Local breweries which have been showcasing these hops have had to disappoint customers, with the likes of Epic revealing that Hop Zombie will not return until possibly 2013, and Tuatara’s wildly successful APA (American Pale Ale) being switched to Aotearoa Pale Ale.

After a lower than normal yielding crop and the loss of several million dollars’ worth of hops in warehouse fires, American breweries began pre-purchasing hops before they’d been grown, reducing the volume available for export to near zero for the more popular varieties.

But if you’ve recently discovered the holy grail of beer that is the American hop, all is not lost. Happily, the US breweries which still have access to their locally grown crops, have recently seen increased distribution amongst Wellington beer bars.

Malthouse have acquired whole kegs of beautiful hoppy American IPA’s. Recently they had the hoppy grail that is Firestone Walker Union Jack IPA (7.5%) flowing, which showed IPA can still be shipped across the world and taste great—as it was originally designed to do. While some slight oxidation was present, the rich malt and massive hop character greatly outweighed this. For the quarter finals this weekend, Malty is putting on Brewdog Hardcore IPA, which may be Scottish but contains no less than three US hop varieties, so get in there and get some while you can.

The west coast of the states is most famous for making hop-focussed beers, so much to the point where a style of IPA has been named after it. Among one of the many beers imported from the states by local beer bar Hashigo Zake is Green Flash West Coast IPA (7.3%) from San Diego. It’s straight to the point in its naming and also its flavour: this one’s all about the hops. Intense grassy hops hit your nose before your tongue is assaulted by 95IBU of bitterness (that’s a lot), balanced slightly by a fruity hop twang.

If big bitterness and intense flavours aren’t your thing, try a Bear Republic Racer 5 IPA (7%), this one’s got balance down pat. You’ll get the tropical fruit bark, but there’s no bite here. A wonderfully rich, biscuity malt tempers the huge amount of hops used, which make their presence known with a tropical fruit flavour which keeps you coming back. While these gems are imported by Hashigo Zake, they’ve found their way to The Hop Garden, Little Beer Quarter and Bar Edward in both bottle and tap form.

Well, that’s me for 2011. I hope I’ve helped someone out there achieve their beer epiphany leading them to the road of tasty beer goodness. If you’ve got any beery questions over the break feel free to tweet me @davethebeerguy.
Might see ya next year—stay beery Vic.

The recent Beervana beer festival brought a rare opportunity to try beer from little heard of breweries from across the ditch.

Oft-hailed as Australia’s best brewery, Feral Brewing beers were among the offerings at the Australian bar. Based in Perth, Western Australia Feral tout themselves as ‘’undomesticated yet sophisticated.’’ Their flagship beer, ‘Hop Hog IPA’ is definitely sophisticated and competes with some of the best IPAs in the world with a huge zesty aroma and massive hop flavour – especially for a 5.8 per cent beer. Feral also take the IPA to the dark side, with their black IPA Karma Citra. This has an intriguing flavour combination of chocolaty dark malts and citrus hop, which just somehow works.

I believe one reason Aussie beer gets a bad rap is context. We must remember that Australia is far hotter than our wee micro-climate, and this is going to influence what people want to drink. This is why many Australian beers are on the lighter, thirst-quenching side. Stone & Wood Pacific Ale is one of those beers. It is made with all Australian ingredients, and showcases the unique Galaxy hop variety. It is a very light beer, which is why many Kiwi palates don’t understand this beer, but imagine you’re in 30-degree heat, and the combination of a great flavour in a wonderful thirst quencher means you could drink it all day.

It’s not just Beervana realising the potential of craft beer from over there, our local beer bars are taking it upon themselves to source small brewery beer. The Malthouse recently brought in a shipment of beer from Tasmanian Brewery Moo Brew, of which I’ve tried the Pale Ale and Pilsner. These are both on the lighter side, but again, on a hot Tasmanian day these would go down perfectly. Hashigo Zake has also imported a few kegs, notably Jamieson The Beast IPA. Jamieson is a tiny town of around 300 people, yet it is home to one of Australia’s leading craft breweries. The Beast isn’t your normal hop-driven pale ale, it brings balance to the big hops with a rich malty sweetness. This balance makes this 7 per cent beer dangerously drinkable.

Lucky for us, all of the above beers didn’t quite manage to sell out at Beervana, so Hashigo Zake and the Malthouse snagged the leftovers. Keep an eye out for these trail blazing craft beers from across the ditch – they’ll be well worth the taste!

Upon arrival I learned that there are two breweries on the small island of 14,000 inhabitants—not a bad ratio. These two breweries were Cook’s Lager Brewery and Matutu Brewery, and I visited both.

Cook’s Brewery is a recent addition to the island, being only 18 months old. Their equipment is top of the line, imported from the states. But suffice to say the beer needs work to match the quality of their equipment…

Matutu, on the other hand, is a craft brewery doing some great things with close ties to Wellington brewery Tuatara. The Matutu brewery is actually the original Tuatara brewery, transplanted from a cow shed in Reikorangi on the Kapiti Coast to a shed in Tikioki on the South-Eastern coast of Rarotonga. Matutu founders James Puati and Eric Newnham spent months travelling to and from Wellington to work with Tuatara, study their kit and learn the brewing process. Then it was all packed up and shipped to Rarotonga.
Four years old, Matutu make two staple beers: Mai Lager and Kiva Pale Ale. I was astounded by the quality of beer being made in such isolation.

In a tropical climate such as Rarotonga, awash with pale lager, I was very happy to see a pale ale. Kiva Pale Ale is hopped with a blend of US-grown Centennial and NZ grown Golding hops, which give a floral aroma. Use of crystal malts give Kiva a rich, sweet flavour, and when combined with light hopping give the impression of an easy drinking English pale ale.

In Cook Islands Maori ‘Mai’ means ‘come here’ or ‘bring me another’, a phrase I was using often with this beer. Thankfully Matutu Mai Lager isn’t an attempt to clone the popular but flavourless lagers mostly available on the island. It uses two of my favourite hops, Motueka and Riwaka, which turn it into more of a crisp, refreshing pilsner very similar to many being made by New Zealand’s best craft breweries. I’d recommend visiting the brewery if you’re ever in the area—Mai Lager unfiltered straight out of the tank is amazing.
Of course these beers aren’t usually available in New Zealand, but I have learned that Matutu has been selected as one of two Cook Island businesses to be exhibited at the New Zealand business innovation showcase held at ‘The Cloud’ in Auckland during the Rugby World Cup. Matutu have commissioned a batch of Mai Lager to be brewed by Invercargill Brewery for the event, and if any is leftover it may make its way to Wellington. So keep an eye out!

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com or tweet at me @davethebeerguy

A few months after starting home brewing myself, I met Matt Warner and Matt Kristovski, who lived down the road from me. They came over one day to check out my equipment, because they were planning to build their own brew kit for their home brewery, dubbed ParrotDog.

After much trial and error, Matt and Matt hammered out a few solid recipes and the urge to share their successes with the public grew and grew. Eventually they approached their mate Matt Stevens (who is conveniently a chartered accountant), and went thirds in creating a real-life company: ParrotDog Brewing Limited.

They followed the growing trend of contract brewing and brewed their first beer, BitterBitch, at Mike’s Brewery in Taranaki. The brew went well, and the resulting beer was recently launched at a record-setting night at Hashigo Zake.

The launch night packed out the bar, and after the Matts poured the first ever pints of ParrotDog BitterBitch, kegs emptied as fast as they could be changed, with all 120 litres of the launch beer being drained in one hour and 26 minutes—a new Hashigo Zake record.

I managed to get a taste of the ParrotDog Bitterbitch (5.8%) before it seemingly evaporated, and what I experienced was just as good as their homebrew. The Matts went against the Mike’s brewer’s advice, and added more than 10kg of dry hops. This “add more hops” approach did wonders for the beer, with an intense passionfruit aroma and grass characteristics coming through from the Motueka and Nelson Sauvin hops used. The beer lives up to its name with an intense bitterness, but this is offset well by the rich Maris Otter malt and a perceived sweetness from the fruity hops.

It’s been a pleasure watching ParrotDog go from a twinkle in the Matts’ eyes to a resounding success, which I’m sure will continue. The next ParrotDog offering is on its way with ParrotDog IPA being brewed just two weekends ago. Check this one out in late August.

Traditionally, this challenge has involved two beers—Epic Armageddon and Hallertau Humulus Lupulus Maximus. But this year, neither beer was present. Instead, the competition was opened up to all breweries to make their own interpretation of a West Coast IPA and the entries were judged by a panel of beer aficionados to quell any arguments about which took top honours.

By far the largest challenge yet, this year eight beers competed for hoppy glory. I showed up bright and early to find my own champion by sampling everything on offer. I rated the beers on two scales—the ‘how much I like it’ scale and the ‘how close I think it is to style (West Coast IPA)’ scale.

Epic Hop Zombie IIPA(8.5%)—Batch two of this fruity imperial IPA has just a touch more bitterness, making it far more IPA-ish than the first. Like: 8.5/10 Style: 8.75/10

Hallertau Stuntman IIPA (9%) was possibly the first imperial IPA made with solely New Zealand grown hops, and this latest batch shows those off excessively. When used in huge quantities, New Zealand hops give a ‘funk’ which I can only compare to armpit sweat—but fruity. The beer hides its alcohol well with a huge sweet body, while the funky hops balance it nicely.
Like: 7/10 Style: 8/10

8 Wired make possibly the most successful IPA in the country, but surprisingly they’ve never gone imperial with one—until now. Launched on the night was 8 Wired Superconductor IIPA (8.8%), with 80 per cent more hops than Hopwired. Superconductor shows off big, grassy, passionfruit hop aromas and flavours, with a hint of good ol’ funk. Like: 8/10 Style: 8/10

Local pants and shoes enthusiasts Yeastie Boys were there this year with the Warriors. Not the league team, but two massively hopped IPAs, each showing off hops from a specific region. Yakima Warrior (7%) is hopped using only varieties grown in Yakima, Washington. In true west coast IPA style the big tropical hops are pulled back into a black hole of bitterness. Like: 6.5/10 Style: 8.5/10

Motueka Warrior (7%) showcases hops grown in Motueka, near Nelson. To me this Warrior tasted very similar to an American IPA made by Green Flash named ‘West Coast IPA’—dry and bitter as hell. A true palate wrecker. Like: 6/10 Style: 9/10

Moa went a completely different route with McMoa (aka Jean Claude Hop Damn) (10.4%), an esoteric IIPA made with a Belgian Yeast. This was actually the judges’ pick and it won the WCIPA challenge trophy: The Golden Gumboots. But I wonder how a Belgian IPA wins a West Coast IPA competition? Yeast is prominent in the aromas and flavours here, with banana dominating and big hops on the finish. Like: 8/10 Style: 1/10

My winner on the night was also the most insane, a collaboration between Epic, Hallertau and Liberty—The Four Horsemen of the Hopocalypse IIPA (10%). This beer injects hops into your olfactory—there is a massive, overripe fruit bowl going on here. Somehow, this ridiculous beer manages to remain balanced and drinkable. It shouldn’t work but it goddamn does. Like: 9/10 Style: 7/10

Some of these beers will still be flowing at The Malthouse, and will be popping up at other good beer bars around Wellington in the coming weeks and months. Get some. *
If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com or Tweet at me @davethebeerguy

In the ensuing months Jo has been tinkering with his own 200L brew kit, expanding Liberty Brewing from a home brew supply company to commercial brewery. Since then, Liberty Brewing releases have been steady but only available on tap. That is all about to change.

