Showing posts with label ct column. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ct column. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
CT Column 08/02/2012 : Project going to the dogs
8/02/2012 10:57:00 a.m.
WELLINGTON is very quickly going from a city of craft beer drinkers and purveyors to a city of craft beer brewers. When Lion decided to move production of the Macs beers from the Shed 22 brewery and call time on brewing it seemed like the end of an era for the Wellington beer community. While the capital had a growing market for craft beer it also had steep rents and a paucity of suitable sites for brewing in the central city. That was 2010 and it seemed that with the exception of contract brewers like the Yeastie Boys the Capital was destined to play the role of drinker rather than brewer.
Things have changed rapidly. Wellington is now on the cusp of having a brewpub and two decent sized production breweries opening within the central city limits.
Over the past six months a very idiosyncratic contract brewing company has been trading its wares around town. Parrotdog Brewing Co was formed when Matt Warner and Matt Kristovski began home brewing while studying at Victoria University. They found success with their hobby and decided to take the plunge and enter the world of contract brewing. They were joined by, you guessed it, Matt Stevens and began brewing an IPA under the edgy moniker Bitterbitch at Taranaki’s White Cliff Brewery.
The three Matts have been encouraged by the Capital’s response to their beers, so much so that they have taken a huge leap. Parrotdog have secured premises in Vivian St, and have ordered a 2500 litre brew plant from China. The boys decided they would only be young once and if they were going to do it now was the time. All things going to plan they should be brewing in the Vivian St premise by April.
However things in the world of brewing don’t always go to plan, if they did Wellington’s new brewpub Fork and Brewer would have been brewing for over a month by now. The project was first faced with a major setback when new Christchurch influenced earthquake provisions meant they had to rearrange the brewing vessels along a steel girder and reinforce the floor. Then came the bombshell that their Chinese made boiler wouldn’t be certified for use in New Zealand. Last reports were that a second-hand boiler had been sourced and hopefully brewing will commence soon.
In Aro Valley some very exciting things have been going on behind the roller door of the old Aro St petrol station. Back in June I reported on The Garage Project, a venture devised by brewer Pete Gillespie, his brother Ian Gillespie and video game designer Joss Ruffell. Through the end of last year The Garage Project brewed 24 beers in 24 weeks on a tiny 50L brew plant and released them at Hashigo Zake. This was in some regards a market R and D exercise as well as a reaction to council limitations placed upon them as the building they were in was in the process of being rezoned. With rezoning sorted the brewery has been able to move forward and an American made plant is built and waiting to be dispatched once the floors and drains have been prepared. In the meantime The Garage Project is doing contract brews in Christchurch at the Three Boy’s brewery.
The next few months are going to offer plenty of new beers from our new breweries, a very exciting prospect for the Capital’s craft beer drinkers, and obviously for me!
CT Column 01/02/2012 : Ales by Dale
THE rise of contract brewing has resulted in the democratisation of New Zealand’s brewing scene.
By that I mean that home brewers from all walks of life have been able to enter the beer market. Once it was only those with the drive, means and blind determination to enter the precarious world of small business that could produce beer for sale. When once one required the capital to set up a brewery and operate a business now all a home brewer needs is enough money to fund each batch of beer and a willing brewery to produce it.
One of these new contract brewers is Nelson based Dale Holland. Dale is an IT systems specialist by trade but in the late 90’s he was bitten by the home brewing bug. After brewing some mixed results he gave up the hobby to concentrate on his career. Then in 2009 with the renaissance of craft brewing in full swing Dale decided to have another go at home brewing. Impressively just a year later Dale took out the Champion Beer award at the SOBA National Homebrew Competition with an original take on the Belgian Pale Ale style. Dale’s Belgian Pale Ale creatively blended an aromatic New Zealand hop character with the spicy yeast profile of a Belgian yeast.
Dale’s prize was to have the beer commercially produced by Nelson’s Sprig and Fern brewery. Encouraged by the public reaction Dale enlisted Westport’s West Coast Brewery to produce his beers and entered the beer business. Dales Brewing Co launched at the end of last year with his flagship Belgian Pale Ale and an American Amber Ale.
The Belgian Pale Ale blends zesty passionfruit and citrus from Motueka hops and clove and bubblegum notes from the Belgian yeast. The result is a highly drinkable complex Belgian/New Zealand hybrid.
Dales American Amber combines three different American hop varieties Amarillo, Cascade and Columbus, with a clean neutral American ale yeast and a range of European malts. The resulting beer offers up aromas of grapefruit, apricot, tinned peach and resiny pine before displaying a rich rounded caramel and toffee malt character in the mouth and a lingering firm bitter finish. Both beers pull off the trick of being complex and at the same time sessionable being designed for afternoons in the pub with friends, unlike some of the more extreme ‘rock star’ beers that are appearing from other contract brewers.
The first batch of each beer has already sold out in keg form but bottles have only just been released and should be popping up around town. Cheers!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
CT Column 14/12/2011 : Rex Revisited
IN July I wrote about the launch of Yeastie boys Rex Attitude, the
world’s first beer to be brewed with 100% peated distilling malt. I
thought the beer would change significantly as it aged. I suggested that
the volatile peaty character would meld and develop in the bottle.
As I wrote that column I decided I would put some of that first batch into the cellar and compare it with a younger example later in the year. A few weeks ago I used the return of a friend who has been living in Liverpool as an excuse to open the two examples and compare the golden peaty contents. The first batch poured a hazy gold with healthy head, while the younger example poured a brilliant much clearer gold with the same white fluffy head.
Aromatically the older example offered up Rex Attitude’s characteristic heathery smoked kipper character, autumnal bonfire notes and a suggestion of charred timber. The newer example displayed the same heathery smoked note but also an earthy, raw, gamy character and a medicinal note and a spike of ashen flavour.
Tasting Rex Attitude is always a complex experience. Many are put off by the first taste and never let their palates acclimatise to the peat and pick up the complex range of flavours that are present in the beer. The older example presented sweet malt, mellow smoke and a hint of earthiness while the younger example was much rawer and bolder with medicinal notes, earthy smoke and tropical fruit hop flavour all vying for attention. The aged version had mellowed significantly with the peat character maturing and rounding out much as it does in the single malt whiskeys that usually slumber for years in wooden casks before being sold. The compromise has been that the wonderful tropical fruit hop character that features in the younger version has been lost as the beer ages.
Last week the Yeastie Boys released an imperial version of Rex Attitude which they brewed to celebrate the Morton Coutts Award for Brewing innovation that they won at the Beer Awards this year. Named xeRRex (pronounced x-rex, as far as I can work out) this 10%abv version of Rex is ironically a far more drinkable beast than its smaller brother. Sweet malt, earthy smoke, and warm bonfire aromas give way to rich rounded sweet malt, complex smoke and a hint of tropical fruit. xeRRex strikes perhaps the perfect balance between complexity and drinkability. There are also rumours that there is a chardonnay barrel filled with some of the first batch of Rex Attitude slowly aging up. This may at some point come out as a super limited edition beer although I have also heard from a reliable source that it may be destined to become a ‘Directors Reserve’ and all be consumed by the Yeastie Boys themselves.
Cheers.
As I wrote that column I decided I would put some of that first batch into the cellar and compare it with a younger example later in the year. A few weeks ago I used the return of a friend who has been living in Liverpool as an excuse to open the two examples and compare the golden peaty contents. The first batch poured a hazy gold with healthy head, while the younger example poured a brilliant much clearer gold with the same white fluffy head.
Aromatically the older example offered up Rex Attitude’s characteristic heathery smoked kipper character, autumnal bonfire notes and a suggestion of charred timber. The newer example displayed the same heathery smoked note but also an earthy, raw, gamy character and a medicinal note and a spike of ashen flavour.
Tasting Rex Attitude is always a complex experience. Many are put off by the first taste and never let their palates acclimatise to the peat and pick up the complex range of flavours that are present in the beer. The older example presented sweet malt, mellow smoke and a hint of earthiness while the younger example was much rawer and bolder with medicinal notes, earthy smoke and tropical fruit hop flavour all vying for attention. The aged version had mellowed significantly with the peat character maturing and rounding out much as it does in the single malt whiskeys that usually slumber for years in wooden casks before being sold. The compromise has been that the wonderful tropical fruit hop character that features in the younger version has been lost as the beer ages.
Last week the Yeastie Boys released an imperial version of Rex Attitude which they brewed to celebrate the Morton Coutts Award for Brewing innovation that they won at the Beer Awards this year. Named xeRRex (pronounced x-rex, as far as I can work out) this 10%abv version of Rex is ironically a far more drinkable beast than its smaller brother. Sweet malt, earthy smoke, and warm bonfire aromas give way to rich rounded sweet malt, complex smoke and a hint of tropical fruit. xeRRex strikes perhaps the perfect balance between complexity and drinkability. There are also rumours that there is a chardonnay barrel filled with some of the first batch of Rex Attitude slowly aging up. This may at some point come out as a super limited edition beer although I have also heard from a reliable source that it may be destined to become a ‘Directors Reserve’ and all be consumed by the Yeastie Boys themselves.
