NZBeerBlog.com

When major breweries rationed supplies to freehouse D4 on Featherston, proprietor Dermot Murphy found a new market for craft beer.

Dermot came to New Zealand from Dublin, and named his first bar after the postcode where he grew up. His accent came with him, and his beer specialist Finbarr Clabby is another Irish import. Finbarr and Dermot won the 2010 Guinness Pint Master competition.

“I’ve run bars in New Zealand and I hate the fact that you can run three or four beers and it all tastes the same but it’s just a different colour,” says Dermot. “My big dream for D4 was to have a bar that was the closest thing you’d get to a bar in Ireland without having fiddles. Back home you can set up a bar and offer everything.”

“I went into it thinking I’d be able to sell anything – Guinness, Heineken, Stella and some of the craft beers. What really pissed me off was the way the big players restrict what they’ll sell you. We have no ties whatsoever, but they still restrict what I can sell. I can have Guinness but I can’t have Kilkenny. Even though we’re independent, we can’t have whatever we like on tap.”

“It really annoyed me that we couldn’t get what we wanted, so I started growing the boutique range and found it had a really, really big market out here.”

D4 is in the corporate heart of downtown Wellington, surrounded by bank HQs, law firms, accountants and government departments. Its neighbours include an Irish pub and a Belgian Beer Cafe, and D4 has the challenge of being upstairs.

Converting the suits to craft beer has been a big success for D4. “You’ve got to hold your hat off to the guys who want to drink mainstream beers. If you’ve got a group of four guys and one guy only wants to have Heineken or Steinlager Pure, he’s going to dictate where you all go. And the margins on the mainstream beer allow us to have a good range of boutique beers too.”

D4 is using two tricks to encourage mainstream drinkers to try the craft range. The D4 passport gives stamps for trying a new beer and prompts customers to try the full tap range. And two guest taps allow regulars to suggest the next guest beers. “When we take up their suggestion, they go back to the office and tell everybody to come in here and try the beer. ‘That’s on because I asked for it!’ The guest taps have been brilliant for us and we’re tossing up having more.”

When D4 opened three years ago, it was plumbed with 24 beer lines. Dermot says he thought this was future-proofing at the time, but the future is here now. D4 has 18 tap beers today and this will increase to 24 by Christmas.

“We probably have about forty really good craft beers in the fridge, but there’s nothing so special as drinking a tap beer I reckon. To get 24 beers into a keg room and to be churning through enough of them that they can stay on tap and taste good is a good feat. Tuatara Pilsner has always been in our top three sellers since we opened. Tuatara APA I just couldn’t take off because of the demand. We literally can’t get enough of it.”

Epic Pale Ale is another permanent tap, and when NZ Beer Blog visited, Founders Fair Maiden was on the hand pump.

Dermot has also noted the appeal of a smart-looking craft beer with a business lunch. “What’s happening is the corporate guys will come in and shout three clients. So instead of spending $50 on a bottle of another Marlborough sauvignon, they will get three or four craft beers that are usually in a really sexy bottle with a good label. It’s making the guys shouting these clients look really good because he’s taken them somewhere different.”

But Dermot says craft brewers need more than a sexy bottle, and greater effort is needed to educate bar staff. “Staff training is always available for the wine, and it’s not for the beer. We need the staff to know about every beer and be able to rattle it off when as customer asks, like they do with wine. It’s up to the boutique brewers to get that information out there and educate the staff and they can go on and educate the customer. I’m actually having to commission beer specialists to come in to educate the staff, but that’s not as good as someone from the brewery.”

Dermot believes a respectable craft beer range is expected in Wellington bars and cafes. “When we opened three years ago it was a point of difference and it helped get people to come up the stairs, but I think craft beer is going to be an essential part of every bar. And the girls are moving from wine to beer. We have two girls who come in religiously every Wednesday and have three or four Maredsous. A bottle of wine knocks you around but a couple of beers lets you come in and be social.”

Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog
©Martin Craig. Reproduction with permission only.
[email protected]

Filed under: Around the country, Beer Bars, Beer Makers  |   Tagged under D4 on Featherston, Dermot Murphy, Epic Pale Ale, Finbarr Clabby, Founders Fair Maiden, Freehouse, Guinness, Guinness Pint Master, hand pump, Heineken, Kilkenny, Maredsous, Stella Artois, Tuatara APA, Tuatara Pilsner | 8 Comments »

Down here in the South Pacific, we have just changed our clocks for daylight saving.

Longer, sunnier evenings are on the way, perhaps with a barbecue, and every change of season is a good excuse to explore new beers.

This winter has seen many high-hopped, high alcohol monsters set loose from New Zealand’s craft brewers, largely in New World Imperial IPA stylings. They have been excellent examples of the current range of hops available from New Zealand, but with ABVs up around 7% plus, they are made to be appreciated slowly rather than to slake a thirst.

Alcohol carries flavour, and these high-alc IIPAs have plenty of that, especially leading with the New World hops I love. But somewhere in the back of my mind I have a sneaky suspicion that dialling up the alcohol is the easy way to present flavour in your beer.

Look at restaurant cooking. It tastes better than your cooking at home, and that’s partly because chefs use more salt and butter than you do. Salt enhances flavour and fat carries it, and produces a good mouthfeel, but if you ate like that everyday you’d be fat, tired and broke. It takes extra skill to produce food that is flavourful and healthy.

It’s the same with beer. Higher alcohol content makes the flavours stand out, but producing a flavourful and balanced beer with less alcohol takes more skill.

Britain’s mild and bitter ales have been the definitive session beers for generations, and our New Zealand Draught brown lagers are their modern descendant. Emerson’s Bookbinder is probably the benchmark session ale from our craft brewers, but it isn’t a crowded market. Sunshine Breweries Gisborne Gold was developed at 4% 21 years ago – when most of its contemporary lagers were at 5% – specifically so that consumers could enjoy more of it. And that’s no bad thing – there are certainly occasions when the company and the craic are more important than the beer, and an overly assertive beer is out of place.

So what am I looking for in a session beer? It should have that flavour and balance, it should have no more than 4% alcohol so I can enjoy a few over a long evening, and it should be relatively cheap, so I can afford a few over a long evening.

I suspect this is one of those “pick any two options” situations and my wish list is contradictory. I know alcohol carries flavour, but I don’t know if it carries all flavours equally. Brewing experts, help me out here – is it possible for a beer to be both hoppy and relatively low in alcohol?

My ideal session beer would probably be a Bitter at 4% or so, and emphasising New Zealand hops. If you know of one like that, tell me about it.

And what about you – what do you look for in a session beer? And are there any you recommend for a long, sunny evening?

Cheers

PS #1 – Don’t forget to enter your session beers (and any others) in the SOBA 2010 National Homebrew Competition. Perhaps you’ve already invented my ideal session beer and just need to win some glory before taking your recipe to the world. Good luck to all entrants. Here’s the link.

PS #2 – Wow beer of the week – Golden Rye Ale from Kaimai Brewing Company. Tried it off the tap at the Malthouse yesterday, out of curiosity over the rye. At first I thought it wasn’t my glass of beer, as it is sweeter and less hoppy than my usual choices. But there’s something very pleasing in the balance in this one, the fruity hops balance the toffee malt and rye, and it has a good mouthfeel. I went back for more and will enjoy it again. Try if you find it.

Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog
©Martin Craig. Reproduction with permission only.
[email protected]

Filed under: Beer Makers, Gushing forth, Reviews  |   Tagged under beer, Bookbinder, Emersons, Gisborne Gold, golden ale, Golden Rye Ale, home brew, Kaimai, Malthouse, R, Renaissance, Rye, Session Beer, SOBA, Sunshine Brewery, Tatapouri Fishing Club, Yeastie Boys | 11 Comments »

This entry was edited on 20 September following further infromation from McCashins

Terry McCashin is the godfather of New Zealand micro-brewing. He famously took on the big brewing duopoly back in 1980, and later sold his Macs brand to Lion.

Today the McCashin brewery in Stoke is back in family hands after Lion’s lease expired. Terry’s son Dean and daughter-in-law Emma are now producing a range of beverages including vodka and cider, and have just released their first three beers.

