Beer Wine & Spirits Council to Close

The Managing Directors of Lion Nathan New Zealand and DB Breweries today announced that the Beer, Wine and Spirits Council, which represents the non-commercial interests of both companies, is to close. The move follows Lion Nathan’s decision to withdraw from the Council and pursue a more direct engagement with the Government on industry matters.

“The liquor industry is undergoing substantial change in New Zealand,” said Peter Kean, Managing Director of Lion Nathan “and the Government’s approach to alcohol policy is not category specific.”

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Duffy & Finn’s Arrives In The Auckland Region

New Zealand’s largest range of wine, beer and spirits goes on sale tomorrow (30th November 2006), with the opening of Duffy & Finn’s in Pukekohe, the first of Foodstuffs (Auckland)’s large format liquor stores.

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SOBA Up!

Well, it's been two and a half months coming, but SOBA are finally official!

We are now alive, well, and capable of taking your money and adding you to our growing force of dedicated beer advocates.

If you read this site, you are exactly the kind of person we need. Please consider signing up now.

Time to SOBA up!

Bodega punters win beer options cup for a fourth time

At the ninth annual Gisborne Gold beer options held in Wellington recently a team from the Bodega Beer Imbibement Association (BBIA) won the cup for the fourth time. The BBIA is a group of beerdrinkers who meet monthly at Bar Bodega to try different beers and escape their family responsibilities.

When told of the news, Bar Bodega landlord Fraser McInnes said “Shit hot”.

The beer options event is run by Wellington’s specialty alcohol retailer Regional Wines and Spirits. Members of the BBIA won the Gisborne Gold Cup the first three times the competition was held between 1998 and 2000. But since then it’s been lean pickings with only a few second and third placings during the early 2000’s.

“Essentially the standard of the competition got better” said winning team captain Neil McInnes “and we didn’t”.

Competing under the nom de guerre ‘The Funking Bar Stewards’, the boys from the BBIA dropped only 5 questions out of the 18 posed by regular MC and quizmaster Geoff Griggs.

Neil attributed the win to the practice session the week prior to the competition. “We have never done that before, so there might be something in it” he said.

Cruising around the capital

A solution is to combine drinking with walking, and that's exactly what Wild About Wellington's boutique beer tasting tour offers.

Hosted by organiser Jennifer Looman and local writer and beer expert Neil Miller, our small group was treated to a tasting of local and imported beers.

On our visit to Mac's Brewery Bar, The Malthouse and the Leuven Belgian Beer Cafe, we sampled lagers, ales and everything in between.

At The Malthouse, 32 beers are on tap and about 80 beers are on the menu. During the tour, the beer is served in small amounts; however it would take some effort to polish off every glass.

But then, this isn't a beer crawl, it's an education.

For example, a boutique beer is distinguished by its focus on quality ingredients and a brewer's "sense of art".

While not a renowned beer drinker, I was soon describing beers like a pro.

"I like this beer's brassy nose", I caught myself saying at one stage.

While the beers certainly lived up to their billing, the hearty food and Neil's informed talks were equal highlights of the tour.

A key thing to note about beer tasting is that, unlike wine tasting, you don't spit out the product.

Bar staff get a bit miffed if you start spitting their beer out on the floor, Neil informs us.

Wild About Wellington also runs other themed tours including chocolate and shopping tours.

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Epic Pale Ale - Latest

Just a quick update on Epic Pale Ale for those not subscribed to the Epic Blog

This week Epic Pale Ale is on special in a number of outlets in Auckland

Want to find your closest store selling Epic Pale Ale check out the "zoomable map"

The only Epic Pale Ale stockist in Christchurch, The Beer Emporium, ran out of stock at the weekend, but more stock will arrive in a couple of days.

The brewery also ran out of stock for a couple of days last week before being able to get the next batch bottled. We just seem to be a little behind the eight ball on forecasts for supply and demand, and probably won't get ahead of demand till after Christmas once the next couple of batches are bottled.

Thanks to all of you who are getting out and supporting Epic Pale Ale by making a purchase.

Next week there will be a handful of in-store tasting of Epic Pale Ale in Auckland, in the Ponsonby area. (we have been doing tastings over the last three weeks, but I have been a bit slack in getting the word out). More details on outlets, days and times of tastings before the end of the week.