Cheers.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
CT Column 7/09/2011: Smokin Pioneer
BACK in 2008 Invercargill brewer Steve Nally made history by releasing New Zealand’s first ever widely available smoked beer. At the time Smokin Bishop was truly revolutionary and in some ways ushered in the era of boundary pushing extreme brewing that has since brought us smoked, coffee infused, shellfish flavoured, spirit barrel aged and most famously 100% peated malt beers.
Smokin Bishop is a New Zealand take on the traditional Rauchbier style that originates in Bamberg Germany. Rachbiers are made with malt that is cured over wood fires creating a complex blend of smoky campfire bacon like notes in the beer. Smokin Bishop takes this concept and gives it an NZ twist by using manuka to smoke the malt rather than the German beech wood.
What we didn’t know back in 2008 was that Steve was already preparing another move that would be equally pioneering. Six hundred litres of the 2008 vintage of Smokin Bishop were run into a tank and tucked away at the back of the brewery. Steve had read about how the Alaskan Brewery holds vertical tastings of their famous Alaskan Smoked Porter and thought he would really like to see how the smoke changed through the years. This year the 2008 vintage Smokin Bishop was bottled and has been released alongside the new 2011 vintage giving drinkers the perfect opportunity to see exactly how cellaring effects the beer.
Today the cellaring of beer by brewers is almost unheard of and I am sure this is the first time a New Zealand brewer has released two vintages of the same beer at the same time. This is a fantastic opportunity for those who lack the will power to run a beer cellar to experience a cellared beer.
The 2008 vintage has been notably smoothed its long slumber in the world’s southernmost brewery. The smoke character has mellowed and integrated with the rich complex malt character of the beer. The lightly fruity hops that usually share the aroma with the earthy smoke have retreated leaving a very rounded highly drinkable beer. The 2011 vintage on the other hand has a much more pronounced earthy heathery smoke aroma, alongside berry fruit hop notes, and some rich malt. In the mouth the beer is notably lighter in body, with fruity hop flavour vying with smoke for attention. As is always the way for small artisan producers the differences between the two beers are not just due to age. The process of smoking the malt is far from standardised and variations occur every year, also Steve tweaks the recipe every year in his pursuit of perfection. This year the malt bill was altered slightly to lighten the body a touch, something that I think has ended up emphasising the hop character. Both beers will make a fantastic accompaniment to salty antipasto foods, or if you want to compare the differences just try a glass of each with a little water in between to clear your palate. Cheers!
Smokin Bishop is a New Zealand take on the traditional Rauchbier style that originates in Bamberg Germany. Rachbiers are made with malt that is cured over wood fires creating a complex blend of smoky campfire bacon like notes in the beer. Smokin Bishop takes this concept and gives it an NZ twist by using manuka to smoke the malt rather than the German beech wood.
What we didn’t know back in 2008 was that Steve was already preparing another move that would be equally pioneering. Six hundred litres of the 2008 vintage of Smokin Bishop were run into a tank and tucked away at the back of the brewery. Steve had read about how the Alaskan Brewery holds vertical tastings of their famous Alaskan Smoked Porter and thought he would really like to see how the smoke changed through the years. This year the 2008 vintage Smokin Bishop was bottled and has been released alongside the new 2011 vintage giving drinkers the perfect opportunity to see exactly how cellaring effects the beer.
Today the cellaring of beer by brewers is almost unheard of and I am sure this is the first time a New Zealand brewer has released two vintages of the same beer at the same time. This is a fantastic opportunity for those who lack the will power to run a beer cellar to experience a cellared beer.
The 2008 vintage has been notably smoothed its long slumber in the world’s southernmost brewery. The smoke character has mellowed and integrated with the rich complex malt character of the beer. The lightly fruity hops that usually share the aroma with the earthy smoke have retreated leaving a very rounded highly drinkable beer. The 2011 vintage on the other hand has a much more pronounced earthy heathery smoke aroma, alongside berry fruit hop notes, and some rich malt. In the mouth the beer is notably lighter in body, with fruity hop flavour vying with smoke for attention. As is always the way for small artisan producers the differences between the two beers are not just due to age. The process of smoking the malt is far from standardised and variations occur every year, also Steve tweaks the recipe every year in his pursuit of perfection. This year the malt bill was altered slightly to lighten the body a touch, something that I think has ended up emphasising the hop character. Both beers will make a fantastic accompaniment to salty antipasto foods, or if you want to compare the differences just try a glass of each with a little water in between to clear your palate. Cheers!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
CT Column 13/07/2011 : Past Master
I like to think that beer runs in my blood. When the Treaty of Waitangi was being signed my ancestors on my mother’s side were running a pub on the south coast of England. Over half a century later my paternal great grandfather was working as a drayman delivering beer to the pubs of London. I’m not sure whether or not there is any real connection between my family history and my passion for beer but my discovery of my family history has most definitely given me a passion for brewing history. The brewing team at London’s Fullers brewery share my passion for history and it has inspired them to embark on a series of brews that aim to recreate beers from their brewing records which document every brew the company has undertaken since the 1880’s.
The Past Masters series is a collaboration between Fullers head brewer John Keeling , brewing manager Derek Prentice and English brewing historian Ron Pattinson. Various recipes from the archive will be recreated and released as one off specials. The first beer to be released has been called XX Strong Ale and dates from 1891. XX would have been considered to be of the ‘Burton Ale’ style at the time it was released. Burton Ale is no longer a recognised style but is in essence a strong moderately dark (mid copper to dark brown) highly hopped type of beer that is at the same time rich and warming yet highly drinkable.
Fullers went to significant lengths to recreate XX. Barley and hop varieties are agricultural products which evolve through time. Fullers searched out the heirloom barley variety Plumage Archer and had it malted in an antique drum malting. Parts of the now semi automated Fullers brew house had to be ‘jury rigged’ in order to brew as they would have in 1892. The beer was vatted or aged for three months before being bottled and released. XX Strong Ale was heavily hopped imparting a complex spicy fruity resinous character to the beer. However the traditional aging of the beer means that unlike modern hoppy brews the beer is rounded and complex rather than obviously bitter. XX Strong Ale has a pronounced malt loaf and candied citrus peel aroma, loads of spicy pithy hop flavour, and a lingering fruity finish.
It’s a fascinating snapshot of Victorian beer and one of the best beers I have had this year. It’s currently available around town so search it out!
The Past Masters series is a collaboration between Fullers head brewer John Keeling , brewing manager Derek Prentice and English brewing historian Ron Pattinson. Various recipes from the archive will be recreated and released as one off specials. The first beer to be released has been called XX Strong Ale and dates from 1891. XX would have been considered to be of the ‘Burton Ale’ style at the time it was released. Burton Ale is no longer a recognised style but is in essence a strong moderately dark (mid copper to dark brown) highly hopped type of beer that is at the same time rich and warming yet highly drinkable.
Fullers went to significant lengths to recreate XX. Barley and hop varieties are agricultural products which evolve through time. Fullers searched out the heirloom barley variety Plumage Archer and had it malted in an antique drum malting. Parts of the now semi automated Fullers brew house had to be ‘jury rigged’ in order to brew as they would have in 1892. The beer was vatted or aged for three months before being bottled and released. XX Strong Ale was heavily hopped imparting a complex spicy fruity resinous character to the beer. However the traditional aging of the beer means that unlike modern hoppy brews the beer is rounded and complex rather than obviously bitter. XX Strong Ale has a pronounced malt loaf and candied citrus peel aroma, loads of spicy pithy hop flavour, and a lingering fruity finish.
It’s a fascinating snapshot of Victorian beer and one of the best beers I have had this year. It’s currently available around town so search it out!
CT Column 6/07/2011: Winter Warmer
AT the end of June each year the New Zealand Society Of Beer Advocates holds a Matariki winter ales festival to celebrate the broad range of hearty wintry brews that are available to New Zealand beer drinkers.
Last year’s inaugural festival for the consumer group set the blue print for the event by creating a sociable environment in which conversation reigned and the safe enjoyment and appreciation of good beer with good food was the primary goal. This year the event very much continued in the same vein with a fantastic range of beers, some hearty tasty food provided by Gavin Grant the head chef from The Hop Garden and a fantastic laid back sociable vibe.
My picks of the beers included the new vintage of Yeastie Boys Her Majesty, a sneak preview of the yet to be released 8 Wired The Sultan and the Baird Dark Sky Imperial Stout. This year Her Majesty comes in the form of a pale Belgian ale that has been fermented with a Saison yeast but has a richer malt profile than would be normal for the style, spicy, fruity and incredibly drinkable!
The Sultan from 8 Wired is a yet to be released Belgian Quadruple again fermented with a Saison yeast and aged over sultanas. The Sultan was warming and strong with a definite dried fruit vinous quality that was reminiscent of a Pedro Ximenez sherry. Baird Dark Sky Imperial Stout is probably the opposite of what most people would expect from a Japanese beer, rich, dark and formidably strong. Dark Sky delivered plenty of dark cocoa and rich espresso flavours with a great full bodied malt character and a firm bitter finish.