Liberty’s three most extreme brews were deemed too powerful for tap release, so were packaged in sexy 750ml champagne bottles.
The first in the range is High Carb Ale (7.3%, 45g carbohydrates) a not so subtle dig at the bland world of low carb beer. High Carb Ale is touted as a New Zealand strong ale, featuring NZ Chinook hops. This is a wonderfully rich beer, showing off a huge strawberry jam hop character unlike any other I’ve experienced all balanced perfectly with huge malt.

Next in line is MMMMoMMft4CH (10.4%), which stands for something but it’d put me over my word limit to write it out. This is a black barley wine, something not attempted on the NZ market before. It combines the high alcohol sweetness of a barley wine with a roasty malt character making for quite a mouthful. I think this is a beer to age for 6 months or more, when the flavours will have integrated nicely.

The big daddy of the range is Never Go Back (10.6%), an imperial oat stout. If you think Guinness is thick, you’ll need a bit more courage before attempting this brew. This is thick. It’s aroma is a wonderful mix of vanilla and chocolate, but from the first sip you are assaulted with intense coffee and cocoa flavours all on top of silky malt courtesy of the oats.

Liberty’s bottles are available now at all good beer outlets, while sporadic tap releases of more experimental brews appear at Hashigo Zake
Another garage brewery has emerged in quake-torn Christchurch. Golden Eagle Brewing is the brainchild of home brewer David Gaughan, who now has a 200L brewery residing in his garage. Golden Eagle’s line up consists of Coal Face Stout, South Island Pale Ale, Ah Reet Golden Ale and Apache Amber Ale. A few of these have made it to the taps at Hashigo Zake, but due to the size of the brewery supply is sporadic. I can vouch for the quality of these beers; if you’re lucky enough to find any on tap, don’t miss out.

When the most imperial of IPAs won’t cut it, many beer drinkers turn to whisky. However, a new Yeastie Boys release looks to fill that niche with beer.
Yeastie Boys’ Creative Director Stu McKinlay has long been a Scotch whisky fan and so, one day last year, he created an experimental test batch using Peated Distilling Malt (PDM), usually used in whisky from the Isle of Islay (pronounced “eye-lah”). This wouldn’t be such an extreme undertaking if Stu had followed normal brewing sense, which is to only use PDM as a maximum of 5% of your total malt (the smoky Scotch ale stonecutter has only around 1%). Stu used 100%.

What should have been so smoky that it was one note and undrinkable, was surpisingly complex and tasty. I was lucky enough to taste the second test batch, with 95% PDM and 5% caramel malt. Oddly, reducing the percentage of smoked malt made the beer less drinkable, with the caramalt adding too much richness. The lesson was learned, and two metric tonnes of PDM was ordered from Scotland. There wasn’t enough in New Zealand to make even one batch.

Here we are months later, and the child of beer and whisky, Yeastie Boys Rex Attitude (7%), is on the shelves.
My first sip was like licking an ash tray, but after a few more, my palate had time to adjust to the intense smoke, and the more subtle elements of the beer emerged. I was less blinded by the smoke, and more intrigued. The ash tray smoke turned into smoky bacon, and invited another sip. US Willamette hops provide a faint citrus flavour, which works well with some malty sweetness.

Almost all of Rex Attitude was bottled and these will be available at all good beer outlets in Wellington from here on out, making for Yeastie Boys’ third year-round offering. A select few outlets will be brave enough to put Rex on tap—confirmed so far are Regional Wines & Spirits, Malthouse, Bruhaus and Hashigo Zake. *

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com or Tweet at me @davethebeerguy

Nelson is home to at least 13 breweries—and I might even be forgetting one or two. This anomalous number may have something to do with Nelson being the only region where hops are grown in New Zealand. Every year, a beer festival named Marchfest is held to celebrate the harvest of these hops, and this year 12 breweries participated.
Marchfest organisers task each participating brewery to create a unique beer for the festival, along a certain theme. This year’s theme was ‘revolution’, and each brewery created their beer with that theme in mind. There were too many beers on offer for me to mention, but there were a few standouts.

Sprig & Fern’s Marchfest offering is the same every year, and always manages to capture the essence of fresh hops. Sprig & Fern Harvest Pilsner (5%)—named Red Star for Marchfest—is a green-hopped lager. Green hopping is when hops are picked from the vine the day of the brew and tossed straight in the beer. This means every last drop of flavoursome hop oil is extracted into the beer. This year’s Harvest Pilsner shows off the big, fruity, floral aromas of Riwaka and Nelson Sauvin hops. It’s so fruity many comparisons have been made to a Marlborough sauvignon blanc.

Stoke Brewery brought along Smok’n Guns (5.5%), a smoked lager. With my previous experience with Stoke beers I didn’t know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. The smoked-bacon aromas and flavours of beech smoked malt shone through, with a pleasantly rich body. Hopefully Stoke can one day translate this beer to a full sized batch for everyone to enjoy.

The beer which created the most fuss was 8 Wired Brewing’s Uber Pils (7%). Only 100 litres were made for the festival, and it was only available once an hour for 5-10 minutes. Every hour, at the top of each hour, dedicated fans queued up for a chance to try this truly revolutionary beer. Uber Pils has taken the flavour of a classic New Zealand pilsner (a la Emersons Pilsner) and amped up every aspect. Big passionfruit aromas wafted from the glass, which then showed up in the flavour. A rich and rewarding drink, it is worthy of a large scale brew so all can enjoy its unique experience.

Keep an eye out for other brewery’s offerings popping up in Wellington in the coming weeks. Leftover Marchfest beers from Renaissance, Moa, Sprig & Fern and possibly more are on their way as we speak…

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com or tweet at me @davethebeerguy.

Still, looking back at them now I focused on the negative side of things often while ignoring positive aspects of the beers I’m reviewing. For example, it’s bloody hard to brew a beer that tastes of very little.

Maybe it’s time to revisit the beers which I have criticised over the years, but from a more neutral standpoint taking into account the brewers intentions. First of all:

Tui

The good: Since my original column Tui has been packaged in long neck bottles, giving it a classier appearance. A good move in my books, stubbies are so ’90s. The beer is very well made with no nasty flavours like in some other big-scale beers.
The bad: No nasty flavours, great. But there’s no flavour at all. I enjoy a little character to my beers, but if all you’re after is something cheap and easy drinking why not go for it. However, my main annoyance about Tui remains—it is NOT an India Pale Ale as advertised, it is a goddamn lager.

Steinlager Classic

The good: There are worse beers out there to be widely seen as this country’s main beer export, and it showcases NZ grown green bullet hops.
The Bad: The green bullet hops often taste skunky due to UV light damaging the hop oils through the green bottle. Cans are the way to go here.

Steinlager Pure

The good: I recently learned that this beer contains one of my favourite hops, Nelson Sauvin. And if I concentrate I can just taste it. It’s also fairly dry, giving it a thirst-quenching quality.
The bad: If I don’t concentrate I might as well be drinking Tui.

Steinlager Edge

The good: At 3.5 per cent it is a good choice for a drinking session if you’ve got to be up early for work.
The bad: A thinner, blander version of Steinlager. Drinking it seemed like a waste of energy. Just go for one of the other two versions, unless you’re at the Basin Reserve for a cricket match where unfortunately this is all they’re serving.

So sure, I’ve talked shit. And I will continue to, but only when I think it’s necessary and will spark some constructive debate and discussion about the issue. If you’re just making negative comments for the sake of being nasty, you’re just trollin’.

Oddly, more often than not, the beer that the punter is tasting contains no wheat at all. Usually the flavour they’re trying to identify is something other than a grain—it is a yeast flavour. Beers like Three Boys Wheat, Tuatara Hefe and Hoegaarden Witbier have popularised the yeast-focused flavour of Witbiers and Weissbiers—styles of wheat beer.

The majority of a wheat beer’s flavour comes from the compounds created by the yeast during fermentation. These can taste like anything from bananas to clove, and have crazy names like Isoamyl Acetate. Remove the yeast flavour from a wheat beer and the flavour can be as clean as a pilsner, even though it may feature 50% or more wheat malt.
To showcase just what yeast contributes to a beer, the local brewing badasses Yeastie Boys decided to do a little experiment, dubbed ‘Yeastherder’. They released two beers—‘Europa’ and ‘Rapture’—named after Blondie songs in true Yeastie style.

Europa and Rapture are exactly the same beer, except for one aspect: the yeast. Europa features a German Helles yeast which ferments cleanly—meaning it creates very little flavours. Rapture features the same Belgian yeast strain used in the famous Chimay beers, and as such, adds a huge yeast character to the beer.
Europa (4.2%) might best be described as a summer golden ale due to its crisp dry body and zesty hop flavour. Europa is a simple beer, but not detrimentally so. Its crisp flavour and simplicity make it a rewarding beer to sip on those rare, sunny Wellington days.

Rapture (4.5%), on the other hand, is something a bit different. Yeast is the main show here, with a big aroma of cloves that are followed up with even more in the flavour. Rapture brings the big character of the Chimay yeast, but in a much smaller package than usual.

The yeastherders have already been gracing taps and handpumps at beer bars throughout Wellington, but there’s still some left so keep an eye out and get amongst this brilliant piece of beer geekery.

The Yeastie Boys donated the proceeds from online sales of Rapture and Europa to the Christchurch relief fund, one of many gestures of kindness from the beer industry. Mad props to them all.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com or tweet at me @davethebeerguy

Big brewers have noticed the trend towards craft beer and have tried to capitalize on it by releasing different brands which claim ‘craft’ status. The fact is that these beers are made in the same Auckland mega breweries as Waikato Draught and Export—they just come out the other end with a fancier label.

Big brewers reinforce their ‘craft’ brands with massive marketing budgets, fueling campaigns that try to make you believe the beer is good before it even passes your lips. Small brewers can’t afford such things. They rely on drinkers to believe what’s on the label and take a leap of faith to give their beer a go.

