This Way Up takes a look at the growth and growth of our craft beer scene this Saturday at 1.45.
RadioNZ National 101FM.
Cheers This Way Up!
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We’ve all heard about small businesses with big plans, but the Garage Project is taking things to extremes.
The Garage Project is brothers Pete and Ian Gillespie, and their boyhood chum Jos Ruffell. Their first step is to build a new ‘nano-brewery’ in an old garage in inner-city Wellington, and you can follow their progress here.
Pete is the brewer, and has a CV including commercial brewing experience in the UK (Breakspear and Hepworth & Co.) and in Australia, where he worked at Malt Shovel Brewery under the legendary Chuck Hahn.
Jos is the business brain, and quit a career in video game production to establish the Garage Project. Jos had worked for Wellington’s internationally renowned Sidhe. Jos’ game development background has influenced Garage Project’s growth strategy, with an emphasis on getting brews right in small-scale production before taking the step up to greater volumes.
The first stage will certainly be nano – beer will be produced in 50 litre batches (i.e., one keg), with capacity to produce four batches per week. And while this sounds distinctly like a homebrew system, Jos and Pete say the brewing equipment is small but hi-tech. Everything has been designed to produce commercial quality beer from the outset, while fitting in with larger commercial equipment as the business grows.
Pete, Ian and Jos plan to sell through a Wellington craft bar and be there when the beer hits the glass. This will give them instant feedback, and, combined with the small batch size, allow brews to rapidly evolve and improve. (Mind you, the feedback might be a little biased with the brewers sitting there with a bar tab…)
Pete says it was English real ales that got him into craft beer, but he doesn’t want to limit his options when it comes to Garage Project’s brewing style. The small batch sizes mean they will able to cover many different styles and see what works. “We can be experimental, but that doesn’t mean we will always be producing big, challenging beers. It can mean making a good, balanced session beer. I don’t like to be limited by style guidelines. The only crime in brewing is being boring,” Pete says.
The Garage Project is cutting through the last of the red tape needed to open a brewery in Wellington City. You can expect the first examples to be available next month, and follow their progress online.
Cheers
© Martin Craig, June 2011
martin@nzbeerblog.com
Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog
Filed under: Beer Makers | Tagged under Chuck Hahn, Garage Project, Maltshovel | 3 Comments »
My old mates at Independent Liquor are taking a novel approach to developing new brews. They’re sending out three versions of a new lager for pre-production tasting by 999 beer experts and soliciting their feedback.
From their news release:
Ben Shaw, Boundary Road Brewery Marketing Manager says serious beer lovers need only apply as the future of The Chosen One is in their hands.
“We want to hear from true Kiwi beer lovers to let us know how they want The Chosen One to taste. It could be they prefer their hops mild, their malt notes medium or they are after a beer to really wow the senses; however they like their brew to be crafted, we want them to decide.”
Mr Shaw says he believes the recruitment drive will be well received as Kiwis appreciate a good brew and have strong opinions when it comes to their beer.
You can apply to become one of the judges at* www.thechosenone.co.nz. There’s some contradictory information flying around about this. I’ve heard stories that all 999 positions are taken, but yesterday Independent’s PR firm assured me that “we still have plenty of places left for Kiwi beer lovers to become a Boundary Road Brewery Beer Taster”.
It’s easy to be cynical about this exercise – after all, I was contacted by a PR firm, not market researchers. But any exercise that gets people thinking about beer, and assumes the New Zealand beer drinker can discriminate different tastes and preferences, is OK with me.
I’ve been given a set of the three test brews, and if you’re another one of the select 999, let’s get together for a tasting, perhaps including a blind comparison against some similar local offers. I’ll publish the results and your opinions here on this very blog.
Then we can see which version eventually goes into production.
Watch this space!
* That’s meant to read ‘The Chosen One’ not ‘The Chose None’, but I’m betting someone got their arse kicked over that one.
Martin Craig
martin@nzbeerblog.com
I‘m crap at Twitter but follow me anyway @nzbeerblog
Filed under: Beer Makers | Tagged under Boundary Road Brewing, Independent Liquor | 3 Comments »
It may seem churlish to gatecrash Her Maj’s birthday by comparing British Pale Ales with their brash colonialist knock-offs. But there was no gong in my mail this morning, so churlish I’m going to be.
Late last month Geoff Griggs and Regional Wines and Spirits hosted an IPA vs. APA tasting. Like every Regional beer tasting, it sold out quickly – if you get a chance to go to one of these, grab it.