Next year the festival will have to shed its ‘Matariki’ moniker as (astoundingly) Matariki Wines have been granted a trademark on the term. This is the equivalent of being allowed to trademark “New Years Eve”. The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand has some explaining to do!
In other beer festival news, Beervana is looking to be bigger than ever. Earlier this year the Brewers Guild of NZ sold the festival to David Cryer, the former Brewers Guild chairman. The festival has moved from the town hall to the Westpac stadium. While the town hall offered fantastic aesthetics, a major downside to holding the event there was that all food had to be supplied by the contracted caterer. The stadium offers the opportunity to serve food from some of Wellington’s best chefs alongside the nation’s best beers. Tickets are on sale at www.beervana.co.nz.
Cheers
Last year’s inaugural festival for the consumer group set the blue print for the event by creating a sociable environment in which conversation reigned and the safe enjoyment and appreciation of good beer with good food was the primary goal. This year the event very much continued in the same vein with a fantastic range of beers, some hearty tasty food provided by Gavin Grant the head chef from The Hop Garden and a fantastic laid back sociable vibe.
My picks of the beers included the new vintage of Yeastie Boys Her Majesty, a sneak preview of the yet to be released 8 Wired The Sultan and the Baird Dark Sky Imperial Stout. This year Her Majesty comes in the form of a pale Belgian ale that has been fermented with a Saison yeast but has a richer malt profile than would be normal for the style, spicy, fruity and incredibly drinkable!
The Sultan from 8 Wired is a yet to be released Belgian Quadruple again fermented with a Saison yeast and aged over sultanas. The Sultan was warming and strong with a definite dried fruit vinous quality that was reminiscent of a Pedro Ximenez sherry. Baird Dark Sky Imperial Stout is probably the opposite of what most people would expect from a Japanese beer, rich, dark and formidably strong. Dark Sky delivered plenty of dark cocoa and rich espresso flavours with a great full bodied malt character and a firm bitter finish.
Next year the festival will have to shed its ‘Matariki’ moniker as (astoundingly) Matariki Wines have been granted a trademark on the term. This is the equivalent of being allowed to trademark “New Years Eve”. The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand has some explaining to do!
In other beer festival news, Beervana is looking to be bigger than ever. Earlier this year the Brewers Guild of NZ sold the festival to David Cryer, the former Brewers Guild chairman. The festival has moved from the town hall to the Westpac stadium. While the town hall offered fantastic aesthetics, a major downside to holding the event there was that all food had to be supplied by the contracted caterer. The stadium offers the opportunity to serve food from some of Wellington’s best chefs alongside the nation’s best beers. Tickets are on sale at www.beervana.co.nz.
Cheers
CT Column 29/06/2011: Comings and goings
A few weeks ago I wrote about some of the new brewing operations that are opening in Wellington. It’s great to see these new people coming into the industry. A week later I received a phone call from Matt Duncan, the sixth generation brewer from Founders in Nelson. Matt had rung to give me a heads up that the brewery was now on the market. Founders have been operating in the historic Founders Park for over 11 years brewing a range of organic beers and continuing a family brewing tradition that started in 1843.
The sale has come after fifth generation brewer John Duncan and wife Carol made the decision to retire. Matt is keen to continue the family tradition and stay on as brewer if a new owner is open to the idea. If a new owner doesn’t require Matt’s services it will be the end of New Zealand’s oldest brewing dynasty. It’s not easy brewing characterful and varied beers from the limited and expensive range of organic ingredients vailable to organic brewers. It’s the equivalent of an artist using three shades of paint to create the same masterpieces that can be achieved with a full artist’s palette.
Founders have done a good job through the years and I hope a new owner is found.
As one chapter closes another opens. Taranaki based homebrew supplier Liberty Brewing has just moved into the brewing game. Liberty owner Joseph Wood has assembled a small brew plant and is now producing small runs of strong beers packaged in 750ml re-sealable wine bottles. My pick of the bunch would be the eccentrically named High Carb Ale which is a New Zealand strong ale that combines the newly planted NZ Chinock hop variety with floor malted English Golden Promise pale malt, and Belgian Special crystal malt. The beer is richly malty with an earthy hop character and a firm bitter finish. The name is a tongue and cheek dig at the current trend for ‘low carb-no flavour’ lagers that seems to be in vogue. For the record High Carb Ale contains 45g of carbohydrate per 750ml bottle and is all the better for it!
Also out on the taps at present is a collaboration brew between Liberty Brewing and established Taranaki brewer, mikes. Taranaki Pale Ale is a 7%abv hoppy IPA described recently on Hashigo Zake’s facebook page as being ‘catnip for hopheads’. Taranaki Pale Ale is sure to go down well with those who value flavour and don’t care about the carbs! Cheers.
The sale has come after fifth generation brewer John Duncan and wife Carol made the decision to retire. Matt is keen to continue the family tradition and stay on as brewer if a new owner is open to the idea. If a new owner doesn’t require Matt’s services it will be the end of New Zealand’s oldest brewing dynasty. It’s not easy brewing characterful and varied beers from the limited and expensive range of organic ingredients vailable to organic brewers. It’s the equivalent of an artist using three shades of paint to create the same masterpieces that can be achieved with a full artist’s palette.
Founders have done a good job through the years and I hope a new owner is found.
As one chapter closes another opens. Taranaki based homebrew supplier Liberty Brewing has just moved into the brewing game. Liberty owner Joseph Wood has assembled a small brew plant and is now producing small runs of strong beers packaged in 750ml re-sealable wine bottles. My pick of the bunch would be the eccentrically named High Carb Ale which is a New Zealand strong ale that combines the newly planted NZ Chinock hop variety with floor malted English Golden Promise pale malt, and Belgian Special crystal malt. The beer is richly malty with an earthy hop character and a firm bitter finish. The name is a tongue and cheek dig at the current trend for ‘low carb-no flavour’ lagers that seems to be in vogue. For the record High Carb Ale contains 45g of carbohydrate per 750ml bottle and is all the better for it!
Also out on the taps at present is a collaboration brew between Liberty Brewing and established Taranaki brewer, mikes. Taranaki Pale Ale is a 7%abv hoppy IPA described recently on Hashigo Zake’s facebook page as being ‘catnip for hopheads’. Taranaki Pale Ale is sure to go down well with those who value flavour and don’t care about the carbs! Cheers.
CT Column 22/06/2011: Milestones
IT takes a lot of work to make good beer. The day to day running of a busy brewery can sometimes obscure a brewer’s view of the bigger picture and so miss marking the achievements and milestones that other businesses would celebrate.
Back in 2005 I visited Emerson’s Brewery for the first time. At that point they were looking forward to brewing their millionth litre, a significant achievement. Several years later they realised after the fact that they had already passed the two millionth litre mark and had been so busy they hadn’t even noticed at the time! In April this year Emerson’s brewed their three millionth litre and while this time they certainly noticed they were too busy to mark the occasion. A party is planned for later this year.
At the other end of the spectrum Marlborough craft brewer Søren Eriksen originally intended to brew something celebratory to mark the 8th batch of beer to be released under his 8 Wired label. However when it came to the 8th batch the demand for his existing beers was so great that it ended up passing without fanfare. At the end of last year the 18th Batch loomed and Søren decided he could afford to do something special. The result was Batch 18, a strong specialty Imperial Stout. Batch 18 started its life as an imperial stout crafted from seven types of malt, a special Brazilian raw sugar called Jaggery, three varieties of hop and two different yeast strains. The resulting beer fermented out to a chest thumping 12.5% ABV! The beer was then infused with fair trade organic coffee and aged in oak barrels. The resulting beer pours a viscous pitch black with a tan creamy head just as an Imperial Stout should. The aroma is huge and complex combining rich dark chocolate, warm espresso, oaky vanilla, dark berry fruit and toasty malt. In the mouth the beer is incredibly decadent and rich with some warming alcohol, dark fruit, espresso and rich malt before a slightly tannic oaky finish. Batch 18 is a rich and intense beer designed to be shared with friends, preferably at the end of a hearty meal on a cold night, a near perfect nightcap! I for one can’t wait to taste what Søren brews for his 28th Batch!
Cheers
Back in 2005 I visited Emerson’s Brewery for the first time. At that point they were looking forward to brewing their millionth litre, a significant achievement. Several years later they realised after the fact that they had already passed the two millionth litre mark and had been so busy they hadn’t even noticed at the time! In April this year Emerson’s brewed their three millionth litre and while this time they certainly noticed they were too busy to mark the occasion. A party is planned for later this year.
