I saw and bought a case of Ten20 a few weeks ago when it came on sale. The Camperdown brewery has been used by James Squire for ten years, and Chuck Hahn, the head brewer, has been there for 20 years, hence the name “Ten20″. The brewers call it a mix between an IPA and a Barley Wine.

As per the description, the beer is a deep copper colour. It has a creamy ivory head that lasts from start to finish, and is very clear.

Unlike most commercial brews, this one actually lists the ingredients. So straight off the side of the bottle, this contains “Pale, Munich and carapils malts and hopped with deranged amounts of Australian hops (Galaxy and Super Pride) and American hops (Simcoe and Sterling)”. It is one for the hop heads, you can smell them as soon as you open the bottle.

It is not overly carbonated, and is medium bodied. It has a slight alcohol flavour, but that is to be expected from a brew packing 7.9% alcohol.

As I mentioned, this is a great beer if you like hops. I think this bottle was actually a bit too cold. Once it had warmed up a bit in the glass a bit it improved quite a bit. It tastes good the whole time, but it is definitely better once it warms up a bit.

Overall, I’m pretty impressed. This is definitely worth a try if you are willing to spend a bit extra on a special beer. I’m glad I got a case of it, I’m planning to put a few bottles away for a while. It’s great to see commercial brewers doing something a bit different – it’s a shame that it takes a special occasion ().

If you do want to try this, hurry. They only made 1900 cases, and from what I’ve heard they’re selling quickly.