So what happens when a new independent brewery with a marketing budget produces the characterless beer of a mega brewery, while still flying the craft beer banner? You get Stoke beers.

When I first heard the original Mac’s brewery in Nelson was reopening to brew beer again, this time under the name McCashin’s, I was excited. When Mac’s was in its heyday, creating some of the most respected craft brews in the country, I lived almost next door to the brewery but was underage. So I had hoped this move would mean I could taste a reflection of their previous brilliance.
But what McCashin’s has produced is a series of generic, mediocre beers, named after their colour so as not to confuse their target market: Gold, Amber and Dark.

Before I get ahead of myself, I should explain these beers. First, there is Stoke Gold, which seems aimed at the same demographic as Mac’s or Monteith’s Gold. Vaguely malty, golden in the glass and ‘easy drinking’—except from what I’ve tasted the beer has various brewing faults, throwing off any semblance of sessionability and making it actually worse than the beers it sets out to mimic.
Next in the range is Stoke Amber. I was given this beer blind recently at a BBQ. I found it thin-bodied, with a slightly toasty malt character similar to that of supermarket homebrew kits. Enough said.

Stoke Dark, unsurprisingly, looks dark in the glass. But what sets this beer apart from the rest of the range is that is has an obvious malt character, with coffee and cocoa flavours. Despite getting something right, it still manages to portray this flavour over a thin, watery body.
I take the faults in these beers more personally in this case, not just because they bear the name of my hometown, but also because McCashin’s is actively marketing the range as a craft beer.

If I was a newbie to craft beer and picked up a Stoke Gold for the first time, I’d think that it was equal to, if not worse than any of the other big name lagers out there—but cost me more.

That is where the danger lies. Branding sub-par beer as craft beer cheapens the image of every other craft beer on the shelf.
If you have any questions or comments about this week’s column or beer in general, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com or Tweet at me @davethebeerguy

Here, beer can be more than a piss-coloured, alcoholic fizzy drink that you drink out of the bottle. More and more cafes and bars are expanding their selections beyond the big two breweries and inviting innovative, assertively flavoured craft beers into their fridges and onto their taps.

But being a student comes with certain budget restrictions, and small brewers can’t compete with the big two, so don’t expect to see $15 dozens of the latest 8 Wired pale ale. However, good beer doesn’t have to be (too) expensive.

The best way to get cheap(er) craft beer in you is to fill a 1-2½ litre bottle (known as a rigger/flagon/pub PET/growler depending on where you’re from) with your desired beer. Being served from a tap means there is less effort going into getting the beer to you, significantly reducing the cost to you.

There are many inner city craft beer venues which provide this service, but the cheapest by far is Wellington’s oldest Mecca of craft beer, Regional Wines and Spirits.Situated on the southern corner of the Basin reserve, Regional has been around for more than 20 years. On their ‘fill your own’ system there are 11 constantly changing craft beers, with prices ranging from $11-$20 for a 2 litre rigger fill.

Craft beer bars are also cottoning on to the rigger revolution, and you can now fill riggers at Hashigo Zake (Taranaki St) and Malthouse (Courtenay Place). You’ll get a different, sometimes exclusive selection, but also expect to pay slightly more.

Almost all of the beers I write about in this column throughout the year will feature on these taps, so keep an eye out for tap updates from these venues on your preferred social network. Seriously, just walk in and check these places out. Have a nosey at their huge selections and maybe buy something as a treat.

Being the last column of the year, I am tempted to be reflective and look back at the year in beer. But what help is that when you have dutifully read the beer column week in, week out? Instead, let’s look forward to some exciting new beers on the horizon.

This year saw the explosion of contract brewing, where home brewers use spare capacity at an existing brewery to release their beer commercially. 8 Wired Brewing has been one of the most prolific contract brewers, releasing three new beers while keeping the Hopwired flowing.

Every time I see the brewer Søren, I nag him about what’s coming next. Being a good acquaintance of his, he’s always happy to let me know what’s on the cards. Last time I pressed him, he mentioned an upcoming Imperial American Amber Ale soon to go on at Hashigo Zake. Being imperial, it promises hefty alcohol content, and stuffed to the brim with US hops. I am lucky enough to have tried his homebrew version of this beer and, trust me, it’s good.

The contract brewery that made contract brewing cool isn’t taking a break over the summer either. The
Wellington-based Yeastie Boys make each of their beers as a once-off, never to be produced again. But one was so popular they couldn’t resist demand, and this year, Pot Kettle Black became their first beer to be brewed all year round.

But they’re still making the limited editions, and coming soon is the second iteration of Pot Kettle Black ‘the remix’. Last year, the recipe was remixed as a stout. This year’s version will be PKB featuring American hops, which is likely to give it a more overt hop character. Look out for it in distinctive 750ml crown capped champagne bottles soon.

It’s not just the contract brewers having some fun with limited releases, Croucher Brewing of Rotorua have just started brewing limited-release beers again. The latest is Croucher Patriot Black Ale (5.5%), a massively hopped black IPA. If you closed your eyes, you would swear it was a normal American IPA. Check it out at Hashigo Zake, Malthouse and Regional Wines & Spirits while it lasts. The next release is to come later this month, Croucher October Ale, a strong (7-8%) English-styled IPA.

We’ve had a great year in beer, but the brewers are just getting started. These limited releases are only the tip of the iceberg of things to come. In the next year we will see many new contract breweries popping up to meet the surging demand for complex and exciting ales. See you then.

If you have any questions or comments about this week’s beers, you can email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com

I’m not one for all this organic hoo-ha, but it seems the New Zealand beer-drinking public have other ideas, with Duncan Founders Organic Brewery celebrating its tenth anniversary this month.

Some organic breweries put their organic image before their beer, hoping people will drink it because it is organic and ignore the flavour. Founders’ beers are Bio Grow Certified Organic, brewed to the oldest purity law of Germany and they are certified Kosher. Yet Founders stand up on the merit of their flavour—they do not need to lean on all of these titles to stand up against the best Kiwi craft beers.

To commemorate their first decade of existence, Founders have released two special brews—one celebrating the past and one looking towards the future.

Tall Blonde has been around as long as Founders has. So, to celebrate their history, Founders have released an intensified version.

To do this, less water is used in the brewing process, which creates a more concentrated expression of the ingredients used.

Founders Ten Year Anniversary Blonde (6%) has the light refreshing flavour of Tall Blonde, but it is coupled with a rich, malt backbone and a robust bitterness. If there was an award for New Zealand’s most balanced strong lager, this would win it.

Founders Ten Year Anniversary Stout (6%) moves away from the more traditional roots of Founders. The brewery is based in Founders historical park in Nelson, where some not-so-modern skills are still practiced. They thought it was time to make use of the cooper down the road, and got him to recondition a Pinot Noir barrel. This was then soaked with a bottle of whisky, and filled with 225 litres of stout. The final blended beer gives a subtle whisky note on the aroma, while the flavour shows robust roasted malt characters of coffee and chocolate—but with a deft touch of berries.

These very limited edition beers are, or will soon be, on tap and/or bottled at Regional Wines & Spirits, Hashigo Zake and Malthouse. Head down and help Founders Brewery through to their 20th anniversary.

If you have any questions or comments about this week’s beers, you can email Dave at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

Wellington was filled to bursting with brewers, beer geeks and Discovery Channel cameras when New Zealand’s biggest week of beer appreciation hit our windy shores last week.

Our BrewNZ weekend began with the shocking announcement that Dominion Breweries was crowned New Zealand’s champion brewery of 2010. While this announcement was met with some shock, and even a few walk-outs at the awards, it goes to show that DB do what they aim to do—make clean, easy lagers—well.

The big guys had their night, but during the weekend it was the innovative, craft breweries which stood centre stage. Over 100 beers from Invercargill to Delaware were made available to the public during the peak of festivities on the weekend—Beervana.

But which beers are worth revisiting after the hangover?

Dave’s Faves:

Each year the BrewNZ awards includes a festive category, to challenge breweries to make beers to a certain theme. This year’s festive brew was ‘Go Native’. Most breweries took this to mean ‘put a native tree or vege in a beer’. Three Boys brewery of Christchurch took it to mean ‘dice up some pineapple lumps, and throw them in a porter’. Thankfully Three Boys Pineapple Lump didn’t reek of the native treat—it was a full bodied, intensely roasty porter with just a hint of lumpy goodness.

8 Wired The Big Hangi showed just as much innovation. They took the recipe of their smoked porter, and replaced the beechwood smoked malt with manuka smoked kumara. The huge amount of smoked starch made drinking it like eating a plate of delicious roast kumara. A pity only 50L was made; can someone donate 8 Wired 500kg of kumara so they can make a full batch?

Denise’s Standouts:

This year, Beervana was the launch pad for Tuatara’s 10th anniversary ale, simply titled X. Brewed in the style of a Belgian Tripel, Tuatara X is like the brewery’s Ardennes on steroids. When the brewery initially brewed Ardennes, they released it at about 8-9 per cent ABV. While it’s at 6.5 per cent today, for their 10th birthday, Tuatara’s gone back to its roots. This strong, Belgian beer has an amplified caramel and coriander profile, with the more subtle hints of vanilla and orange peel—and the alcohol’s hidden incredibly well.
Yet in complete contrast to almost every other beer released at or around Beervana, Yeastie Boys Punkadiddle 3.7 per cent is a subtle, red English ale which is all about the malt. Dubbed “hop-hater” by the Yeastie crew, the beer’s the complete opposite of the hoppy, strong craft ales that have dominated the scene this year. With a creamy texture, a biscuity flavour and hints of roast malt and light fruit, Punkadiddle is one of Beervana’s best.

When the Beervana leftovers trickle out of the town hall, they should wind up at Hashigo Zake and Malthouse. Keep an eye out.

If you have any questions or comments about this week’s beers, you can email us at davethebeerguy@gmail.com or denisethebeergirl@gmail.com

There will be over 150 different beers on offer from at least 45 breweries, and not just limited to New Zealand’s own.

But with each session lasting only 4 hours, it’s probably best to approach Beervana with a strategy in mind.

Dave’s strategy: Beervana is the best opportunity of the year to try many brews which are otherwise unavailable in Wellington. As soon as I enter the venue, I scout out every stand and check out which beers are on offer. From there, I head to the more limited releases first—in case they run out. Following that, I like to visit the stands from micro breweries which are rarely seen in Wellington (Brew Moon, Arrow Brewing Co, Twisted Hop), and sample as many different styles as possible. To finish off the session, I seek out the bigger, hoppier brews. Imperial IPA’s with tongue-numbing bitterness are my favourite way to end an afternoon or evening of intense beer-ing.