It’s good to see the brewery back in operation, and to know the McCashins are back in the brewing business. But it’s disappointing that the products are not up to the 2010 beer range.

The McCashin’s beer range has three beers – Stoke Gold, Stoke Amber and Stoke Dark. All are ales, and Emma confirmed all are brewed with the same “secret yeast”. The hops and malts are not identified in the tasting notes or packaging, but the packaging tells us Stoke is “brewed for 3 weeks” and uses “14,000 year old Paleo (TM) water”!

Who cares? Seriously, what niche of the beer buying market wants trademarked water but isn’t interested in the hops, malt or yeast?

Craft brewers use their ingredients to create a clear point of difference. Several New Zealand beers are named after their hops – Yeastie Boys Motueka Monster and Twisted Hop’s Sauvin Pilsner, for example. Many others boast about their ingredients and differentiate their products from their competitors’. Buyers pay a premium for these ingredients and products. Stoke’s three generic beers and anonymous ingredients will not command premium prices against this kind of competition. What was brave in 1980 seems distinctly retro 30 years on.

The six-pack packaging indicates the McCashins are fighting the two major breweries for shelf space in bottle stores and supermarkets, so they will have to beat the majors on profit margins and advertising budgets.

All up, they will need to keep production costs down to be able to offer good profit margins without charging premium prices, and do that without operating the economies of scale the larger breweries can achieve.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m sure the McCashins know what they are doing. Dean McCashin says they have allied with Hancocks for its brand-building and portfolio management expertise. An Auckland-based PR agency was bought in to spruik the products.

But I can’t see how these products and marketing can attract the craft beer market, or how their production volume and costs can compete with the major breweries.

Tasting notes
GOLD – LAGER
A wonderful golden colour, which is sweet and aromatic on the nose, with a hint of fruitiness. It has unique smooth honey tones on the palate, with a complimentary (sic) balance between sweet and light bitterness. Drink cold (5 degrees). Food match: Stoke Gold is great with mild flavours such as shellfish or chicken. An excellent contrast with spicy or ethnic foods.
NZ Beer Blog says: McCashins says the tasting notes will be changed to remove any reference to lager. 4.5% ABV. Pours a golden yellow with an orange tinge, white head doesn’t linger, strong carbonation. Aroma of biscuity, bready malt. Taste is clean, malt-dominated and sweet, with a lingering metallic bitterness.

AMBER – ALE
Strikingly amber/red in the glass, with a sweet and slightly woody character on the nose, balanced with fruity hop aroma. Gorgeous malty body with unique smooth honey tones, followed by a wee zesty hop. Drink cold (5 degrees). Food match: Enjoy Stoke Amber with lamb, beef, veal or even roasted pork.
NZ Beer Blog says: 4.5% ABV. Pours a clean, coppery red. Strong carbonation. Aroma of malt biscuits and toffee. Taste is very sweet toffee, with hints of golden syrup. I don’t get any hops here.

BLACK – DARK
A rich dark hue, with a hint of red. Coffee and dark chocolate aromas, with a well balanced full malt body. Complement of smooth caramel sweetness, rich malty body with aromatic and subtle bitterness liven the palate while not over-powering the flavour. Drink slightly chilled (7 degrees).Food match: Drink Stoke Black with a thick juicy steak or roast beef served with lots of gravy. Or if you have a sweet tooth, try matching with chocolate or toffee deserts.
NZ Beer Blog says: 4.5% ABV. Dark, mahogany red, head pours tan but doesn’t linger. Aroma of dark malts, slightly woody, but I don’t get the obvious coffee and dark chocolate I’ve found in other dark beers. The flavour is more distinctive than the aroma, malty and lightly charred.

Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog
©Martin Craig. Reproduction with permission only.
[email protected]

Filed under: Beer Makers, Reviews  |   Tagged under ale, amber ale, dark ale, DB, gold, golden ale, Lion, McCashin, Motueka Monster, Sauvin Pilsner, Stoke, Twisted Hop, Yeastie Boys | 14 Comments »

Hashigo Zake is a bit complex. It’s a craft beer bar with a Japanese theme operating out of some old police cells in central Wellington. NZBeerBlog caught up with proprietor Dominic Kelly in between preparing for his bar’s first birthday party and planning a trip to Japan.

