The Best of New Zealand - Epic Pale Ale - Best Beer

We have so much to be proud of in New Zealand, but you might be forgiven sometimes for thinking that our main pastoral industry was tall-poppy lopping. So here, with a wide-ranging but by no means exhaustive list, the Listener happily celebrates the best of New Zealand – and invites you, the reader, to celebrate, too, with your own contributions.

The full text of this article appears in the NZ Listener
(August 4-10 2007), on sale now.





The full text will be available online on Aug 25, 2007.

See the comments about Best Beer - Epic Pale Ale

Beer Haiku: Sometimes

More Friday fun from the brilliant Beer Haiku Daily ("A simple poem each day to celebrate one of life's simple pleasures").

Sometimes - by Captain Hops

Sometimes just a sip
Can restore my faith in man
and sometimes it can’t

That Captain Hops is a genius.

Lion Nathan to sell NZ brewery for $162m

Lion Nathan said today it is selling its Auckland brewery site to AMP Capital Investors for $162 million, and will build a new New Zealand manufacturing plant for $250 million.

"A once in 50-year investment was needed if we were to remain at our current site," Lion Nathan chief executive Rob Murray said.

Full Story

Monteith's - testing taste buds for ten years

From Monteiths:

Sharpen up your taste buds! The country's longest-running beer and wild food festival is set to be served up at a restaurant near you again in 2007.

And in the event's 10th year, the organisers of the Monteith's Beer & Wild Food Challenge have some great new innovations on the menu.

The challenge for participating restaurants is to create a culinary sensation using a range of wild food. Wild food is defined as anything that is not traditionally raised on a farm.

All recipes must be expertly matched to one of the Monteith's family of six 'Classic' craft brews, including Original Ale, Radler, Golden, Black, Celtic and Pilsner.

Participants will be entered in either the informal or formal categories depending on the type of outlet - restaurants and fine dining establishments in the formal, two-course category and places such as pubs and clubs in the informal single course category.

Innovations in its 10th year see the event expanded to cover 10 regions of New Zealand with 10 restaurants in each region being invited to compete. Last year the event was held in only eight regions and any restaurant or food outlet could enter. Nelson/Marlborough and Thames/Coromandel are the two new regions this year.

The Monteith's Beer & Wild Food Challenge kicks off in the South island on July 15 and finishes on August 5 while the North Island start and finish dates are a week later respectively.

Full details of the Challenge (including menus) can be seen here.

Recent Tastings

It's been a very busy week for beer tastings so here are the reports from three recent events including the winners of the popular vote:

The big one was the Belgian beer tasting at Cellar Vate:

Sixty people at the Belgian beer tasting took solace in the famous sign near a Belgian monastery - “The good Lord has changed water into wine, so how can drinking beer be a sin?"

There was also a tasting for the active Statistics New Zealand social club:

The last time I had run a beer tasting for the Statistics New Zealand Social Club, the weather outside had been so stormy that a neighbouring wooden fence was completely blown over while I was trying to talk about Porters.

The third was the Centre for Public Health Research:

A fun little tasting involving beer, chocolate and singstar...

Hats Off to Hallertau

Most micro brewers I've met are what Barry Crump would have called "damn good bastards". They tend to beaver away in relative obscurity, producing beers that are far better than anything the big names turn out. They are almost always friendly sorts, happy to share their knowledge and time with you. They get precious little recognition for what they do, so it has been great to see Stephen Plowman and his Hallertau brewpub recognised in this nice little piece in the Herald today.

I love Stephen's beers. If you haven't tried them, get out there and have a taste. You'll love them too. Trust me, would I put you crook? ;-)

Beer Haiku: A legend in my own mind

As a new Friday feature, I'll be posting one of the best poems from Beer Haiku Daily ("A simple poem each day to celebrate one of life's simple pleasures").

Our first offering is titled "A legend in my own mind" and is by Captain Hops:

After enough beers
My intelligence dazzles.
Others are jealous.

Top honour for pub which takes its role seriously

It used to be the local library, now it's the local. Galbraith's Alehouse has won the Pub of the Year award at the New Zealand Bar Awards.

Owner and brewer Keith Galbraith said Kiwis "are drinking less but better".

"They're looking for a taste experience, not just something cold and fizzy on a Saturday night."

Full Story

Pub of the Year

According to the NZ Herald, the Dux de Lux in Christchurch has just walked off with the pub of the year award.

Well done! Great to see a winner who supports craft beer.

That said, if I had been judging, I'd have given the prize to the Twisted Hop, as real ale trumps keg beer every time. That and they support SOBA.

