Beer from the Motherland

A new Merchant is born.

2008-07-23T22:03:00.001-07:00

I’m sipping on a glass of my latest vintage of Imperial Stout as a reward for having bottled the 2007 vintage. Last years batch of the Merchant was brewed last November, since then it has been sitting in a corny keg in my cellar. Today I primed the 9.4% abv black beast with some sugar and ran her into 50 nip bottles. I think last years vintage is the best yet, roasty, bitter with hints of raisins and chocolate. After 4 or 5 years of brewing this style I think I am starting to get there. Fine tuning a running beer is easy, it takes a hell of a lot longer to perfect an imperial recipe.

Winter 08

2008-07-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

Ah what a weekend! It started with the West Coast IPA Challenge on Thursday. Epic Brewing Co and Hallertau Brewbar both brewed an American style IPA Epic using imported ingredients, Hallertau using local ingredients, the results were put to the test back to back at the Malthouse. Then Friday saw International Brewers Day Celebrated with the unveiling of the commercially brewed SOBA Homebrew Champion Bock again at the Malthouse.

Saturday was the big day and despite heavy rain we still had a house full of punters. The beers were flowing and the food disappeared in record time (note to self, more grub next year!) Thanks to all who helped out by brewing, working bar, designing menus and to all who came to drink. A fantastic night. Right I’m off to lull my hangover with an episode of The Power of Art.

p.s. the sparkler seen on the beer engine was for Stanley Green a pale ale from pro brewer Invercargell Brewing Co. The beer was served from a plastic bladder in a cardboard box and was totally flat requiring the 'bling'.

Manning the Taps…

2008-07-12T21:43:00.001-07:00

…Well we will be in a week’s time. I have spent today rearranging the bar for next weeks festival and setting up the extra beer engines that I have borrowed for the event. 6 of the seven engines that will be used next week are now in place. Time for a pint of Revival Stout to reward me for my work I think. There is something very satisfying about running a beer festival, I highly recommend it!

A Lapsed Catholic

2008-07-05T16:14:00.001-07:00

For sometime now I have been using Saf US-05 after becoming dissatisfied with my old yeast of choice Saf S-04. In the same period I swapped from fermenting in plastic jerry cans to fermenting in stainless corny kegs, as any brewer knows changing two variables at once is never a good idea but what’s done has been brewed. Recently I have been most concerned with the high ester character that my beer has shown. US-05 is renowned for being reasonably clean and neutral although there were murmurs from certain quarters about it having a potential acetal aldehyde problem. Certainly when used in my system with narrow tall fermentors with limited surface area the ester character has been significant and green apple has been a problem. And so I decided to dabble with S-04 again, many of the brews I did for the Winter Ales Fest were double batches with ½ fermented with US-05 and ½ fermented with S-04, S04 has won hands down. While the S-04 displays a little diacetyl post primary fermentation and if the fermentation gets to warm a little iso-amyl acetate (banana ester) the over all character of the beers fermented with S-04 is much cleaner. Like any Catholic its time for me to lapse I’m back in the S-04 camp.

Carbon Hop Print

2008-07-05T15:40:00.000-07:00

Living at the arse end of the world we can’t afford to get to wound up about carbon miles. Our economy relies on exports and my beer passion relies on imports. Still while our clean green image is mainly fiction it is true that New Zealand’s non-intensive farming does in many cases use less carbon including the shipping than Northern Hemisphere farming does just down the road from the market. Anyway what has got me rambling about food miles? well Boak and Bailey and Pete Brown have both recently written about an American Beer Festival that’s been running at the Sloany Pony, it interested me that the second beer in the list was a cask conditioned version of Sierra Nevada’s Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale, one of the first American beers to come out of the new interest in the states with Kiwi hops. It’s quite a globe trot from Nelson, to Chico to London but if I was in London I would certainly be getting a pint.

Beer List – Winter Ales Fest 08

2008-07-05T14:31:00.000-07:00

Here is the beer list for the Winter Ales Fest

O-Street Brewing:

Revival Stout 5%abv

Winter Brew

Oatmeal Stouts stemmed from the desire to make beer more nutritious with the added oats giving a smooth mouthfeel a hint of nuttyness. Revival Stout blends maris otter pale malt with roast barley, rolled oats, patent, crystal, and wheat malts and is hopped with fuggels.

Kingston XX 4.6%abv

Occasional Brew

Named after the suburb of Kingston that sits at the top of the hill Kingston XX is loosely based on Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, one of my favourite beers. Brewed with Golden Promise pale malt and a hint of crystal malt XX is heavily hopped with Fuggels, and Goldings throughout the boil with a healthy addition of Styrian Goldings at flameout.

Berhampore Best Bitter 4.4%abv

Regular Brew

The stronger of my regular session beers 3B”s is a malty deep copper best bitter with a firm bitter finish. 3B’s is brewed with Maris Otter pale malt, dark crystal, and light crystal malt and is hopped with the classic English combination of Fuggels and Goldings.

