For the brewery’s first session ale, Lady Burra has released Strawberries and Cream – a strawberry-laden, sessionable nitro beer, made for sunny afternoons on the Topham Mall deck.

Summer is on its way.

This is the mantra repeated throughout the city and surrounds at this time of year, on lingering brisk mornings that are slowly giving way to warm afternoons pushing later and later into the evening.

There is change coming.

Lady Burra has felt the early tinge of sunlight carried on the breeze that blusters through Topham Mall, and so head brewer Eliot Kirby has prepared the perfect beverage to conjure warmer weather: the brewery’s first session ale, Strawberries and Cream.

Launching Friday, 19 October from lunch service, Eliot created the beer by working from a session ale recipe and then adding 20 kilos of strawberries to the secondary ferment. In a “last minute decision,” Eliot opted to nitrogenise the beer, giving it a silken, creamy texture – hence the beer’s name.

Pale beginnings.

“It gives it a really silky mouth feel, really creamy head – that head will just stay there,” Eliot says.

“I’m pretty happy with it to be honest. Being a session ale, there’s no noticeable alcohol presence, really. It’s very light and refreshing, it’s not overly hopped.

“It’s a good subtle flavour. With all beer, balance is key. You don’t want something that’s going to knock you in the face.”

Strawberries and Cream, in the hands of head brewer, Eliot Kirby.

The beer not only tastes good, the plan is also for it to do good; $1 from every pint sold will be donated to Aussie Helpers, a Queensland-based charity supporting farmers affected by drought.

There are nine 50-litre kegs in stock, and once they’re tapped, the beer is gone for good.

It will not be the last fruity one-off though; since coming into the head brewer role in August this year, Eliot produced a raspberry honey blonde ale, and he’s now toying with the recipe for a quince beer.

“Whenever you poach quinces you get this really pinkish hue from it. I think that’d be really interesting,” he says.

But for now, CityMag will be celebrating the impending sunshine with a creamy strawberry flavoured nitro session ale. Perfect.