Geoff introduced us to a range of British, American and New Zealand pales. The most obvious contrast was the different national hop characteristics, with three very different aroma/flavour experiences.
We started with Greene King Export IPA, which was out of contention here despite the Export IPA title. It’s a good example of an English bitter, with a mineral dryness followed by a lingering fruity maltiness.
Next up came Three Boys IPA from Christchurch, and Tuatara APA from Kapiti. Three Boys IPA has gentle fruity, bisciuty malts on the nose and a light carbonation on the tongue. Malts and hops balance each other with a residual bitterness. Tuatara APA is much more overt on the nose – its US hops are volatile with pine, fruit salad and even marmalade notes, and the cushioning malt balance makes this the bigger beer.
Staying in New Zealand, the next contender was Townshend JC IPA. This was carbonated off the tap – it’s also available off hand pumps in the finer sort of establishment. This one came as a surprise to me as I was expecting something more English. Instead it is a combination of imported UK Challenge hops and NZ Styrian Golding. The aroma is fruity and yeasty, and the flavour is crisp, dry and bitter. It was my revelation for the night and one of my top two for the session.
The first US offering was Anchor Liberty, and those US hops were back in a big way. Anchor Liberty is the benchmark for APAs. It was a pioneering example, and is continually referenced by craft brewers in the US and elsewhere. While the night was all about hops, this introduced the US malt characteristics. Geoff described them as ‘cracker dry, rather than biscuity’ and he was dead right. The US Cascade hop brought everything it should – a fruity apricot flavour on top of pine, bitterness and some late citrus. Fullers IPA made the trans-Atlantic contrast, with British malt flavours and metallic grapefruit notes from the Goldings hop.
The night finished with three big beers. Ballast Point Big Eye, with 6.8% alcohol and a hefty, hefty 85 IBU is imported to New Zealand by Hashigo Zake. You get the volatile hops before you get near the glass, and the flavour has the distinctive US apricot and bitter hops. It’s a thumping great Harley of an IPA – big but balanced.
New Zealand hops made their presence felt in a big way for the last two beers of the night. 8 Wired’s Hop Wired IPA raised the stakes with 7.3% alc and 70 IBU, and the New Zealand Southern Cross, Motueka and Sauvin hops brought a distinctly sweaty, herbal, passionfruit presence. With four different malts in the grist, the balance is there with this one and I’ve enjoyed several pints in succession.
It’s the same with the last beer of the night. Epic Hop Zombie Double IPA should be a big, bitter, acquired taste. But despite its 8.5% alc and 80 IBU, it is a masterpiece of balance and flavour, and is dangerously drinkable. The NZ hops are there on the nose (I’m picking Sauvin), the flavour is full of citrusy, marmalade bitterness, and the mouthfeel is sublime. Hop Zombie is a remarkable beer and one that marks one of the rare epiphanies of my beer-tasting career.
All up, nine beers in three and a half hours. My favourites were Townsend JC IPA and Epic Hop Zombie. JC IPA is available now but Hop Zombie seems to have shuffled off. Chaffers New World had some last week, so try your luck. I’m enjoying one right now. Happy birthday Queen.
The big lesson for me was being reminded just how distinctive each region’s hops can be. There’s no mistaking them, and I’m pleased to be able to enjoy my share of the local production. As Fred Dagg put it so well, we don’t know how lucky we are.
Cheers!
© Martin Craig, June 2011
martin@nzbeerblog.com
Follow me on Twitter (but I’m not very good at it!) @nzbeerblog
Filed under: Beer Makers, Reviews | Tagged under Epic, Geoff Griggs, Hashigo Zake, No.8 Wired, Regional wines, Three Boys, Townshend Brewery, Tuatara | 7 Comments »
Last Friday night I created my own Hop Zombie army.
Regional Wines ran an Apocalypse-themed beer tasting and I was the popular guy who gave away all the beer. The range was Epic’s collaboration brew Mash Up, Epic Mayhem, Epic Armageddon and Epic Hop Zombie.
Yes, it was a hoppy bunch, and with more than one hundred people served on two hours, it was clearly a popular bunch too. Or maybe people just like free beer.
Since most of the guests had tried Mayhem and Armageddon before, it was Mash Up and Hop Zombie that created the most interest.
Last summer Epic’s Luke Nicholas and Kelly Ryan made a road trip visiting 44 brewers around the country – search Youtube for nzcraftbeertv to see their holiday snaps.
