Beerly Tasting - IRD and MAF (The Acronym Sessions)

It has been a busy month of beer tastings. Here are the latest two reports including the results of the public vote for best beer. First up is the IRD's 'Movemberfest' tasting:

Every time I begin to think that there is a finite number of themes for beer tasting events, someone comes up with a new one. In this case, the IRD Social Club wanted a “Movemberfest” tasting. It was to have a Belgian, French and German-inspired vibe though it would mainly showcase New Zealand beers. The decorations showed David Hasselhoff – for some reason. Thankfully there were no mo’s in evidence.

I also ran a fun little session for the folks at MAF:

Last week I had the welcome opportunity to return to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to run another tasting. Over 20 people crowded into the meeting room to sample a selection of some of the best craft beers in New Zealand. Because Wellington is such a small place, one of the tasters was my old boss from the Treasury days.

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.

Full Story

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.”

Small breweries work to improve their game

Arrow Brewing has just been established in Arrowtown by four partners, and head brewer John Timpany says he is having trouble keeping them out of the place.

Set in The Oaks in a mall in the town centre, the brewery-pub offers several of its own beers plus Dunedin-based Emerson's and Christchurch-based Wigram Brewing as well as wines and pizzas, pies and filled rolls.

The brews are on tap, with no plans to bottle - although future wider distribution in kegs is possible.

"It is hard to make a beer that pleases everyone," Mr Timpany says, and he wants to therefore produce a wide range of different-tasting beers.

Tasting trays are available at The Oaks: they are a good way of finding a brew you prefer.

Full Story

Beerly Writing - The Final Round for 2008

From the latest issue of the Free Radical, here is my column on Lagers:

Michael Jackson, reminded even hardened ale drinkers that they should not be blinded to the qualities of good, traditional beer made by bottom fermentation. This is because bottom-fermenting yeasts produce a cleaner tasting, rounded beer. He asks (rhetorically) “which is better: a winey-tasting Lambic - a fruity, complex ale - or a clean, rounded lager? Assuming that the beer is good, my choice might depend upon the moment, my mood, and the place or time at which I was drinking the beer.”

This article was written in April but not published until December.

Much more recently, the Malthouse blog has the latest post on beers from Asia:

Beer in China can be incredibly cheap. We worked out that for one crate of beer bought from the corner mini-mart it was literally 28 cents for a 500ml bottle. You can forgive a few flaws at that price. The Malthouse stocks two fine Asian lagers though the price is somewhat higher than the Beijing markets. Of course, you can trying bargaining with the staff but I doubt the price will come down. It may even go up.

Beerly Blogging: Scottish beers and Booky

From the Malthouse blog, a post which talks about Saint Patrick, Colin the Handsome Scotsman and, eventually, two beers from Belhaven. It is called "Och aye the noo"

After a introduction so long it would make Jeremy Clarkson blush, the next post profiles New Zealand's most sessionable ale. This piece is modestly titled "the true power of Bookbinder".

Honey, leaves and flowers in a thymely brew

Emerson Brewing has released a thymely beer to coincide with the festival.

Central Otago thyme honey and thyme leaves and flowers have been added to an ale to create Emerson's Thyme (4.7% alcohol).

Old herbal recipes used thyme to ease throat infections, colds, coughs, bronchitis, for shrinking swollen nasal passages and easing menstrual pain.

In Asian medicine it is a remedy for diarrhoea, itching, toothache and vomiting.

Full Story

Beer - The only known cure for a case of the "Mondays"

Here is the full report on the latest tasting session at the Backbencher:

The theme for the September session of the Cellar-Vate beer tasting club was the unique “Dark and Ducky.” This moniker was devised to cover a combination of dark beers and the bottled range from the Dux de Lux. The 50 people in attendance had the Dux beers presented to them by the legendary Dick Fyfe. Given Dux de Lux means “masters of the finest”, I speculated in spectacularly poor Latin that this would make Dick the Dux de Dux de Lux – the master of the masters of the finest. I doubt it will catch on and it would never fit on his business card in any case.

Next, the first ever beer tasting event at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage:

On Friday night, I had the chance to run a fun little beer tasting at the Ministry for Culture and Heritage (who I accidentally called the Ministry of Culture and Heritage on the tasting menu and was immediately chastised. You never stop learning in this job.)

Finally, a write up in the Herald of a recent boutique beer tour:

Miller - a beer writer and expert who knows everything you could about beer as well as anyone who matters in the Wellington bar scene - is great company. He must be the only person I've met who carries around hops and barley in his bag.

In my defence, I usually only have hops and barley in my bag when I'm running a tour or a tasting!

