Armageddon Another Trophy for Epic Brewing Company

At the BrewNZ New Zealand Beer Awards last night at the Duxton Hotel in Wellington, New Zealand, the newly release Epic Armageddon IPA won a Gold Medal and Best in Class trophy.

Epic Brewing Company is no stranger to winning the top awards with Epic Pale Ale having won Best in Class last year and Supreme Champion Beer of New Zealand in 2006.

Owner/Brewer Luke Nicholas says "I had spent many sleepless nights worrying about whether to make this beer or not, as it has such big aroma and flavour I doubted there would be a significant market". With a huge grin on his face and trophy in hand, he says "I'm please I just went for it"

Nicholas was proven wrong when he released the beer in July with retailers snapping up what stock they could get.

"Within 48 hours I had allocated the whole batch, then had to make a quick decision to make another batch. The problem with that is there was a 4 week wait for batch two to be ready"

The second batch of Epic Armageddon IPA was released this week, and will be available for tasting on Friday & Saturday at Beervana, held at the Wellington Town Hall.

Also available at the Epic stand will be the two oak barrels that were fill with Armageddon, and put on the InterIslander for six weeks to simulate the original ocean voyage of the India Pale Ales from the 18th Century.

Epic Armageddon IPA is available in a select group of supermarkets and bottle shops throughout New Zealand, and a handful of locations in Australia.

http://map.epicbeer.com
http://australia.epicbeer.com

Beer Haiku Friday and From Russia with Beer

Today's Beer Haiku just appealed to my inner pop-culture geek. It is called "Believe it or Not":

A six pack of beer
An obscure ’80s sit com
I’m walking on air

The latest Malthous blog covers political economies, Baltika beer and music worse than Crazy Frog. Read the full story at "From Russia with Beer":

Rather than names, the Baltika beers have numbers. Ordering a Baltika 7 is probably easier for the average Kiwi than trying to use the beers’ original brand names of, and I’m not making these up, Zigulevskoye, Rizhkoye, Admiralteiskoye and Prazdnichnoye.

Glass Tips - Beer Haiku Daily and The Malthouse Blog

Southern Clams

It is being hailed as a "heavenly match" which gives "hints of vanilla and ocean briny characters" and the combination of stout and clams is believed to be a world-first.

Dunedin's Emerson's Brewery launched its new southern clam stout on Otago Harbour yesterday and the ceremonial toast of the "big, velvety" stout was made over a clam bed.

Full Story

Cider house rules again

An old name in Nelson brewing is back and reviving an even older name in cider making.

The engine is rumbling again in a Stoke factory, waiting for the green light to revive a product that was first made there around 70 years ago.

The plant on Main Road Stoke was the home of the Rochdale Cider Factory, famous since the late 1930s for finding a way to squeeze every last drop from the region's apple crop and turn it into cider.

It was to become even more famous when the McCashin family took over the Rochdale mantle when they bought the site in 1980. They continued to brew cider, but really made their name when, in 1981, they brewed the first Mac's beer using locally grown hops.

In 1999 the Mac's brand was sold to giant brewery Lion and a year later Mac's HQ in Stoke was leased to the heavyweight, with the family moving out of the picture.

But in April this year the McCashins returned to the site, on a mission led by founder Terry McCashin's son Dean and his wife Emma, to revive a range of products under a new brand, focusing on cider under the Rochdale name.

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John Minto: Booze barons rule in liquor review

The Commission’s 279 page report points to the high social and economic costs of alcohol and the growth of youth binge drinking. It doesn’t say so bluntly but we drink in an effectively unregulated market where the money spent advertising alcohol and alcohol promotions swamp the public health messages.

The alcohol lobby have resigned themselves to the fact that there will be law changes so they are arguing to push responsibility onto drinkers rather than regulate producers and providers of alcohol. They want more spent by the government at the bottom of the cliff rather than face regulations at the top. For example the hospitality sector suggests we should re-introduce the offence of being drunk in a public place as a way to bring home to drinkers the unacceptability of their behaviour. This is fair comment but it seems more designed to try and head off proposals for reduced drinking hours or anything which will reduce consumption in pubs and bars. These purveyors of so much misery want to blame the individuals for the anti-social problems created by the products they sell.

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Tui's Nick Rogers: The 'Yeah, right' stuff

Tui is the most explosive brand in New Zealand beer. Nick Rogers is the man behind the marketing. He talks to about making over Mangatainoka, courting controversy and those famous billboards.

The best billboard story Nick Rogers can remember is the one that went, "I past NCEA Inglish".

It's his all-time favourite, without a doubt, but the phone call that followed it was just as good, he says.

"I had some guy ring me up and say, 'Nick, you've spelt 'past' wrong. It should be p-a-s-s-e-d. And I was like, 'Yeah, but that's not the only thing'."