“There’s an Old World/New World divide in beer, as there is in wine,” says Dominic.

“The Old World is that rustic English imagery with pub names like the Fox & Hound. There’s a place for that, but we in New Zealand are part of the New World of brewing along with the Pacific Rim and Scandinavia. To draw on the Old World imagery would be doing a disservice to our New World brewers. We wanted to challenge ideas about where craft beer could come from.”

Dominic lived and worked in Japan for three years. “Popeye in Tokyo is a benchmark for a craft beer bar. They don’t let anything they do distract you from the beer, which is important. The first beer I has there was a hand-pulled Rising Sun Pale Ale from Baird Brewing and it was one of those epiphanies”.

You don’t come to Hashigo Zake and ask for a pint of the usual. The range is constantly changing, and if you find a beer you enjoy, you’d better make the most of it because there’s no guarantee it will still be on when you finish your glass. The tap range usually includes a pilsner, a wheat beer, a session ale, a porter or stout and an IPA.

“We started with imports in bottles and taps full of locals, but since then we’ve managed to import kegs and beefed up our selection of local bottles. We must have between 100 and 150 beers, but I really don’t know.”

Dominic has learnt a lot in the past year about how beer travels. “Some of the beers are just bullet-proof, but it’s just not worth bringing in moderate strength. Beers with higher alcohol and stronger flavour, beers that can age, will travel best. We found from bitter experience that beers at less than 6% don’t travel very well, but above 6%, IPAs will travel beautifully. We’re now arranging to bring everything in in refrigerated containers.”

Tonight Hashigo Zake staff are celebrating the first year with a meal prepared by a guest chef, and a
beer or two. Then in a couple of days Dominic is flying to Japan to present Tuatara Brewery’s range at the Great Japan Beer Festival in Yokohama. “Tuatara asked if I could introduce them to any Asian contacts that could help them export. I’ll squeeze a few other local beers into my suitcase and run a New Zealand tasting next Sunday night. We could have a thriving craft beer exporting business because it is a value-added agricultural product. We grow unique hops here by world standards. You don’t hear our hop industry talked about in business pages and TV, and that’s because we don’t recognise success here until we’ve made it overseas.”

Dominic has lots of plans for the future, including developing the online sales side of the business and increasing the imports to on-sell to other craft bars. He plans to start an exchange network of craft beer businesses around the Pacific Rim. “I’d like to see full kegs going in both directions across the Pacific, to Japan, Australia, California, and who knows where else. It’s not clear whether that’s viable due to the way kegs are filled and cleaned and reused, but in principle, it’s a good idea. At the moment we own 40 kegs but soon we’ll own 200. The possibilities are endless.”

Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog

©Martin Craig. Reproduction with permission only.

[email protected]

Filed under: Around the country, Beer Bars, Beer Makers  |   Tagged under Baird Brewing, Dominic Kelly, Hashigo Zake, IPA, New World, Old World, Tuatara | 4 Comments »

Marlborough has been a quiet achiever in the New Zealand craft brew industry. It has an international profile for its grapes and winemakers, but there’s more to Marlborough than wine.

One of the pioneers of the current generation of craft brewers was Pink Elephant, with the quirky and challenging Pink Elephant PDA. This was on the bill when the Malthouse opened on Willis Street in 1993 and the malty strong ale stood out like a Pink Elephant against the range of lagers available at the time. I think the PDA-styling was a bit of an in-joke – someone told me it stood for Public Display of Affection, brought on my too many pints. Maybe.

Today Blenheim, the political, corporate and entertainment capital of the Marlborough region, has three dedicated craft beer bars and two quality breweries. All this and it’s a short ocean cruise from my hillside apartment. Grouse!

Renaissance Brewing Company is in an historic factory complex in Blenheim’s northern suburbs. It has door sales and if you ask nicely and get there at a quiet time, they might give you the tour. Renaissance has a full range of nine ales plus seasonals.

