Changing Rooms

There will be some changes coming up at the Mason’s Arms (aka my house bar). I used to get asked occasionally why I had a bar and three beer engine in my living room, my answer was always ‘why would you have a bar and 3 beer engines in your living room?’ However the time has come in my life where I will answer my own question. Sarah has sold her house and we are moving her and 2 of her kids into my house.

Its time for the bar to go...

Well move actually. Over the next month the bar will be moved from the central living area into one of the bedrooms that open off from it. This of course will give me a lounge bar and a public bar (or tap room as I’m tempted to call it even though I am well aware that tap rooms don’t usually have taps in them and this one will). Although Sarah will call the lounge bar the living room of course.

I will update with photos as the new bar takes form.

Bringing Christmas to the People

When I lived in Newtown not only did I have a fantastic local pub in Bar Edward but I also had a top local fair trade coffee roastery in Peoples Coffee. I’m always keen on celebrating the local, you can see that in the names of my beers which almost all come from local place names. When I was living there I brewed a Peoples Coffee Porter and gave the boys a rigger of it to try. Memories of that beer have obviously lived on and the company have enlisted me to brew another batch to give away for Christmas this year.
I was meant to be brewing a pilot batch today however having run out of co2 and then finding that the depot had also run out (I use co2 to propel caustic and sanitizer through my fermentors) has left me catching up on my blogging. Not so bad, I was long over due

Former long time flatmate and O-Street beer consumer Dan now works for Peoples. The beer will be my current Hall St brown porter recipe with espresso shots added both to the end of the boil and into the conditioning vessel.

Yeastie Boys Are GO!

Last week I attended the launch of the first beer from the Yeastie Boys at Bar Edward, a new player in NZ beer scene. Yeastie Boys is the brainchild of fellow SOBA founder and Wellington Homebrewer Stu McKinlay and rate beer extraordinaire Sam "The Grandmaster" Possenniskie. They are currently contract brewing seasonal releases at Steve Nalley’s Invercargill Brewery. The first release is a highly hopped porter called Pot Kettle Black, which I’m told is a Wilco Song, musical theme here Beastie Boys, Yeastie Boys, get it? Despite not being a style I would normally get into it’s a damn tasty drop and was very good through the handpump, particularly once the sparkler was banished. The next release for Summer is a hoppy golden ordinary bitter, I cant wait.

Again Photos by Adam, cheers!