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Beer Haiku Friday and A Beer Tasting

This Haiku combines ribs and beer which is more than enough to get it selected for today's Beer Haiku Friday. It is titled "To-do List":

As ribs cook slowly
The only thing left for me
Is to drink this beer

A full report from the MAF Beer Tasting:

This week I had the opportunity to run a beer tasting at the head office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. I brought a range of New Zealand craft beer and they provided gourmet pizzas and assorted chippies. It was a perfect match really. Filled with policy analysts, scientists and even someone who had studied brewing, it was a knowledgeable crowd with some great questions.

Glass Tip - The fine fellows at Beer Haiku Daily

Monteith’s eyes cider market

Brewer Monteith's is turning its hand from hops to fermented apples as it looks to tap into New Zealand's growing $4.5 million cider market.

The DB Breweries-owned West Coast brewery expects to have its 100 per cent pure New Zealand sourced Crushed Apple Cider on tap and in bottles in bars nationwide from September.

Kiwis are keen on natural products that have a great taste - not products made from concentrates.

"Specifically, people are looking for a premium cider and we have been developing a 100 per cent New Zealand apple sourced cider to meet this growing consumer demand," said Mr Browne.

Monteith's 4.5 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV) offering will also be available from supermarkets and liquor stores with a recommended retail price of $14.99 per four pack.

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Forum Comments

The oldest pub in the nation and the beer of the people

From the Wellingtonian, my article on the "trouble brewing over the oldest pub claim":

It is an article of faith for Wellingtonians that the Thistle Inn on Mulgrave Street is the oldest pub in the country. After all, it was built way back in 1840 and, until the harbour was reclaimed in 1876, sat right on the shoreline. The Thistle has poured pints for parched sailors, sundry Governor-Generals and, according to legend, Te Rauparaha himself.

Over at the Malthouse blog, in the spirit of true blogging we throw the floor open to real people (and accountants) for their take on the best beers in the fridge. Welcome to the first "People's Blog":

A conveniently unknown author once wrote that “a blog is merely a tool that lets you do anything from change the world to share your shopping list.” Blogs can polarise readers perhaps more than any other medium. John Jay Hooker, veteran political gadfly, is on record as saying “I sincerely believe blogging can save America.” National Business Review publisher Barry Coleman does not believe it will even save New Zealand.

Finally, I love this sign spotted recently outside Hope Bros in Wellington: "Urgent! Customers needed. No experience needed. Apply within."

Glass Tip for the sign - Peter McCaffery

Special Brew For PM

Student brewer Michael Farrugia has cooked up a tasty drop to celebrate Prime Minister John Key's visit tomorrow for the Food Innovation New Zealand launch.

The fourth-year Food Technology student has been working on a dunkelweisen beer at the microbrewery in the Institute of Food, Nutrition and Human Health.

"It's a dark wheat beer, which is made from a Bavarian yeast that gives the beer its unique flavours," Mr Farrugia says. "It has characteristics of banana and cloves. I also used a dark, heavily roasted barley and chocolate wheat that should give the beer chocolate and caramel undertones."

Mr Key will tour the microbrewery prior to the launch. FINZ is a collaboration between Massey University, AgResearch, Plant & Food Research, Fonterra, the Bio Commerce Centre and the Riddet Institute with the support of Palmerston North City Council and the Manawatu District Council. It is aimed at increasing New Zealand's capacity in agri-food innovation and enabling the industry to better perform in domestic and international markets.

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High on hops: Pale Ales

About a year and a half ago I discovered real beer. Not this cold, wet, tasteless swill that pretends to be beer. But real beer that tastes of malt and hops – or in the beers I tend to like hops, hops and more hops. I’m a hophead. And that’s why I love Pale Ales. Originally the term Pale Ale meant any ale (as opposed to lager) that was lighter in colour but over the last few years it has shrunk to define a subset of beer styles that share three characteristics – moderate alcohol levels (from about 5%), a pale colour ranging from amber to copper and noticeable hop flavour profile.

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Dave Wolland: A Tale Of Ale

In some ways I am glad that my father is not alive today. I am sure he would have blown a fuse if he knew that the company, making his favourite beer, is now largely overseas owned by a country he fought against. When I was younger, I remember him often telling me, with some pride, that as a shareholder in Lion Breweries, he was drinking his way towards a higher dividend. Ownership mattered in his eyes. He proudly owned his own home and had shares in several New Zealand owned and operated companies.

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Top 6 "Must Try" New Zealand Beers - 2009

With 50 small breweries in New Zealand there is a massive number of beers one must try to find the best the country makes. So if you are just starting your search for the best New Zealand beers, or someone just visiting New Zealand with limited time on your hands, here are the Top 6 "Must Try" New Zealand beers.

