Geoff's Grand Ridge Brewery Haiku Project

THE PROJECT:  To review the Grand Ridge Brewery pantheon in haiku, the well-known and much-maligned 17-syllable poetry of Japan.

WHY?  Why not? There's just not enough art in beer reviewing these days.

THE CHALLENGE:  To render redundant the scoring or ranking of beers according to numerical scales, stars and other forms of lineal grading.

THE INSPIRATION:  A 10-bottle gift pack of Grand Ridge Brewery beers I received for my birthday from my wife Lisa's sister Amy and her boyfriend, Paul.

Natural Blonde wheat beer

Sunshine.
The staff of life. Natural, ripe
Earthliness. Warm yet cool, dry.

Brewers Pilsener

Classic lager.
Hoppy. Crisp. Bloody refreshing.
For a hard-earned thirst.

Gippsland Gold pale ale

Strong. Well, well hopped it is.
Malty but not sweet,
A real ball-tearer.

Yarra Valley Gold bottle-conditioned ale

Unusual absence of fruit:
Old Gold.
An ancient, dusty book.

Moonshine 8.5% dark Scotch ale

By this fierce ale
Are powered
Those blue-faced warriors of the Highland.

Hatlifter Stout

A black cat sleeps on the quilt.
The Silk Road,
The warm wet embrace of night.

Black and Tan

Between the Devil and
The deep blue sea:
Not my cup of (B and) T.

Moonlight 3.5% mid-strength ale

Taking shelter from the rain
Under a tree
I get a little wet.