flavours in there as well, adding to the overall vibe of the cocktail.

Digging deeper, Shenanigans Brewing went the extra mile to get all these flavours. They soaked coffee, coco, and oak in Kahlua to get much of the flavour. And it all came together…

Being a Stout, this beer needs to be drunk by the pint. That’s just the rules. At 7.5% alcohol, it’s not huge, but it’s not small either. Due to the richness of the beer though, it goes down nice and slowly. There’s so much to this beer, writing about it doesn’t do it much justice.

It really tied the [flavours] together

Basically, it’s just a really good beer. It was different, a little bit wacky, and a whole lot of fun. Kind of like the movie this beer was named after. There were some classic elements in there, but with an interesting twist. Once again, just like the movie.

Unfortunately this was a limited release. If you’re quick, you may be able to still find some floating around. Maybe Shenanigans will make some more of this. It’s a shame to see it go. Even though that’s just like, our opinion, man.

Anyway, we’ll leave with a few Big Lebowski quotes that we feel pertain to this beer, but we haven’t used yet in the article:

  • This is a very complicated [beer], Maude. You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-you’s.
  • [Cider Drinkers]! Fuck me. I mean, say what you want about the tenets of [drinking macros], Dude, at least it’s [beer].
  • Yeah, well, the Dude abides.

This review was part of our regular beer of the month series, but we also have general craft beer reviews.