Best brews - Consumer Magazine

Our tasting panel sampled 46 summer beers. Most of the mainstream golden lagers were disappointing, but some great beers still stood out. We give you a heads-up on what to buy.

There's nothing better than a cool refreshing golden lager or pale ale after mowing the lawns or while you're cooking at the barbie.

For our tasting we bought bottled beers readily available in supermarkets. And because we're coming into summer we chose five lighter styles - wheat beers, mainstream golden lagers, Pilseners, pale ales, and India pale ales.

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Hallertau: Coatesville-Riverhead Highway

For our version you drive to the end of the Northwestern Motorway and go past lots of green stuff full of soft and cuddly future barbecue fare. When you get to the restaurant-cum-brewery-cum-winery, you recognise it by the gorgeous cars with soft tops and spoked wheels parked outside.

Here, they knock out boutique beers and fruit wines, and offer them in a slick lounge-bar and cafe-restaurant. Stephen and Hayley Plowman are the owners: Stephen is the brewer, while the menu offers "global cuisine".

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Ashes Win = Free Beer

Not for me obviously but...

When England won the Ashes last year there was a bit of publicity about Andrew "Freddy" Flintoff gaining the freedom of his home city. One of the benefits was listed at the time as "free beer".

I was initially skeptical about what this would actually entail but The Sun (so you know it is true) has today confirmed that Flintoff is "now entitled to a free pint in every pub in the city."

Encouragingly, Flintoff has been prominent in his support for real ale. He is quoted on the cover of this year's CAMRA Good Beer Guide.

Keep alcohol sponsorship for sports

Brand advertising, the genre that gives so much money to sport and culture, is essentially defensive. It does little more than keep a brand in the public eye so that the name remains familiar and its image strong. Consumers subconsciously trust familiar brands and prefer to buy products that others do. If a brand fades from frequent view people will quietly stop buying the product. Big breweries know this, health bureaucrats apparently do not.

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Beer or Wine Drinkers: Who's Healthier?

Wine drinkers have long been known to have lower rates of heart disease. But do the health benefits of wine come from the wine itself? Or are wine drinkers just healthy eaters in general?

According to a study in today's issue of the British Medical Journal, wine drinkers tend to buy more olives, fruit, vegetables, poultry, cooking oil, low-fat cheese, milk and meat than beer buyers. Beer drinkers purchased more premade meals, sugar, cold cuts, pork, butter, sausages and soft drinks.

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Come to the pub and get T-totalled

Wanaka's brand new Speights Ale House seems the perfect place for a quiet bevvy, except for one small thing - it doesn't sell beer.

The waterfront pub has been a bar without beer since before Christmas and punters, teased by Speights paraphernalia, have had to drown their sorrows with coke and orange juice. Wanaka liquor licensing officer, Sergeant Aaron Nicholson, said the ale house missed out on a liquor licence after not getting its public notification in on time.

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What, no keg? Beer gets a makeover

As wine, vodka and whiskey grab market share from beer, leading brewers have crafted a new industrywide campaign that's aimed at "fighting back the enemy" by touting -- get this -- the finer aspects of beer.

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Cheers and tears over a beer

An industry-wide trend towards increased sales of "premium" beer has presented a dilemma for brewers, including Lion.

While the higher margins it makes on sales of beers like Stella Artois are attractive, they come at the expense of falling sales of high volume "mainstream" labels such as Lion Red.

Full Story - NZ Herald

Putting the roar back into Lion

Rival DB has been eroding Lion's position, in part by looking away from the TV screen. Their enduring "Yeah right" Tui billboard has achieved the ultimate in advertising success: becoming part of Kiwi culture (not to mention a coffee table book).

Full Story from NZ Herald

Updates made to NZ Brewery List

I am currently working on making updates to the Brewery List on RealBeer.co.nz. If you can help to complete the details or suggest a brewery I may have missed please send me an email. There are still a couple of breweries to add, I just have to confirm details.

Also if you know of a website for the breweries without links please forwarded them on.

Cheers
Luke

No booze needed for beer goggles

Fast flashes of certain words can affect your libido.

The mere thought of beer or wine can influence your sex drive, according to a study of undergraduates.

Alcohol has long been known to have a number of effects on dating behaviour: some good, some bad. Enough booze can wipe away inhibitions and act as an aphrodisiac, or it can dampen sexual performance. It can even produce what are jokingly called 'beer goggles', which mean you judge people as more attractive when you are drunk.