At the other end of the spectrum Marlborough craft brewer Søren Eriksen originally intended to brew something celebratory to mark the 8th batch of beer to be released under his 8 Wired label. However when it came to the 8th batch the demand for his existing beers was so great that it ended up passing without fanfare. At the end of last year the 18th Batch loomed and Søren decided he could afford to do something special. The result was Batch 18, a strong specialty Imperial Stout. Batch 18 started its life as an imperial stout crafted from seven types of malt, a special Brazilian raw sugar called Jaggery, three varieties of hop and two different yeast strains. The resulting beer fermented out to a chest thumping 12.5% ABV! The beer was then infused with fair trade organic coffee and aged in oak barrels. The resulting beer pours a viscous pitch black with a tan creamy head just as an Imperial Stout should. The aroma is huge and complex combining rich dark chocolate, warm espresso, oaky vanilla, dark berry fruit and toasty malt. In the mouth the beer is incredibly decadent and rich with some warming alcohol, dark fruit, espresso and rich malt before a slightly tannic oaky finish. Batch 18 is a rich and intense beer designed to be shared with friends, preferably at the end of a hearty meal on a cold night, a near perfect nightcap! I for one can’t wait to taste what Søren brews for his 28th Batch!
Cheers
CT Column 15/06/2011: Beer in Focus
THE beer world is a multifaceted community. Brewers, drinkers, educators, activists, retailers, writers and suppliers all have a part to play. I tend to play all the roles at times. Recently another role has appeared in the form of documenters. While I have already written about Luke Nicholas and Kelly Ryan’s internet TV show NZ Craft Beer TV there is another person who is going to great lengths to capture the people who make the beers we love.
The Beer Project is the creation of photographer Jed Soane. Back in 2009 Jed accompanied a friend to the Great New Zealand Beer Festival at Waitangi Park. The festival that year was a wash out with Wellington’s weather gods making themselves unmistakably known. The wet conditions and mud however made for some great photographs. Jed decided the photos were some of the best he had ever taken and after talking with Yeastie Boy Stu McKinlay, Jed decided he would embark on a project to photograph the nation’s craft brewers. His predominantly black and white photos are not only incredibly good but will one day be of historic importance when we look back to burgeoning adolescence of our craft beer industry. Jed has travelled the country trying to photograph as many brewers as he can.You can see some of his work at http://thebeerproject.com
And on the topic of the Yeastie Boys the post modern brewers currently have two tap only releases out, Fools Gold which is a hoppy sessionable English style ale supercharged with NZ hop varieties and Rescue Red a hoppy Amber Saison brewed as a collaboration between the Yeastie Boys, 8 Wired and Renaissance to raise money for the Brewers Guild Christchurch Earthquake Fund and the Brisbane Flood Relief Fund.
Cheers
The Beer Project is the creation of photographer Jed Soane. Back in 2009 Jed accompanied a friend to the Great New Zealand Beer Festival at Waitangi Park. The festival that year was a wash out with Wellington’s weather gods making themselves unmistakably known. The wet conditions and mud however made for some great photographs. Jed decided the photos were some of the best he had ever taken and after talking with Yeastie Boy Stu McKinlay, Jed decided he would embark on a project to photograph the nation’s craft brewers. His predominantly black and white photos are not only incredibly good but will one day be of historic importance when we look back to burgeoning adolescence of our craft beer industry. Jed has travelled the country trying to photograph as many brewers as he can.You can see some of his work at http://thebeerproject.com
And on the topic of the Yeastie Boys the post modern brewers currently have two tap only releases out, Fools Gold which is a hoppy sessionable English style ale supercharged with NZ hop varieties and Rescue Red a hoppy Amber Saison brewed as a collaboration between the Yeastie Boys, 8 Wired and Renaissance to raise money for the Brewers Guild Christchurch Earthquake Fund and the Brisbane Flood Relief Fund.
Cheers
CT Column 8/06/2011: New ventures brewing
WELLINGTON is already the craft beer capital of New Zealand. We have in this city a fantastic array of bars all offering a broad range of beers and a craft beer drinking population that demands that mainstream bars and restaurants are increasingly including at least one craft offering. What Wellington has up until now lacked however is a range of breweries. With the exception of Tuatara and contract brewers Yeastie Boys it has been brewers from other parts of the country that have supplied the capital. All that is about to change with a raft of new brewing operations starting to unfold around the city.
One brewer is in the process of commissioning a small brew plant in central Wellington. The Garage Project is the brain child of brewer Peter Gillespie and former video game programmer Jos Ruffell. Kiwi born Peter Gillespie has an impressive brewing resume that includes stints at the legendary Thames Valley Brakspear brewery, Hepworth’s in Sussex and finally the Lion Nathan owned James Squire brewery in Sydney. Peter’s time at James Squire taught him a lot about brewing for a big company an experience he likens to working in a dark box and one which he will not be returning to! Keep an eye on www.garageproject.co.nz for developments. Finally in Upper Hutt ex-pat American Chris Mills has converted a room on his house into a tiny commercial brewery. The company is called Keruru Brewing Co and will produce very limited amounts of traditional and gluten free craft beer. Check out http://kererubrewing.co.nz/ to see what is definitely one of the smallest commercial breweries in the world!
Colin Mallon and Sean Murrie, the men behind the Malthouse, have announced that they are to open a brew pub in the Bond Street premise that was originally home to the CBD’s last brew pub The Loaded Hog, and more recently Syn Bar and The Ruby Lounge. The premise is yet to be named and a brewer is yet to be employed however redevelopment of the site is underway. It’s planned that the brewery will host brewers from around the country and the world with a lot of collaboration and one off brews on the cards.
Cheers
One brewer is in the process of commissioning a small brew plant in central Wellington. The Garage Project is the brain child of brewer Peter Gillespie and former video game programmer Jos Ruffell. Kiwi born Peter Gillespie has an impressive brewing resume that includes stints at the legendary Thames Valley Brakspear brewery, Hepworth’s in Sussex and finally the Lion Nathan owned James Squire brewery in Sydney. Peter’s time at James Squire taught him a lot about brewing for a big company an experience he likens to working in a dark box and one which he will not be returning to! Keep an eye on www.garageproject.co.nz for developments. Finally in Upper Hutt ex-pat American Chris Mills has converted a room on his house into a tiny commercial brewery. The company is called Keruru Brewing Co and will produce very limited amounts of traditional and gluten free craft beer. Check out http://kererubrewing.co.nz/ to see what is definitely one of the smallest commercial breweries in the world!
Colin Mallon and Sean Murrie, the men behind the Malthouse, have announced that they are to open a brew pub in the Bond Street premise that was originally home to the CBD’s last brew pub The Loaded Hog, and more recently Syn Bar and The Ruby Lounge. The premise is yet to be named and a brewer is yet to be employed however redevelopment of the site is underway. It’s planned that the brewery will host brewers from around the country and the world with a lot of collaboration and one off brews on the cards.
Cheers
Monday, May 16, 2011
CT Column 11/05/2011: The Rex Attitude
Kiwi’s are always incredibly keen to achieve world firsts. We flew first, we climbed Mt Everest first, we stepped onto Antarctica first, we gave women the vote first, we made the first commercial bungee jump and now we have brewed Rex Attitude, the world’s first 100% peated malt beer. With some of these acts we were just way ahead of our time; with some of the others we were riding the line between recklessness and bravery. Time will tell which category Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude will fall into. Either way everyone who tries Rex is left with the very definite impression that they have tried something unique.
Last year Yeastie Boy head brewer Stu McKinlay came up with the idea of brewing a beer with the peated malt that many Scottish whiskey distillers use to make whiskey. Peated malt is cured or kilned over peat fires which impart all sorts of smoky, earthy, spicy characters to the malt. Peated Malts are occasionally used in beers but usually in very small amounts. When Stu was told that 5% was the absolute maximum amount he should consider using he decided he would in his own words “ignore the wowsers” and start with 100% and scale it back from there if he felt the need. Stu combined the peated malt with Willamette hops and a clean subtle American ale yeast. Upon tasting the beer Stu was convinced it was the best thing he had ever brewed, 2 tonnes of peated malt were ordered from Scotland and a full production batch of the beer was produced.
Last week the beer hit the market. The real test came at the launch party when the first unsuspecting member of the public came into contact with one of the most ‘out there’ beers ever produced anywhere. Local beer photographer Jed Soane was in attendance to capture what he calls The Rex Attitude, the moment when people put the glass to their lips and are totally shocked-surprised-delighted by what they encounter.
So what does this totally unique beer taste like?
Rex Pours a light shade of gold with a tight white head and positively broadcasts aromas of deep earthy smoke, some light heathery kipper notes, and a spicy slightly ashen note. In the mouth light fruity citrus tinged hops make an appearance before big earthy smoky slightly medicinal peat character kicks in and slowly fades. Rex Attitude is a hugely complex beer that will change significantly as it ages, it has already changed a lot over the fortnight I have been tasting it.
Rex Attitude is available at Thorndon and Island Bay New World, Rumbles, Moore Wilson’s, Regional Wines, Hashigo Zake, The Hop Garden, and The Malthouse.
Last year Yeastie Boy head brewer Stu McKinlay came up with the idea of brewing a beer with the peated malt that many Scottish whiskey distillers use to make whiskey. Peated malt is cured or kilned over peat fires which impart all sorts of smoky, earthy, spicy characters to the malt. Peated Malts are occasionally used in beers but usually in very small amounts. When Stu was told that 5% was the absolute maximum amount he should consider using he decided he would in his own words “ignore the wowsers” and start with 100% and scale it back from there if he felt the need. Stu combined the peated malt with Willamette hops and a clean subtle American ale yeast. Upon tasting the beer Stu was convinced it was the best thing he had ever brewed, 2 tonnes of peated malt were ordered from Scotland and a full production batch of the beer was produced.