Cheers
Luke

Graeme Hart linked to possible Foster's bid

New Zealand billionaire Graeme Hart has been linked to a possible bid for Australia's largest alcoholic drinks company, Foster's Group.

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Woolworths in talks over NZ liquor chain

Australia's biggest retailer Woolworths Ltd is looking at buying independent New Zealand liquor chain The Mill Liquorsave as part of plans to replicate its Australian liquor business across the Tasman.

Woolworths chief executive Michael Luscombe said the owner of Dan Murphy's and BWS bottle shop outlets in Australia, was carrying out due diligence on the 41-store New Zealand chain, the price tag of which he estimated at less than $100 million.

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Also Here

Beer Goggles

Made by reusing empty beer bottles, these goggles are a playful take on eyewear. Pick out your favorite beer, or even make the selection based upon and interesting glass (think Delirium), then either drink it down or send it to me and I'll take care of it, and the construction of Beer Goggles will begin. Then I will fit any prescription or tint of lenses into the frames and they will be ready to wear out to your local pub.

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Farewell Sweet Friends

Not everyone is happy with the re-branding and consolidation exercise that Mac’s have just gone through. Aaron Watson of the Capital Times laments. The new Mac's range can be checked out at their new website - www.macs.co.nz.

Thankfully he can drown his sorrows with an Emerson’s APA, a beer he describes as a ‘corker’, and ‘strikingly aromatic’.

Now where did I put my low-carb lager???

DB pops the cork on ready-mixes

DB Breweries is hoping a flurry of new ready-mixed drinks will help to restore profit margins and counteract stiff price competition and a fall in volumes in its traditional beer market.

In the past few weeks DB ? best known for its Monteith's, Tui and DB beer brands - has introduced a range of new ready-to-drink beverages, or RTDs, including the vodka-based Stark, which comes in feijoa and apple, lemon and lime and mandarin flavours.

It has also introduced a white rum-based Cuban Cut and a new Amstel Premium Lager. It introduced its first RTD, Barrel 51, in March.

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Update Saturday 2: Recent Tasting Reports

In the spirit of the Wellington weather, it is a downpour of updates today with three new tasting reports on-line at the Ale Files.

Its the much-requested German beer tasting at Cellarvate in Oktober.

A super tasting at an amazing venue for an architecture company.

A hugely interactive session where there were no reported survivors left on the table.

Each tasting has the results of the popular vote with a few certain to surprise!

Cheers

Neil

Update Saturday: Recent Beer Columns

It's been "Update Saturday" over at the Ale Files so here are the links to the new columns:

From The Wellingtonian, "The rebirth of cool" - a review of the new St Johns Heineken Hotel. The first bar in the country to have Erdinger on tap and the first to ever make me wax lyrical about the light fittings.

From the Free Radical, "Beauty from the Bay" - a long column on the Limburg Brewing Company. Very topical this week!

Also from the Free Radical, my first Beer and Elsewhere column called "The search for the best beer" covering the Cock and Bull and Steam range.

All articles reprinted here with kind permission of the editors.

BEER PRODUCTION - NZ TOTALS - SEPT 2006

FOR THE SEPTEMBER 2006 QUARTER
ALE, BEER AND STOUT, ALL TYPES LITRES

Bottled - under 400ml - 36,480,000 - (52.1%)
Bottled - over 400ml - 4,282,000 - (6.1%)
Canned - 11,333,000 - (16.2%)
Tap (Bulk) - 17,877,000 - (25.5%)
Total - 69,972,000

Sugar price flattens Lion Nathan

TOOHEYS brewer Lion Nathan yesterday became the latest casualty of soaring sugar and aluminium prices, warning the rises of both would continue to cut into its profit growth.

Reporting a slight rise in annual operating profit, Lion joined Coca Cola-Amatil and CSR in the ranks of companies to trigger a share slump by warning of exposure to the high-priced sweetener.

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Top 10 Ways to Make Beer Better

5. At the Theater
Diesel Shandy
Cola and beer is big in Japan. Not as big as tentacle porn, but still…. Before you rule out the idea of ever mixing soda and suds, just know that other parts of the world love it. Germany has their Colaweizen, the UK has a Bass-produced shandy, and in the States it's known as the "AMC Movie Helper Combo."

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Lion Nathan may sell Newmarket brewery

Lion Nathan Ltd's Auckland brewery site adjacent to the upscale Newmarket shopping and apartment precinct could be put up for sale.