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Nicky Watson to represent the Beer, Wines & Spirits

Even though this was front page of the NZ Herald on Saturday, and is a serious topic for the liquor industry of NZ, it did bring a smile to my face to read that the chief executive of the BWSC was Nicky Watson.

"Beer, Wine and Spirits chief executive Nicky Watson said there was no silver bullet to youth drinking, but the claims advertising was responsible for it didn't stack up."

(It should have read "Nicky Stewart")

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Australian Govt may lighten excise load for micro-brewers

THE Federal Government is considering generous tax concessions to boost Australia's micro-brewing industry as it struggles to gain a foothold in a market dominated by giants.

Ahead of next year's budget, Federal Treasury is costing a plan to refund breweries on the excise paid on the first million dollars of annual sales, similar to a deal at present on offer to wineries.

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Regulatory Structure of the New Zealand Hop Industry

Regulatory Structure of the New Zealand Hop Industry - 27th November 1997

This report focuses on, and evaluates, the present regulatory structure for the production and marketing of New Zealand hops. It asks if the economic structures in place are consistent with maximising the profitability of businesses within the industry and the net benefits of the industry to New Zealand, without undue restriction on competition or market processes. ...

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Raising alcohol prices unlikely to curb demand

Increasing the price of beer, wine, and liquor has been proposed as a way to reduce alcohol consumption, and hence problems related to drinking alcohol. But research published this month suggests that "across-the-board" price increases may not reduce alcohol sales, and might even increase them.

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Obituary - Joe Owades

Joe Owades - the inventor of lite beer - has died at the age of 86.

A fascinating obituary in the British Daily Telegraph reveals not only the science behind lite beer (which now comprises half of all beer sales in the US) but also Owades' efforts in the later part of his life to promote microbreweries and beers more flavoursome brews like Sam Adams and Foggy Bottom.

A matter of taste

How does temperature affect the taste of food and drink? For example, white wine, tap water, Cointreau, lager and even chocolate taste much better cold. On the other hand, tea, coffee and brandy, as well as most cooked meals, taste much better warm or hot. English beer and red wine are better at room or cellar temperature. Why?

Full Story at New Scientist

Top Ten New Zealand Beers

Top Beers of 2005

Realbeer.co.nz recently compiled a list of New Zealand’s ten best beers based on results at 2005 beer contests. The results were interesting and controversial – someone even posted a comment (a Mr Peter Creswell of Not PC fame in fact).

I thought it might be amusing in these slow news days to post my own top ten list of commercially available New Zealand beer based on my tasting experiences over the course of 2005.

It is – as is usual for me – in reverse order Miss World-style starting with the honourable mentions. There were three beers that went agonizingly close to making the list but fell just short. In other words, they did much better than Craig McMillan.

Honourable Mention #3 - Invercargill Biman – Novel curry companion beer with a hint of mango.

Honourable Mention #2 - Tuatara IPA – big, fruity and a firm favourite on tap.

Honourable Mention #1 - Mac’s Wicked Blonde – easy to drink yet full flavoured from bottle or tap.

Now for the top ten New Zealand beers of 2005 as judged by me.

#10 - Twisted Hop Challenger – Genuine real ale from a genuine real ale pub.

#9 - Mussel Inn Monkey Puzzle – A hefty Trappist inspired offering which has layers.

#8 - Limburg Pilsner – Simple yet beautiful – a lot like the brewer really.

#7 - Brew Moon Hophead IPA – An intriguing real beer which continues to improve.

#6 - Galbraith’s Resurrection – Strong yet beguiling Trappist inspired libation.

#5 - Moa – Hard to classify but a joy to drink – the champagne of beers.

#4 - Dux de Lux Nor’Wester – I shall never tire of this brilliant brew from the Dux.

#3 - Three Boys Pilsner – stunning debut from a new brewery with balance to die for.

#2 - Emerson’s APA – not as wild as the first run but still bursting with American hop goodness.

#1 - Cock and Bull Monks Habit – Massively full and fresh – a hophead’s dream beer.

Unlike most competitions, correspondence can be entered into either in the comments box below or by email at neil dot miller at beerwriter dot co dot nz.

From no beer to own beer

The Pub With No Beer Brewery stands alongside the historic pub
in Taylors Arm, a village of about 70 residents, immortalised in
song by the late Slim Dusty in 1957.

It opened on New Year's Eve with a party until 2am attended by
an estimated 500 customers enjoying the Murray Brewing Company's
output on tap - pale ale, dark ale and wheat beer - at an expanded
bar.

Head brewer is Graeme Mahy, an international beer judge and an
award-winning brewer formerly with the Moa company in Blenheim, New
Zealand.

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