Hall St Porter 4.6%abv

Autumn/Spring Brew

Hall St Porter is named after the Street in Newtown near the O-Street that gives the brewery its name. A brown porter crafted for session-ability it combines maris otter pale, crystal and patent malt with Fuggels providing the bitterness,

Ridgeway Ruby 5.8%abv

Winter Brew

A winter warmer as it should be, flavours of rich nutty malt, dark spicy sugar, and vinous fruit. Ridgeway Ruby is brewed in the style of English draft old ale such as Theakston’s Old Peculier or Black Sheep Riggwelter. Ridgeway Ruby combines Maris Otter pale malt, dark crystal , light crystal, chocolate malt, brewing sugar and Fuggels and Goldings hops.

Brooklyn Bitter 5.5%abv

Occasional Brew

Brooklyn Bitter is an Extra Special Bitter combining a rich malt character with a firm English hop character. Brooklyn bitter combines Maris Otter pale, dark crystal and light crystal malt with Goldings, Fuggels and Styrian Golding hops.

Festive Tonic Ale 4%abv

Festive Special

As a festive brew I decided to delve into the past and make a contemporary version of a Victorian oddity. Beer historians the Durden Park Beer Circle describe Tonic Ales as “a Victorian fad. These were light beer heavily hopped and drunk young. Drinkers were assured that the bitter flavour was doing them good.” From that description I crafted a pale 4%abv beer from pilsner and pale ale malts and then mercilessly hopped it with New Zealand Nelson Sauvin and American Willamette hops. Known tongue in cheek around the brewery as the ‘Pale Mild’, Festive Tonic Ale is a seriously fruity, bitter low gravity beer. Don’t let the winter get you down, take your tonic!

Front Porch Brewery

Front Porch Pipkin's Pumpkin Ale 6%abv

Festive Brew

With Pumpkin added to the mash, cinnamon and cloves added to the boil and a Trappist ale yeast used for fermentation this is a truly experimental spiced winter ale, like pumpkin pie in a glass!

Front Porch Blue Flag Wee Heavy 8.7%abv

Festive Brew

Front Porch Wee Heavy - coming in a little lighter than I had thought at 8.7% it has an FG of 1.028 and nice malt flavours. A little age would definitely improve this beer but, hey, time waits for no man. I highly recommend the Whitelabs European Ale

(WLP500) yeast for these and other low ester style beers.

Brendon’s Brewery

Brendon's Brown Porter 4.5%abv

Chocolate, nuts, caramel - basically this is a liquidised Picnic bar.

Brewaucracy Brewery

Brass Monkey ESB - 5.4%

A very full bodied, and slightly non-traditional beer, loosely based around the ESB style. This is currently too young to have tasting notes, but contains Maris Otter, Dark Crystal, and a touch of Munich and hopped with East Kent Goldings. Early samples show it promises to be rich, slightly chewy, and with a gentle earthyness.

Cellarmanship

2008-06-21T20:14:00.000-07:00

Recently I have fine tuned my cellarmanship practise, and if I do say so myself, the condition of my beer at present is excellent. When I first played at cask conditioning beer in corny kegs I was much helped by George Busby at the Wassail Brauhaus. His advice was to not prime the kegs, it was advice I followed until recently. Ale was racked into the corny at the end of primary fermentation, oxygen purged from the head space with co2 and the beer then left to drop bright and build some condition with the small amount of fermentable sugars that were left. This method served me well, however as I have learnt more and more about real ale I have grown to demand a decent level of condition in my beer. Some batches would struggle to achieve a head and as I am loath to use a sparkler to hide the lack of condition it had gradually become clear that I would need to prime. At the same time I had been striving to achieve crystal clear beer. It often amuses me to hear American and Kiwi homebrewers talk of how real ale must be cloudy because it is naturally conditioned, what rubbish. A long time ago I had played with gelatine as a fining agent, my then status as a vegetarian hadn’t been the issue, the fact that you couldn’t boil it and that you often ended up with lumps of jelly at the bottom of the corny had. Then I stumbled across agar, boilable, effective and traceless it has worked a charm. So now an addition of boiled sugar and agar goes into every corny as its filled and the results are sexy, as the picture of a pint of Berhampore Best reveals, cheers.

O-Street Festive Tonic Ale

2008-06-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

I currently plan to have 7 different beers on at this year winter ales fest, most of them will be malt accented beers for winter with a best bitter and a pale ale thrown in. I really wanted to do a special festive recipe and was trying to find some inspiration when I came across a section in my copy of the Durden Park Beer Circle “Old British Beers and How To Make Them” entitled ‘Bitter, Tonic Pale Ale, Old Ale’. The book went on to read:

“Tonic Pale Ales can only be described as a Victorian fad. These were light beer heavily hopped and drunk young. Drinkers were assured that the bitter flavour was doing them good.”

This sounded like a concept that could mix things up a little and also use up some bits and pieces that have been lying around. So I decided to brew a very contemporary version.
So today I am mashing a mix of weyerman pils and Golden Promise pale ale malt to produce a beer that will be in the vicinity of 1050 and am then going to aggressively hop it with NZ Nelson Sauvin and American Willamette hops. It should keep the hop heads happy!

Imperial Stout on my mind

2008-06-18T17:24:00.001-07:00

As is probably clear from this blog one of my favourite styles is Russian Imperial Stout. In an ideal world my cellar would be over flowing with them, however the best I usually achieve are a couple of vintages of my own and the odd bottle of Pink Elephant Rushin Imperious. However recently I have had two very exciting additions.