September Salient Points

This Salient magazine column casts an Eye Over the Monteith's Beer and Wild Food Challenge results:

Over at the Southern Cross, their wild boar loin was guarded by a “jelly which will stare you down.” Like a scene from Lord of the Rings, the plate was crowned by a single all-knowing sheep’s eye encased in Pilsner jelly. Suspending the eyeball exactly in the middle of the Pilsner cube is apparently no mean culinary feat. There may well be a thesis in there for a science student with a particular interest in jelly.

Next, an in-depth look at Beer and Politics in the most intelligent electorate in the country:

Politics and beer go together like VUWSA and financial mismanagement. With the general election approaching, it seemed timely to put the genuinely tough questions to the candidates standing for Wellington Central. This column is not distracted by peripheral issues like tax cuts, mysterious trusts or secret agendas. No, the key issue is what beer the candidates like and where they like to drink it.

Lastly, a glimpse of the Beers of Asia:

An unkind critic once claimed that saying that your country’s beers were better than Japanese beer was like saying your country’s food was better than English food. That is a tad unfair. The Japanese do make very drinkable pale lagers and many of them reach our shores (albeit with hefty price tags).

Beerly Writing - July

From the pages of The Wellingtonian newspaper, a column on beer at the Wellington food show:

Once through the gates, the first question facing every attendee at the Food Show is “left or right?” My decision to go left was immediately vindicated as virtually the first stall I saw was the Epic Brewing Company from Auckland. The impish brewer Luke Nicholas was handing out samples of his crisp Epic Lager and massively hopped Epic Pale Ale to big and appreciative crowds.

From The Salient, a short but intense look at stupid beers:

While many students live by the creed that the best beer in the world is the one right in front of them (preferably that someone else paid for), there are some beers which are simply stupider than Paul Holmes in a burka.

Finally for this update, The Salient column on dark beers:

A surprising number of people have absolutely no idea how beers get a dark colour. Depressingly, the majority seem to think that artificial colour is simply added at some specified point in the brewing process and – hey presto – instant dark beer. Tragically, that is precisely how a couple of breweries do it.

Beer and Food Match of the Month: Proper French Roquefort cheese and Invercargill Smokin Bishop - magic.

Beerly Writing - Around the Traps

From The Wellingtonian, the Malthouse gets Captain Cooker and Chimay White on Tap:

Captain James Cook was a sailor, a navigator, an explorer, a cartographer and a brewer. He personally made the first batch of beer in Australasia at Dusky Sound in 1773. The production of beer, which was safer and healthier than water on the ships, was considered so important it was common for the Captain himself to do the brewing. Cook’s recipe is recorded in voluminous detail in his log which also modestly notes the resulting beer was “exceedingly palatable and esteemed by everyone on board.”

From Beer and Brewer magazine, a profile of the one and only Mr Richard Emerson:

I a cruel twist of fate, award-winning brewer Richard Emerson threw away most of the best beer he ever made. He made a beer with Vierka Munich yeast but says it "was terrible to ferment and didn't taste that great after two months in the bottle." Needing the bottles, he dumped virtually all the beer down the drain. The two dozen he kept sat forgotten for a year.

The Air New Zealand in-flight magazine Kia Ora has rated Wild about Wellington's Boutique Beer Tour one of the fifteen coolest short tours in the country.

Seeing New Zealand the Right Way

I recently met a very cool American guy called Kurt who was touring New Zealand in search of adventures and good beers. He has been keeping a bit of a journals of his travels:

headed north and made my way to Queenstown, on a lake in the southern alps (Misty Mountains). pretty awesome. parked the Falcon at a camping park in town just at the base of a mountain. took the gondola up to the peak and had a few beers just soaking in the Misty Mountains. went out to Dux Delux for some Black Shag Stout, then a pizza at Missi's, then some beers at the Minibar, which has a huge selection. quiet sunday night. tonight I go to a Haka demonstration and then dinner at the peak. cool little town Queenstown is. headquarters for adrenaline activities (bungy, rafting, jetboating, skiing, lumberjacking, shoving sheep off of cliffs (with a kilt, naturally))...no snow except for the peaks, just prior to the season, but it is still very cold!

Click here to read his account of his adventures and beers down south in all its unedited glory.

Long Weekend Beerly Reading

The Southern Cross Tavern is a striking example of the change in attitudes to drinking and beer in New Zealand. This article - reprinted with the kind permission of the Wellingtonian newspaper - charts the evolution from booze barn to beer bar:

In my first year of university, the Southern Cross Tavern was a drinking establishment of near mythical stature. Virtually every day, a line of hopeful, nervous students would queue up to the door hoping to partake of $2 jugs of Lion Brown, complete the epic ‘Round the World’ beer challenge or even endure the exquisite horror of the ‘bladder buster’ – cheap drinks until some unlucky person went to the bathroom.