These beers are world class, coming from the most innovative and adventurous brewers in New Zealand. If you have the time, try the rest of the beers from these breweries you will be seriously satisfied. Actually this list probably lists the top 6 best breweries in New Zealand.

(Note: this list is based on the beer being available in bottle, also the ranking lists the beers based on availability (i.e. number of outlets it's available in). It's hard to list the great beers from brewpubs as they are only in one location, and batches vary, or are extremely small)

1. Epic Armageddon IPA - from the brewers of the Supreme Award winning Epic Pale Ale comes Armageddon IPA. This beer was inspired by a trip to San Diego in 2008, and drinking many of the mind blowing hoppy double and imperial IPA's on offer. This beer breaks new ground for massive hop useage in New Zealand. Brewed using US grown Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial and Cascade, it's a hop monster. In a country where most people don't even understand what craft beer is, this beer is light years ahead of its time. If brewed on the West Coast of the USA, people would understand why. Its all about the hops. 6.66% alc/vol Buy Now


2. Invercargill Smokin Bishop - who would have thought that one of the most envelope pushing beers in New Zealand would come from the conservative south, and would be a big smokey Rauchbier style. This beer is all about the awesome huge smokey aroma and flavour. When people try this they are just blown away on every front, aroma, flavour, and the fact it is from New Zealand. Way to go Steve. Actually Invercargill Brewery is now coming of age and the whole range is very solid and well made, and each beer should be tried. 7.0% alc/vol Buy Now


3. Three Boys Oyster Stout - with actual Bluff oysters used in the brewing process, some even say they get a briny note. This beer is a glorious stout and one that should be hunted down and tried, and better yet if you can find it on tap. (inside tip, try Pomeroys in Christchruch for it on tap). As with the previous two beers, this is currently only a seasonal release, and as with what might happen to the above two also, the success and demand for these beers are likely to see the season available extended to all four seasons. There are some world class beer available in New Zealand. Buy Now


4. Mussel Inn Captain Cooker - first brewed by Captain Cook on his discovery of New Zealand, this beer uses freshly picked tips from the Manuka tree. This beer is amazingly floral and fragrant to the point you give it a double take, not actually believing that a beer could possibly smell like this. The intensity is only slightly less in the flavour, and is remarkably drinkable. Not only is this an incredibly flavourful beer but is uniquely New Zealand. It may even contain health benefits but you aren't allow to imply that in relation to alcohol, but wasn't that why Captain Cook used it in the first place? 4.0% alc/vol Buy Now

5. Hallertau Porter Noir - this is another beer inspired by the cutting edge of craft brewing on the planet - "beers with bugs". If you get it, you get it, and I just don't have room here to explain. This is a porter style beer aged for 4 months in oak barrels previously used for pinot noir wine, which is infected with Brettanomyces. Sounds pretty dumb to put beer in a barrel that is infected with spoilage organisms, but wait till you try this beer, WOW. This beer is complex, it goes beyond beer, with flavours from the wood, hints from the wine, and the additional fermentation from the Brett. which gives it a sourness. You have to try it. 6.6% alc/vol

6. The Twisted Hop Sauvin Pilsner - this is the best example of the use of New Zealand hops in a beer available in New Zealand. Many breweries here just miss the point, and either get the variety wrong and get it too grassy and harsh, or go the other way where it has too much passionfruit and tropical notes. The Sauvin Pilsner nails it. The hop aroma and flavour is still very prominent but the balance is awesome which is why this is a must try. Possibly best to try it on tap at The Twisted Hop. 5.0% alc/vol

Lion Nathan affected by competition, supermarket sales

But DB is a discounter. It has been selling Heineken at prices significantly lower than the comparable Heineken selling prices in Australia, the report said.

Also, de-regulation of the New Zealand liquor industry in 1999 allowed supermarkets to sell alcohol for the first time.

"This changed industry dynamics as it led to significantly more competition at the off-premise retail level," the report said.

As a result off-premise sales increased at the expense of on-premise sales.

The combination of the impact of supermarkets, discounting and other minor factors had resulted in a 6 percent reduction in the real price of off-premise beer since 1999.

"Competition in New Zealand is expected to remain tough, with price discounting from DB Breweries and smaller participants expected to continue," the report said.

"Supermarkets, which represent some 30 percent of all alcohol sales and 22 percent of beer sales, now hold significant buying power in what is already a very competitive market."