The brewer revealed today that the site is under review as it reported a decline in profit in a New Zealand business it is continuing to restructure.

...5ha in area and could sell for as much as $100 million to developers of apartments, offices and retail space.

...the site was "extremely valuable".

...company faced a "50-year decision" as it considered whether to reinvest in the brewery or move on.

...company was talking up its New Zealand business, saying five of its six "power brands" here recorded growth .... while sales of Lion Red declined.

...Independent was a profitable business that could give Lion Nathan some scale but the integration of the two business cultures would be challenging and other people were interested in Independent.

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Top 10 cities for beer lovers

Munich’s Oktoberfest has come and gone, but that’s no reason for beer lovers to sit home and drown their sorrows in a frosty mug. The world is full of destinations where the natives know – and love – their beer, and where you can sample some local brew all year long. We sipped our way around the world and came up with ten great destinations for beer lovers – how about a visit to a German city that’s home to over a dozen beer gardens? Or perhaps a visit to the world’s oldest brewpub is more your pint of ale? And we can all probably agree that a city in Asia where beer is sold in vending machines is definitely worth a visit. So no matter how you say “cheers” – whether Prost! Na zdraví! Kampai! Salúd! – our list will help you raise a glass around the globe.

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Heineken To Track Beer By Satellite

Do you know where your beer is? Dutch beer maker Heineken wants to make sure - so it has put together a team that includes IBM and the University of Amsterdam to track beer by satellite.

Beer Living Lab is a pilot project that will track 20 beer containers shipped from the Netherlands to Heineken's UK distribution centre. Each container will be outfitted with GSM, GPRS and global positioning systems. Satellite uplinks will be provided due to particular technical problems with RFID, which can only be read when the tag is close to a RFID reader.

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Perfection and Mayhem

Guest beers have made a welcome return at the Malthouse in Wellington,

On tap from today for a limited time - Renaissance Perfection Pale Ale.

And making a welcome return - Mayhem.

Two very good reasons to check out the Malthouse.

BEER X redux

Hamilton's first ever (as far as I am aware) real beer fest was awesome, and disappointing at the same time. I'll start with why it was awesome.

A big thumbs up to Norm and the rest of the Lions. The event was VERY well organised - everyone was in place and ready to go, the glasses and funny-money were prepared, and the venue was well set up.

The layout was great. All the brewers arrayed around the outside of the events centre, with a large collection of tables and chairs in the middle. This was great, as you could base yourself at a table with a bunch of friends, and make regular beer forays out to the stand of your choice. It made for a very fun and sociable afternoon. There were two music stages, one at each end, so the music was continuous, and VERY eclectic - Jazz, Country, Blues, Big Brass, and a bunch of Celtic styled hippies that I enjoyed far more than I thought I would.

Now for the disappointments... I'm sorry this is the larger section, but it's all intended as constructive.

Some of the advertised breweries never turned up - Rennaissance, Sawmill, Brewers Bar, and Independent Liquor were all AWOL. Annoying as I've not tried any of them except IL's Bowmans range and was looking forward to some of the others. Of the breweries which were new to me, very few had what I'd consider to be great craft beer. I don't want to name names, but one particular brewery had beer which was so bad I honestly questioned why they got into brewing to begin with, as it certainly wasn't for the love of good craft beer. Sadly there were at least three breweries present to whom this description could apply.

As some of you who know me realise, I am all about focusing on the positive aspects of promoting craft beer, but I think that some bashing needs to be done here. As I said, I'm not going to name any names, but the breweries involved should really be tasting some of the better product out there and comparing their own beers to these with a far more critical eye. It saddens me when I think that for some people, their first exposure to non-mainstream beers might drive them right back to their Lion Red.

Back to the positive...

Crouchers, the new brewery in Rotorua was awesome. Their pale ale was nothing new or mindblowing, but I'd quite happily drink it all night - lots of juicy malt, with a really good floral and slightly spicy hop aroma. The bitterness hits late and hard, and does this odd cumulative thing where you think it's not bitter at all, but by the end it's really built up. Their hefeweizen was great. It's called "The Hef" and they are justifiably proud of it. Supping on The Hef is like eating a banana split, with a little cinnamon. It won't win any style competitions, as the hopping rate is way too high for a hefe, but I love it and would pick it for a standard summer beer. It has me inspired to try and brew one now.

