Redback Cristal

One way of categorising Australasian cities is distinguishing between those whose inhabitants (or former residents) are somewhat more parochial about their home-town, and those who while they may like a given city, are less prone to praise-singing. Generalising, we would say Sydney, Brisbane, or Auckland would clearly fall into the latter category, whereas parochialism is more pronounced among those with ties to Melbourne, Wellington, and Perth.

While neither of us have been there, so we've been told, the weather is better, the grass is greener, and so on in the WA state capital. Growing up, one of us recalls a school friend, who along with being generally enthusiastic about their time growing up in Perth, was in similar terms fond of Redback Cristal, a wheat beer from "over there". Accordingly, he on occasion made these beers available for didactic purposes, and it was agreed at the time that they were indeed estimable.

Now, as we still enjoy a good wheat beer - which when done well have a certain energy - we recently purchased a sixer of Redback, to see if memory and taste were still in concordance. Unfortunately it seems that during a 10 or so year interval between tastings, something happened. While, to be clear, there isn't much offensive with Redback circa 2008, it also doesn't seem to do much else for us, other than being rather bland. Importantly, it doesn't actually really taste like a wheat beer at all. Given their premium pricing (i.e. about $19 a six-pack), this can be seen as a not insignificant failing. We like taste, and if we buy a high-priced wheat beer, we would hope it would taste recognisably as a wheat beer. Given that WA is home to Australia's wheatbelt, it might be hoped that wheat beers from that part of world would be a bit better.