Denise’s strategy: It’s always better to start with the lighter brews on offer—there’s no point in confusing your palate by downing some delicious, but heavy and sticky, imperial stouts and barley wines. Save those ones until last. To maximise your Beervana experience, order half tastings—it’ll mean you get to sample twice as many beers in the same time.

Water is your friend at this event. Kindly ask the stallholders to rinse your glass with water before each new beer, or fill your sample glass from a water stand and down it to refresh your palate (and help stave off a headache the next day).

Don’t be afraid to ask the brewers questions. They’re usually all too willing to brag about their beers, and you can never know too much about what you’re drinking.

Not to be missed:
- 8wired’s smoked kumara porter—only 50 litres made.
- Yeastie Boys’ stall—handpulled Punkadiddle, ‘nuff said.
- Emerson’s stall—last year’s champion brewery, and always has something special on offer.
- The education seminars—ranging from Beer and Cheese to Beer and Women.
- Hashigo Zake’s stall—a handsome column writer will be manning the stall during selected sessions.

The most important thing to remember is that Beervana runs on a cash-only basis, so hit up an ATM before you get in the door. No money, no beer!

Tickets are $30 from Ticketek including a glass and a free sample. Sessions run 12-4pm and 5-9pm this Friday and Saturday at the Wellington Town Hall.

See you there.

For a guide to Beervana that didn’t have to stick to a word limit check out this.

If you have any questions or comments about this week’s beers, you can email us at davethebeerguy@gmail.com or denisethebeergirl@gmail.com

Every day on the way to work I walk past a building-sized billboard for a certain ‘pure’ beer. It says: “No additives, no preservatives, no compromise”. It should just read “No flavour”.

Large commercial breweries brand their products like this as if to say flavour can only be given to a beer by using unnatural ingredients. I think they need to learn from the little guys.

Almost every craft beer is created using just four ingredients: water, malt, hops and yeast. Therefore, almost every craft beer qualifies for the ‘pure’ status which is given to so many bland mega-brewed lagers. Only craft beers have character, a flavour profile, something more rewarding than just cold fizziness going down your throat as a means to get drunk.

The way those four ingredients are utilised is what gives beer its character. Small breweries are run by brewers who know all the ins and outs of how to use the ingredients to create a flavoursome and balanced beer. Mega-breweries are run by accountants, who know how to pinch pennies. The easiest ways to do this is to use fewer hops (less flavour), cheaper malt (less flavour) and to shorten the condi-tioning time (worse flavour). Sure, your beer is ‘pure’. But it tastes insipid.

The phrase which always appears next to the pure moniker is ‘naturally brewed’. Huh? Naturally brewed? So there’s artificially brewed beer? No. This is another meaningless piece of marketing bullshit. If something was artificially brewed (how you would do that I’m not sure) it wouldn’t qualify as beer. Beer is created via the natural process of fermentation, carried out by yeast. All things fermented are ‘brewed naturally’. My farts are brewed naturally, but you don’t see me advertising the fact. “Smell that? No additives, no preservatives and brewed naturally!”

The point of this rant: don’t believe the billboards, believe your taste buds.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com

New Zealanders are lucky to have so many great craft breweries producing so much amazing beer. But if you look back a decade, the picture was somewhat grim.

But in those dark times, Emerson’s brewery was a ray of light—creating craft beers to challenge the country’s palate.

Recently Regional Wines and Spirits dedicated a whole week to celebrate the pioneering brewery, which included tastings, beer and food matching and (my favourite) a lot of free beer.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a beer and food matching at Crazy Horse Steakhouse. In somewhat of a beer and wine showdown, six courses were each matched with a beer and a wine.

My best match of the night was Emerson’s JP 2010 (8%), matched with a chai cheesecake. This may have had something to do with the fact that it was the final course, so 10 samples of beer and wine were amplifying the experience…

Emerson’s JP is an annual release, named for Jean Pierre Dufour, the food scientist who helped a budding Emerson’s brewery get off the ground. Every year, since his passing in 2007, Emerson’s has released a Belgian-style beer in his honour. This year’s release is a Belgian IPA.

Most Belgian IPAs use traditional Belgian yeast, which gives the beer a big clovey note and lots of hops. Richard Emerson felt that cloves and hops clash in a beer, so sought a cleaner Belgian strain, and settled on the yeast used in the popular Duvel.

The result is a unique IPA, screaming hops to the nose, but the Duvel yeast has contributed a herbaceous character to the flavour, which links in perfectly with the big, fruity hops. Perhaps that is why it matched so well with a chai cheesecake. Drink this at room temperature to fully enjoy the delicate yeast flavour.

The second event I attended was a ‘meet the brewer’ event at Hashigo Zake. Free samples of two Emerson’s brews were available to all. On tap was Emerson’s Weizenbock (8%) and this year’s vintage tastes just as good as last year’s—which took out the wheat beer category of the Australian International Beer Awards. Big and dark, with an aggressive flavour, yet still possessing the fun banana flavours of a wheat beer, Weizenbock is a must-try for everyone.

The other beer on offer was Emerson’s Regional Special Bitter (5.3%), an English ESB (Extra Special Bitter). This beer was developed by Regional Wines and Spirits beer aficionado Kieran Hasslet-Moore, who travelled to Dunedin to brew a small five-keg batch. RSB is perfectly balanced, and a rich full-bodied malt flavour gives a great backbone for an assertive bitterness to come through, though neither dominates. An orangey hop flavour from the New Zealand-grown English hops keeps it interesting each sip.

Unfortunately, RSB sold out in two days, but there will be one more chance to sample it. One keg remains for Beervana (August 27th and 28th)—best get your tickets now!

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

Watery, tasteless and uncreative beer is, unfortunately, usually very available and very affordable here in New Zealand. Actually, that is also the case in most countries around the world. But probably the nation most well-known for its insipid beer is America.

Budweiser and Miller are very popular beer brands in the United States, associated with sports teams, sports events, and often drunk by the cooler characters in movies, books and television shows. These brands have also been turning up in New Zealand, on and off, during the past year or two.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but these beers are almost indistinguishable in flavour from one another, and from the pale lagers brewed by the mainstream breweries here in New Zealand. The big American breweries have such a reputation for the style they inspired a Monty Python joke about sex and a canoe.

But watery beers also inspired the craft brewing renaissance in the United States. Positive they could make better tasting beer than the big brewing corporations, home brewers started brewing beer with creativity and flavour, and opened their own craft breweries to sell beer in their local regions.

One of the largest craft breweries in the US of A is Rogue Ales, producing almost 4 million litres per year. This rivals the volume produced by some of the mega-breweries in New Zealand—the main difference being that Rogue has managed to achieve this output without compromising on quality. A wonderful example of this is St Rogue Dry Hopped Red Ale (5.2%). It combines six different malts to achieve a deep red colour, and a complex and unique malt flavour. Dry hopping gives this beer a big citrusy hop character, which plays well with the malts.

Rogue recently started an offshoot brewery under a different label in a city famous for athletics: Eugene. Aptly, this brewery is named ‘Tracktown’ and was built on the site of the very first brewery in Eugene. Their flagship beer is Eugene Tracktown 200m IPA (6.4%), a classic example of a Northwestern style IPA. A tropical fruit and pine aroma gives this beer away as a hop bomb, which is backed up by an overt passionfruit hop flavour. All this is then overcome by a big hoppy bitterness which lingers forever, begging for another sweet sip.

Flying Dog is one of the few US craft breweries which rivals Rogue’s scale. Flying Dog draw their inspiration from the works of Hunter S. Thompson (of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas fame). The beer which draws on the Hunter S. spirit most obviously is Gonzo Imperial Porter (7.8%). The brewery’s motto is ‘Good Beer, No Shit’ and no shit, this is good beer. Don’t let its tar-like appearance fool you, this beer is hoppy. Licorice and chocolate flavours resonate from the intense roast malt, which works well with the big citrusy American hops that come with it. Much like the works of Hunter S. Thompson, I’d wager that you’ve never experienced anything like this before.

Unusually, in some cases American craft beer is more accessible here in Wellington than it is in many areas of the United States. Make the most of it. While America is undoubtedly the country of origin for some of the world’s worst beers, it’s also the home to many of the best.

P.S. Emerson’s Dunkelweiss is now very much available at Regional Wines and Spirits and all good beer bars—I apologise to those who went looking for the chocolate banana split beer a few weeks back, and were unable to find it. Cheers.

If you have any questions or comments about this week’s beers, you can email us at davethebeerguy@gmail.com or denisethebeergirl@gmail.com.

I’m worried about my teeth.

In what can only be seen as a conspiracy to increase dentist’s business, two breweries have released beers so hoppy, they strip the enamel from your teeth.

We’re no stranger to hoppy beers here, we’ve had plenty of excellent hop-laden brews released in the last few years. Now we’ve reached the next level of intensity: Imperial.

When you see ‘Imperial’ in front of a beer style it essentially means the brewer has decided to double (or triple) the ingredients in a beer, while keeping the volume the same. American brewers have been doing this for quite some time, and have made imperial versions of almost any beer style imaginable—though I’m yet to see a true imperial mild.

Ironically, the latest New Zealand brewery to apply this logic to a beer is a brewery famous for its mild ale—Mike’s Organic Brewery. Their latest seasonal offering is a showcase of American-grown hops, Mike’s Premium Organic double India Pale Ale (9%).

I was surprised to hear that a brewery whose main range focuses on more sessionable styles of beer was tackling such a huge beer, and was slightly sceptical. Thankfully, my scepticism was unfounded. As soon as you crack the cap the immediate vicinity is bathed in tropical fruit aromas from the insane volume of US hops used. These hops continue into the flavour, supported by a rich, sweet malt body. This sweetness makes Mike’s IIPA a great nightcap beer. Try to experience this beer ASAP, because hop flavours this intense fade after a few months. Mike’s IIPA is available exclusively in bottles from good craft beer stockists.

Most imperial beers started out as a crazy idea in a home brewer’s head which they decided to have a crack at. It’s very fitting then that the latest contract brewery to emerge is run by the owner of an online homebrew store. Jo Wood of libertybrewing.co.nz travelled to Hallertau brew bar in Auckland, to brew a commercial batch of a homebrew recipe he’d been working on.

Liberty Brewing Summ!t IPA (8.3%) is a beer showcasing the unique Summit hop variety from the US. As Jo says: “Summ!t IPA is in the style of an American Imperial IPA. It predominantly uses a new variety of hop from the States called Summit. It is a dwarf variety that grows on a low trellis and has to be hand-picked, because the conventional harvesting methods don’t work on this growing system. The result is a hop that doesn’t get bruised, therefore preserving the essentially clean characters of the hop as it was on the plant.”