The other result was Mash Up: “Coupled with the video production was the idea that all of the passion and concepts of the craft brewers be captured in a special collaboration brew that was to act as a summary of what was happening in New Zealand beer in 2011”, says the Mash Up news release.
Mash Up is a New Zealand pale ale using Gladfield Ale and Maris Otter malts with NZ Cascade, Southern Cross and Riwaka hops, and a US yeast. The guests at Regional were taken with the obvious hop presence and pale colour. The NZ hops were also commented on, with a few using words like “sauvignon blanc”, “cat’s”, “onions” and “sweaty”. Mash Up is astringently hoppy in a way that encourages you to take another sip.
While Mash Up is an overtly hoppy beer, Hop Zombie takes everything a big step further. The hops used are a secret at this stage, and all we know is it uses two NZ hops and two US hops in a combination that is promised to raise eyebrows. At 80 IBUs, this has about four or five times the hop content of your typical green bottle premium lager. It is powerfully aromatic and although it has plenty of bitterness, this is matched by rich hop and malt flavours. Perhaps the most frequent comment about Hop Zombie was that it is deceptively smooth and drinkable for a beer with 8.5% alcohol and 80 IBUs. It has great mouthfeel and the flavours are impressively balanced.
I can personally vouch for its drinkability, having happily had two pints when it was on tap at The Malthouse without guessing how much alcohol was in there. It has masses of flavour and certainly isn’t dominated by the alcohol. Have one and you’ll be a hop zombie for life.
Brews News
Wellington is getting two new brewpubs, scheduled to be up and pumping well before the Rugby World Cup. One will be run by the Malthouse team on Bond Street. This site was once occupied by the Loaded Hog, which had its own range of beers that may or may not have been brewed on site. No name has been announced yet but the number of taps has – 40.
The other brewpub has had less publicity but is rumoured to belong to the Bruhaus crew and to be in the former Curry Club site on the corner of Victoria and Ghuznee Streets. The rumour says we can look for 50 beer taps here.
Two pubs with 90 beer taps – that’s more than some towns! Bring it on!
© Martin Craig, May 2011
martin@nzbeerblog.com
Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog
Filed under: Beer Bars, Beer Makers, Reviews | Tagged under beer, craft beer, Epic, Hop Zombie, Malthouse, Mash Up collaboration, New Zealand Beer, NZ Craft Beer TV | 4 Comments »
The second NZBeerBlog Sunday Session will be on Sunday, 4pm, at The Malthouse in Wellington (48 Courtenay Place).
There’s no need to book, just show up and enjoy good beer and good company.
And thanks to all the Census volunteers. I will be back to you soon with details. I’ve had good coverage from all over the country, but I’m still looking for people who know the craft scene in a few areas, especially Central Otago, Nelson, and Waikato.
E-mail me at martin@nzbeerblog.com if you’d like to be involved. No pay, but you get to visit a few pubs (and set a benchmark in craft beer history!)
Cheers
Martin Craig
martin@nzbeerblog.com
Filed under: Beer Bars, Uncategorized | Tagged under craft beer, Craft Beer Census, Malthouse, New Zealand Beer, NZBeerBlog events | No Comments »
OK, here’s the idea.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the changes the New Zealand craft beer scene is going through at the moment. There’s a lot of new venues opening and craft beer is showing up at more and more outlets. There is also a lot of money and energy being invested in the industry right now.
So this is an excellent time to have a national craft beer census, to get an idea of the current state of the scene. Once we have an initial benchmark, we will be able to trace the changes in craft beer over the years to come.
That’s why I’m looking for your help. I’m looking for people with a good idea of their local craft beer scene to get national coverage. There’s no pay, but I will owe you a beer or two. The results will be made freely available to anyone interested, and we’ll repeat the exercise in future to get a measure of the industry’s changes.
If that sounds like you, e-mail me at martin@nzbeerblog.com and I’ll get back to you with the details.
Beer News – The Brewers Guild has sold the Beervana Festival to David Cryer, of Cryer Malt. The Guild will continue to run the BrewNZ Beer Awards. Cryer plans to expand Beervana “into a consumer-based category brand for craft beer lovers”. The next Beervana will be held in Wellington on 5 & 6 August, and Cryer says it will have a new look and direction. For more, click here.
