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!

CT Column 31/08/2011:Wellington Revolution

IN a former life I played bass in a hardcore band. During the late 90’s early 2000’s Wellington was home to a thriving underground punk, ska, hardcore music scene with Thistle Hall on the corner of upper Cuba St and what was then Arthur St, playing host to many legendary gigs. The scene was about music but it was also about left leaning politics and social justice. I bring this anecdote up not because of the beer we used to drink at gigs, which was certainly not of the sort that I would usually write about in this column, but because a new Wellington beer has just been launched that brought these memories flooding back.
Wellington homebrewer and beer writer Brendon Mackenzie has just launched Wellington’s newest contract brewing company, Revolution Brewing and has named his first beer @ntifa. @ntifa refers to the antifascist movement and was a patch that would often adorn leather jackets at the gigs I attended. @ntifa is a diverse mash up of a beer that takes the malt character of a malty red Vienna lager, the yeast profile of a clean crisp Altbier and the hop character of a fruity American amber ale. The end result is a clean fruity red ale that combines a rich malt backbone with a big hop aroma and clean balanced finish. A perfect beer for spring and one which will pair beautifully with barbequed meat from the first intrepid BBQ’s of the season.
Naturally Revolution Brewing have a manifesto which sets out what they are aiming to achieve and what form future beers might take, check out http://revolutionbrewing.co.nz/ to read it.
Cheers

CT Column 24/08/2011: Winter Warmers

THE rather wonderful cold blast of the past fortnight has got me thinking about winter warmers. Winter warmers are not a style of beer, or a category that has any defined boundaries but when we talk about them we know what is meant. Winter Warmers tend to be accented towards rich malt character rather than aggressively hopped, they tend to be relatively high in alcohol to provide a fortifying warmth and also often have a comforting quality that encourages sipping by a fireside rather than session drinking.
Through the worst of the cold snap I enjoyed several beers that I would class as winter warmers. New from 8 Wired, The Sultan is a Belgian style Quadruplel with a difference. Quadrupels are an abbey style of beer made in the tradition of the beers made by Trappist monks. A Quadrupel is a strong amber coloured ale with a spicy Belgian yeast character and a warming note from the high alcohol. The Sultan takes this style and gives it a twist by incorporating a large dose of sultanas. The Sultan is truly the tawny port of the beer world.
From Mike’s this year’s vintage of Whiskey Porter has been released and is less spirity than past years with a fantastic balance of oak, alcoholic warmth and chocolaty porter.
Finally I have been enjoying the classic strong dark wheat beer from Germany, Schneider Aventinus. It is a warming cocktail of clove, banana , caramel and mocha that turns most peoples idea of a wheat beer on its head.
The winter warmer concept can be taken a step further by mulling beer. There are several traditions of mulling beer around the world. In the midlands of England ‘Poker Ale’ was a traditional winter tipple where rich malty old ale was heated with a poker from the fire. Try it with Marston’s Owd Rodger if it’s your game. In Belgium the Liefmans Brewery used to produce a spiced fruit beer called Gluhkriek that was designed to be heated gently before drinking.
I recommend blending the very sweet Liefmans Fruitesse with the slightly tart Duchesse De Bourgogne and heating gently with a little cinnamon and anis. Cheers!

CT Column 17/08/2011: Old Foghorn

TRADITIONALLY America has been known for producing incredibly light bodied, pale, scantily flavoured lagers. More recently beers like Epic Pale Ale and Tuatara APA have introduced the American Pale Ale style to NZ drinkers and the realisation has dawned that America is responsible for some seriously hoppy full flavoured pale ales. Imported American beers are increasingly available in bars, bottle stores and supermarkets around town. Terms like American Pale Ale, American India Pale Ale, and Imperial India Pale Ale have entered the New Zealand drinker’s lexicon.
America has, however, given the beer world more than just highly hopped pale ales. In 1975 the iconic Anchor brewery in San Francisco produced a strong rich malt accented beer with a notably American hop character based on the barley wines that owner Fritz Maytag had tasted in England. Maytag took the English style of barleywine, which tends to be rich and malty with a notable vinous fruity character from the use of character English yeast strains and supercharged it with a healthy dose of grapefruit accented American hops. Old Foghorn used a more neutral yeast strain to allow the fruitiness of the hops to shine through. A new style was born. Old Foghorn was followed by Sierra Nevada Bigfoot in the 1980’s and thousands of others since. Old Foghorn combines rich toasted caramel malt flavours with an aroma of stone fruit and citrus and a long rich complex balanced finish. If you want to compare it with a more traditional English style barleywine try Fullers Golden Pride which showcases Fullers distinctive marmalade accented yeast strain alongside a rich English malt profile. Both make an ideal accompaniment to strong crumbly blue cheese. Cheers

