Cost of Drinking

Whether you're a light, medium or heavy alcohol drinker, using this tool gives you an idea of how expensive your drinking is each week and projects that cost for a year's time. You may be surprised by the numbers. After calculating your regular drinking costs, try the calculations again but with one less drink.

Cost of Drinking Calculator

Beer Loving Flat Seeks Flatmate

Beer Loving Flat seeks flatmate, wgtn. Reply with quote

I have a double room going in my flat that would suit a beer lover (although probibly not a homebrewer as space is limited). I run an english style homebrewery and the lounge doubles as a private pub (oxymoron noted) and beer appreciation centre with drinks almost every thursday night, things are pretty quite the rest of the time. The house is a small workers cottage situated in Newtown Wellington . close to town, public transport ect.

Rent is $105 a week with expenses on top of that.

email onlooker @ paradise.net.nz if your interested.

Forum Link

The Beer Nut - Blog - Recent Visit to New Zealand

The Down Under fundamentals [part 1]

Back from my travels with much to report. After Singapore the rest of my time was spent in New Zealand. I was quite surprised that it has a wide and varied brewing culture very unlike its larger neighbour across the Tasman Sea. Small breweries abound, and the variety of product is impressive. I think I scratched the surface by trying seventy different beers, so it'll take me a few posts to get through them all. This one is about the basics.

Miscellaneous kiwis [part 2]

New Zealand certainly has no shortage of breweries. As well as several big players and a couple of brewpub chains there are innumerable small-to-middle-sized operations all making a surprisingly wide range of beers. In the time I was there I could only hope to get a taster of what was on offer from these breweries, and with several I only managed to try one of their beers. So before I moved on to the breweries I am most familiar with, this post is about the individual beers whose stablemates never reached me.

More beer from Aotearoa [part 3]

Where was I? Oh yes, small New Zealand breweries. "Small" covers a sizeable range, however, so I'll try to do this with some sense of scale.

And so to the pub [part 4]

Right, that's your lot from NZ. Long may its varied beer culture thrive.

Beer there, done that by Willie Simpson

A pub crawl through New Zealand's South Island introduces Willie Simpson to an impressive array of brews.

I'm excited. Really excited. When you review beer for a living, your palate can become a tad jaded but the dusky brew I sample at the Dux de Lux brew-pub in Christchurch is positively tap-dancing on my tastebuds.

It is a flavoursome porter beer matured in a wooden cask that formerly held some fine Central Otago pinot noir - and the bold marriage of grain and grape is sheer bliss.

Full Story

Making waves by Keith Stewart

Industrialisation of our taste buds has been a consistent theme of western history for 250 years, with bread, cheese and beer leading the way. But although supermarkets ooze sliced white death, cheeselets of every flavour and lame international lagers, there remain a few outposts of true flavour.

One of these is wine, where taste has been so closely bound to the land on which it is grown that the industrialists have had considerable difficulty bending it to their mass-production mentality. Beer, however, has suffered badly, and many of the great producers have been engulfed by the “international lager” tsunami initiated in the 19th century by the Austrians and Danes.

Full Story

The Renaissance on the Net

Renaissance Brewing are now on-line.

These guys make some awesome beers in Blenheim.

The site is still pretty basic but does showcase their wicked new bottles!

Let's Hear It For Beer!

Beer doesn’t make you fat.  In fact it helps the cardiovascular system, slows down dementia, reduces the risk of diabetes, prevents and reduces hypertension… and amazingly can help prevent aids!

The Eccentric Scientist puts some weight behind the famous Benjamin Franklin quote that “beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”

Slainte mhath
Stu

Best of Beer and the Worst of Beer

Well, I have finally recovered from the terrible news that 4% of the US hop harvest was destroyed by fire and the European hop harvests are expected to produce low alpha hops.

I'm beginning to wish Al Gore never invented Global Warming and just stuck to inventing the internet...

Anyway, here are some new links:

Best of Brew NZ Beer Tasting at Cellar Vate

Results of a beer tasting at SKM

And an article about how Europe's second-highest court yesterday dismissed a case taken by German brewer Bitburger Brauerei against US rival Budweiser over the right to use the word "Bud" as a trademark.

Apparently, Budweiser was arguing that people wouldn't confuse its product with Bitburger just because the names were similar.

I'm sure they used the exact opposite argument against Budvar!

Tavern's winning streak continues

STAFF at the Cock & Bull have recently shown they are tops by winning a number of trophies for the group.

In particular, Stacey Truong, a young Commis Chef from Botany Cock & Bull, won three titles at last week’s NZ Culinary Fare where outstanding chefs from throughout the country vied for national titles.