Cheers
Martin Craig
martin@nzbeerblog.com
Filed under: Around the country, Beer Bars, Beer Makers | Tagged under beer, Beer Census, Beervana, craft beer, New Zealand Beer | No Comments »
Moa’s marketing hits the bullseye and draws in wowser hook, line and sinker. And the wowser’s logic is as twisted as my opening metaphor.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4993804/Addicts-the-market-for-new-beer
“National Addiction Centre director Doug Sellman said that “promoting alcohol at breakfast time is promoting morning drinking”.
“And morning drinking is a classic sign of alcoholism, so it’s basically marketing alcohol to alcoholics,” he said.
As Spock would say, I find that highly illogical, Captain. All fish swim, I can swim, therefore…
And “There were 20 alcohol-related deaths a week, he said.” So how may of those were caused by alcohol (clue: correllation does not imply causation)?
And check out the comments – some of them are very funny.
Off to try Epic’s Hop Zombie tonight, but certainly won’t be pouring it on my Weetbix.
Cheers
martin@nzbeerblog.com
Filed under: Beer Makers, Gushing forth | | 1 Comment »
I’ve been doing a few beer education jobs lately and concluded that it is subversive.
It is also a lot of fun.
The most effective beer education is teaching bar staff more about their primary product. Bar work is often a temporary phase – ‘I’m not really working behind a bar, I’m actually becoming a lawyer’. Most of the people who serve beer in New Zealand are not seeking any career development and don’t want to invest much personal commitment into learning about the products they sell. And most don’t get paid very much either.
That’s why I like teaching bar staff about beer. Not only are they in a wonderful position to teach others about the wonderful products coming out of craft breweries, but it’s just good fun to see them get it.
Last month I was taking a group of bar staff through the different beer styles in their bar’s range, giving them background about the flavours typical of each style. I wasn’t mentioning food matching – that wasn’t in the brief – but toward the end of the tasting, someone sampled a bottle of a black larger that had been opened earlier. It had warmed up a bit, and the guy tasting it asked me if it was supposed to taste of chocolate and coffee. He suggested it might make a good match with their desserts and suggested it could attract females to try new kinds of beer. Good work Fella!
Corporate tastings are also a lot of fun, and not just because you get to drink beer at work. They get people working together in groups, thinking about what they are experiencing, and asking some good, tough questions. The best questions come from people who are not beer fans, because they are not afraid of losing face, and don’t make assumptions about what they are tasting.
I have two rules at my tasting sessions.
1 – There are no dumb questions
2 – Everyone’s senses are different and if you detect a flavour or aroma that no one else has mentioned, speak up and tell us.
Someone always tests rule 1, every time.
So why is beer education subversive? Because the two big breweries are so damn big, and have a huge vested interest in maintaining mediocrity, with sales based on image, not quality. Drink, don’t think. Beer education gets people questioning the range of flavours and aromas they are experiencing, rather than looking at the bottle or the price for reassurance.
It also introduces people to new beer experiences. This can mean styles of beers they haven’t tried before, or it can be a craft version of a style they know they like. Either way, you are getting people to think about beer and think about what they like, and for some brewers and marketers, that is a subversive activity.
Did I mention I enjoy it?
So what are your tricks? How do you get workmates, flatmates, and old mates to try something new?
Filed under: Appreciating beer, Gushing forth | Tagged under beer, beer tastings, craft beer, New Zealand Beer, tutored tasting | 4 Comments »
No great wisdom to impart right now, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have a wow of the week. So…
Wow of the Week: Black Emperor from Golden Ticket Brewing. This is Ally McGilvray’s third seasonal effort, just in time for darker evenings. It’s a great example of the new wave of hoppy back beers, and Golden Ticket calls it a black pilsner, American black lager, pseudo schwarz and a hydrid (sic) schwarzbier. Don’t worry about the style – just enjoy it. Four malts bolstered with Centennial NZ Cascade and Southern Cross hops, this has layers of bitterness from the hops and malts working together. It comes in at a decidedly un-Imperial 4.1% 4.6% which surprised me – I thought it was stronger and it certainly looks and feels bigger. On tap at Hashigo Zake and Regional Wines and Spirits now, and check with the brewery for other outlets.
Extra points for naming a beer after Lee Scratch Perry.
Come along to the NZbeerblog Sunday Session tomorrow for a beer and a yack – The Hopgarden, 15 Pirie St, Mount Victoria, Wellington at 4pm.
Cheers!
martin@nzbeerblog.com
Filed under: Beer Makers, Reviews | Tagged under beer, Black Emperor, craft beer, Golden Ticket Brewing, Hashigo Zake, New Zealand Beer, Regional wines, Schwarzbier | 1 Comment »