The first came from the left over stocks of beer from the NZIBA, and came in the form of a new world hop charged Rogue Imperial Stout. It seems so American to present an 11% abv beer in a huge 750ml serve. I tried the beer during judging and it was impressive and very definitely wore its American hopping on its sleeve.

The second addition to the cellar has come in the form of a bottle of 2003 Harvey’s Imperial Extra Double Stout lovingly carried back from the UK for me in Greig’s suitcase. A classic of the style and perhaps the closest to Courage RIS I will ever get to try, I’m going to cellar it a while longer before I try it.

Of course putting beers into the cellar makes up the will power part of the process, however there is also the very enjoyable ritual of pulling out a bottle when the time seems right. Recently I pulled one of my precious few bottles of the first ever all grain batch of Merchant of the Devil. Brewed in January 2006 I was playing with ‘spiking’ big beers with Champaign yeast at the time. Primary fermentation was with s-04 and then the wine yeast was added to the secondary fermentor where The Merchant sat for 6 weeks before being primed and bottled. For the first 18 months the beer exhibited a slightly funky estery character from the Champaign yeast and an enthusiastic condition, however as she has aged The Merchant has mellowed significantly. At two and a ½ years she is warming, rich, smooth, and complex. It’s a tragedy that there is only one more bottle left.

Valley Winter Ales Festival

2008-06-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

The frosts are starting, I can see my breath on brew mornings, it’s my favourite time of the year. As usual I will be celebrating winter with an ales festival. Alongside strong bitters, porters, old ales and Stouts (and probably the odd pale ale to keep the masses happy) I will be serving up some beef & ale pie, goat curry, a vego tagine and a cheese or two. Anyone who is in the area on the 19 of July is welcome along.

Cider in Variation

2008-06-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

For a large period of my teens cider was my choice of alcoholic beverage. It was cheap, palatable and most importantly, intoxicating. After I began to discover the wonders that lurked in the world of beer I gave up on cider, dismissing it as a simple quencher and intoxicator without any of the complexity that made beer so exciting. The cider I knew of course was New Zealand cider, fermented from eating apples stabilized and fermented with wine yeast, a process that creates a clean but uncomplicated drink. It wasn’t until several years ago when a couple of bottles of Weston’s cider appeared on the shelf next to the imported beers at Regional Wines that I was introduced to the complexity of traditional English cider. It was immediately evident traditional English cider was something I would enjoy. Unlike NZ cider the offerings from Somerset were made with tannic English Cider apple varieties, and were fermented with the natural yeast from the apples skins. These complex tannic funky ciders stood up to the beers of Belgium in terms of complexity and perilously, tended to be far more drinkable, they could be both refreshing in the summer and warming in the winter.

More recently New Zealand has started to produce some fantastic ciders. While Steve Nally from Invercargill Brewing Co has done much to spread the appeal of cider amongst the beer drinkers with his very good ‘kiwi’ style cider, Three Rivers in the Wairarapa and Martin Townshend in the Moutere Valley have both started producing some outstanding traditional ciders pressed from cider apple varieties. After a summer of drinking cider (SWMBO is a big fan of traditional cider as well) I decided I would do a few tastings to show just how diverse cider can be. I tasted across the board taking in simple NZ ciders and cheap canned English ciders that I normally wouldn’t touch through to some of the very complex long established English and French ciders and of course taking in the products of the new traditional NZ. producers. So here it is Cider in Variation:

First up I decided to hunt out an English cider that I was relatively sure would be Sh#t! After all I was looking to cover the range of variation in the cider world. No I won’t be reviewing Carling Black Label next week.

Symonds Scrumpy Jack 6%

Can, Pours a pale gold with a white head. Aroma features crisp apple with a hint of sulphur. On the palate there is a sweet start with a tart note an up the nose sulphur note a vinous character and an abrupt finish. Not very complex, cheap English cider..

Next I took a cider that pretty much represents the norm in New Zealand Cider, clean , white wine like and refreshing, just not very interesting.

Brightstone Classic 5%

Super pale, almost soda water coloured, with a wispy disappearing head. Aroma features a dominant white wine note, with crisp apple. On the palate there was loads of sweetness with a hint of apple fruit, a short finish. Decent quencher, classic NZ Style cider.

Steve Nally from Invercargill is a one man campaign for cider (as well a being an enthusiastic proponent of hugs). Steve has done probably more that anyone else in this country to spread the word for cider amongst the beer community, his cider is of the New Zealand style, a fine example it is, however he does play with oaking portions of the harvest in order to introduce some tannins.

Nally’s Cider 5%

Pours a light gold with a thin white head. Aroma features apple fruit, a minerally note, and a vinous character. On the palate there is medium sweet apple fruit, a mineral note and a clean quick finish. Decent NZ style cider.

And on to the decent English ciders all three are awesome, I wish I had a cask of each of them so I could put them on draft.

Westons Stowford Press Medium Dry 4.5%

Pours a clear mid gold with a wispy white head. Aroma features a musty character, hints of leather, and a sweet apple note. On the palate there is sweet apple, a hint of musty wood, and a dry finish.