Renaissance development manager Roger Kerrison told me in August that all Renaissance beers are produced with the same ale yeast, as this suits their range and avoids possible contamination between different strains. No lagers here, but the Paradox Blond Ale is a more than acceptable substitute.

Renaissance also conducts contract brewing, most notably for No.8 Wired. No.8’s brewer Soren Eriksen works for Renaissance as his day job, and gets to make his own brews on their equipment. Nice gig if you can get it.

The Olde Malthouse is next door to the brewery and is part of the same old factory. It actually looks like it has housed malt at some stage in the past, and today is an authentic-looking country inn with all of Renaissance’s beers on tap.

Moa Brewing Company has always had strong links to Marlborough’s wine industry – the brewery was established by Josh Scott from the Alan Scott family. The viticulture links are seen in the premises and the product.

Moa’s brewery and bar are surrounded by vineyards on the Wairau Flats about 6km west of Blenheim’s CBD and near Blenheim International Airport. The rapid transit system doesn’t run this far so you’ll need you own transport.

Other brew bars should take a lesson from Moa. Rather than selling a tasting tray and leaving you to it, Moa takes you on a guided tour through the range. Each Moa beer is offered in a small wine tasting glass, with an explanation from the bar staff of the style, how it’s made and what makes each one different. This presentation has been adopted directly from the wine industry and it lifts the craft beer industry to a whole new level of presentation. Other brew bars should visit Moa and use its tasting presentation as a new benchmark. The tasting is free too, if you decide to buy a bottle – bargain!

Blenheim’s third craft beer bar is The Old Bank Bar & Cafe. This one is a bit out of town, in Redwoodtown, a satellite commercial and retail hub on Blenheim’s South Side. The Old Bank is a typical neighbourhood bar with huge, simple meals and locals in their favourite seat. It stocks a good range of craft beers from Blenheim and the rest of New Zealand.

Owner Mike Pink is the brother of Roger Pink of Pink Elephant, and is an active SOBA member. If you’re lucky you might meet other Blenheim beer folk at The Old Bank, including our oldest beer writer Geoff Griggs and the Renaissance crew doing quality control.

All up, Marlborough and its craft brewers are well worth a trip for the local beer fan.

And on a more serious note, my thoughts and sympathies go out to all those hit by the Christchurch earthquake. Breweries are always vulnerable in a quake, with big, top-heavy tanks and other flying hazards. Does anyone have updates about how the local brewers and their premises have fared through the quake and the ongoing aftershocks?

Cheers

Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog
©Martin Craig. Reproduction with permission only.

Filed under: Around the country, Beer Bars, Beer Makers, Reviews  |   Tagged under Alan Scott, Blenheim, Geoff Griggs, Malthouse, Marlborough, Moa Brewing Company, No.8 Wired, Renaissance, SOBA | 16 Comments »

I was pleased to see Monteith’s Black won a trophy for European Lagers at BrewNZ last week.

It’s good news for two reasons – DB is being upfront that Black is a lager; and dark lagers are something we do well in New Zealand.

In many bars I’ve visited, Monteith’s Black is the best beer on tap. Heck, in some entire towns it is the best beer on tap, but let’s not pick on Timaru right now.

Back in the early 1990s, dark lagers were the first style to break the ongoing blandness of sweet ‘draughts’ and sweet golden lagers. It was a lesson to New Zealand beer drinkers that beer could come in different flavours and styles.

It mightn’t seem a big deal now, but back then the choice was welcome, and look where it’s led us today. Thank you Black Mac.

I believe dark lagers are something New Zealand brewers do well, something we do better than brewers in other countries. Dark lagers have the potential to be developed into a distinctly New Zealand style to reflect our palate, brewing history, and ingredients, but right now they remain underappreciated.

I believe major brewers deliberately under-rate their darks. For example, they don’t even tell drinkers the dark is a lager. Lagers are light and darks are dark and don’t confuse the dumb old beer drinker.

If they were proactive they would be saying, “Look, this is a lager, but it is dark and chocolatey and goes very well with dessert. Pretty neat, eh?” But they can’t see the difference between a distinctive New Zealand style and a just another product category.