Last week the beer hit the market. The real test came at the launch party when the first unsuspecting member of the public came into contact with one of the most ‘out there’ beers ever produced anywhere. Local beer photographer Jed Soane was in attendance to capture what he calls The Rex Attitude, the moment when people put the glass to their lips and are totally shocked-surprised-delighted by what they encounter.
So what does this totally unique beer taste like?
Rex Pours a light shade of gold with a tight white head and positively broadcasts aromas of deep earthy smoke, some light heathery kipper notes, and a spicy slightly ashen note. In the mouth light fruity citrus tinged hops make an appearance before big earthy smoky slightly medicinal peat character kicks in and slowly fades. Rex Attitude is a hugely complex beer that will change significantly as it ages, it has already changed a lot over the fortnight I have been tasting it.
Rex Attitude is available at Thorndon and Island Bay New World, Rumbles, Moore Wilson’s, Regional Wines, Hashigo Zake, The Hop Garden, and The Malthouse.
Note: unedited version.
CT Column 4/05/2011:A Right Royal Snub
LAST Friday’s Royal wedding should really have been a celebration of everything that England does well. Unfortunately instead it turned into a shining example of how the English can denigrate and disregard the very things they excel at.
A week before Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding it was announced that beer would be banned from the reception. An insider was quoted as saying, “Let’s face it, it isn’t really an appropriate drink to be serving in the Queen’s presence at such an occasion.” So apparently despite the fact that beer is Britain’s national drink, one of it’s few surviving manufacturing industries, one of the icons that people think about when they think of Mother England (the Royal family being another!) and an industry that has a long and proud association with the Royal family, it is not appropriate for it to be consumed in the Queen’s presence. There is of course no evidence that the Queen holds these views. Her mother was an enthusiastic drinker and was often photographed pulling and drinking pints of ale at ceremonial occasions, Prince Charles has his own brand of beer that uses organic barley from his own estate and one of the ways the Royal family marked the birth of William was to brew a celebratory ale! In 1982 Earl Spencer , William’s uncle travelled to Burton Upon Trent to brew Princes Ale to mark the birth of the new heir to the throne. So what has happened? I suspect as so often happens with the Royal family, the spin doctors have got it terribly wrong. It would have been bad enough for Britain’s national drink to have been omitted from proceedings but they have gone further than that by describing beer as being inappropriate for the occasion, a huge slap in the face to the English brewing community and one that comes after breweries throughout the UK have been brewing Royal Wedding Ales to mark the occasion and wish the couple well. English beer writer Pete Brown called on those brewers to re-brand their wedding ales with republican motifs and for pubs to not play the wedding coverage. A sad state of affairs and one that as a self professed anglophile makes me cringe. On a more positive note closer to home the world’s first 100% peated malt beer, Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude was released with much Scottish fanfare last Saturday. More on that next week! Cheers.
A week before Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding it was announced that beer would be banned from the reception. An insider was quoted as saying, “Let’s face it, it isn’t really an appropriate drink to be serving in the Queen’s presence at such an occasion.” So apparently despite the fact that beer is Britain’s national drink, one of it’s few surviving manufacturing industries, one of the icons that people think about when they think of Mother England (the Royal family being another!) and an industry that has a long and proud association with the Royal family, it is not appropriate for it to be consumed in the Queen’s presence. There is of course no evidence that the Queen holds these views. Her mother was an enthusiastic drinker and was often photographed pulling and drinking pints of ale at ceremonial occasions, Prince Charles has his own brand of beer that uses organic barley from his own estate and one of the ways the Royal family marked the birth of William was to brew a celebratory ale! In 1982 Earl Spencer , William’s uncle travelled to Burton Upon Trent to brew Princes Ale to mark the birth of the new heir to the throne. So what has happened? I suspect as so often happens with the Royal family, the spin doctors have got it terribly wrong. It would have been bad enough for Britain’s national drink to have been omitted from proceedings but they have gone further than that by describing beer as being inappropriate for the occasion, a huge slap in the face to the English brewing community and one that comes after breweries throughout the UK have been brewing Royal Wedding Ales to mark the occasion and wish the couple well. English beer writer Pete Brown called on those brewers to re-brand their wedding ales with republican motifs and for pubs to not play the wedding coverage. A sad state of affairs and one that as a self professed anglophile makes me cringe. On a more positive note closer to home the world’s first 100% peated malt beer, Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude was released with much Scottish fanfare last Saturday. More on that next week! Cheers.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
CT Column16/03/2011: Tastes like communal spirit
IN the wake of the Christchurch earthquake many of us have been scratching our heads about what exactly we can do to help.
A week ago those of us in the craft beer community came together to do what we could. A series of fundraising events around New Zealand and Australia were organised by consumer group the Society of Beer Advocates and the Brewers Guild. In Wellington, the local beer community gathered at Bar Edward in Newtown to hold a charity auction and drink from a charity bar. Brewers from around the country donated beer that was sold across the bar while other items were auctioned off with all takings going to the Red Cross appeal. There were some fantastic items donated including a day brewing with Carl Vasta at Tuatara, a beer matched bistro lunch at Logan Brown, tickets to Nelson’s Marchfest, rare bottles of beer, and most poignantly a bottle of Three Boys Aftershock.
Aftershock came about after last year’s 7.1 quake when that one knocked out power to Three Boys Woolston brewery. Brewer Ralph Bungard saved a brew of Three Boys Golden Ale but after being interrupted by the power cut he decided to change the beer and release it as an earthquake themed one off release. Aftershock sold like hot cakes and is now very rare.
The silver lining to this disaster has been the way the community has pulled together and it was great to see that this was true of the beer community just as it has been true of the wider community. The single 330ml bottle of Three Boys Aftershock fetched a staggering $325 while the event as a whole raised over $6300.
While Christchurch brewed beers may be scarce over the next few weeks the best way you can support these businesses is to keep buying their beers. Cheers.
A week ago those of us in the craft beer community came together to do what we could. A series of fundraising events around New Zealand and Australia were organised by consumer group the Society of Beer Advocates and the Brewers Guild. In Wellington, the local beer community gathered at Bar Edward in Newtown to hold a charity auction and drink from a charity bar. Brewers from around the country donated beer that was sold across the bar while other items were auctioned off with all takings going to the Red Cross appeal. There were some fantastic items donated including a day brewing with Carl Vasta at Tuatara, a beer matched bistro lunch at Logan Brown, tickets to Nelson’s Marchfest, rare bottles of beer, and most poignantly a bottle of Three Boys Aftershock.
Aftershock came about after last year’s 7.1 quake when that one knocked out power to Three Boys Woolston brewery. Brewer Ralph Bungard saved a brew of Three Boys Golden Ale but after being interrupted by the power cut he decided to change the beer and release it as an earthquake themed one off release. Aftershock sold like hot cakes and is now very rare.
The silver lining to this disaster has been the way the community has pulled together and it was great to see that this was true of the beer community just as it has been true of the wider community. The single 330ml bottle of Three Boys Aftershock fetched a staggering $325 while the event as a whole raised over $6300.
While Christchurch brewed beers may be scarce over the next few weeks the best way you can support these businesses is to keep buying their beers. Cheers.
CT Column 9/03/2011 : Underwired
BREWERS often set themselves technical challenges. Sometimes this takes the form of nursing their yeasts to achieve high alcohol levels, sometimes it consists of using unusual ingredients, and in several cases I know of it has involved creating a beer with a very low carbohydrate level, a dubious if highly marketable goal.
Last year 8 Wired brewer Søren Erikson decided he wanted to take up the challenge of brewing an aromatic and highly flavourful beer but at an alcoholic strength that would allow it to fit the legal definition of ‘low alcohol beer’. To hold a liquor license in New Zealand a bar or restaurant must provide a beer with 2.5% alcohol by volume or less. Søren decided he wanted to brew a low alcohol version of a hoppy American style India pale ale, a style that usually uses a relatively high alcohol level to deliver big flavours.
Brewing lower alcohol beers usually means adding less malt, Søren decided to take a different tack by adding a large percentage of an unfermentable type of malt called Crystal Malt. Crystal Malt tends to give the beer it is used in nutty, caramel flavours and helps to give body. Usually brewers use 10 to 20 percent, Søren decided to use 66% meaning that the resulting beer did not ferment out to a high alcohol level but did retain enough body and malt character to balance out the big hop flavours and aromas that Søren packed into the beer.
The result was named Underwired as a humorous reference to Søren’s 7.3%abv assertively hopped IPA Hopwired. The resulting beer offers up a big fruity aroma with some floral notes and a distinct whiff of grapefruit. In the mouth Underwired is fruity and hop accented with just enough body and caramel malt character to balance the hops. While the beer is definitely on the thin end of the spectrum it’s highly drinkable and infinitely more satisfying and characterful than the other low alcohol beers on the market. Cheers!