This beer will blow you away with a huge aroma, similar to an overripe fruit bowl. The hop flavour is similarly intense, however, this Imperial IPA is much drier than usual, making it dangerously drinkable.

When you see this on tap at Hashigo Zake and Malthouse don’t pass up the chance to experience beer at its best.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

Contract brewing is a new phenomenon in the craft beer world. Essentially, it is when a brewing company chooses to make its beer using an existing brewery’s equipment. The Wellington-based Yeastie Boys were the first New Zealanders to openly do this, and since then it’s taken off as an easier way for home brewers to get their beer on the market.

The latest contract brewers are 8 Wired Brewing, the brainchild of Dane Søren Eriksen. Last week 8 Wired launched three new beers, and thanks to my boss at Hashigo Zake, I got to help put those beers on the shelves.

8 Wired is brewed at Renaissance Brewery in Blenheim—where I volunteered my time for a week. For the first few days we were packaging the three latest beers in the fast-growing 8 Wired range.

The first of which was The Big Smoke (6.2%), a smoked porter. This is a rare style of beer in New Zealand—I’m not aware of any other commercial example—which perfectly showcases 8 Wired’s desire to push the boundaries.

Bottling 2000 litres of beer can be thirsty work. So naturally, I am now very familiar with this beer. Don’t be afraid of the smoke part of this beer, because Søren has kept the smokiness relatively subtle. The Big Smoke is a well-made, robust porter, with great coffee and cocoa roast malt characteristics, while the beechwood smoked malt shows slightly in the aroma and finish.

The subtle smoke in The Big Smoke was a surprise to me, because 8 Wired beers are usually about huge flavours. The next beer we bottled reaffirmed this—iStout Imperial Stout (10.5%). If you think Guinness is ‘like a meal’, then iStout is a whole restaurant. Imperial stouts were originally intended for export to Russia, hence the huge warming flavours. A very positive effect of the big alcohol and flavour is that the beer will develop in the bottle for years to come. It obviously tastes quite young at the moment, with intense vanilla and coffee flavours assaulting the palate, followed by big bitterness. With time these flavours will integrate nicely.

The very last beer we packaged only went into kegs—meaning Red Dwarf Amber Ale (5.5%) will only be seen on tap. Luckily we’re in Wellington, and there’s no shortage of guest taps for the Red Dwarf to call home. Being an amber ale, it has a stunning red/amber colour. It throws a fresh earthy New Zealand hop aroma, and in the mouth it is full-bodied with big malty caramel flavours and a bitterness which builds with each sip.

Søren is currently on his honeymoon with his new bride Monique, so don’t expect any new 8 Wired releases in the next month, but these three will definitely tide you over until he’s back with inspiration from his world travels.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

This week I’m not going to talk about specific beers, because there’s something about beer culture that has been bugging me. I’ve noticed people using a phrase a lot recently: “girly beer”. It’s got me thinking. What makes a beer ‘girly’?

Beer is generally considered to be a man’s drink. Think about the last ten beer adverts you’ve seen. They’re all squarely directed at men, showing fantasies of beautiful women falling over some handsome man holding a particular brand of piss lager. And it seems people are buying into this sexist image—glancing around the bar as I write this, I see two out of ten patrons are female.

Maybe it’s biological. I’ve heard that male and female tastebuds are different, with females tasting bitterness far more than males. However, a quick Google search proves this to be untrue. The tastebuds just transmit information to your brain, then it’s up to the brain to decide how you taste it. Beer doesn’t care whether you call it ‘girly’ or ‘manly’, it tastes the same regardless. It’s up to each individual to decide whether they enjoy it or not.

So perhaps the male-centric culture surrounding beer is giving people negative preconceptions about it, making ladies think they don’t like beer? I think we’re just unaware of what beer is out there.

On my first taste of bland lager, I hated it. But, because I knew I was supposed to like it, I grinned and beared it. It wasn’t until I tried a well-crafted ale years later that I genuinely enjoyed a beer for its flavour. If I didn’t have that expectation then I probably wouldn’t have given any more beers a fair go. I’d probably be a wine writer.

So it’s in the beer industry’s best interest to stop marketing beer just to men. Beer marketed to females these days are generic low-carb, light or fruity beers—how patronising. After all, what is stopping a woman from appreciating the deep, complex flavours of a barley wine, or the robust taste of a stout? Nothing. And why can’t a guy enjoy a refreshing framboise or kreik after a hard day’s work and not be mocked for having ‘girly beer’?

The perception of beer might be one of the last remnants of the sexist society of days gone. We need to appreciate beer for what it is and ignore any stigma surrounding it. A woman can be prime minister. A man can be a stay-at-home dad. We can all enjoy good beer.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

It’s odd how Wellington is widely considered to be the capital of beer in New Zealand when we no longer have any local breweries. Perhaps Nelson would be more deserving of the beer capital title—it is home to ten breweries, and is where most New Zealand hops are grown. Recently, I made a trip to Nelson with a group from SOBA (Society Of Beer Advocates) to attend a festival celebrating the harvest of these hops—Marchfest.

Marchfest is held each year at Founders Park, where thousands of local beer lovers descend to enjoy the ten one-off brews from Nelson and Blenheim breweries. These ranged from porter and pilsner to rye beer.

A surprise standout for me was Totara Brewing’s Ninkasi Green. Totara Brewing Co. is a brand-new brewery based in the sleepy village of Wakefield, about thirty minutes’ drive out of Nelson. Apparently the owner grows his own hops, and these were used ‘wet’ in the Ninkasi Green. ‘Wet’ hopping is using hops directly from the vine which are yet to be dried. This means more flavoursome oils remain, and a bigger hop flavour shows in the beer. Totara Ninkasi Green (5%) had a unique spicy hop aroma from these wet hops, which showed prominently in the flavour as well.

Another ‘wet hopped’ beer at the festival was Sprig and Fern De-Vine Inspiration Pilsner (5%). This offering from the local pub chain and brewery was one of the best New Zealand Pilsners I’ve tasted. The liberal use of wet hops give this beer a big passionfruit aroma and intense tropical fruit flavour. It is now available at the various Sprig and Fern pubs around the Nelson Region. So if you’re heading down soon pay a visit, or you can order online.

It’s a bit of tease telling you about all these amazing beers which won’t make their way to Wellington, but Renaissance has released their festival beer further afield. Renaissance went a bit crazy with their Funkelryesen Spiced Ale (5%). They made a rye beer which is odd as it is (barley is usually used), but to give it extra funk, star anise, caraway seed and cinnamon were also added. The result is a crisp golden ale with a prominent licorice flavour with herbaceous undertones. This unique beer has already made it to Wellington shores, and if your timing is right you might catch it at the beer havens of Hashigo Zake and Malthouse.

It’s great to see an explosion of craft beer culture in my hometown of Nelson, and events like Marchfest are only going to make this culture grow.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

Like all things fashionable, craft beer goes through trends. It becomes trendy to brew certain styles, depending on what’s ‘in’ with the beer geeks.

The current ‘in’ thing is hops. More hops, to be precise. 

The ‘more hops’ trend is coming straight out of the US of A, home of the best (and worst) beers in the world. Despite that part of the world producing the watery drivel that is

Budweiser, American craft brewers are at the forefront of the craft beer industry. The US is home to thousands of micro breweries, each brewing their own range of aggressively flavoured beer. 

These big flavours come from the unique American-grown hops, to which the brewers have applied the philosophy of ‘bigger is better’.

This trend had reached New Zealand, with beers like Epic Armageddon, Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black and 8wired Hopwired IPA taking old world English styles and increasing the hopping rates by various multiples of 100.

But to have a super hoppy beer you need a big malt base to build it on. Big malty beers could be the next big thing here. Malt driven beer is all the rage in England, with bitters, ESBs, brown ales, milds and such still being very popular. These are usually served uncarbonated and warmer, through a handpump. The English love these ‘session ales’, because they are mid-strength, big flavour beers which you can drink all night and still maintain most of your dignity. This style of beer might be the next big thing in New Zealand, as handpumps are popping up at several bars in Wellington—Hashigo Zake, Malthouse and Bar Edward to name a few.

These handpumps are dispensing beer from breweries such as The Twisted Hop and Townshend, who make authentic traditional English styles of beer. And it’s disappearing as fast as they can brew it.

But my best bet for the next big trend in New Zealand is a combination of these two things: super hoppy, American styled session ales.

This new style incorporates the best of both worlds. Hops provide aggressive in-your-face flavour, while refreshing bitterness and the low alcohol means you can enjoy it all night without falling over.

Hallertau Brewbar in Auckland has made a beer fitting all of these descriptions: Hallertau Minimus. It is a lightweight at only 3.8%, but hoppier than some heavyweight IPAs. The risk with a beer like this is for it to be watery, but Minimus has just enough body to counterbalance the big hops. It is a groundbreaking beer. 

Whatever trends emerge over the next few years, new and exciting beers will be launching every month. The craft beer industry will grow and eat away at the mega brewed swill with innovation, skill and care.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please contact me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

It’s St Patrick’s day on Wednesday! I’ll write something about Guinness and Irish beer! Actually, that’s been overdone. Instead, I’ll write about the recent festival showcasing some of New Zealand’s best craft breweries. 

I approached the Liquorland Beer Festival with memories of mud, rain and wind from last year’s festival. However, it seems the organisers learned their lesson from 2009 and this year’s festival was indoors at the Westpac Stadium.

The Brewer’s Guild had more involvement, presenting a set of beer and food matchings. These were educational and gave brewers a chance to talk to craft beer enthusiasts and vice versa. But of course beer was the main event, and there were a few new and rare beers which are worthy of a mention.

A highlight of the festival was learning about the Kaimai Brewing Company. This is a company I’ve been hearing about over the last year but have not seen any of their beers on the shelf. It turns out this is because all of their beer was being exported to various countries.

Soon we will be able to sample their odd beers, like Kaimai Rye Porter. As you can tell from the name, this beer is made using rye. Barley and wheat are normally used to make beer, so a rye beer is quite a treat. The rye imparts a tart, almost minty flavour to the beer, which works well with its medium body and prominent roasty flavours.

Mata made a splash by showing off two brand new beers, their Amber Ale and Witbier. Mata is a very consistent brewery, which has been focusing on styles which are less intimidating to the average beer drinker, but with their witbier they’ve broken this pattern.

Witbier is a Belgian style of wheat beer which traditionally uses coriander and orange peel. Mata have used coriander and tangelo in their take on the style. These really come through in the flavour and give the beer a big character.

While this beer hasn’t been bottled yet, a preview keg will be going on at Hashigo Zake this week.