CT Column 10/08/2011: 8 Wired a champion

LAST week on the eve of Beervana the brewing industry gathered at the town hall to celebrate excellence in brewing. In the week leading up to the event a judging panel made up of Australasian brewers, and the odd beer specialist like myself, judged our way through 468 beers from around New Zealand and the world. Notable results this year included trophies going to Tuatara for Ardennes and Hefe, Emerson’s for Oreti Red and their festive brew Black Op, Harrington’s for Pig & Whistle, Three Boys for Oyster Stout, McCashins for Stoke Amber, Epic for Armageddon and 8 Wired for The Big Smoke, and Barrel Aged Big Smoke.
I had my own success achieving a Silver medal for Emerson’s Regional Special Bitter.
Champion Brewer this year was a very close call with 8 Wired just edging out Emerson’s Brewing Co to take out the over all trophy. This is a huge achievement for 8 Wired Brewer Søren Eriksen who was a home brewer three years ago and has since built up an impressive range of intense and flavourful beers that he contract brews at his employer Renaissance in Blenheim. Søren was visibly stunned and later posted on twitter that winning was surreal and that words failed him.
This years results show a New Zealand brewing scene that is rich in diversity both in the beers brewed and the types of companies that are producing them. I for one will be raising a glass to that. Cheers!
Full results can be found at http://brewersguild.org.nz/

CT Column 27/07/2011: Radler shouldn’t be a trademark

Radler is a style of German beer. It is Germany’s answer to the English shandy, and was originally a blend of lemonade and lager developed for German cyclists who didn’t want to drink full strength beer for fear of falling off their bikes. In 2003 DB was granted a trademark on the term Radler by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand, known as IPONZ. The beer that is sold under the Monteith’s Radler name is in fact a full strength lager with a dose of lime flavouring rather than a diluted low strength beer. New Zealand was left in a situation where the only beer that could be sold as a Radler was in fact not true to the Radler style! In 2008 the Green Man Brewery launched a beer called Radler and DB protected its trademark and forced the beer to be renamed. The next year consumer group the Society of Beer Advocates, known as SOBA, launched an action to have the trademark revoked on the basis that it was a beer style, and that IPONZ had been incorrect to register the trademark in the first place.
A fortnight ago IPONZ ruled that IPONZ was correct in granting Dominion Breweries the Radler trademark as there was insufficient evidence that Kiwis knew what a Radler was in 2003. A cynic might say that a case where the judge, jury and defendant are one and the same has a predetermined outcome!
I think that the trade marking of beer styles is not only wrong morally but is also potentially counterproductive to the industry as a whole. Imagine if one winery had owned the exclusive rights to the word Sauvignon Blanc for the last 35 years? Would Kiwi’s have known what a Sauvignon Blanc was in the mid 1970’s? Where would that industry be now?
It’s not only Kiwi consumers and intellectual property lawyers who are up in arms about the ruling, the Federation of German Brewers are up in arms as well. NZ Beer Blogger Martin Craig summed it up when he wrote that it is the equivalent of a German company trade marking the word Hangi because German’s don’t know what a Hangi is, and then using it to sell Kangaroo Burgers. That would be wrong, just as IPONZ ruling was wrong.
Kieran Haslett-Moore is a founding member of SOBA and a former committee member, writing his own opinion.

CT Column 20/07/2011: Season for the Saison

IT seems like this year is the year of the Saison. Saison is a tart dry spicy type of Belgian farmhouse ale that was originally brewed by farmers to preserve grain and pay farm workers. So far this year we have seen Invercargill Brewing Co’s interpretation, several classics from Belgium, and now a characteristically original take on the style from the Yeastie Boys and a characteristically hoppy one from 8 Wired. This is definitely a case of feast after famine as there have been precious few examples of the style around town.
The Yeastie Boys take on Saison comes in the form of this year’s Her Majesty. Each year the Yeastie Boys release Her Majesty and His Majesty in 750ml wine bottles. Each vintage is a completely different beer but His Majesty always takes a more muscular approach while Her Majesty concentrates on more subtle yeast accented styles. The Yeastie Boys seldom create beers exactly to style and this year’s Her Majesty takes the malt recipe of a German Märzen Lager and blends it with a Saison yeast and a dose of Nelson hops. This year’s Her Majesty has a complex aroma with plenty of orchard fruit, citrus, exotic spice and an interesting creamy almost cheese note that I really like even if it sounds rather strange! In the mouth it is incredibly dry yet at the same time richly malty with loads of complex malt flavour, spicy fruit and a tart finish. A very clever and beguiling beer.
8 Wired’s interpretation comes in the form of Saison Sauvin named after the exotically fruity Nelson Sauvin hop variety. Saison Sauvin came from brewer Søren Eriksen’s experiments with using a Saison yeast with his popular Hopwired IPA recipe. The beer that resulted from that process is very different from those early experiments but it is definitely a good deal more hoppy than most Saison’s would be. Aromas of fresh zesty tropical fruit, lime and melon , and exotic spice give way to a fresh dry fruity palate and a dry tart finish. Both these new saisons are food friendly and make an outstanding accompaniment to fresh spicy Thai or Vietnamese food.
Also out this week is this year’s Regional Special Bitter the beer I brewed with Richard Emerson. This year’s beer is a refinement of last year’s recipe and I’m extremely pleased with it. It’s a tap only release and will be at Beervana at the start of next month.
Cheers