Moa had a wheat beer that I hadn't tried in addition to their Schwarzbier ("Noir") and Lager. I've not been a huge fan of the other two despite rave reviews, but their Wheat beer was very interesting, with lots of orangey-citrus character. I went back for more!

Hallertau had their Luxe kolsch on. So light, spritzy, and refreshing, with plenty of fruityness. I'm not often in the mood for that sort of beer, but respect to Stephen for brewing NZ's only (as far as I know) Kolsch. The best of all was the Stuntman. It's a totally different beer since I last tried it at BrewNZ. It's lost all the medicinal herbal character that I initially tasted. It was being served by running it through a "hop transducer" (like a hopback on the serving line). the hop variety in the transducer was being changed semi-regularly (initially Cascade, then NZ Saaz, then Goldings) and the beer would change dramatically at each pour. A smart gimmick, as all three were delicious, and it kept me and those I was with going back for more - dangerous at 9.5%! Lucky we were only drinking quarter pints! Anyway, it's now quite dry and resinous. Really mouthfilling, with the "stickiest" body of any IPA I've ever had. The hop transducer added so much aromatic complexity that it took a while for all our noses to recover!

Steam Brewing had Epic in bottles and Blue Goose lager on. I didn't try these since I drink so much at the Cock and Bull, but by all accounts they were up to their usual excellent standard.

I think the saddest part of BEER X was the turnout. Approximately 550 people came through the door. That really is pathetic. Hamilton is rapidly developing a reputation as the apathy capital of New Zealand, and the turnout at BEER X did little to dispel that myth. I would suggest to the organisers that the next time they focus on better advertising leading up to the event. Nobody I spoke to knew it was on.

So, in conclusion, I had a very enjoyable day. It was marred only by my disappointment in some of the breweries, and also in the apathy of Hamiltonians for not getting in there and supporting it.

Mixed Reception for Monteith's Baltic Porter

Geoff Griggs is not exactly gushing over Monteith’s Baltic Porter, in his monthly Capital Times column:

Sadly I also found the Monteith’s beer lacked the tarry texture, coffeeish bitterness and "burnt currant" notes and overall intensity that I was hoping for.

He does, however, insist that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so you should judge for yourself.  

I found the Baltic a little lightweight and having the Monteith’s “house character” but it’s certainly more drinkable than the Tripel (Monteith’s other recent special release).  Meanwhile, a third placing at Neil Miller’s September Cellar-Vate tasting, much to one RealBeer writer’s chagrin, proved the Baltic Porter to be a reasonably popular winter warmer with the educated masses.

DB's Asian owner joins race for Independent

DB Breweries owner Singapore-listed Asia-Pacific Breweries has applied to New Zealand authorities for permission to look at acquiring privately held New Zealand alcoholic drinks maker Independent Liquor, the company said.

Separately, the Australian Financial Review newspaper reported today that Asia-Pacific's DB would tie-up with British drinks giant Diageo Plc in a bid for Independent.

Under the proposal, Diageo would take the Australian assets of Independent and DB would control the New Zealand assets, the paper said, citing no sources.

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BEER X - Hamilton Beer Festival - SATURDAY 4th

THIS WEEKEND

Date: Saturday, 4 November 2006

Description: A festival of food, jazz, and boutique beer. Supporting Hospice Waikato

Location: Claudelands Event Centre, Brooklyn Road

Programme: 2pm to 10pm. Continuous musical entertainment. Food and beer (refreshments) available for purchase

Bookings: Entry $20 (includes complimentary beer handle and first fill).
Tickets on sale from
House of Travel Hamilton, Hamilton East, Morrinsville and Te Awamutu;
Cock and Bull, Maui Street, Hamilton;
Londoner Victoria Street, Hamilton;
Hospice Waikato Head Office, 33-35 Harwood Street Hamilton,
phone 0800 HOSPICE (0800 467 7423) to purchase by credit card

Sponsor: Lions Club of Hamilton Chartwell

LIST OF BREWERIES ATTENDING
Shamrock Brewing Company
Sawmill Brewery
Hallertau Brewery
Independent Liquor
Sunshine Brewery
White Cliffs Brewing Company
Waituna Brewing Company
The Moa Brewing Company
Cock & Bull
Miners Brewery
The Londoner
Renaissance Brewery
Brewers Bar
Nelson Bay Brewery
The Croucher Brewing Company