I departed the festival early to avoid the carnage that comes with thousands of people drinking for eight hours. This year I left mudless and satisfied, and was pleased that so many people were enjoying some amazing beer from small New Zealand breweries.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

CORRECTION: In my previous column ‘Beers not for the Heliophobic’ I stated that the best value craft beer in the country—Rooster’s Summer Ale—cost $10 per 1.25L from Regional Wines and Spirits. It is actually $10.80 per 2L. Go get some.

Wellington occasionally produces a day that resembles summer. But don’t panic! This is simply a series of meteorological coincidences—the wind and cloud always make a swift return.

During such a day, when the temperature soars above 13°C, the usual beer of choice is an ice cold pale lager, sometimes with a dash of lemon. But there is a style of beer that is flavoursome and refreshing enough by itself—no citrus required. It is the Summer Ale.

New Zealand is well suited to brewing summery ales, due to the fruity flavours of Nelson-grown hops. When added in decent quantities, you can have a beer that tastes citrusy without adding lemon/lime syrup—a lesson the large breweries are yet to learn.

A fine example of a Kiwi summer ale is Three Boys Golden Ale (4.5%), from Three Boys brewery in Christchurch. It is light-bodied enough to be refreshing in sweltering 16°C weather, and has a fun and tasty passionfruit flavour thanks to a generous helping of Nelson Sauvin hops. Golden Ale is Three Boys’ summer seasonal beer, and is soon going out of production in favour of their winter stout, so get in quick.

If Three Boys Golden uses more of your hard-earned gold than you’d prefer, then Roosters Brew House in Hastings has you covered with Roosters Summer Ale (5%). This is the first year Roosters has released a summer ale, and the brewery has made an impressive first effort. The beer has a substantial malt body which carries a citrusy hop flavour and bitterness. A nice balancing sweetness makes this a summer ale through and through. Perhaps the best value beer in the country, at around $10 per 1.25L at Regional Wines and Spirits.

If you feel you need more hops in your summer tipple, Renaissance Discovery APA (4.5%) is for you. ‘APA’ stands for ‘American Pale Ale’, a style that emerged from America’s thriving craft beer industry. This style of beer is suited to summer because it tends to be light-bodied and features mainly hops. Discovery sticks to the style using plenty of New Zealand-grown Cascade hops, giving the beer its distinct zesty grapefruit aroma. The zing of the hops carries through to the flavour, with a light body and dry, fruity finish. A cold Discovery on a hot afternoon quenches your thirst, but also delivers a hop sack of flavour.

Because Wellington is awesome, these beers aren’t hard to find. They feature regularly on tap at the beer havens of Hashigo Zake, the Malthouse and Regional Wines and Spirits, and you’ll find Three Boys and Renaissance at any self-respecting New World supermarket.

But remember—these sweltering summer days will not stick around for much longer, so make the most of the glorious 16°C heat and grab yourself a true Summer Ale. Even if you’re afraid of the sun.
 

To all you first years: Welcome to Wellington, the capital of beer. You may not have realised it, but you now have a huge range of finely crafted brews from New Zealand and around the world right on your doorstep.

Wellington is home to many specialist beer outlets, offering a lot more than your (very) average DB or Lion products. We realise students aren’t able to pay $20 per bottle, but there are places to get some amazing craft brews on the cheap.

If you’re drinking at home, by far the cheapest place to buy New Zealand craft beer is Regional Wines and Spirits, situated opposite the Basin Reserve at the bottom of Ellice Street. Regional has a massive range of bottled beer, but the draw card for students should be the eleven ‘Fill Your Own’ taps. Using these taps you can fill 1.25L or 2L riggers with craft beers from Emerson’s, Three Boys, Tuatara and many more.

Prices start at around $10, so there’s no excuse to be drinking shit like Tui.

For those of you who enjoy a beer in town, cult beer bar Hashigo Zake proudly displays the motto “no crap on tap” on its door. This Japanese-themed basement bar can be found at 25 Taranaki Street and is known for its conversation-friendly atmosphere, knowledgeable staff and massive range of craft beers. Being a freehouse, Hashigo has 10 regularly changing taps with beer available from $5.50 a glass. It has fridges filled with beer from Invercargill to California, tasting like everything from chocolate to banana to a mouthful of hops. You can even take your favourites home with you thanks to their new off licence.

Just around the corner on Courtenay Place is The Malthouse. The Malthouse has been stocking tasty brews long before the craft beer scene was cool. It has six different temperature controlled fridges stocking a wide range of beer, and so many taps we keep losing count. By day The Malthouse is the perfect place to have a pint of Tuatara and a bowl of fries (best aioli in town) while doing your readings, and by night they transform into a busy bar with great music and make-shift dance floors in front of the bar and between the outdoor leaners. They also have an off licence—way cool.

So why drink generic, bland beer this O-Week with so many craft beer options available? Orientation is the perfect excuse to orientate yourself with the wide selection of tasty beer available in this wonderful city, and it doesn’t have to break the bank.

Cheers!

Ah, the final column of the year. It’s been quite the year for beer, and it was my goal to keep you informed about all the exciting new releases throughout. Some of my most memorable moments in beer this year:

• Researching the ‘Steinliar’ column, being baffled at how people can believe the advertising with such bland, uninteresting product.
• DB relinquishing their ‘Saison’ trademark, and pretty much screwing themselves out of their ‘Radler’ trademark.
• Beervana, and the amazing beers that came with it.
• All of the great feedback and questions I have received.

In fact, it’s been such a good year that I haven’t had time to share some of my favourite beers with all of the goings on. So for my final Salient column this year, I’ll share a few of the most outstanding beers that I have tried in my life—and that you should sometime in your life.

Starting with my favourite Belgian style: Tripel. Tripel is a relatively new style, created by the Trappist Brewery Westmalle just after WWII. Since then almost every Belgian brewery has added Tripel to their repertoire, but in my opinion none have beaten the amazing flavours of Westmalle Tripel (9.5%). It pours a radiant hazy golden, assaults the nose with complex aromas of citrus, herbs and spices. The flavour is enormous, backing up the big aroma with intense complex flavours. All hammered home by the 9.5% alcohol volume. Unfortunately Wesmalle Tripel is currently unavailable in New Zealand, but a NZ brewery makes a pretty close approximation.

The Blenheim-based Moa brewery has based their Belgian Tripel on the Westmalle recipe and comes pretty close. Moa St Josephs Tripel (9.5%) achieves the complex flavour profile of Westmalle but comes of slightly sweeter, making it more drinkable—careful with this one.

I’m also a bit of a hophead, so I love beers which have primarily hop-driven flavours with intense bitterness. Perhaps the best example of this I’ve had recently is Eugene City Tracktown 200 Meter Ale (5.8%). 200m ale has 90IBU of bitterness, IBU being the unit for measuring bitterness. To put that number into perspective: your mainstream beer will have 5—10IBU. All this bitterness comes from hops, which also bring a huge citrus flavour, nicely balanced by a sweet caramel malt. Another similar example is Green Flash West Coast IPA (7.8%) with 95IBU.

Tracktown 200m Ale is currently exclusively available at Hashigo Zake, while Green Flash West Coast IPA is a Malthouse exclusive.

These are beers which will change your perception of what beer can be, something I have tried to achieve with my columns throughout the year. It’s all worth it if my snobby ramblings have given at least one person a leg up to the next level of quality beer.

Cheers!
If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com

I remember the first time I walked into the Malthouse. I saw fridges full of random colourful beers from all over the world which I’d never seen before. I was filled with awe and excitement for the time to be spent tasting each and every one. My wallet cringed.

I was filled with this awe again recently, when I first saw the range at Wellington’s newest home for beer: Hashigo Zake.

What the hell does Hashigo Zake mean? In Japan it is used to mean ‘pub crawl’, but literally translated it means ‘liquor ladder’. Hashigo Zake’s philosophy is to allow patrons to raise the quality of the beverage in their glass by providing only the highest quality beer, wine and spirits.

Their philosophy is one thing, but coupled with the exclusive range of beers imported by themselves from all over the world, I was overcome by anticipation and excitement. So much so that I got myself a job there.

I know this presents a large ‘conflict of interest’, but I’d be gushing just as much if I was on the other side of the bar. Which is where I’ve found myself many times, in the name of research of course.

This research has taken my taste buds to Norway, Greenwich and the US. The most exciting trip has been with the Danish ‘gypsy brewers’: Mikkeller.

These guys don’t actually have a brewery. The Mikkeller brewer travels the world, borrowing the equipment of some of the best breweries around to create edgy, experimental brews. It is this experimentation which has led to some insanely tasty beers.

The range of single hop IPAs are all identical except for one ingredient per beer—the hop. Each single hop IPA is created using one variety of hop while every other aspect remains the same. This showcases what a particular variety of hop provides a beer in the way of flavour.

The best I’ve tasted so far is Nelson Sauvin Single Hop IPA (6.9%). Patriotic pride aside—this beer uses the new variety of hop developed in New Zealand: Nelson Sauvin—so named for its flavour similarity to the Sauvignon Blanc grape.

A huge citrus aroma emanates from this hazy amber brew. This is a flavour bomb of bitter grapefruit, pine and grass with a dry finish. Nelson Sauvin shows up the American hops with superior strength and depth of flavour.

Obviously, Mikkeller love their hops. So they decided to use masses of them in a dark beer: Jackie Brown (6%). Named for the Quinten Tarintino movie, this brown ale is filled with citrus hop attitude and chocolaty roast malt smoothness. This is a great example of an American brown ale—but brewed in Belgium.

Why not come down and try to climb your liquor ladder under Zibbibo on Taranaki St, where Hashigo Zake will help you with each rung.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

I bet you were late to class at least once this week. Daylight savings has come to mess with our internal clocks. To me, this means it is spring.

Gone is the time for tar-black stouts and strong, warming porters. Now is the time to lighten the brew in your glass—but not too much.

The perfect beer for spring is something in between a dark winter beer and a light, golden summer beer. And often a bit radical.

On my recent beer pilgrimage to the South Island I discovered a beer fitting the bill perfectly. The fact that this brewery showered me with free beer of course did nothing to colour my opinion. Wigram Munchner Dunkel (5.2%) has the perfect balance between the malty goodness of a winter beer and the fruitiness which oozes summer. Wigram is the only New Zealand brewery (to my knowledge) brewing this German style of beer. The combination of slight roast malt and a unique fruitiness make this a versatile brew for this unpredictable spring weather.

Wigram actually do another great beer for spring, probably an even better fit than the Dunkel: Kortegast Sparkling Red Ale (5%). This odd beer uses a portion of wild hops, found on the bank of the Hokitika river. It is believed that the original hops were grown by one of the first New Zealand brewers: William CJ Kortegast. The beer itself pours an alluring bronze, and is very carbonated. Toasty malt flavours pervade, with a fresh, crisp hop finish and good bitterness from the unique hops.

