Must be Awards season...

Every year, the Capital Times asks readers to vote in their extensive "Best of Wellington" survey. Obviously, there are some rogue results (Blanket Man described as a character again) but the beer related placings were:

Best Beer Brand
1. Tuatara (3rd last year)
2. Monteiths (2nd)
3. Emerson's (-)

Best Bar

1. Mighty Mighty (1st)
2. Matterhorn (2nd)
3. Goodluck (3rd)

Best Outdoor Bar

1. Southern Cross (1st)
2. St Johns (2nd)
3. Matterhorn (3rd)

Also out recently are the finalists for the HANZ Awards which make slightly depressing reading for beer fans:

Best Bar

Four Kings, Wellington
Frederic's, New Plymouth
Sale Street, Freemans Bay, Auckland
Soul Bar and Bistro, Auckland

Best Sports Bar

Four Kings, Wellington
Grosvenor Hotel, Timaru
The Right Track Sports Cafe, Auckland
The Tote Pub & Super Liquor, Trentham, Upper Hutt

Beer Haiku Friday and the pub with no (Loaded Hog) beer

From the dusty archives of Beer Haiku Daily, a poem from - and I am not making this up - Creepy McGritts called - and I am not making this up either - "Contribution Friday":

The kettle boils
Hops aroma fills the air
New life has begun

From The Wellingtonian, my latest column gives a much maligned bar another look in "The pub with no (Loaded Hog) beer":

It’s a fantastic-looking venue but ultimately disappointing. I left feeling like Jeremy Clarkson if he had been admiring a beautiful new Jaguar only to find the V8 engine had been replaced with the motor from a Tickle Me Elmo.

Glass Tips - Beer Haiku Daily and The Wellingtonian

Beerly Writing - Winter Warmers and Beer Talk

The May Cellar Vate beer tasting looked at "Winter Warmers" in appropiately wintery conditions:

The theme of this beer tasting – Winter Warmers – was selected as the last vestiges of autumn still lay snugly over the Capital. By the time the anointed time arrived, the weather had conveniently provided a week of cold, gales and rain to really set the scene for a selection of darker, stronger, warming beers. Forty people tried a range of dark lagers, porters, stouts and dubbels in the Cabinet Room at the Backbencher.

Over at the Malthouse blog, the latest post, "Lets talk about beer", looks at the subtle art of beer writing and Cooper's Stout:

Liquor aficionado Frank Kelly Rich once penned a thoughtful piece on why beer appreciation (or “beer snobbery” as he called it) was superior in virtually every way to wine snobbery. Of course, Mr Rich considers anyone who drinks out of a glass rather than a furtive paper bag to be a bit of snob really. Fundamentally, he argued that beer snobs had it better because the dress code was more casual, there was no need to learn French and you could basically make everything up because no-one really knows what they are talking about when it comes to beer.

Glass Tips - The Backbencher and The Malthouse

How can a company own a style?

Wine lovers, ask yourself how you would feel if there was only one brand of sauvignon blanc allowed to be sold in New Zealand.

What if one winery was allowed to trademark a varietal name and, in so doing, prevent anyone else from using it?

You might think it's unbelievable, but it's precisely what's happened in the case of a beer style. DB Breweries, producer of the Monteith's range of beers, has been granted a trademark on the name Radler and is now preventing other brewers from using it.

Full Story

Sunday Fun - English Beers, Pub Reviews and Moose Hunting

Things at the Real Beer Blog have been a bit quiet of late with Luke working in England, me being in Melbourne and Greig living in Hamilton. However, with the Impish Brewer back on board with 1,374 photos and 877 tweets about his brewing and quaffing exploits still to post, there should be a lot more activity here in coming weeks.

To kick things off, my latest Wellingtonian column looks at the unlamented demise of POD and the new Green Man pub which comes complete with moose shooting mayhem:

POD was a restaurant which never suffered from self-confidence issues but perhaps should have. It was pretentious without actually being any good and had so little atmosphere you may as well have been dining on the moon or, even worse, at Eden Park.

