1) I have always liked the Australian Brewery’s pale ale every time I’ve had it. But I never drank it as often as I should. You know why? I think it’s those skinny energy-drink like cans. I never liked them. Never liked the way they looked. The way they felt in my hand. All of it.

2) So I’m glad they’ve now decided to put the beer in 375ml cans. Firstly that means it feels lke a proper can – yeah, sometimes I can’t be buggered pouring a beer into a glass so I just drink it from the can. And there was always something about those skinny cans that were so unsatisfying. Secondly, the new cans hold more beer than those skinny 355ml numbers.

3) Bottle shop employees are probably happy too, because those skinny cans didn’t stack very well. The base never really locked into the top of the can below it. But these new cans, that’s not a problem.

4) I also noticed another change – the old cans said “This cloudy ale is inspired by the Australian Pacific Pale Ale”. But the new ones don’t make any mention of this at all. Methinks it might have had something to do with that Stone & Wood-Thunder Road stoush over the phrase “Pacific Ale”. Sure, the Australian Brewery were using it as a style descriptor rather than the name of the beer (which was “The Australian Pale Ale) but maybe they figured it would save a lot of hassle to take the words off the can.

5) The best thing about the beer? The taste. It uses Galaxy hops so some degree of comparison to S&W’s Pacific Ale is inevitable. It has the same tropical fruit characteristics but they’re a smidge stronger here. Also  there’s a heightened level of bitterness at the back than with beer from the Northern Rivers. I really, really should drink this beer more often.

Free or paid for?: I bought this one, because I saw it was now packaged in nicer-shaped cans.