Sheppys Dabinett 7.2%

Pours a mid gold with a disappearing lace. Aroma features applewood, a touch of tannic plastic, a warm character. On the palate there is rich sweet apple, warm alcohol, loads of woody tannin leading to a medium dry finish. The evident alcohol would make this a good winter warmer.

Sheppys Kingston Black 7.2%

Pours a mid gold with a disappearing head. Aroma features a complex blend of crisp apple, oaky tannin, and a touch of wild ferment. On the palate crisp apple , tannin and a wild astringent note lead to a solid sour finish. Fantastic cider, dangerously drinkable.

The French tend to halt their fermentations early leaving a full bodied sweet apple character and a lower abv. Like the English they use cider apples and often wild ferment. This particular cider is a revelation particularly with funky washed rind cheese.

Le Pere Jules Brut 5%

Pours a murky rustic gold with a raging carbonation driven head which abruptly collapses 1/2 way through drinking. Aroma features a complex blend of tannic wood, hint of plastic, wild ferment notes and a rich apple fruit character. On the palate there is sweet juicy red ripe apple fruit, loads of oaky tannin, a spicy wild note and a tart long finish. Awesome French cider.

Three Rivers cider from the Cider House in the Wairapapa produce some outstanding cider. I wish I could get a cask of the spritzed it really is fantastic.

Three Rivers Spritzed 7%abv

Pours a mid gold with a frothy white head. Aroma features spicy marzipan, red apple. caramel, and a hint of tannic woodyness. On the palate there is a full bodied medium sweet apple character followed a hint of tannin, apple fruit, and a smooth lasting finish. Fantastic cider.

Three Rivers Still 6.7%abv

Pours a mid gold with no head. Aroma features fresh apple, and a touch of tannin. The palate is dry and sour right from the start a hint of apple wood develops leading to a long sour finish. One for the acid heads!.

Last year I was in the Nelson region while judging at the NZIBA, after the work had finished we got out of town and visited some breweries around the place. The most interesting was the farmhouse operation called Townshends. Not only does Martin Townshend brew a range of real ales but he also makes a traditional wild ferment cider each year. I returned this year and brought back some beers and some cider, rest assured his brewery will be the subject of a piece I’m currently writing. This years vintage was not the ‘brett basket’ that last years was, and was still rather than the aggressive carbonation of last years. While it wasn’t as complex as last years it was a lot more drinkable, and stood head and shoulders above the Three River Still Cider.

Townshend Rosedale Cider 2008 7%abv

Pours a light hazy gold with no head. Aroma features caramel, cloves, a hint of cinnamon and bubblegum, curiously like a wheat beer. On the palate the spicy phenolic character continues with a hint of sweet red apple and a resounding short tart finish which begged another sip. Drinkable and complex.

A Toast to my ISP

2008-06-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

Well after an inexplicably long time in the wilderness I’m back! The simple act of changing broadband from one person’s name to another seems to have sparked off a process which left me internet less for the best part of a month! So a pint of light struck Corona to my ISP and a sigh of relief that I’m back in the blogging business. In the next wee while I have pieces on cider, the breweries I visited while judging in Nelson (in particular NZ’s newest real ale brewery) and the details of this years Valley Winter Ales Fest that’s coming up. Time to read 200 odd emails and check out the blogs.

Fulham 1 Portsmouth 0!!!!

2008-05-12T03:06:00.000-07:00

I came home tonight and celebrated the succesful end to Fulham's relegation line dance with a pint of Fullers 1845. Its so much more fun at the bottom of the league , so much more to fight for.

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I support Fulham as that is where my grandma came from.

Kings of Keg – Meantime

2008-05-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

With their rejection of cask conditioning, Meantime is one of the more controversial English micros to find success in recent times. Alistair Hook’s training at Weihenstephan and Herriot Watt clearly shows its self in the range of Continental and New World styles he brews rather than the more traditional English session ales brewed by Brewlab trained micro brewers. Alistair gets a fair bit of flak from traditionalists and as an enthusiastic proponent of cask ale I can’t help but feel sympathy for their view.

Regardless of the politics I was genuinely excited to get the chance to try the Meantime IPA and Porter both of which stress their historical accuracy (nothing new here!) and see how they stacked up.

First up was the Pilsner, hardly a style close to my heart this beer ticked all the boxes but did it with little flair.

Pilsner 4.7%abv

Pours a crystal clear gold with a disappearing white head. Aroma features noble hops with a minerally slightly chalky character. On the palate there is a close balance between malt and hops, a very clean yeast profile with a light dry mouthfeel. there is a hint of lager malt flavour and a decent bitterness. Competent but unremarkable.

Next up a chocolate beer, often a novelty style pumped out for supermarket sales this one is probably the best I have ever tasted!

Chocolate 6.5%abv

Pours a near pitch black with a tan head. Aroma features rich Belgian chocolate, spicy resiny hops and hints of berry fruit. On the palate there is mouth filling chocolate, sweet rich confected malt, and a touch of warming alcohol. Lovely beer!

A suped up German style wheat beer this one left me wondering why if had to be 6.3%abv and why anyone exports such a fragile style.

