1) Am I the only one who still misses those old Single batch pint bottles? Those squat, fat round-shouldered buggers just had a real nice heft to them. And they were great to use for homebrewing. Not that I homebrew much these days, but still. They’re good bottles. And, when you pour them into a pint glass, the beer fits perfectly.

2) I found myself wistfully recalling this last thing when I was trying the new Single Batch – Shade Chaser IPA. I grabbed a pint glass and started pouring but, when the glass was full, there was still more beer left in the bottle. That’d be because the new bottles hold 640ml. While I’m always a fan of more beer, it did set the OCD in me on edge a bit to put bottle of beer with just 80ml back in the fridge (so I might have actually drank the remainder straight from the bottle. Shh, don’t tell no one).

3) Container aside, this actually a good beer. Once I sat down to enjoy it from a glass rather that swigging straight from the bottle. There’s some good citrusy happening on the nose and that, combined with some pine-resin characters, carries through on the palate. It comes across as lighter than the 6.5 per cent alcohol count too. And the bitterness, that bitterness lasts for ages.

4) Though here’s something I don’t get. This beer is only available at the brewery door or via that MoCu beer ordering website. That’s different to the old Single Batch beers that were available in all good bottle shops, as they say. I’m not sure what’s going on with the limited distro – is it to save money? Is it so they don’t have to brew as much beer? I dunno. I’d suggest they’d sell heaps more if it was in bottle shops.

5) Something else I don’t get is that this is touted as a summer thirst-quencher. Which was released on March 1 – the start of autumn. Not sure what happened there. Did someone miss a deadline somewhere along the way?

Free or paid for: Free – I got sent a bottle. It’s probably the only way I would have been able to try it. It costs $20 plus postage online, which would be a bit too steep for me. Especially for just one bottle.