Boy & Bear Pair Australian Music Greats To The Country’s Finest Beers

It's a musical tasting menu...

Australia is a country that likes to excel at things. Whether it’s sport or music, our cousins down the Southern Hemisphere aren’t about to accept second best under any circumstances. It’s this mindset that drives Australian groups to the top – just look at Boy & Bear, who have transformed their homeland fame into international success.

The band’s new album – self-titled – is out now, and it kicks off another terrific year for the Australian act. Slated to return to the UK in February 2024 for a full nationwide tour, Boy & Bear are looking forward to re-connecting with British fans – after all, the new LP was mixed alongside Craig at Toast Studios in London.

Frontman Dave Symes comments: “His creative touch added the final ingredient to the album, an album I have had a great time exploring, getting to know and now share with others.”

Until then, fans will need another route to getting a taste of Australian flair in their lives. Clash invited Boy & Bear frontman Dave Symes to construct a special tasting menu – pairing some great Aussie beers with vintage tunes from Australian musicians.

Philer Hazy IPA

The perfect beer to get the party started. Balanced flavour with a little more weight to it, it’s the Friday night kick-starter.

Nothing rings truer that the Easybeats. One Australia’s biggest acts in the early days of rock ‘n’ roll. Jangly guitars and killer lyrics had made this tune a staple on the party playlists.

VB

No beating around the bush here. This is a quintessential everyman Aussie beer. It’ll be on tap at nearly every classic pub in the country and it goes perfectly with AC/DC’s ‘It’s A Long Way To The Top’.

If you’ve done a day of any sort of hard work, and you walk past a pub with AC/DC blaring and somehow find yourself at the bar, paralysed by choice, then do yourself a favour and just have a VB. You won’t regret it.

Grifter Pale Ale

Grifter Pale Ale is a staple among staples. The everyday beer. If you’re after something fruity and refreshing without knocking you off your feet so you can still get up in the morning for work, then this is the beer for you.

Much like ‘Freedom Fighter’ by #1 Dad’s, there is never a bad time to listen to that track. If you’re needing help waking up, or unwinding at the end of the day, it never demands too much of you, but allows you to immerse yourself as much as you want to in that moment. 

Akasha Mosaic IPA

I know it’s semi self-indulgent to use one of our own songs, but it just fits so well. When I imagine the colour of summer it is the fading coastal light, mixed with the slight haze of the salt spray from the ocean.

Akasha’s Mosaic IPA is the hop drenched, refreshing, floral incarnation of this sensation. And the song that’s playing at the bar as the afternoon sun makes the beer in front of you glow like an amber beacon of hope? It has to be ‘Southern Sun’.

Philter Old

Red earth, sweat, baking hot sun. I watch the heat rising from the ground and blurring the world in front of me. I’m desperate for something to quench my thirst. The saviour comes in the form of an ice cold Philter Old. Not quite Porter, nor amber ale, not quite lager. It’s the jack of all trades when it comes to beer. Malty chocolate and coffee on the taste with a crisp bitter finish. It is a take on a classic Australian brown ale… and with a bit of Middle East’s ‘Deep Water’ on the radio and one spot left at the bar that’s what I’ll have.

‘Boy & Bear’ is out now.

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