Wheat Grand Cru 6.3%abv

Pours a mid gold with a fluffy white head. Aroma features phenolic cloves, a touch of cornflower, and a dusty note. On the palate cloves are continued, muted malt, and a short finish all matched with a flabby limp mouthfeel. Rather underwhelming beer that seems to drink way below its strength.

Coffee beer, another novelty style and one that is almost universally botched through brewers knowing lots about malt, hops and yeast and next to nothing about coffee. Coffee beers are often characterised by flavours of over extracted coffee and harsh bi products of beans left in contact with beer for way to long. This example surprised me with how good the espresso flavours were, like the chocolate beer was very well done.

Coffee 6%abv

Pours a dark mahogany with a tight white head. Aroma features earthy dusty stale espresso reminiscent of the coffee tin, a touch of charcoal, and sweet toffee malt. On the palate there is an initial burst of bitter hops, coffee acidity cushioned by sweet chunky toffee, a touch of sweetened short black, and a long bitter/sour acidic finish. Good stuff.

The first of the ‘historic recreations’. The London Porter was an interesting and enjoyable beer let down only by a minty medicinal character that built up in the palate as I made my way down the glass.

London Porter 6.5%abv

Pours a dark red with a beige head. Aroma features sappy hops, a hint of banana and light grainy chocolate. On the palate there is firm understated roast grain, a hint of chocolate and caramel malt, banana, and minty character that becomes more and more medicinal as the beer warms. The finish is malty and medicinal. Good beer although medicinal character detracts somewhat from the whole.

The India Pale Ale is renowned for being overly sweet and it lived up to its reputation. While there were all sorts of good flavours going on in the end these were smothered by an overwhelmingly sweet unfermented malt character that left the beer rather sickly.

India Pale Ale 7.5%abv

Pours a light gold with a thick white head. Aroma features zesty hops, melons, and lime contributing to a tropical character. Also a rather off putting saccharine sugary note with touches of caramel. On the palate Melons and lime make a quick appearance before succumbing to a sickly barley sugar character, stewed malt, sugary unfermented malt, ending in a long bitter finish. Could be a fantastic beer if it was attenuated properly.

So again a bit of a mixed bag, the Coffee Porter and the Chocolate Beer shown through as the real stars certainly over shadowing the spectacularly packaged Porter and IPA.

Brewing Blind

2008-05-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

I woke this morning with the worst sinus occupying head cold. Today was marked down as a brew day, even though I didn’t feel like it I persevered. In addition to brewing a batch of best bitter I was intending to rack a batch of O.S.B. into a corny, it has struck me that carrying out this task with absolutely no sense of smell and little sense of taste is an extremely hard thing to do. Is the O.S.B. ready? I have no idea , diacetyl? Not sure, acetal aldehyde? God I hope not, I can tell it’s got a decent mouthfeel! How about the Berhampore Best I’m brewing today? astringency from the sparge? not sure, conversion? Well the hydrometer says so but I usually like to check with my palate. It all reinforces to me how important the human is in brewing at this end of the scale. I’m off for a port and brandy.

The Session- Beer Evangelism

2008-05-02T02:49:00.001-07:00

The start of my beer evangelism can be traced back to the winter of 1998, I was in Dunedin train station waiting for the Taieri Gorge Tourist Railway to depart. I was in the south on a family holiday, the next time I would visit would be in the quest of beer. I took the train with my mother who is always keen for a beer or two. We scanned the menu to make our selection, up until then the drinking on our trip had been dominated by the ubiquitous CD and Speights. The name Emerson’s immediately took our fancy as it shared its name with the street where my family home is located. One sip and my experience of beer changed utterly. Unlike the sweet unchallenging New Zealand Draughts I was used to this beer had a strong malty presence, a marmity yeastyness and definite roasty finish, in other words it had character. Upon returning home I started hunting out more beers like this one, first ones from the big two like Monteiths Black, Guinness and Speights Old Dark, but soon beers from smaller breweries like Founders Long Black, Emerson’s Oatmeal Stout and pretty much anything the supermarket or off license had that was dark and rich.

It wasn’t until I stumbled across a copy of Michael Jackson’s 1988 New World Guide to Beer that I started to hunt out and learn about styles of beer that weren’t dark. At the same time I was starting to homebrew and like fact that music never sounds the same after you have worked in a music studio, so to my understanding of what I was tasting in beer developed changed.

My taste in beer developed again dramatically in 2001 when I tasted my first pint of real ale at Galbraith’s in Auckland. This was beer at its most drinkable, glorious peak, extremely complex, and yet utterly sessionable, my fate was sealed.

Who let the dogs out?

2008-04-26T19:56:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday with the help of some friends I tasted my way through the 4 Brewdog beers that came in on the most recent import. I approached the task with mixed feelings, on the plus side the beers have had a mainly positive reaction from bloggers in the UK, and they are in styles that are perhaps more commonly found in the new world than in Britain offering a bit of a novelty factor. On the negative they have to take the prize for the worst labelling I have seen in a long time, the trendy urban dog themed labels left me wondering if I was going to get a pair of new jeans and a hoody rather than a tasty beverage. Unfortunately with at least two of the four beers I would have been better off with a new piece of street ware. While there was certainly evidence that the boys in Fraserburgh can brew some top beer there was also evidence that quality control has a way to go yet.

