Vegemite Sandwich DIPA

Vegemite Sandwich DIPA
1 growlette, $7?, 9.5% ABV

Purchased at the brewery, Stonington

I hereby issue myself a challenge. Before I hit the “Publish” button, I must go digging through my old photos and find the 26-year-old stack from my trip to Australia. Go through them and look for the one where I’m about to eat an honest-to-goodness vegemite sandwich.

I’m writing this having no idea if that picture still exists. We’ll see.

Most people are familiar with “vegemite sandwich” from that early 80′s Men at Work “Down Under” song…

Buying bread from a man in Brussels
He was six-foot-four and full of muscles
I said, “Do you speak-a my language?”
He just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich…

Americans know that line but I suspect very few have ever actually eaten a Vegemite sandwich. But allow me a quick digression. The Men at Work lyrics continue:

And he said

I come from a land down under
Where beer does flow and men chunder…

Just in case you were wondering, and since it mentions beer, to “chunder” is exactly what you’d guess it is – to vomit. One hypothesis regarding its etymology is that it originates from old seafaring days when sailors would get seasick and stick their head out of the porthole in their cabin. As they did this they would shout “Watch Under” to warn people in lower cabins of the forthcoming puke. Over the years this has evolved in “chunder.”

Sounds good to me. I’m very glad I haven’t chundered from drinking in, like, 20 years or so. And the 2 or 3 times I’ve done so from food poisoning or illness or whatever, I’m left wondering how some people used to chunder on the regular. Just awful.

Beer’d Says:

Using a hop bill consisting of all southern hemisphere grown varietals, Vegemite Sandwich offers a unique take on the style lending aromas and flavors of pineapple and tangerine.

Alas, this DIPA is the opposite of awful. It’s fantastic. I just skimmed some of the beer review sites and it’s not one of Beer’d's top ranked DIPAs. Too “fruity” for some? Not enough pine, resin, or bitterness for others? I don’t know.

The Vegemite Sandwich was soapy and the citrus really shone through here. Classic overabundance of Australian and New Zealand hops, with none of that Pacific Northwest pine or resin. I could see how this could throw some drinkers off, but I happened to love it.

Vegemite Sandwich is one of those beers where those new to this style of DIPA’s would ask Aaren how much tangerine or pineapple he put into the beer. (Similar to the “how much chocolate and/or coffee did you put into this stout” question.) Hops are amazing things, aren’t they?

Ok, so I didn’t find the Vegemite picture of me in Australia, which is a shame. Not just for the sake of relevance, but because I was wearing a t-shirt and shorts in it. So instead, you get a picture of me holding a koala bear in Australia in a Boy Scout uniform. Troop 528 Wilmington, Delaware, what up!

Vegemite is one of the worst “foodstuffs” you can put in your mouth. The fact that its almost 100 years old and a “traditional” spread in Australia is the only reason people pretend to like it. (England’s Marmite is similar.) It is a dark brown goo, derived from – get this – leftover brewer’s yeast! Nice beer tie-in, Beer’d.

Vegemite is salty and gross. That’s all you need to know.

Oh? You want to know why I’m holding a koala bear in a Boy Scout uniform in Australia? You people… Ok, I had the good fortune of going to the World Scout Jamboree – note, not the “Boy Scout” Jamboree, because only the US, England and Canada (at the time, I think) separated boys and girls, meaning that I was on the other side of the planet for 2 weeks with thousands of young girls from places like Finland and France and Japan. I was 15. It was a wonderful time. So when people goof on me for being an Eagle Scout, I like to drop that bomb on them.

I showed this picture to my three-year-old this morning. Upon looking at it, he said, “That’s not you, Papa. That guy has black hair!”

Thanks, kid. Thanks.

Fortunately, that’s what your 25 year old Norwegian half-brother said too*.

*This is a joke. As if I knew what to do with a woman, let alone one of the topless Scandinavians I saw in Australia, when I was 15.

Overall Rating: A+
Rating vs. Similar style: A

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