EDIT

The above looks to be completely wrong.

I'm not sure what is going on at the Herald, but the original article seems to have vanished, and has been replaced by one declaring that Galbraiths is the Pub of the Year. That's all well and good, but I'm not sure where the original article is!

Apologies patient readers.

Boo Sucks to the NZ Herald.

EDIT TWO

Stu points out this isn't the first time that the Herald has let beer lovers down with useless reporting.

http://www.realbeer.co.nz/blog/2006/02/money-for-mid-strength.html

Some detail would be nice, NZ Herald people. I love Galbraiths to bits, but who chose it as the pub of the year? Who sponsors this contest? Does it run every year? Who judges it?

Early Bird Deadline Nets 158 Beer Entries

Early Bird entries are now closed for the BrewNZ Beer Awards with 158 beer entries being received.

Final entries close 15th August 2007.

Entry Fee:
$120.00 for Brewers Guild of New Zealand Members
$150.00 for Non Guild Members

Deadline for beer samples is 31st August 2007.

Also check out new BrewNZ Blog

Barley prices set to skyrocket

Hew Dalrymple, North Island spokesman for Federated Farmers' grains council, predicted the grain - a common ingredient in beer and an important supplementary feed for livestock - would leap in price from $270 a tonne last year to around $400 a tonne in the new season.

He said this was because dairy farmers in the South Island were buying as much of it as possible to boost production in a year when Fonterra has forecast a record payout of $5.53 a kg of milk solids.

Full Story

Beer Ads that Missed the Mark - Number 2

"Got a thirst for man-sized pleasure?"

That's going to get this blog some strange google search hits!

Glass Tip - Yet again, those happy swillers at Modern Drunkard Magazine

Nonsense on Stilts

More strange stories today:

From NAMNEWS - Sales Of Hangover-Free Lager Rocket

A new hangover-free lager is taking the UK by storm. The 5% Peruvian brew called Cusquena uses a 100 year-old recipe and very few chemicals. It comes from the foothills of Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca stronghold but can now be bought in Waitrose, Sainsbury's and in First Class on Virgin Trains. The lager is forecast to be in the UK's top 10 imported lagers by 2010.

A hangover-free lager? Guess it has no alcohol in it then.

Speaking of alcohol, the British Tories checked their diaries and noted they hadn't said anything dumb in a few days and so came up with this:

From Talking Retail -

The drinks industry has hit back at proposals by the Conservative Party to raise the tax on alcohol in a bid to tackle binge drinking. The Tories’ recommendations, from the Social Justice Policy Unit led by ex-leader Iain Duncan Smith, could see drinkers pay up to £400m a year extra in tax. Reports indicate this would mean adding around 3p to a pint of beer, 15p to a bottle of wine and 25p to a bottle of whiskey.

Glass Tip - For the title, Big Norm of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

Beer Ads that Missed the Mark - Number 1

Those people were right the first time!

Glass Tip - Those fine fellows at Modern Drunkard Magazine

In print this month

From The Wellingtonian (reprinted with kind permission), a column on Belgian beers:

Charles de Gaulle once said that “Belgium is a country invented by the British to annoy the French.” Belgium is also the world’s most interesting beer nation.

In Salient, a most weather appropiate column on dark beers:

Just like an emo’s poetry, beers tend to get darker in winter.

However, unlike those self-obsessed scribblings, dark beers can be deep, rich and satisfying.

From The Free Radical (reprinted in the name of freedom, the editor does not do "kind"), a look at beers warming the globe:

When the rain lashes in sideways and the temperature is turning the local monkeys to brass, those kinds of cool quenching lagers lose much of their appeal. Instead, a beer drinker’s mind turns to deep, rich, satisfying beers designed to warm the palate and the soul.

This column is about beers for when the sun doesn’t shine.

I've been drinking

I have recently posted the latest entries of my on-line beer diary. They cover the first three months of 2007. Check out the review of the Regionals Wines and Spirits beer and cheese matching session in February.

January

February

March


I have also posted 2 pieces from M2:

a review of Coopers Vintage Ale

and a feature on cider

BrewNZ Beer Entries Close 15th July

Dear Brewer

Just a quick reminder that there is only this week till entries close for the BrewNZ Beer Awards.

We have had fantastic support from the sponsors all very willing and excited to be involved with BrewNZ.

Our main sponsor is O-I, (glass bottle producers - see http://www.o-i.com )

Class Sponsors
- Hoshi Lancer
- Gladfields Malting
- NZ Hop Board
- Cryer Malt
- Hort Research
- Orica Chemnet
- Zymus
- Pall NZ
- Endeavour Glass

The excitement has come from the formation of the Brewers Guild of New Zealand and the brewers taking ownership and running of our main industry event.

