“First brewed 20 years ago, Hellfire Amber Ale is our longest-running core beer and a true constant in our range.

A favourite of those who have visited our High Country home and drinkers across Australia, Hellfire is a throwback to classic amber ales built on balance, quality and consistency. It has stood firm through decades of change. To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we have turned things up with our first-ever Imperial Hellfire. Everything you love about the original, dialled right up. Expect a malt-driven amber with rich notes of caramel and toffee, finished with a subtle nuttiness.”

Glassware: English pint.

Appearance: Bold amber complexion with a kiss of candy red. It forms a thumb of finely beaded khaki head which gradually peels off. A beautiful cascading lace clings to the glass.

Aroma: So it turns out that we haven’t even reviewed the OG hellfire amber ale. This blows our minds as we’re massive fans of the style and equally massive fans of Bright’s core range. Looks like we’ll be reviewing them the wrong way around! Anyways, it’s giving off gorgeous caramelised malts, oodles of toffee, caramel, brown sugar, butterscotch and honey with more subtle maple, mixed nuts and canned peach in support.

Flavour: Follows on with a semi-rich and caramelised malt profile. Toffee, caramel, honey-roasted nuts and golden raisins. Plenty of support in the form of stewed fruit, pear, honeysuckle and a delicate woody note. It’s quite bitter through the mid plus the booze could’ve been dialled down a bit as it finishes rather dry and warming with a lingering sting in the tail.

Mouthfeel: Sticky and chewy with a hint of dryness. Medium body, nicely carbed, but the 8% ABV was too prominent in our opinion.

Overall: Started strong but it slowly fell off unfortunately. Not already trying the OG hellfire makes it difficult to compare but the boosted ABV does it no favours. Keen to try the OG version now.