Finally, a write up of the recent Cellar Vate tasting of English beers where 4 proper English beers went up against 4 antipodean pretenders:

As much as it may pain us to admit it, New Zealand owes much of its beer culture and beer history to England. It was Englishman Captain James Cook who brewed the first beer in Australasia and for many years our breweries produced their own colonial takes on classic British beer styles.

Glass Tips - The Wellingtonian and Cellar Vate

Beer Style - Radler - Trademarked in New Zealand by Heineken

There is some heated debate currently on the RealBeer.co.nz Forums regarding the trademarking of the beer style 'Radler' by Heineken/DB/Monteith's in New Zealand.

Back Story Here by NBR


Should a company be allow to trademark a beer style?

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).

Monteith’s celebrates 140 years with 1860s brew

Monteith’s has been crafting fine beers for 140 years. And to celebrate the milestone, the iconic West Coast brewer is releasing a special brew in a style that was popular way back in the 1860s.

This strictly limited release brewed exclusively at the Monteith’s Brewery Company in Greymouth, West Coast.

“Monteith’s 140 West Coast Pale Ale is a true New Zealand premium ale,” says brewer Barrie Calder. “It’s brewed with New Zealand-grown Cascade hops giving it a striking citrus-pine hop aroma.

It has an alcohol content of 5.2 per cent. Recommended retail price for a four pack is $ 13.99.

Beerly Writing for Early August

The three articles today were all published in Salient, the Victoria University weekly newspaper.

The first previews the Monteith's Beer and Wild Food Challenge in Wellington:

Most people are basically familiar with the rudimentary concepts of wine matching. At a primal level, we generally know that white wine goes with fish, red wine goes with game. This may even be true – I have no idea. Even those who genuinely have no clue tend to believe they can bluff it and come up with an elaborate explanation of why their warm cask of Chateau le Hutt is, in fact, a perfect match for the reheated remains of last night’s Kebab of Shame.

The next covers my favorite National Day after St Andrews Day, Nationale Feestdag:

More than just a chance to toast the Belgian monarchy, Nationale Feestdag is an excuse to settle down and sample some of the very best beers from the land sometimes called “the paradise of beer.” The 120 Belgian breweries use traditional craft techniques to produce beers of exceptional quality from centuries-old brewing recipes. New Zealanders have developed quite a taste for Belgian beer and we consume more than our fair share.

Finally, a hard-hitting expose of my trip to the West Coast as Monteith's Turns 140:

This week, I’d like to focus on two new beers from the good people at Monteith’s. Now, I have to stress that the fact they flew me to the West Coast to enjoy two days of their most generous hospitality has absolutely not influenced my feelings towards these simply marvelous libations.

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 - As Salient as Ever

In a recent beer column for Salient magazine, I profiled the Founder's range of beers:

Finding a beer which is environmentally friendly, certified organic, vegan, GE-free and kosher is not quite as hard as it may sound. The entire Founder’s range of beer from Nelson fit the bill perfectly.

There is also a survey of New Zealand's growing Lager Frenzy:

While we may claim to have had “a few quiet ales” the night before, the chances are that most, if not all, of those “ales” were really lagers. Even Speight’s Gold Medal Ale and Tui East India Pale Ale are lagers.

Finally, a visit to the Wellington Show revealed several New Beers:

The Food Show was the first time I’d ever even heard of the Storm Brewery in Bali. While most Asian breweries focus exclusively on light lagers, Storm makes a wide range of ales, many of them are bottle conditioned. The Storm Pale Ale (4.2%) was surprisingly fresh, fruity and refreshing.

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.

The taste of winter is brewing - Monteith's Dopplebock Winter Ale

Monteith’s is bringing back its Doppelbock Winter Ale to help banish the cold this winter.

Monteith’s expects the tradition of winter beers to be even stronger than last year, especially on tap at its Monteith’s concept bars that start pouring in mid-May.

Monteith’s Doppelbock Winter Ale has an original gravity of around 16° Plato and a final gravity of 4° Plato.

Full Release