I also believe craft brewers under-rate dark lagers, for two different reasons – it is dominated by the majors; and it isn’t fashionable in the countries microbrewers like to emulate, like Britain, Belgium and the United States.

That’s a shame, because dark lagers have their strengths. For example, it is a good match with chocolate or chocolate cakes, a notoriously difficult wine-match. Darks also match well with winter comfort food and some milder game. They are good session beers, too, at about 5% alcohol, and can make a relatively harmless alternative to higher-strength winter warmers.

We could be promoting them as paradoxical dark, chocolatey, malt-driven lagers that are a special part of the New Zealand beer range. I’d like to see craft brewers appreciate the style and push it further to make the most of recent trends in hops and flavours. The majors won’t do anything innovative to fulfill the style’s potential until pushed by braver brewers .

So congratulations DB, let’s see you tell the world you brew a good dark lager.

And if you want to try others, seek out:

Black Mac, the one that started it all

Founders organic Long Black

Samuel Adams Double Bock, which scored silver along with Monteith’s Black

Roosters Dark, always a favourite off the taps at Regional

Any I’m missing?

Cheers

Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog
©Martin Craig. Reproduction with permission only.

Filed under: Beer Makers, Gushing forth, Reviews  |   Tagged under Black Mac, BrewNZ, DB, Founders, Heineken, Montieths, Montieths Black, Regional wines, Roosters, Samuel Adams, Schwarzbier, South Canterbury Finance, Timaru | 4 Comments »

It’s been a monster winter for New Zealand beer lovers. We’ve had a sudden rush of new, high alcohol beers, often pushing loads of New Zealand hops.

Perhaps the biggest of the monsters is MPA Imperial India Pale Ale from the Renaissance Brewing Company in Blenheim. The label tells you all you need to know about this one – “An explosion of Rakau Hops”.

This is a single-hop beer – the Rakau hop has to provide bitterness, flavour and aroma, a big call. Most hops can provide two out those three characteristics, but single-hop beers I have tried in judging sessions usually have something lacking. This isn’t the case here – MPA IIPA has masses of hops from first scent, to a lingering finish. Renaissance says its uses 21kg of Rakau hops in a 2000 litre batch of MPA IIPA, so it’s no wonder you notice them.

MPA IIPA pours golden brown and has an obvious citrus/summer fruit aroma. Some have detected sweaty notes there too – perhaps not surprising with the masses of hops. That fruit theme continues in the flavour, carried by a very hefty 8.5% alcohol. This is no session beer. Try serving it in a wine glass – with its complex citrus tones, a single-hop recipe and Marlborough origins, this one could convert sauvignon blanc fans. Despite the Imperial India Pale Ale label, Renaissance has entered MPA in the Barley Wine category at BrewNZ.

MPA IIPA has been released this week at Hamilton’s House on Hood, Wellington’s Hashigo Zake, Christchurch’s Pomeroys and the Free House in Nelson. It will be available at the Renaissance stand at Beervana.

Moa Brewing Company has always had strong links to wine production techniques, including secondary fermentation and bottle conditioning. Moa’s Beervana surprise is yet another big-hopped, high -alcohol pale ale – Moa Imperial Pale Ale.

Moa says this 7.2% Imperial Pale Ale has a robust 75 International Bitterness Units from local Cascade and Sauvin hops. Its tasting notes say it has an “extremely high bitterness” with “bright passion fruit flavours” and “flinty and mineralistic characters”.

I have to admit I haven’t opened my sample bottle yet – I’m waiting to have a taste-off with MPA IIPA, Yakima Monster, Motueka Monster and No.8 Wired Hopwired. Want to join me?

So if you are looking for a theme for Beervana 2010, how about an IIPA-themed monster hunt? Here’s a few to look out for:
Moa Imperial Pale Ale
Renaissance MPA
Thornbridge Halcyon IIPA
No.8 Wired’s Hopwired IPA
Epic Barrel Aged Armageddon

There will be other IIPA-influenced beers there too – happy hunting.

I’m off to Beervana on Friday – if you see me say Happy Birthday. Cheers!

Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog
©Martin Craig. Reproduction with permission only.

Filed under: Beer Makers, Reviews  |   Tagged under Armageddon, Beervana, Epic, Freehouse, Halcyon, Hashigo Zake, Hopwired, House on Hood, IIPA, Kieran Deustche Bieren Geliebt, Moa Brewing Company, No.8 Wired, Pomeroys, Renaissance Brewing Company, Thornbridge | 9 Comments »

Expected the unexpected from Yeastie Boys.

This contract brew outfit has been surprising New Zealand craft beer fans for a couple of years now with its rockin’ attitude and giving the finger to established beer styles.

Its Beervana launch will include two brews. One is the high-alcohol winter warmer Her Majesty 2010. The other, Punkadiddle, comes in at a distinctly unfashionable – and highly sessionable – 3.7%.

Her Majesty 2010 is part of Yeasties’ limited-release Majesty series. For the past two years they have released a his-and-hers pair of high-flavoured, high-powered speciality brews presented in champagne bottles. His Majesty is hop-driven and designed to be masculine. Her Majesty is malt-led and the feminine complement.

As I said, the Fungal Fellas don’t worry about toeing the line with style definitions. Reviews reflect the eclectic approach. Kieran Haslett-Moore from Regional Wines & Spirits called it: “a Belgian Imperial Brown Porter, or in other words, unique”.

It pours a deep mahogany brown with a thick tan head. The aroma shows its Belgian origins. The flavour is deeply malty with little or no hop influence. It has a slight, bitter-malt aftertaste that becomes more prominent as the glass warms. At 7.5% and all-malt, this is a good winter warmer. It should be a keeper, and it will be interesting to taste what those Belgian yeasts are doing in a year.

Yeastie Boy “Fungus Stu” McKinlay is on record as warning hopheads to seek medical advice before trying HM2010, and it left this hophead underwhelmed. Mrs Beerblog didn’t get animated either and didn’t find it a feminine beer. Both of us thought the flavour wasn’t as complex as expected from a 7.5% beer. But if you’re a malt fan, check this one out, and keep another to cellar.

Punkadiddle will be launched at Beervana if all goes to plan, and I haven’t tried this one yet. All I know is it’s 3.7% alcohol and uses East Kent Golding hops. That hints towards a Mild Ale, but you never know with the Fungal Fellas.

Pot Kettle Black might also be available at Beervana. This was Yeastie Boys’ original effort and it is now widely available year round. It is an exceptional example of their lateral thinking. Described as an American-style Porter, it has all the cake/coffee/dark flavours you want in a porter, with a healthy whack of New World hops. PKB has been though a few versions and marks over the past two years, and the latest model has been finely tuned to be at its best for Beervana. Try it.

Next Beervana Preview – Monsters from Marlborough

Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog
©Martin Craig. Reproduction with permission only.

Filed under: Beer Makers, Reviews  |   Tagged under Beervana, Kieran likes German beer, Ratebeer, Regional wines, Yeastie Boys | 6 Comments »

Thornbridge is an English craft brewery with strong links to New Zealand. Those links will be strengthened next week when the Malthouse launches three Thornbridge imports at Beervana.

English pale ales always seem a bit understated and stiff-upper-lip to my New World tastes, but Jaipur India Pale Ale proves me wrong again. Thornbridge describe it as “a citrus dominated India Pale Ale, its immediate impression is soft and smooth yet builds to a crescendo of massive hoppiness, accentuated by a honey. An enduring, bitter finish”.

At 5.9% alc it is the baby of the Malthouse’s Thornbridge Three, but plenty strong enough to carry the hop flavours and bitterness, and would be an excellent match to Indian food. If you like Epic Pale Ale, try Jaipur. Epic’s Luke Nicholas has worked with Thornbridge, and although he didn’t develop Jaipur, I’m sure he will have found it to be a soul-mate to his flagship brew.

Saint Petersburg Imperial Russian Stout is a fine example of this big, heavy, imperialist style. St Petersburg has just six hours of daylight during the winter solstice, and Russian Imperial Stout is a real winter warmer style. Like India Pale Ale, Russian Imperial Stout was brewed in Britain for export, with high alcohol to help it travel well.