This latest win follows closely on the heels of another triumph by Botany staff.
Stil Vodka, a competitively priced premium brand from 42 Below, threw down the challenge to bars and clubs across New Zealand to infuse some new flavours into their vodka.

Spurred by recent successes at the Brew NZ Beer awards, the Botany team rose to the challenge developing a variety of infused vodkas from traditional tropical fruits, through to the more unique Christmas Pudding, and Thai Green Curry flavours.

However, the ultimate winner was an amazing Wasabi & Sushi infused drink.
But the winning doesn’t stop there. Cock & Bull also achieved success at the Hospitality Association of New Zealand annual awards.

The group won two major awards, one for gaming at Botany, and the other for best lamb dish.

Full Story

Tongue in cheek, beer in hand...

I have just stitched my sides back together after reading this gem. Here's a little extract:

"That's right men… our Viking ancestors didn't drink a Corona with a lime before splitting heads. The Admirals of the Royal Navy didn't down a Sparks before letting the Frogs have it either. Hell no… they guzzled rank, bitter ales before they split skulls, spilled the blood of their enemies, and built the world of today. Tradition is manly as all get-out , and we should be proud of our Western heritage when we drink."

Glass tip to Neil Houghton in Christchurch for the hilarity.

BEER X - Hamilton Beer Festival

Lions Club of Hamilton Chartwell

BEER X

Hamilton Chartwell Lions supporting Hospice Waikato


When? Saturday 4th November 2006
Time? 2.00 PM to 10.00 PM
Where? Claudlands Event Centre
What is it?

* An exhibition of boutique beers

ALL IN ONE

* A musical festival
* A Jazz festival
* A food festival

Cost? $20/ticket. This entitles the bearer to entry to the exhibition, a souvenir beer handle and one free beer

Why? To raise funds for Hospice Waikato

Sale of Tickets?

* From Wednesday 11th October at:

+ House of Travel Hamilton, Hamilton East, Morrinsville, Te Awamutu
+ Cock & Bull
+ Londoner
+ Hospice Waikato head Office, Hamilton
+ Phone 0800 HOSPICE purchase by credit card

Contact: Norm Thomson, phone 855 8679, 027 3353 196, email: nat-pat at xtra.co.nz

Mt Maunganui - Blues Brew & BBQ - List of Breweries

Mt Maunganui Blues Brew & BBQ tickets go on sale 4th December. There are 12,000 tickets and they generally sell out in a few hours.

List of Breweries attending the 11th January 2007 event in Mt Maunganui

3 SUNSHINE BREWERY
5 INDEPENDENT LIQUOR
6* VICTORIA BITTER
8 BOP BREWERY
9* MORGAN BREWERIES
11* BEVERAGE DISTRIBUTORS
12 DISTILLERY DEINLEIN
14* SHAMROCK BREWERY
15 WAIPARA WINE CELLARS
17* MONTEITHS BREWERY
19 MANUKAU BREWERIES
20* MARTINBOROUGH BREWERY
22 COCK & BULL & EPIC BREWING CO
24* ISLAND BAY BREWING CO
25 ROOSTERS BREW HOUSE
28* LOADED HOG BREWERY
29* LIMBURG BREWING CO
30 WAITUNA BREWERY
32 WAIPARA WINE CELLARS
33* MACS ALE
35* BIG KAHUNA BREWERY
36 SPEIGHTS BREWERY
39* CROUCHER BREWING CO
40 NELSON BAYS BREWERY
42 TUI BREWERY
43* WHITE CLIFFS BREWERY
46 WAIPARA WINE CELLARS
47 LION RED
49 MATES BREWERY
50 EXPORT

(Number relates to site position)

Blues, Brews & BBQ's

Dedicated to a special brew

Beer, beer, everywhere but not a drop to drink.

That's how British ex-pat Harvey Shepherd felt when he moved to New Zealand. So today he is finally opening a shop dedicated to all the specialty beers he loves.

The former software engineer said he arrived in New Zealand four and a half years ago and was disappointed at the amount of mainstream beers that "all tasted the same".

"Beer-making is actually a much more complex process than people think. The big breweries want to keep prices down, so they use the fastest brewing system they can with few ingredients.

Full Story

4% of America's Hops go up in smoke!

About 4 percent of all hops in the USA went up in flames on second of October. Most of the country's crop is grown in Washington's Yakima Valley, where a 40,000-foot warehouse fire consumed rather a lot of the essential beer-brewing ingredient on Monday. AP says: "By mid-afternoon, flames engulfed most of the building, sending up plumes of smoke and a pungent aroma." On NPR.org

Read more here