Another perfect match for spring is a Vienna lager, but they’re a bit hard to find these days. A Vienna lager is made with a small proportion of roasted malt, which imbues a reddish tinge and a toasty flavour. It is quite fitting that an obscure brewery makes this obscure style. Wanaka Beerworks Cadrona Gold (4.0%) has the colour down and a nice caramel achieved by using darker malts. As the label says: “A golden lager of quaffable contingencies”. If you’re wondering where to find this, you’ll come across it in the fridge at Regional Wines and Spirits.

Whether the weather is overcast, sunny or raining (or all three, knowing Wellington), these beers will suit the coming months just fine. It’s difficult to find such versatile beers, let alone create them, so applaud the great effort from these micro breweries and enjoy the fruits of their labour this spring.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com

Last year a cheeky new brewing company was born in Wellington. Few people actually noticed this, but the beer industry certainly did.

Yeastie Boys brewing company spawned from Stu McKinlay’s passion for home brewing and Sam Possenniskie’s passion for beer. They have a unique concept: to brew seasonally, and to never brew the same beer twice.

This philosophy really speaks to me, as it means all of their brews are fresh, relevant and unique. While I say ‘their brews’, this isn’t necessarily accurate. Yeastie Boys is a brewery without a brewery. The Yeastie Boys create the recipe for each brew and then enlist the help of Invercargill Brewery to get their beers off the ground and into your mouth. Each brew is relatively small, which means that every once-off brew only lasts a couple of months—if you’re lucky. Of course, this means that Yeastie Boys’ beer is always fresh.

This month, the Yeastie Boys have released two brews—one bottled and one on tap.

His Majesty IPA (6.4%) is Yeastie Boys’ first bottle release, which celebrates the anniversary of their first brew. Sold in majestic 750mL champagne bottles with a crown cap, His Majesty is packed full with (literally) bucket loads of New Zealand grown hops.

This king among IPAs gives off a big hoppy aroma, full of grapefruit and sweet biscuity malt. Underneath is a bitter beast—the generous hopping contributes big bitter grapefruit flavour which clings to the back of the palate and grows with each sip. This balances the sweet toffee malt nicely.

Yeastie Boys’ regular tap release this month is Plan K (4.6%), an oddly low-alcohol Belgian Pale Ale. I am a sucker for a Belgian beer, and while Plan K doesn’t sport the usual big alcohol percentage, it delivers on everything else. The eleventh plan throws a clovey, classic Belgian aroma with an interesting dose of toffee malt. The flavour has the same malty character, with a good hoppy bitterness and loads of clovey, Belgian goodness. It has the big Belgian taste, but not the big alcohol—a wonderful contradiction. The first ten plans must’ve given the boys a lot of practice because this one is spot on.

I know these aren’t your usual ‘student beers’. But ‘student beers’ are boring. They all taste pretty much the same, it’s just the packaging and marketing which change from beer to beer. Instead, why don’t we students enjoy a nice beer once in a while? Yes, it will cost you more, but the proceeds support small New Zealand businesses instead of international conglomerates. And they have flavour, so it’s worth paying those extra few bucks. Innovative businesses like Yeastie Boys deserve our support, so spare some Speight’s this week and grab something Yeastie.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

If you’d been reading this last semester, you would have seen me shamelessly plugging something called Beervana. And if you listened to me you would have been there on 28 and 29 August to attain your own Beervana.

Beervana is the culmination of BrewNZ, a week-long celebration of good beer. With hundreds more beers entered than last year and around 3000 attendees, this year’s Beervana was the largest yet.

It all starts with the BrewNZ awards, where beers of different styles are judged against each other. This year there were many worthy recipients and Emerson’s Brewery took out top honours, being crowned Champion Brewery.

However, there was one conspicuous addition to the awards categories this year: New Zealand Draught. For some reason, the brewer’s guild decided to add this category for shit beer. Come on, do we really need to validate them?

To top it off, my most hated beer won the trophy: Tui. Great. So before DB touts Tui as a ‘trophy winner’, let me steal their thunder. Tui was one of just two ‘beers’ entered to this category, it got a silver medal and scored better than the other crap in its category so it won the trophy. Tui can’t even get gold in a category where the beer is meant to be tasteless watery shit.

But enough of the negative. There were so many great beers there, I won’t let one black mark block all the shining stars. Here are my picks:

• Emerson’s wheat beer festive brew: BeWITched was dangerous 8.5% and very drinkable. Tastes like a Belgian Witbier, just bigger. Look for the leftovers of this at Regional Wines.
• Hallertau ‘Mystery Hoppy Pale Ale’ (7.1%). This unmarked keg contained the best NZ brewed pale ale I’ve ever tasted. A perfect balance of bitter, citrusy hops and sweet malt.
• Stone & Wood Draught Ale (4%). This Australian wheat beer freaked me out. Fruit salad aromas with a grapey sour flavour surprisingly make a highly refreshing beer.
• Kaimai Brewing Co. Rye Beer. This new brewery has pulled off a rarely seen style very well. The flavour is dominated by an odd mintyness imparted by the rye. Look out for these guys in the near future.
• Epic Armageddon—Oaked (6.6%). The result of weeks in oak and hundreds of days at sea were a little disappointing, but interesting. The flavours of oak certainly permeate the beer, and round out the bitterness with vanilla. But unoaked Armageddon tastes better.

There were so many amazing beers worth mentioning, but it’d take a feature-length column to get through them all.

After a hard week of rigorous ‘sampling’, meeting brewing legends and nerding out, I have a hangover. I think I’ll sleep it off until next year’s Beervana, see you there.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

I had a Steinlager Edge last night. All of a sudden I was playing golf, in a trendy bar, while beautiful women flirted with me, and my handsome mates and I all clinked out Steinlager Edges together.

I had experienced the full life that comes with a full-flavour mid-strength beer.

Actually, I had a Steinlager Edge last night. I had a sip and poured the rest down the drain because it is tasteless watery crap.

Marketing and beer have a strange relationship: it seems the better your marketing is, the worse the beer. Tui is a perfect example. But Steinlager has been promoting itself as New Zealand’s best beer for decades and has recently spawned other variations of itself.

At my current job I’ve been reading the marketing blurbs on the side of these beers. It’s been hard not to yell out in frustration at the meaningless dribble and lies that end up on the labels.

I will now translate marketing language to the truth for three Steinlager incarnations.

Steinlager Classic (5%)
Marketing says: New Zealand’s finest lager. Crisp. Clean. Full Flavour. NZ’s distinctive green bullet hops give Steinlager Classic the edge that makes it the envy of brewers world over. With an exhaustive list of international awards Steinlager is undisputedly NZ’s finest.

I say: New Zealand’s most overrated lager. Dirty. Skunky. Awful Flavour. NZ’s green bullet hops give Steinlager Classic the flavours of sheep shit and grass that makes it almost undrinkable. With its last major award won years ago, Steinlager is undisputedly dwelling in the past.

Steinlager Edge (3.5%)
Marketing Says: This distinctive full flavoured lager has been carefully crafted by our award winning brewers to be a crisp and refreshing mid-strength beer. Brewed to the edge, then carefully crafted to attain perfect balance, it is low in carbs and has no additives.

I say: This generic flavourless lager has been brewed by an automated megabrewery to be a characterless and watery mid-strength beer. Brewed to a high alcohol percentage, then carefully diluted with water to attain 3.5% perfectly, it is possibly the most flavourless beer in existence and you might as well drink water.

Steinlager Pure (5%)
Marketing says: Pure.

I say: Pure water.

When drinking beer, think: am I drinking this because an advertisement told me to? Or because this beverage actually tastes good, if like anything at all?

My general rule is: if there is a TV ad for it, it’s crap.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

Beer has been around for a while. In some form or another, it’s existed for centuries.

We can thank the English for what we call ‘beer’ today, but what’s on tap at the local pub is nothing like an English real ale.

The term ‘real ale’ has been bastardised by many breweries, with even lagers being touted as real ales—a deadly sin in my books. A ‘Real Ale’ is an ale in which the final fermentation occurs in the vessel it is served from. This is where bottle and cask fermentation come into play.

In New Zealand cask conditioned real ale can only be found in three places. One of which I recently visited in Christchurch: The Twisted Hop. The Twisted Hop is a brewpub, meaning they brew and serve their own beer on premise. In fact, the entire brewery is visible through a glass wall and could probably fit inside unistop.

The friendly brewer Sean explained that the difference in creating real ale is in the conditioning. Instead of letting the yeast do its thing exclusively in the fermenter, the beer is put into ‘firkin’ casks near the end of fermentation. The firkins are then left for a while so the yeast can get busy. After cask fermentation, the firkins are chilled to 10˚C and the yeast settles to the bottom before serving.

Finally, the beer is hand pumped through the brewery wall into your glass—no CO2 added.

Some Twisted hop beer is set to arrive at the Malthouse soon, specifically their latest annual release: Twisted Hop IPA (5.2%). This is an amazingly hoppy IPA, full of citrus and pine with a mouth-filling resiny bitterness which keeps you coming back for more. This outrageous hop will have calmed down a bit by the time it reaches Wellington, so don’t be afraid to try it.

If you ever get a chance to try a pint of Twisted Hop Sauvin Pilsener (5%), jump on it. The beer is served directly from a conditioning tank at the brewbar and is one of two golden lagers that Twisted Hop produces. Again the citric New Zealand hops shine through in the flavour, but this is a far less intimidating beer with a crisp and dry finish. White wine drinkers would enjoy this.

For a night finisher, rip into a pint of Twisted Hop Twisted Ankle (5.9%). Sean couldn’t really place this beer into any particular style, but said it is closest to an English Old Ale.
From the hand pump it is a ruby-red colour, with flavour characteristics from barley wine, porter and bitter styles. There are smooth coffee malt flavours, plum and spice then a full bitterness right at the finish which rounds out the whole package nicely.

Cask conditioned real ale is a rarity in Wellington but Twisted Hop will be carting up casks for the upcoming Beervana festival, where all of these beers will be available for sampling. Beervana is being held on 28 and 29 of August, so get your tickets now to try some real cask ale!

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

Armageddon is coming! Oh wait, it’s already here. And it’s tasty.

You may know Epic brewing company for their lager (six hops per bottle) or pale ale (15 hops per bottle). Epic beer is renowned for their gratuitous usage of hops—their last seasonal release, Mayhem, had 26 hops per bottle. Armageddon is the latest from Epic brewing company, an IPA with just a few hops, 42 per bottle.

