Spotting a Mountain Goat Rare Breed around Wollongong is cause for a small celebration. You see, the occasional releases from the Victorian brewer only seem to turn up here sporadically.
For instance, that pepperberry one made with Mikkeller? Never saw the light of day here – and I was looking for it too. It’s so sporadic that I’ve given up seeking them out and only find them these days if I happen to walk into a bottle shop at the right time.

Which is what happened when I walked into a First Choice liquor store in Shellharbour. Yes, a mainstream bottle shop chain had Mountain Goat’s Rapunzel Rare Breed. So obviously I bought it.

Because I’m a fan of the Rare Breeds, they’re often something a little bit different – like a coffee IPA. Now I wouldn’t class Rapunzel as something a little bit different, but it is a tasty beer. And it comes with that cool “18th century newspaper classifieds” style label. The Rapunzel is a strong Belgian golden ale that weighs in at 8.3 per cent alcohol.

According to the label, it’s made in the style of Trappist breweries, using a Belgian-style yeast. If that’s the case, it’s certainly at the easier drinking end of the Trappist spectrum. While Trappist beers tend to hit you hard with their alcohol, Rapunzel is more sweetly beguiling than that. And I do mean sweet; the main flavour is of sweet apricot which didn’t bother me but others have found sweetness a bit much and I can see where they’re coming from.

It still tastes like beer – we’re not talking about alcopop sweetness here – but it still might surprise a few people. As I I said, I liked it. I thought the sweetness would become too much by the end of the bottle but that didn’t happen. What did happen is I felt a bit tipsy after knocking back a 640ml bottle of 8.3 per cent beer by myself. So if you buy yourself a bottle of this, consider sharing it with someone.