First off I started with Hoprocker, a lager brewed with NZ hops and one that in this part of the world is sure to draw comparisons with the Macs beer that shares its name. Unfortunately the Scottish contender has a long way to go with this example being riddled with diacetyl.

Hoprocker 5.5%abv

Pours a light gold with a quickly disappearing white head. Aroma is totally dominated by a huge dirty butterscotch character with a hint of grassy hops. On the palate the butterscotch is joined by a smoky note, a hint of sourness and a late bitterness. Diacetyl bomb.

So not a great start but things can only get better right? Next up was the Punk IPA I had heard good things about this one and was relieved when clean hoppy aromas wafted up from the glass. While the Hoprocker is marketed as including NZ hops, Punk IPA isn’t but I would be surprised if it didn’t have a healthy dose of NZ hops added late in the boil. Tasting broadly like a cross between Emerson’s Pilsner and Three Boys IPA Punk IPA was a solid NZ style pale ale, from Scotland of course.

Punk IPA 6%abv

Pours a light gold with a thick white head. Aroma features resiny hops, citrus particularly grapefruit, and passionfruit. On the palate there is good deal of perceived bitterness right from the start. Grapefruit and passionfruit are continued with just enough sweet pale malt character to cushion the bitterness.

Next up was Hardcore IPA, punks bigger brother. So Bad Brains went on the stereo, I did my best Henry Rollins impersonation and I got ready for what should have been a fantastic beer. It wasn’t . I have tasted a limited number of Imperial IPA’s a couple from NZ and a couple from the States and let me tell you this had very little in common with any of them. Alcoholic heat obliterated almost anything else this beer might have been able to offer. At the time I muttered something along the lines of it being similar to washing you mouth with vodka prior to performing self dentistry.

Hardcore IPA 9%

Pours a light gold with a fluffy white head. Aroma features butterscotch and big solventy hot alcohol with hints of bubblegum and the slightest trace of resiny hop. On the palate there is a mouth coating alcoholic sensation, sweet cloying malt and a huge warming alcoholic finish that reminds me of shoting vodka. Dire beer.

Time for some redemption. Last up was the stout Riptide and a cracker it was to. Full of all the right flavours it was a well constructed beer that drank well below its strength (is that a good thing?) and much improved my plummeting opinion of the brewery.

Riptide 8%abv

Pours a very dark ruby with a tan fluffy head. Aroma features confected malt character with hints of green banana, astringent grain and chocolate. On the palate there is a creamy mouth feel, chunky chocolate and toffee a resiny hop note and a long balancing roasty finish. Great strong stout but not an Imperial in my opinion.

And so to my title, who let the dogs out? Two of these beers should never have left the brewery gates let alone travelled the length of the earth to be sold for a small fortune. Even rising stars need to worry about quality control. Next up will be the kings of keg Meantime.

Fullers ESB on draught

2008-04-21T15:35:00.000-07:00

After being let loose in the candy, I mean beer, store I retired to the Courtney Arms while I waited for SWMBO to finish work. To my surprise Fullers ESB had appeared on the bar, and then to my astonishment after ordering I was charged a measly $5 (2 pounds) as some launch special. It was tasting fantastic, and despite being the keg version it was a good temperature with a gentle carbonation. Despite getting some flak for the state of their lines from some quarters the beer at the Courtney Arms has been tasting very good recently.

Beer Import

2008-04-21T15:10:00.001-07:00

One of the things that makes it hard running a blog on British beer is that I am so far from the action. Often the beers that are discussed and debated are not available to me. So when Rumbles brought an import of 40 plus beers in recently including both Meantime and Brewdog beers I was excited to say the least.

Here’s what I bought:

- Meantime IPA

- Meantime Porter

- Meantime Pilsner

- Meantime Chocolate

- Meantime Coffee

- Meantime Wheat Grand Cru

- Brewdog Punk IPA

- Brewdog Hardcore IPA

- Brewdog Hoprocker

- Brewdpg Riptide

- Brain SA

- Bradfield Farmer Brown Cow

- Cropton Balmy Mild

- Coniston Old Man Ale

The bank balance groans, but I am happy, tastings to come.

Bali Bitter

2008-04-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

It’s not often that I veer from the topic of English beer and the English inspired beers that I brew. However recently at the supermarket I found three Indonesian real ales in a bottle, I knew I would have to not only check them out but also write something on them.

Located in Denpasar, the capital of the Indonesian state of Bali, Storm Brewing Co seems to be a fully active top fermenting craft brewer. I assumed on seeing the label that the Storm was a reference to the Boxing Day Tsunami, however upon checking out the website I see a far more fairy tale England explanation is given, check it out here.

The bottles encouragingly all display (the same) ingredients and I quote “Air, Gandum, Otter, Cristal, Jagung, Ragi, Karbondioksida, Hops/Rasa: Starian Golding (pahit)”. Now while I flatted for a year with a chap from Bali I never picked up a word of the lingo, but I think it can be deduced that Maris Otter pale (or I suspect extract), crystal malt and Styrian Golding hops went into these beers making a refreshing difference to usual Asian/Tropic lagers to come from that part of the world.