Last year 8 Wired brewer Søren Erikson decided he wanted to take up the challenge of brewing an aromatic and highly flavourful beer but at an alcoholic strength that would allow it to fit the legal definition of ‘low alcohol beer’. To hold a liquor license in New Zealand a bar or restaurant must provide a beer with 2.5% alcohol by volume or less. Søren decided he wanted to brew a low alcohol version of a hoppy American style India pale ale, a style that usually uses a relatively high alcohol level to deliver big flavours.
Brewing lower alcohol beers usually means adding less malt, Søren decided to take a different tack by adding a large percentage of an unfermentable type of malt called Crystal Malt. Crystal Malt tends to give the beer it is used in nutty, caramel flavours and helps to give body. Usually brewers use 10 to 20 percent, Søren decided to use 66% meaning that the resulting beer did not ferment out to a high alcohol level but did retain enough body and malt character to balance out the big hop flavours and aromas that Søren packed into the beer.
The result was named Underwired as a humorous reference to Søren’s 7.3%abv assertively hopped IPA Hopwired. The resulting beer offers up a big fruity aroma with some floral notes and a distinct whiff of grapefruit. In the mouth Underwired is fruity and hop accented with just enough body and caramel malt character to balance the hops. While the beer is definitely on the thin end of the spectrum it’s highly drinkable and infinitely more satisfying and characterful than the other low alcohol beers on the market. Cheers!
CT Column 2/03/2011: The quiet revolution
RECENTLY, I have been lucky enough to dine at several restaurants which have put substantial thought into the beers they serve.
Beer advocates sometimes labour the point about beer and food matching. We do this in part as a reaction to the prejudices shown in certain sections of the food writing world that says wine is the only drink worthy of the dinner table, and as a reaction to the incredibly limited range of beers that have traditionally been offered in our restaurants. However the real process of change seems to have been led by customers demanding better beer and restaurateurs responding to the demand. It wasn’t so long ago that almost any expensive restaurant offered multiple varieties of wine but beer was represented by the one generic ubiquitous golden style of lager.
Ambeli in Mt Victoria has recently opened for lunch and I was lucky enough to sample some seriously tasty well crafted food alongside the best craft beer NZ has to offer. I tried charcuterie, chilled almond soup, smoked paprika ceviche and marinated olives accompanied by a glass of the extravagantly hopped 8 Hopwired IPA; then battered Medjool Date, Cumin Goats Cheese & pickled orange salad with a glass of Mussel Inn Captain Cooker; Sherry braised free range pork belly, roasted pear and fennel salad with a glass of Three Boys Wheat; and finally sauteed prawns feta risotto and lemon sauce with Emerson’s Weiss beer. Each dish was as expertly crafted as the beer that it was matched with. I should add that my partner Sarah was accompanying me lest the reputation for gluttony that my Christmas columns have earned me grows.
Another place to find the best of beer alongside the best of food is Wellington’s newest beer outlet The Hop Garden. I was one of the first customers to dine in the newly opened restaurant which successfully straddles the line between restaurant and pub. Here pork belly and smoked potato was accompanied by the fruity yeasty Coopers Sparkling; citrus-spiced zucchini bruschetta with crumbled goat’s cheese found a zesty companion in Twisted Hop Sauvin Pilsner, and salmon and caper berry croquettes with a fennel citrus salad was accompanied by the fruity rounded Three Boys Golden Ale.
Finally towards the end of last year I dined at the Ortega Fish Shack. I must declare an interest here as I helped Davey McDonald formulate the beer list when they launched a little over a year ago, we can’t have done too bad a job as Ortega won the Beer and Brewer award for best beer friendly restaurant. Ortega’s list has four descriptive sections, Light and Crisp, Zesty and Full, Dark and Roasty, and Rich and Rounded. These descriptors help diners choose the beer that will suit the food they order and with 30 beers across a broad range of styles there definitely is something for every dish.
These are a few Wellington restaurants with serious beer lists and we should count ourselves lucky for that. It has been said that the best beer and food match is the one in front of you and with options like the ones available at these restaurants that is certainly true.
On a more sobering note, as I write this the aftermath of the second Christchurch earth quake is slowly becoming clear. This time it seems the city’s craft breweries have been extensively damaged with expletives used to describe the state of some of them. Thankfully, at this point, the brewers and their families all seem to have survived.
Beer advocates sometimes labour the point about beer and food matching. We do this in part as a reaction to the prejudices shown in certain sections of the food writing world that says wine is the only drink worthy of the dinner table, and as a reaction to the incredibly limited range of beers that have traditionally been offered in our restaurants. However the real process of change seems to have been led by customers demanding better beer and restaurateurs responding to the demand. It wasn’t so long ago that almost any expensive restaurant offered multiple varieties of wine but beer was represented by the one generic ubiquitous golden style of lager.
Ambeli in Mt Victoria has recently opened for lunch and I was lucky enough to sample some seriously tasty well crafted food alongside the best craft beer NZ has to offer. I tried charcuterie, chilled almond soup, smoked paprika ceviche and marinated olives accompanied by a glass of the extravagantly hopped 8 Hopwired IPA; then battered Medjool Date, Cumin Goats Cheese & pickled orange salad with a glass of Mussel Inn Captain Cooker; Sherry braised free range pork belly, roasted pear and fennel salad with a glass of Three Boys Wheat; and finally sauteed prawns feta risotto and lemon sauce with Emerson’s Weiss beer. Each dish was as expertly crafted as the beer that it was matched with. I should add that my partner Sarah was accompanying me lest the reputation for gluttony that my Christmas columns have earned me grows.
Another place to find the best of beer alongside the best of food is Wellington’s newest beer outlet The Hop Garden. I was one of the first customers to dine in the newly opened restaurant which successfully straddles the line between restaurant and pub. Here pork belly and smoked potato was accompanied by the fruity yeasty Coopers Sparkling; citrus-spiced zucchini bruschetta with crumbled goat’s cheese found a zesty companion in Twisted Hop Sauvin Pilsner, and salmon and caper berry croquettes with a fennel citrus salad was accompanied by the fruity rounded Three Boys Golden Ale.
Finally towards the end of last year I dined at the Ortega Fish Shack. I must declare an interest here as I helped Davey McDonald formulate the beer list when they launched a little over a year ago, we can’t have done too bad a job as Ortega won the Beer and Brewer award for best beer friendly restaurant. Ortega’s list has four descriptive sections, Light and Crisp, Zesty and Full, Dark and Roasty, and Rich and Rounded. These descriptors help diners choose the beer that will suit the food they order and with 30 beers across a broad range of styles there definitely is something for every dish.
These are a few Wellington restaurants with serious beer lists and we should count ourselves lucky for that. It has been said that the best beer and food match is the one in front of you and with options like the ones available at these restaurants that is certainly true.
On a more sobering note, as I write this the aftermath of the second Christchurch earth quake is slowly becoming clear. This time it seems the city’s craft breweries have been extensively damaged with expletives used to describe the state of some of them. Thankfully, at this point, the brewers and their families all seem to have survived.
CT Column 9/02/2011 :Flaming beer from the other capital
HERE in Wellington we like to think of ourselves as the beer capital of NZ. We have some pretty good evidence to back this up.
Not only does our city boast an excellent range of dedicated craft beer bars and quality retailers but increasingly our ‘middle of the road’ restaurants, cafes and bars are stocking a craft beer option and often a wide selection. We also, of course, have one large regional craft brewery Tuatara, and one contract brewer Yeastie Boys. The Wellington craft beer market is lucrative and many breweries from around the country do a large amount of their business in this town.
There are however pretenders to the throne. Nelson has a claim. The town is poised on the edge of the hop growing fields with a large number of breweries and a handful of lovely bars and pubs in which to drink. Nelson is a lovely place but the word capital really doesn’t spring to mind when you visit. I would describe it more as the ‘workshop’ of New Zealand Craft beer.
Further south Christchurch also has a claim. The town is home to a number of important New Zealand craft breweries, in large part due to the untreated artesian water that runs free through its municipal water system and the abundance of affordable industrial real estate. In addition to some of the big names of NZ Craft brewing like Three Boys, Twisted Hop and Harrington’s counting Christchurch as home there are a whole raft of new start up breweries.
One of these breweries is Cassels and Sons. Located in Woolston, a stone’s throw from the Three Boys Brewery, Cassels and Sons is a brewery with a very unique piece of kit. Modern breweries use electricity or gas to heat the kettle that boils the extracted malt sugars with the hops. At Cassels and Sons they have decided to heat their kettle with a log fire much as breweries would have before the industrial revolution. While many in the brewing world have met this news with raised eye brows, brewing is hard enough with out adding an un-necessary variable into the mix being the common sentiment, everyone I have talked to has been dying to see it in action!
The brewery is currently brewing a pale lager, a New Zealand Pilsner, a dark Dunkel Lager, a fruit beer and my favourite an Extra Special Bitter. The beers are currently only available in Christchurch and the brewery is attempting to work out how they can increase distribution without over extending themselves. There will however be a chance to try one of the Cassels and Sons beers along side a whole host of other beers from Christchurch brewers both new and established at a tasting I am arranging at Regional Wines on the 24th and 25th of this month.