The Salient Beer Column returns for 2008 and the first column can be read here:

“Beer” and “university” go together as naturally as “essay” and “leaving it to the last minute.”

The second column details the various beers and bars which continue to vex me - My Beer Nemeses if you will:

My first real Beer Nemesis was the lamentable range of Fruit Hopper beers. Many gentle readers will be too young to recall these beers (at least legally), but they were generic lagers mixed with what tasted very much like different flavours of Raro and then over-carbonated in a Soda Stream machine. Shortly after a press release went out extolling their strong sales, they were quietly taken off the market and possibly re-released as Lift Plus.

Beer Haiku - Beer by Committee

Writing about the Collaborator Doppelbock, Captain Hops aptly captures the problem with beers designed by a committee in today's Beer Haiku.

Brewed by committee.
How many are too many
Cooks in the kitchen?

Glass tip - As ever, Beer Haiku Daily

Our Beer in the Media Watch section is occupied for the second week in a row by the Education Review. Tom Reece, the Chief Executive of the Extractives Industry Training Organisation, reveals he would take a "supply of Emerson's Organic Pilsner" into orbit along with a pot plant and some comfy slippers.

Richard Emerson and Paris Hilton

Last week's column in the Wellingtonian newspaper continued the southern theme by covering Emerson's Brewery - “a craft brewery with big brewery production.” Reprinted as always with kind permission.

Home made beer from first time brewers rubbed shoulders with classic Trappist ales at the latest beer tasting at M-co. It was a two-part tasting – a standard commercial beer tasting and the grand finals of the M-co personal beverage production competition.

The final Salient column of term one was an exposition on Beer Wisdom.

And finally, a random question: Paris Hilton was the face of Bondi Blonde Low Carb beer. Will her going to jail (twice) push sales up or down?

Visit the website to vote on whether Paris should serve her sentence in Australia because (in their words) it is the world's largest penal colony and confirm that the beer's motto is "nothing goes down like a bondi blonde..."

I can't make this stuff up.

Salient Points

Here are the links to my two latest columns from Salient Magazine:

Discovering good beer - a look back on my beer drinking development:

My beer drinking career got off to a rough start with my first recollection being a slightly warm six-pack of Rheineck. This unpleasant experience certainly put my beer appreciation back several years.

Teenagers called Rheineck ‘weasel piss’, which was unfair. If my pet weasel passed Rheineck, I’d rush him to the vet

.

Beer the South should be proud of - An article about Emerson's:

Brewers are, on the whole, extraordinary people. From just toasted grain, the flower of a vine, ordinary water and a single-celled organism, they can produce delicious, sweet, life-giving beer.

Given those ingredients, most people would produce soggy muesli which smells of wet grass, and tastes vaguely like bathroom mould. Or worse - Mash beer.

Land of Hops and Glory

There are few things in the history of the world more satisfying than a good beer festival. On the 5th May the Hops and Glory festival was held in Upper Moutere. It is the brain child of real ale enthusiasts Martin Townshend, Andrew Cole and Kieron Lattimer.

Kieron was kind enough to supply the following report:

Approx 350 were at the beer tasting (sober drivers and non-beer drinkers weren’t charged entry so we don’t know exact attendance).

The majority of the attendees were from the immediate local area (rather than Nelson itself) and over 100 signed up to the “Hops and Glory” email link.

The event also attracted people from the local tourism/restaurant industry who wanted to check out alternatives to mainstream beers – very encouraging!

Beers from 10 South Island brewers were available – including “The Twisted Hop” and “The Townshend Brewery” – the only Real Ale Breweries in the South Island. 140 litres of Real Ale alone sold out in less than two hours! (many thanks to “The Twisted Hop” for providing the three beer engines for the night – people were mesmerised watching the beer being pulled and loved watching it swirl and settle in the glass).

Full list of Brewers/beers

Lighthouse - Dick’s Dark, Pilsner
Founder’s - Generation Ale
Mussel Inn - Captain Cooker Manuka Beer, Apple Roughy Cider
Pink Elephant - Golden Tusker
Renaissance - Perfection Pale Ale
Emerson’s - Pilsner
Townshend - Dinner Ale, Number 9
Twisted Hop - Challenger
Three Boys - Wheat Beer
Tasman Brewing Co - Best Bitter, Tasman Lager

The event also got a great deal of attention from the print media - (Nelson Mail, The Press, Malborough Express, Nelson Leader, Motuka-Golden Bay News) - the best of these will soon be displayed on our website.

The next event is planned for Spring 2007

Any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me or any of the other guys involved.

Cheers – Kieron Lattimer

This sounds like an absolutely fantastic event and the organisation deserve our congratulations. I for one plan to be there for Hops and Glory II!