Now what were the beers like ? well of course I didn’t actually expect them to be very good, in fact I half expected them to fob and foam the minute I opened them. While they weren’t quite that bad they were like a decent early extract homebrew attempt. Regardless I’m glade I tried them.

Storm Beer Bronze Ale 5%abv

Pours a light brown with a big white head. Aroma features a hint of resiny hop, a dirty butterscotch character, and a grassy note. On the palate there is aggressive carbonation with a creamy mouth feel, dry caramel, more butterscotch, and a dry finish. My bottle was property of Mauritius Breweries. Interestingly Mauritius features in the totally absurd ’history’ of the brewery on the website.

Storm Beer Golden Ale 5%abv

Pours a dirty hazy gold with a fluffy white head. Aroma features a massive cherry character with a hint of iron. On the palate the big confected cherry character continues with a creamy mouth feel and a bone dry finish.

Storm Beer Pale Ale 5%abv

Pours a hazy gold with a fluffy white head. Aroma features huge tropical fruit character, lychees and pineapples which turns into a sherbety lemon lime as the beer warms. On the palate there is more sherbety citrus, a watery mouth feel, a super dry finish.

Bastard Mice!

2008-04-08T14:34:00.001-07:00

With the on set of autumn and the first cold weather the Mice have decided my house is a damn site more civilised abode than the hills behind me. Unfortunately the house brewery offer many an opportunity for a rodent lunch. I discovered today that the little buggers were getting into the sacks of malt that were stacked in my room. Oh for a cat what the hell is a brewery dog good for?

Oysters and Ireland

2008-04-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

Last week as I was typing my Beer People Session piece a txt message came thru from Adam that the Malthouse had just put Three Boys Oyster Stout on handpump*. I jumped into a cab and was down at the bar within the hour.

Three Boys is a small micro in Christchurch. It’s the creation of Ralph Bungard and the two other boys in question are his two sons. Ralph brews a Pils, Wheat beer, Porter and IPA which when in form are very good kiwiafied examples of the styles. It is however the seasonals that really get me going and for autumn and early winter its Oyster Stout.

Every year for the Bluff Oyster season Ralph brews a strong (6.2%abv) dry stout which he hints he adds oysters to in some way or form. He has never been cornered on exactly how he adds the bivalves however through perception or suggestion there is certainly a salty sea like character that comes through in the beer when ever I drink it. This is the first year the beer has been offered on draught and I believe the Malthouse are the only place to have it.

Three Boys Oyster Stout 6.2%abv

Aroma features Milk chocolate, and a touch of bitter spicy coffee. On the palate there is more chocolate, a touch of sour milk, and an oily saline character, sweet nutty malt and a hint of frying vegetable oil ends on a mild roast note. Fantastic beer, the serving method suggests how fantastic this would be cask conditioned.

One of the interesting things I noticed while at the bar ordering the Oyster Stout was a beer I had seen discussed on The Beer Nuts blog recently from a brewery who’s beer I usually like. Carlow Brewing is one of the few Irish Micros (only?) to have its beers make it to NZ. When in good form the O’Harra’s Celtic Stout is a decent example of the Irish tradition. Recently they have brewed a stronger (6%abv) Celebration Stout to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of the brewery. I parted with some significant amounts of cash for the 750ml swing top bottle. While its broadly in the style of F.E.S. or Special Export the Celebration was significantly less complex. Still its an interesting find from an unusual source.

O’Harra’s Celebration Stout 6%abv

Pours a pitch black with a frothy enthusiastic light tan head. Aroma features resiny hops, smooth chocolate milk notes and a hint of roast barley. On the palate there is sweet malt, smooth mouth filling chocolate and a lightly roasty finish with a lingering hop resin character. Over all impression is of a smooth velvety beer but one that should be more complex than it is.

* This does not mean that the beer in question was a real ale, rather filtered bright beer is run into kegs with little or no condition , or is de gassed by the pub and then served by beer engine with co2 slowly replacing beer in the keg.

The Session: Beer People

2008-04-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

What a fantastic topic. It’s no surprise that this month’s session is hosted by Stonch. Of all beer bloggers I think Stonch best gives an insight into the people who drink with him and some sense of the social group that they form.

The guidelines for this session say pick someone you know and paint a portrait. I have certainly met and got to know a lot of people through the world of beer, however I have decided to focus not on the well known brewers, publicans or journalists I have met but on those I drink beer with the most, the boys.

The Boys- the history

When I say The Boys I refer to a reasonably finite group of friends. Most of them I met at school, many of them I have known for over ½ my life. As far as beer drinking goes the core is made up of Dr Mulchin and G with a relatively recent arrival in the form of Pete, Pete hasn’t been around for even a decade yet you see a new comer.
Mulchin, G and my own early, although not first, drinking was done together. It usually involved cans of cheap suspect lager downed in the car parks of under age music venues. Once we left school the beer got marginally better as did the venues for drinking it. By the end of my university days I was home brewing and enthusiastically exploring what different beers the world had to offer, the Dr as he is now but wasn’t then was starting to identify the relationships between the science he was studying and the booze he was downing, while G was drinking everything and rating how socialist it was.