As for where exactly the beer capital of NZ lies, for me it’s pretty clearly our own fair city, but then I’m biased. Cheers!
Not only does our city boast an excellent range of dedicated craft beer bars and quality retailers but increasingly our ‘middle of the road’ restaurants, cafes and bars are stocking a craft beer option and often a wide selection. We also, of course, have one large regional craft brewery Tuatara, and one contract brewer Yeastie Boys. The Wellington craft beer market is lucrative and many breweries from around the country do a large amount of their business in this town.
There are however pretenders to the throne. Nelson has a claim. The town is poised on the edge of the hop growing fields with a large number of breweries and a handful of lovely bars and pubs in which to drink. Nelson is a lovely place but the word capital really doesn’t spring to mind when you visit. I would describe it more as the ‘workshop’ of New Zealand Craft beer.
Further south Christchurch also has a claim. The town is home to a number of important New Zealand craft breweries, in large part due to the untreated artesian water that runs free through its municipal water system and the abundance of affordable industrial real estate. In addition to some of the big names of NZ Craft brewing like Three Boys, Twisted Hop and Harrington’s counting Christchurch as home there are a whole raft of new start up breweries.
One of these breweries is Cassels and Sons. Located in Woolston, a stone’s throw from the Three Boys Brewery, Cassels and Sons is a brewery with a very unique piece of kit. Modern breweries use electricity or gas to heat the kettle that boils the extracted malt sugars with the hops. At Cassels and Sons they have decided to heat their kettle with a log fire much as breweries would have before the industrial revolution. While many in the brewing world have met this news with raised eye brows, brewing is hard enough with out adding an un-necessary variable into the mix being the common sentiment, everyone I have talked to has been dying to see it in action!
The brewery is currently brewing a pale lager, a New Zealand Pilsner, a dark Dunkel Lager, a fruit beer and my favourite an Extra Special Bitter. The beers are currently only available in Christchurch and the brewery is attempting to work out how they can increase distribution without over extending themselves. There will however be a chance to try one of the Cassels and Sons beers along side a whole host of other beers from Christchurch brewers both new and established at a tasting I am arranging at Regional Wines on the 24th and 25th of this month.
As for where exactly the beer capital of NZ lies, for me it’s pretty clearly our own fair city, but then I’m biased. Cheers!
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
CT Column 5/01/11 : The Crystal Ball
At the end of each year beer writers like to reflect on the year that has been and wax lyrical about the beers that have excited them through the months: I did that back in December. Now that it’s January and the New Year headaches have eased I thought perhaps it would be worth writing a little about the year to come. In the interests of transparency I should add that I actually asked NZ craft brewers what they would be doing over the next year and I don’t in fact own a crystal ball!
Many of the brewers I talked to were incredibly loose lipped, far more so than I expected them to be. So in many ways you can view this first column of the year as a gossip column for Kiwi Craft Brewing!
First up Wellington based Yeastie Boys have some big things on the agenda this year. The most exciting is the establishment of a second permanent bottled beer to sit on the shelves next to Pot Kettle Black. Last year I was privileged to taste a test batch of what will be called Rex Attitude and it absolutely blew me away. Brewed against all brewing advice with 100% peated Islay distilling malt of the sort used to make single malt whiskey, most brewers will tell you that 15% should be an absolute maximum, fruity New Zealand hops and an American yeast strain ,its one of the most beguilingly complex yet approachable smoked beers I have ever had. There will definitely be a column devoted to this beer when it gets released.
Across the Cook Strait to Blenheim and 8 Wired’s Søren Erikson has some big plans for the coming year. He has inherited the oak barrels that Epic’s Luke Nicholas used to produce the Barrel Aged Armageddon and Thornbridge Stout. He currently has some Big Smoke Porter and a 13% Russian Imperial Stout aging in them which will be released this year. He also has plans for a 2%abv flavor packed session beer.
Also in Blenheim Renaissance have plans for a barleywine which will be a welcome addition to the New Zealand beer scene as it’s a style we have precious few examples of.
In Auckland Epic has provided a home to one of our most skilled and highly respected young brewers. When Kelly Ryan succumbed to the siren call of a Kiwi summer while brewing at the Thornbridge brewery in the north of England he didn’t have a job to come home to. There were concerns that perhaps he would end up brewing at one of the large breweries and his skills would be lost to craft brewing. Luckily Luke has found room for him at Epic and I’m sure there will be some awesome beers that will come from the partnership.
The Emerson’s crew have a whole host of exciting beers lined up which will be released as Brewers Reserves through the year however Richard Emerson just turned his hearing aid off when I asked for details! However one bit of news is that Emerson’s Pilsner, one of the nation’s biggest selling craft beers, will no longer be organic from mid January on. The supply of Organic Riwaka hops became finite while the beers growth seems to be most definitely infinite!
Things are looking good for an exciting year of beer, I can’t wait!
Cheers
Many of the brewers I talked to were incredibly loose lipped, far more so than I expected them to be. So in many ways you can view this first column of the year as a gossip column for Kiwi Craft Brewing!
First up Wellington based Yeastie Boys have some big things on the agenda this year. The most exciting is the establishment of a second permanent bottled beer to sit on the shelves next to Pot Kettle Black. Last year I was privileged to taste a test batch of what will be called Rex Attitude and it absolutely blew me away. Brewed against all brewing advice with 100% peated Islay distilling malt of the sort used to make single malt whiskey, most brewers will tell you that 15% should be an absolute maximum, fruity New Zealand hops and an American yeast strain ,its one of the most beguilingly complex yet approachable smoked beers I have ever had. There will definitely be a column devoted to this beer when it gets released.
Across the Cook Strait to Blenheim and 8 Wired’s Søren Erikson has some big plans for the coming year. He has inherited the oak barrels that Epic’s Luke Nicholas used to produce the Barrel Aged Armageddon and Thornbridge Stout. He currently has some Big Smoke Porter and a 13% Russian Imperial Stout aging in them which will be released this year. He also has plans for a 2%abv flavor packed session beer.
Also in Blenheim Renaissance have plans for a barleywine which will be a welcome addition to the New Zealand beer scene as it’s a style we have precious few examples of.
In Auckland Epic has provided a home to one of our most skilled and highly respected young brewers. When Kelly Ryan succumbed to the siren call of a Kiwi summer while brewing at the Thornbridge brewery in the north of England he didn’t have a job to come home to. There were concerns that perhaps he would end up brewing at one of the large breweries and his skills would be lost to craft brewing. Luckily Luke has found room for him at Epic and I’m sure there will be some awesome beers that will come from the partnership.
The Emerson’s crew have a whole host of exciting beers lined up which will be released as Brewers Reserves through the year however Richard Emerson just turned his hearing aid off when I asked for details! However one bit of news is that Emerson’s Pilsner, one of the nation’s biggest selling craft beers, will no longer be organic from mid January on. The supply of Organic Riwaka hops became finite while the beers growth seems to be most definitely infinite!
Things are looking good for an exciting year of beer, I can’t wait!
Cheers
CT Column 22/12/2010 : Christmas beer
LAST December I wrote a column on what I would be drinking and eating on Christmas Day. That column obviously captured the imagination of the drinking public as many people approached my family wanting to know if we really eat and drink that well at Christmas: we do.
This Christmas Sarah and myself will start the day with a Haslett-Moore family tradition, salmon, hollandaise and croissants accompanied by a glass of 3 Mont Bier de Flandres , a golden spritzy malt accented ale from the north of France. 3 Mont has a hint of earthy tangy cellar character and a high level of carbonation, which helps it cut the richness of the salmon perfectly.
At midday we will break out the Christmas mince pies and cream with a champagne flute of Three Boys Wild Plum. Wild Plum is a very individualistic fruit beer that uses wild plums from the Three Boys family farm in North Otago to create striking aromas and flavours of tart stone fruit and a prune note. With the mince pies Wild Plum taste dry and even more fruity with the prune character adding complexity to the fruit mince.
Late afternoon our families will arrive and the barbeque will be fired up. On the menu will be a boned out lamb leg marinated in cumin, coriander, paprika and peach and habanero sauce accompanied by a glass of the classic dry spicy Saison from Dupont, Paua fritters packed with garlic and coriander with a touch of chilli with the extravagantly hopped aromatic 8 Wired Tall Poppy, a garden herb marinated split chicken with the fruity hoppy rounded Emerson’s JP2010, and porterhouse steaks rubbed down in Richard Emerson’s own spicy beef rub accompanied by a glass of Yeastie Boys His Majesty 2010.
Then if we have any room left it will be time for a slice of Christmas cake with a nip of Fullers Vintage Ale 2009 a beer that absolutely bursts with marmelady orange fruit and rich fortified malt flavours.
After all that I think it will most definitely be time for a cup of tea!
Cheers, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
This Christmas Sarah and myself will start the day with a Haslett-Moore family tradition, salmon, hollandaise and croissants accompanied by a glass of 3 Mont Bier de Flandres , a golden spritzy malt accented ale from the north of France. 3 Mont has a hint of earthy tangy cellar character and a high level of carbonation, which helps it cut the richness of the salmon perfectly.