Now we are looking for your support to show our sponsors that we are as committed to BrewNZ and the Brewers Guild, as they are. We all want
to see this as a start of something great.

You should have received your entry pack via the post by now. If you have misplaced or haven't received the forms please download them from the website.

http://www.brewnz.co.nz-a.googlepages.com/brewnzbeerawardsentry2007

Also make sure you fill out the form for the awards party at the same time.

Deadline for beer entries and party tickets is this coming Sunday 15th July.

Note: there will be an AGM held for the Brewers Guild in Wellington so
that you can give your input, stand for the executive committee, and
raise any issues you think the Brewers Guild should be handling. More details on this to follow later in the week.

Cheers
Luke Nicholas
Vice-Chairman
Brewers Guild of New Zealand

BrewNZ
http://www.brewnz.co.nz

Good news, bad news, interesting news

First, the good news. The results of the Winter Beer tasting at Cellar Vate are now up here:

Also good news (in an evil kind of way) is the news that "Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) – brewer of beers including Foster's, John Smith's, Kronenbourg and San Miguel – has warned that its profits for the first half of its current financial year will be lower than last year's."

In bad news, "brewing giant Miller has entered into an agreement with Australia’s Foster's Group to brew the Foster's Lager brand in the United States. Miller said it will make the beer according to the brand's original recipe, including a proprietary yeast strain."

You just know that arrangement can not end up producing a good beer...

And in news that may be of interest to those in the hospitality industry, Stuff is reporing:

A survey by research group Opinion Research Corp. found 25 per cent of respondents cited bad service as having the most negative impact on both their dining experience and on a restaurant's reputation.

Following rude waiting staffs were hosts and maitre d's who underestimated the waiting time for a table, with 20 per cent of respondents listing this as their biggest complaint with a restaurant, while 15 per cent cited slow service.

Issues related to the food, however, were considered much less bothersome, with only 12 per cent of respondents listing ill-prepared meals and 10 per cent identifying cold food as their greatest dining out dissatisfaction.

Monteith's New Zealand Lager has Fuggies in it

A full flavoured premium lager that has a clean, crisp taste with unique hop flavours. A blend of New Zealand grown hops of both local (Pacific Hallertau, Super Alpha) and European (Saaz, Styrian Goldings, Fuggies) heritage deliver a spicy, slightly fruity, late hop aroma character and refreshing bitterness to provide a clean finish on the palate.

See the Monteith's UK website

Don't Independent Liquor have a beer called "New Zealand Lager"? Then again they probably don't use the Fuggies.

Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me

Bruce Holloway, via the medium of the Waikato Times, tells us that the long awaited Shunters Yard Brewery in Matangi near Hamilton is almost up to full steam.

"Midnight Special, a five per cent porter-style ale, is now on sale at Piko's Cafe in Woodside Rd, Matangi, just a bottle's throw from where it is brewed at the back of Robinson's Sports Museum."

Not a lot is said about the beer itself, but I for one will be sampling it this weekend. Got to support those local brewers!

Edit: Been there, drunk that.

Midnight special is a pretty impressive first effort from this new brewery. Unfortunately presented in the "good kiwi bloke" handle, not exactly showing it off, it still managed to excite me.

The beer is a deep dark brown, with mahogany highlights. The head is soft beige, but quickly fades away to a light scattering of surface bubbles. On the nose, there are hints of toffee, freshly turned earth, and a hint of cookie dough. A deep draught reveals a good solid mouthfeel, coating and weighty on the palate. Quite a change from many mainstream Kiwi "dark beers", which are all colour and no weight.

The flavours are more subtle than I expected, and take some exploring. Sweet malts dominate, but are not overpowering, as they are reigned in by a solid hop bitterness and a pleasant earthiness from the hops - very English, possibly Fuggles or East Kent Goldings. A little bit of astringency is present, and this detracts slightly from the overall smooth creamy impression, but as you start to notice this, you also notice a quite interesting salty/minerally taste come through at the finish, which might be an acquired taste, but for me added plenty of interest. This might be from the famed local water, which (the blurb on the menu claims) has performed such wonders as powering Dick Quax to Olympic gold!

Hyperbole aside, it's not a style of beer I enjoy a lot, but I sure enjoyed this stout. Try it at Piko Cafe. The service is friendly, though a little lacking in beer knowledge. I'm sure this will improve. The food is great also - the steak and ale pie married the beer perfectly. I'll be looking forward to their next beer...