Thursday Night Drinks – an institution

It was during the first dubious days of my homebrewing that the institution of Thursday night drinks began. With a late start on a Friday and a full wallet on a Thursday, we would congregate usually at my flat but sometimes at a bar and catch up with what had been going on with each other thru the week. There would be what we would call sh#t talking which involved good natured ribbing and nonsensical concepts. Sometimes Thursday night drinks would be a low key affair with a few beers and an early end, other times bottles Stroff and Absinth would make an appearance , or pints of imperial stout and the repercussions would be felt for a day to come
It was once I bought my first beer engine and put in the first little bar at my old flat that Thursday Night Drinks finally became tied to drinking beer and not other liquors. Thursday Night Drinks continue to this day, sometimes it’s just the 4 of us, sometimes it’s a full house, it’s always worth doing.

The Tastings

On one Thursday every month we attend the beer tastings that are run by Geoff Griggs at Regional Wines. The tastings attract a varied crowd of regulars, notably the ‘Indian Embassy’ crowd lead by local drinking personality Tosh, White Rino member David and of course our own motley crew. The tastings provide not only the chance to drink some beers we wouldn’t normally be able to but also a chance to catch up people we don’t see through the rest of the month.

The Trips

Several years ago Dr Mulchin, G and myself set off around the South Island for 14 days of debauched beer hunting. The trip had a very specific set of rules laid out. Every pint was counted and the second someone said fancy a pint the rounds system was instigated and would not be ended until we had gone around the world. While I put a hold on all shaving for the duration (nothing new there, hairy and proud, Stonch bring back the beard!!) Dr Mulchin refused to wash and most unbelievably of all G ceased eating, 14 days (15 actually by the time we got home) without anything to sustain him but beer and milk, we always suspected that under the socialist façade he was really a catholic; he got the dates for lent all wrong.
More recently we did a similar but shorter trip with Pete included around the North Island.

I apologise for the rather rambling portrait of a group of people most of you will never know, these are my best friends and sitting down to a pint with them is one of my favourite things, which I think is what life is about.

Beer from the West: Butcombe Gold

2008-04-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

Recently SWMBO’s best friend visited with her partner from Oxfordshire. As when anyone offers to bring something over from the Motherland I make up a beer wish list. Unfortunately after making a truly geeked out list, I rewrote it deciding I was being overly detailed. Predictably the beers that arrived were unfortunately all ones I have tasted and many were ones you could regularly pick up at the supermarket. However all was not in vain as tasting a beer that has been air freighted in is often a very different experience to drinking one that has sweltered through the tropics in a shipping container.

Butcombe Gold was the beer I was most interested in as I had only tasted it once before and the sample I had was rather tired. Thankfully this fresh flown in bottle was in great nick.
Butcombe is one of the ‘old guard’ of English micros having been set up in the late 70’s. Located in Somerset it’s a home county favourite of Bailey of Boak and Bailey fame. Butcombe Gold is Golden Bitter hopped with Fuggels and was the first beer to be added to the range after 18 years of only brewing Butcombe Bitter.

Butcombe Gold 4.7%abv

Butcombe Gold pours a mid gold with a big enthusiastic white head. The aroma features sweet candied fruit, with definite hints of citrus. On the palate there is citrus fruit, sweet malt and an earthy finish all carried by a light mouth feel, very clean drinkable golden ale.

SOBA Pub Meet April: The Shepherds Arms

2008-04-02T17:20:00.000-07:00

On the first Tuesday of every month the Wellington chapter of the Society of Beer Advocates meets at a different local pub or bar to socialise, and drink good beer, and/or campaign for good beer. Last year I posted about visiting my old local Bar Edward. This month it was decided that we would visit the Shepherds Arms, Wellington’s Speight’s Ale House. The chain recently found some publicity and notoriety when they shipped a kit set pub to London in order to sell coals to Newcastle as it were.

The Shepherds Arms is an old pub, located in Thorndon, one of the oldest parts of the city. It was formerly called the Western Park Tavern (although apparently was called The Shepherds Arms originally) and in the 1970’s was a popular haunt of my Parents who flatted up the road. Since my parents frequented the bar the Victorian/Edwardian multi room layout has been knocked out making for one open dining room/ public bar with one small function room off to the side.

While the majority of the beers on offer are mediocre, the Pilsner and the Porter from the Speight’s ‘Craft Range’ have always had their defenders. Personally I don’t care for the Pils but I have always thought that the Porter was the best beer to ever come out of a Mainstream New Zealand Brewery. I was most disappointed when last year the decision was made to stop bottling the Speight’s ‘Craft Range’ and the beer was only to be brewed for draft consumption.

When we arrived the pub was packed for the weekly pub quiz and the SOBA contingent ended up perched on the dining area side of the bar. The Porter was tasting drier than I remembered it but still had a gloriously roasty chocolaty character. The Pils seemed subdued but certainly had a resiny hop character that stood out when compared to the eternally neutral pale ale. Several ‘pints’ of Porter were downed before the last stragglers made our way to the Malthouse where we were joined by a certain notorious ex-landlord who was finishing up a kitchen shift to pay off his tab! A half of Nigerian F.E.S., a nip of Montieth’s New Zealand Lager and a 'pint' of London Pride later and all that was left of my night was a pie and taxi ride.