At midday we will break out the Christmas mince pies and cream with a champagne flute of Three Boys Wild Plum. Wild Plum is a very individualistic fruit beer that uses wild plums from the Three Boys family farm in North Otago to create striking aromas and flavours of tart stone fruit and a prune note. With the mince pies Wild Plum taste dry and even more fruity with the prune character adding complexity to the fruit mince.
Late afternoon our families will arrive and the barbeque will be fired up. On the menu will be a boned out lamb leg marinated in cumin, coriander, paprika and peach and habanero sauce accompanied by a glass of the classic dry spicy Saison from Dupont, Paua fritters packed with garlic and coriander with a touch of chilli with the extravagantly hopped aromatic 8 Wired Tall Poppy, a garden herb marinated split chicken with the fruity hoppy rounded Emerson’s JP2010, and porterhouse steaks rubbed down in Richard Emerson’s own spicy beef rub accompanied by a glass of Yeastie Boys His Majesty 2010.
Then if we have any room left it will be time for a slice of Christmas cake with a nip of Fullers Vintage Ale 2009 a beer that absolutely bursts with marmelady orange fruit and rich fortified malt flavours.
After all that I think it will most definitely be time for a cup of tea!
Cheers, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
CT Column15/12/2010 : A year in beer
LAST year I wrote that choosing a list of favourite beers for the year was like “choosing a favourite child, difficult, dangerous and sure to end in controversy!”.
As that statement is no less true a year later, I have decided to review the year that was by writing about the themes that have characterised craft beer this year rather than picking favourites.
This year the craze for big aromatic hoppy India Pale Ales developed to encompass a range of highly hopped but also richly malty amber ales. These ‘India Red Ales’ were particularly popular through the winter where their bigger body seemed to suit the cooler weather. Emerson’s carried out a comprehensive investigation of the style by releasing three different Brewers Reserves on the theme. Hoppiest Indian, Oreti Red and Last of the Mohicans were all incredibly well received and hopefully we see something along those lines again next year. 8 Wired’s Søren Erikson has just released his interpretation of the style, named Tall Poppy. It’s sure to be as big a success as his other beers have been.
Another theme from 2010 has been the emergence of collaboration brews where a brewer from one brewery has travelled to another to brew a beer with them. Epic’s Luke Nicholas started the trend by brewing with Kelly Ryan at the Thornbridge brewery in the UK in 2009. In February this year Kelly returned the favour by travelling here and brewing the Epic Thornbridge Stout. Later this year Luke travelled to Delaware in the US and brewed a festive brew with Sam Calagione at the Dogfish Head Brewery for BrewNZ. A second batch named Portamarillo was brewed in Auckland just before Beervana. Discovery Channel filmed both brew days, and Beervana and will screen the Brewmasters series here next year sometime. I made my own foray into collaboration brewing by brewing a beer with Richard Emerson in Dunedin.
This trend seems set to continue next year. We might even see collaboration between the Yeastie Boys and 8 Wired, a union that is sure to create something wonderful.
Finally, we have seen a number of beers that have taken conventional styles and have fused them together. The Yeastie Boys have led this charge by taking Belgian yeasts and using them on other styles of beer. Return to Magenta took the hoppy amber ale style and gave it a spicy yeasty twist, Her Majesty 2010 gave the same treatment to a strong brown porter and any day now His Majesty 2010 will be released blending the fruity rounded English strong ale style with the piny citrus like hop character of an American IPA. Richard Emerson also got into the style bending mood by making this year’s Belgian JP release an American double IPA fermented with a tart fruity Belgian Golden Ale yeast.
All in all it’s been a great year for interesting beer and next year promises to be even better. Cheers
As that statement is no less true a year later, I have decided to review the year that was by writing about the themes that have characterised craft beer this year rather than picking favourites.
This year the craze for big aromatic hoppy India Pale Ales developed to encompass a range of highly hopped but also richly malty amber ales. These ‘India Red Ales’ were particularly popular through the winter where their bigger body seemed to suit the cooler weather. Emerson’s carried out a comprehensive investigation of the style by releasing three different Brewers Reserves on the theme. Hoppiest Indian, Oreti Red and Last of the Mohicans were all incredibly well received and hopefully we see something along those lines again next year. 8 Wired’s Søren Erikson has just released his interpretation of the style, named Tall Poppy. It’s sure to be as big a success as his other beers have been.
Another theme from 2010 has been the emergence of collaboration brews where a brewer from one brewery has travelled to another to brew a beer with them. Epic’s Luke Nicholas started the trend by brewing with Kelly Ryan at the Thornbridge brewery in the UK in 2009. In February this year Kelly returned the favour by travelling here and brewing the Epic Thornbridge Stout. Later this year Luke travelled to Delaware in the US and brewed a festive brew with Sam Calagione at the Dogfish Head Brewery for BrewNZ. A second batch named Portamarillo was brewed in Auckland just before Beervana. Discovery Channel filmed both brew days, and Beervana and will screen the Brewmasters series here next year sometime. I made my own foray into collaboration brewing by brewing a beer with Richard Emerson in Dunedin.
This trend seems set to continue next year. We might even see collaboration between the Yeastie Boys and 8 Wired, a union that is sure to create something wonderful.
Finally, we have seen a number of beers that have taken conventional styles and have fused them together. The Yeastie Boys have led this charge by taking Belgian yeasts and using them on other styles of beer. Return to Magenta took the hoppy amber ale style and gave it a spicy yeasty twist, Her Majesty 2010 gave the same treatment to a strong brown porter and any day now His Majesty 2010 will be released blending the fruity rounded English strong ale style with the piny citrus like hop character of an American IPA. Richard Emerson also got into the style bending mood by making this year’s Belgian JP release an American double IPA fermented with a tart fruity Belgian Golden Ale yeast.
All in all it’s been a great year for interesting beer and next year promises to be even better. Cheers
Monday, December 6, 2010
CT Column 1/12/2010 : Seeing the light
I FIRST met Kirsten Taylor while judging at BrewNZ in 2009. At that point she was helping Lion Breweries to formulate the malt extract homebrew kits produced at their Christchurch Brewery. By the time we judged together again this year Kirsten was working on something much more interesting. Having decided that she wanted to move into the craft brewing part of the industry Kirsten teamed up with Richard Fife, a brewer with over 20 years experience. They formed a company called KJD Brewing and released a dry crisp cider called Eves NV. Now they have come up with their first beer.
KJD Chocolate Cherry Porter is a very grown up, original and complex fruit beer. It’s a beer that combines the complex smooth richness of a porter with the deep fruitiness of cherry brandy. The beer starts its life as a rich smooth chocolaty beer brewed broadly in the Baltic porter style, a branch of the porter family that developed in the Baltic States using smooth lager yeasts rather than fruity ale strains. On the second day of fermentation 80kgs of Marlborough cherries were added to the fermentor adding their own complex ‘red’ fruity character. Chocolate Cherry Porter offers up aromas of caramel, toffee, dried berry fruit and a hint of Christmas spice, in the mouth the beer offers up loads of sweet malt, toffee, chocolate, dried fruit and cherry fruit flavours with a surprisingly lean mouth feel. At 6% the beer is robust enough to match with food. Kirsten recommends serving it with Christmas Cake, beef and cranberry stew, and Maasdam or blue cheese. I think it’s a perfect match with traditional northern hemisphere Christmas fare, try it with a slice of rich fruitcake and a generous wedge of Stilton cheese. Both Eves NV Cider and Chocolate Cherry Porter are available from Regional Wines and Spirits, while the Porter might be making an appearance at Hashigo Zake sometime soon.
Cheers.
http://www.capitaltimes.co.nz/article/3636/Seeingthelight.html
KJD Chocolate Cherry Porter is a very grown up, original and complex fruit beer. It’s a beer that combines the complex smooth richness of a porter with the deep fruitiness of cherry brandy. The beer starts its life as a rich smooth chocolaty beer brewed broadly in the Baltic porter style, a branch of the porter family that developed in the Baltic States using smooth lager yeasts rather than fruity ale strains. On the second day of fermentation 80kgs of Marlborough cherries were added to the fermentor adding their own complex ‘red’ fruity character. Chocolate Cherry Porter offers up aromas of caramel, toffee, dried berry fruit and a hint of Christmas spice, in the mouth the beer offers up loads of sweet malt, toffee, chocolate, dried fruit and cherry fruit flavours with a surprisingly lean mouth feel. At 6% the beer is robust enough to match with food. Kirsten recommends serving it with Christmas Cake, beef and cranberry stew, and Maasdam or blue cheese. I think it’s a perfect match with traditional northern hemisphere Christmas fare, try it with a slice of rich fruitcake and a generous wedge of Stilton cheese. Both Eves NV Cider and Chocolate Cherry Porter are available from Regional Wines and Spirits, while the Porter might be making an appearance at Hashigo Zake sometime soon.
Cheers.
http://www.capitaltimes.co.nz/article/3636/Seeingthelight.html
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