It’s been a pretty big few months for Sparkke, Australia’s most political and socially progressive alcohol brand. And in case you’ve been living under a rock, New Matilda owner Chris Graham is a shareholder in Sparkke – a socially progressive beverage company run, owned and conceived by a group of women from Adelaide. Hence the ongoing gratuitous free plugs.
Recently, Sparkke launched a new beer – a New England Pale Ale – called ‘What’s Planet B?’ Obviously, climate change is the message.
For beer lovers, here’s the official guff on the new brew:
“Our new juicy, hazy ale is zealously packed with 6 hop varieties – mostly from the USA – including 2 (!) dry hops for a generous fruity flavour and aroma. Tropical and tangy, expect notes of grapefruit, pineapple and tangerine and a sherberty, smooth and rich mouthfeel. Volume: 330mL. Bitterness: 20 IBU’s. Colour: 12 EBC. Malt: Ale, Flaked Wheat, Oats, Carapils, Munich. Late Addition Hops: Flaconers Flight, Mosaic, Equinox, Eldorado. All natural ingredients, no preservatives, no concentrate and no sulphur.”
You can read more about (and order) What’s Planet B? here.
It’s the sixth new beverage in Sparkke’s line-up– earlier this year we launched Change The Date (a pilsner); Nipples are Nipples (a hard lemonade); Boundless Plains To Share (a ginger beer); Say I Do (a white wine bubbles); and Consent Can’t Come After You Do (an apple cider).
On the latter, Sparkke’s apple cider is kind of a big deal now.
‘Consent can’t come after you do’ won a Gold Medal at the Australian Cider Awards last month, against a record 250 entries (all vying for a single gold medal).
You might want to read a review of Consent here, published last week in the Financial Review.
It’s Sparkke’s first year not just producing the cider, but producing anything (Sparkke only hit the streets in early 2017).
Agi Gajic (pictured above) is the brains and the brewer behind Consent.
Speaking of brains, Sarah Lyons – Sparkke’s winemaker – was recently named by The Weekend Australia as one of the top 5 young ‘changemakers’ in the Australian wine industry.
Sarah, with the help of mentor Rose Kentish (Sparkke co-founder and Australia’s first Female Winemaker of the Year), created the ‘white wine bubbles’ Say I Do, devoted to marriage equality.
And in other news, we spent the weekend at the Wanderlust Festival on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, as the official beer, cider, lemonade and ginger beer of the festival.
All up, a pretty full on month. We’re looking at adding Sparkke to the New Matilda subscription deals in the coming months. So watch this space. And if you can’t get Sparkke at your local, ask them to get it in, or visit Sparkke.com here for more details.
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