Full Story

Beer, Politics and a Haiku

Today's Haiku sets out to fix the world's problems. It is called "seeking solutions":

With no solution
After sober discussion
They ordered some beers

From the Malthouse blog, an expose on what beers our politicans like to drink, including a beer which claims to be the Prime Minister's favourite, and a look at the range from Bath Ales. The title of the post is "beer and politics do mix":

Hon Mahara Okeroa, then Labour member for Te Tai Tonga, was the only politician approached who never replied. It’s been two years now and hopes of receiving an answer are fading fast. His Cabinet colleague Hon Annette King could find the time as Police Minister to select “ginger beer” as her pick but Mr Okeroa’s role as a “Minister of State” apparently precluded a reply. In unrelated news, Annette King was returned to Parliament in 2008 and is now Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. Mahara Okeroa was defeated and currently has four supporters on his Facebook page.

Glass Tip - Beer Haiku Daily

KIWI TAKES FLIGHT TO SHOW THE WORLD HOW IT’S DONE

“I am really excited to win this title and the chance to go on and represent New Zealand in such a prestigious competition” says Avril, “I will be practicing a lot in the next three months to ensure I give it my absolute best against the bartenders from countries around the world.”

The Stella Artois Draught Masters competition has been running for 12 years and attracts around 36 different countries.

The judging panel this year included Kirsty McLean, New Zealand Stella Artois Draught Master of 2008, Nigel King, Stella Artois Marketing Manager, Geoff Griggs, Beer Critic, and Beverly Ward, Lion Nathan National Microbiologist. Judging from behind the bar were Laura Smith and Peter Krafft from Lion Nathan’s Quality Assurance team.

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Beer & Food Matching by Stephen Plowman – Hallertau Brewbar

Beer and food matching is fun. The most fun about Beer is your not bound by a bunch of pre-conceived wine matches everyone seems to accept like, “Gewurztraminer goes with Asian food” not only is this stupid it also very boring.

The hurdle to beer and food matching in NZ is the lack of character in the mainstream brands. The real challenge for the chefs the Monteith’s Wild food challenge is making the dishes bland enough to match the beer. Hallertau has set about changing that with a range of beers bursting with delicious food matchable flavours.

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Record number of entries at 2009 BrewNZ Beer Awards

More than 340 beers from New Zealand and overseas breweries are entered in this year’s BrewNZ Beer Awards, New Zealand’s premier beer competition, up from 205 entries last year. The Awards, which have also attracted about 150 international entries from Australia, United States, Pacific Islands and Russia, have brewers striving to brew the perfect beer.

Led by US-based judge Dave Logsdon, a panel of judges will convene in Wellington to assess entries over three days from Sunday 22 August, with the BrewNZ Beer Awards Dinner to be held on Thursday 27 August.

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Beerly Tasting - Lawyers and Belgians

Last Friday I ran an introductory beer tasting at DLA Phillips Fox:

As a warm up to the successful Wellington Ranfurly Shield defence against Otago, I had the chance to run a beer tasting for staff and clients of one of Wellington’s big law firms, DLA Phillips Fox. It was an introductory beer selection which was accompanied by an impressive amount of food including paua fritters, chicken wings and ribs. One corner of the table had a big pile of bones which made it look like the Flintstones had dropped in to try some brews.

The July tradition continues with the annual Belgian Beer Tasting at the Backbencher:

July 21 is Nationale Feestdag. This is, of course, the National Day of Belgium and it celebrates the 178th anniversary of the coronation of King Leopold I. I suspect everyone already knew that. He is not still there obviously but I suspect everyone knew that too. More than just a chance to toast the Belgian monarchy, it is an excuse to settle down and sample some of the very best beers from the land sometimes called “the paradise of beer.”

Smokin’ Bishop back on tap

Invercargill Brewery’s first batch of Smokin’ Bishop hadn’t even finished fermenting before it was sold out this year – testament to the award-winning brew’s popularity.

Brewer Steve Nally promptly whipped up another 1200 litres of the seasonal full malt lager, which is now available at Invercargill Brewery’s Wood Street premises.

“Once again it’s in hot demand but we were expecting that this year – we’ve heard from numerous beer connoisseurs around the country that they appreciate the complexity of the beer and its uniqueness,” Mr Nally said.

“It’s not for the average beer guzzler who fails to appreciate the merging of flavours.”

Smokin’ Bishop was the first commercially available smoked beer in New Zealand. The perfect accompaniment to hearty winter fare, the smoked bock is made from manuka-smoked malt and has an alcohol content of 7 percent.

Available each winter as a limited edition, Smokin’ Bishop took the beer world by storm following its debut in 2007 with 600 litres quickly snapped up. Last year, Mr Nally increased production to 1200 litres but actually sold twice that.

“As a boutique brewer, I get a lot of satisfaction crafting a beer like Smokin’ Bishop which really finds its niche,” Mr Nally said.

Reinforcing its reputation as one of the world’s finest brews, Smokin’ Bishop has been selected to feature in a new publication, 1001 Beers You Must Drink Before You Die – one of just 15 New Zealand beers to get the nod.