Thornbridge describes Saint Petersburg as having a “lemony, minty hop nose with underlying chocolate caramel. Big, sweet roasted malt in the mouth with hints of chicory and bitter coffee. Some dark chocolate and wisps of peaty smoke.”

I detected bitter liquorice and black plum in the flavours, and the smokiness is evident in the aroma and flavour. With an imperial 7.7% alc this one will keep. Open one on our winter solstice and be grateful you’re not in Saint Petersburg surrounded by Bolsheviks.

Halcyon Imperial Pale Ale is one you cannot afford to miss. The official Thornbridge description is “Golden blonde beer with an exquisite passionfruit, gooseberry and mango aroma. An initial sweetness and full body are balanced by a lasting grapefruit-like bitter finish.”

Well that’s the official version. Halcyon is an unusual style – it is dry-hopped with wet hops. Fresh, undried hops are added during fermentation to give a new spin on the late-hopping technique. The result is masses of fruity, hoppy aroma announcing a balanced bitter beer with lovely summer stonefruit flavours. I call it the nectarine ninja, and Neil Miller calls it a peach carrying a four-by-two. The aroma and fruit will lead you in, the velvety peach fuzz mouthfeel will seduce you, and the 7.7% alc will slap you around.

This one’s extraordinary and very drinkable – don’t leave Beervana without visiting the Malthousers and trying Halcyon.

And if you can’t, really, really can’t make it to Beervana, then check out the Thornbridge website – it’s a good one.

Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog
©Martin Craig. Reproduction with permission only.

Filed under: Beer Bars, Beer Makers, Reviews  |   Tagged under Beervana, Epic, Halcyon Imperial IPA, Jaipur IPA, Kieran likes German beer, Luke Nicholas, Malthouse, Nectarine Ninja, St Petersburg Imperial Russian Stout, Thornbridge | No Comments »

When I visit a restaurant or bar for the first time, I’ll often ask to see the beer list.

I do it out of curiosity, because I like a good beer, and to be slightly annoying too. Sometimes I get a funny look, sometimes they’ll flick to the back page of the wine list, and sometimes they’ll say “Heineken and Steinlager”.

Occasionally I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

There’s an art to designing a good beer list, but many establishments just don’t seem to have bothered.

Assuming they haven’t sold their soul, first born and their beer list to a major brewery, restaurants and bars now have an excellent opportunity to stock a wide variety of local products that will enhance their food offerings and provide an additional income stream.

Having a bad beer list warns me the kitchen side of the operation is unimaginative and the marketing side is dull.

That’s why it’s so very disappointing to see the same combinations of international lagers and perhaps a draught and Guinness.

The first thing I look for in a beer list is a variety of beer styles. There should be at least one good lager or pilsner, a malt-driven ale, and a hoppier ale. With those three styles you have covered beer fans’ basic tastes and have a decent food match for most of the entrees and mains on your menu.

A dark lager, a porter or a stout would be handy too, and many make an excellent combination with a chocolatey dessert. If a cafe or bar wants to extend its basic range, it could add a wheat beer and support several craft brewers to offer alternatives in the popular styles.

I’m not impressed by a broad international coverage, for two reasons. Most of the international offerings are made in New Zealand; and beer is a fresh product. I wouldn’t expect a cafe to get bread from overseas, and overseas beer is unnecessary too. The hospitality industry likes to support local wine producers but often ignores local breweries, which is a disappointment for the travelling beer fan.

As I said, I’m not sure why the beer basics are too difficult for so many hospitality outlets.

Let me know what you look for in a beer list. Do you ask for one? What would you like to find?

And more importantly, let me know if there’s a cafe, restaurant or bar that you visit that has a good beer list, and we can give them a free plug.

Cheers!
Follow us on Twitter @nzbeerblog
©Martin Craig. No reproduction without permission.

Filed under: Around the country, Beer Bars, Gushing forth  |   Tagged under bar, beer list, cafe, Guinness, Heineken, hospitality, lager, Pale Ale, pilsner, restaurant, Steinlager | 4 Comments »