This number might not mean much to many people, so to put it in context, an average mega brewery beer will have about 1 hop per bottle…

The generous hopping stems from company founder/impish brewer Luke Nicholas’ experiences of American micro brewery beer. These breweries started the trend of using more hops to create more flavour, and let me tell you, it works.

It turns out that using an ‘add more hops’ philosophy make Epic Armageddon (6.66%) a beast of a beer.

As expected, a huge hoppy aroma assaults your nose with big piny hops and a lot of citrusy passionfruit.

Surprisingly, bitterness is mild in the taste, but hops still dominate the flavour. A good amount of bready malt flavour comes through and the hops don’t coat your mouth… too much. The hops cut through the malt and leave a peppery flavour in the finish.

Armageddon is available at good supermarkets and Regional Wines and Spirits now.

In a tribute to the origin of the IPA (see my Tui IPA column), Luke has filled two 20l oak barrels with Armageddon and arranged for these to travel for six weeks on the Interislander Ferry Aratere. This is designed to simulate the voyage taken in the 1880s from England to India and will impart a strong oak flavour to the beer, due to the small size of the virgin barrels.

If you’d like to taste the fruit of this epic journey, you’ll need to come to New Zealand’s premier beer festival: Beervana. The two barrels will be tapped and their contents made available to taste for those in the know.

Beervana will be held on 28 and 29 August at Wellington Town hall, and will cost $25 for entry.

Get your tickets from ticketek now and see how it all ends.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please e-mail me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

Op uw gezondheid! This Tuesday is time to celebrate Nationale Feestdag. Like my predecessor Neil, I much rather prefer to celebrate Nationale Feestdag over St. Patrick’s Day. Never heard of the ‘dag before? Nationale Feestdag is the national day of my favourite beer producing country, Belgium.

Every year on 21 July the Belgians celebrate the coronation of their first monarch, King Leopold I. What a good excuse for us to celebrate everything Belgian—chocolate and high gravity beers come to mind. Sounds better than drinking pints of Guinness and wearing green to me!

My beer adventures have yet to take me to the country itself, but my taste buds have made the journey many times with a number of memorable beers. But I bet I know what comes to mind first for most of you when Belgian beer is mentioned: Stella Artois (5.2%).

This ‘premium lager’ claims to have hundreds of years of brewing experience behind it, which I find a bit hard to swallow. The stuff we drink from 12 packs and kegs is created en masse in an Auckland megabrewery. Luckily, this only applies to the majority of Stella Artois in this country. If you are after the real deal this Tuesday, pick up a 750mL bottle. These are genuinely imported from Leuven, and taste better for it.

An authentic Stella still has the familiar grassy hops in its aroma and flavour, but less of that awful skunkiness and a hint of candy sweetness, which yields a more balanced beer.

Perhaps the second most recognisable Belgian brand after Stella Artois is Leffe. The Leffe range is classed as abbey beer, as they are created in abbeys to the recipe and tradition of the ancient monastery. Unlike Trappist beers however, the monks no longer play a part in the brewing of the beer.

Leffe Blonde (6.6%) is an excellent yet cheap ($4–$5) example of what flavours Belgian yeast develop. Overall a sweet tasting beer, but with a small bitter bite and wonderful clove and coriander flavours.

To finish your Feestdag on a high note, end the night with a Duvel (8.5%). Be very cautious when pouring this beer, it will explode into a massive white head. No amount of glass tilting can prevent this, so go with the flow and you’ll get a perfect ½ beer, ½ head pour. Beneath this cloud of foam lies a devil of a beer. Expect a strong, crisp, bitter flavour, dusted with herbs and candy sweetness with a nice warm alcohol finish.

All of these beers are widely available at good supermarkets and bottle stores. So there’s no excuse not to skip some study and appreciate all the good things that come out of Belgium, and not a mechanised factory in Auckland.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please e-mail me.

Over the break I have been conducting extensive research on your behalf into the many newly released craft beers. In fact, I write this column from Dunedin where I have been tasting some of the freshest beer possible. Dunedin is known as ‘Emerson’s country’ in the beer industry, as Emerson’s dominates their beerscape. The newest beer from Emerson’s released over the break is a spiced Belgian Dubbel, with a bit of history.

Since 2007, Emerson’s Brewery has released a Belgian style brew once each year under the moniker ‘JP’. Like many Emerson’s beers, this name has some history. JP is the nickname of ‘Jean Pierre-Dufour’, who was an Otago University professor who sadly passed away in 2007. Coming from Belgium, he had a passion for the diversity of Belgian beer styles and did much to advance the New Zealand craft beer industry.

Jean gave the Emerson’s brewery a lot of advice and feedback about their beers over the years, and to honour this great man the JP annual release was born. The Belgian Dubbel style, has been given some of Emerson’s pizzazz by adding the cinnamon-like star anise spice to the brew.

The beer pours almost black with ruby edges. The brown head is quite frothy and dissipates quickly. Fruity aromas are foremost, dark fruits/berries. The anise spice is also quite strong—Richard Emerson must love brewing with those spices. It smells similar to Taieri George, but fruitier. However, the flavour is completely different to the George. Initially a mouth-filling astringency overcomes, possibly the alcohol showing. Warming flavours of aniseed and dark berries, then followed by a faint roast malt. The finish is quite long, and astringent. I’m not sure I like the big alcohol flavour in this one, it takes away from the drinkability quite a lot. But this should mellow out with time.

A Food Science Student Scholarship was established by Emerson’s, and sales of JP assist in the funding of this.

The yeast used in this year’s vintage is the same used in the 2007 brew. This Chimay yeast relinquished some amazing flavours after about a year. The 2009 JP is still very young, and will improve significantly after a few months. Good things take time…

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com

You can find shit beer everywhere. All super­markets and bottle stores will stock a fine selection of utterly bland brews, masquerading as imports but usually fresh from Auckland. However, to find a real beer you have to look a bit harder.

We’re lucky here in Wellington to have some of the country’s leading craft beer stockists, which I’ve mentioned a few times in my columns thus far. So this time I’m going to take a look at the where to find and enjoy a good beer, rather than the beers themselves.

Perhaps the best known venue for a good beer is the Malthouse on Courtenay Place. The Malthouse’s prime location makes it quite popular, so it is usually packed after 6pm on most nights. Being a small place it can get pretty cramped on a Saturday night, so I’d recommend visiting in the afternoon when the atmosphere is great for a pint with friends.

Their range is quite overwhelming, with 22 taps and 6 fridges of varying temperatures, but their knowledgeable staff are always on hand to help you select the perfect beer for whatever mood you’re in. Then you can relax on one of the many couches and drink up. Oh, and guys—check out the urinals.

Tucked away upstairs at 143 Featherston St, D4 is a relatively new bar/restaurant which stocks a large range of boutique beers. Other than the beer list, my favourite thing about D4 is the textured wallpaper—it’s awesome! Besides making me stroke the wall, it helps create the very classy atmosphere that exists at D4. Their 14 taps are complimented by a fine selection of New Zealand craft beer bottles, which ex-Salient beer writer Neil Miller helped select for the owner.

One of D4’s taps is a guest tap which changes each month, giving you a reason to keep coming back. Oh, the food’s good too.

If you’re after something to take home, then Regional Wines and Spirits is the place to go. The main reason for a student to visit Regional has to be the 11 ‘fill your own’ taps of New Zealand craft beer available. FYO is the cheapest way to buy great beer, as you’re filling a reusable plastic bottle and not paying for packaging or labeling. This is the place to go to find new, rare and excellent beers from all over the world, from Namibia to New Zealand.

The very friendly and educated staff will help you with anything you need.

Pretty much every beer I review will be available here, which might give you an indication of the sheer size of their selection. I urge you to get down to the Basin Reserve and check it out.

So now you know about these places, get out there and have a look. I might see you there.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

I know, technically it’s not winter yet. But the wind and rain that has been threatening to blow my house over these past weeks begs to differ. It’s crap weather like this that calls for a warming winter beer while you huddle under a blanket, hiding from that dreaded flu.

Winter beers are typically darker than your usual lager, which gives them roasted malt flavours like chocolate, coffee, dark berries and other such wintery fare. The ‘warmer’ part of winter beers comes from a typically high alcohol content, which we all know can numb you to the cold, among other things.

On a recent frigid trip down Courtenay Place I found myself at the Malthouse, as I often do, to warm up from the inside out. I spied a newly released Three Boys Oyster Stout (6.2%) and was sold. Oysters in a stout, you ask? Apparently stout was once prescribed by doctors as an invigorating tonic, and brewers added oysters for their other enticing properties. The boys at Three Boys have thrown genuine Bluff Oysters in their most robust stout offering. This pitch-black beer has enormous roast malt character, with comforting chocolate jumping out of the glass at you. The noticeable alcohol content drives in flavours of coffee which warms your innards. But it doesn’t taste like oysters, don’t worry. Perhaps a rich stout is too much for your palate? Well Emersons Dunkelweiss (6.3%) will most certainly go down a treat. ‘Dunkel’ means ‘dark’ in German, so Dunkelweiss is a dark style of German wheat beer. The roasted malts used give this beer a chocolate flavour which complements the sweet banana flavour of wheat beer. When I first tasted this beer I likened it to a chocolate banana split—the ladies will love this one. The alcohol gives it a bit of bite, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing during winter.

If a 500mL bottle won’t fight off the frostbite, then I’d recommend a 6 pack of Cascade Stout (5.8%). Being an Australian brew, I didn’t expect much. But I’ll try any beer once, so I picked up a six pack from my local supermarket. This remarkable value stout has much of the same strong coffee and chocolate roast malt flavours as the Three Boys offering but pulls it off much more smoothly. This is good because you’d struggle to get through six of them otherwise. I highly recommend this beer over these coming winter months.

These can all be found at Regional Wines and Spirits and at the Malthouse, so brave the cold and get warmed.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Tuatara Brewery with a group of like-minded beer enthusiasts from the ‘Society Of Beer Advocates’ (SOBA). Upon arrival I was given a glass, and a free range over four taps from the Tuatara range. These were the Porter, Ardennes, Hefe and, the latest release, Helles.

Naturally, I took full advantage of the generosity of brewer Carl Vista and his crew and thoroughly investigated the beers.

Tuatara London Porter (5%) was being served on hand pump, which means no carbonation was added—all the fizz was created by our friend yeast. Also, it is only slightly chilled so was probably at 10°C when it reached my lips. The warmer temperature allowed the roast flavour of the malt to dominate and, being lightly carbonated, I tasted dark fruits far stronger than I have previously. Tuatara London Porter is available on hand pump at D4 and Malthouse.

The Belgian-styled Tuatara Ardennes (6.5%) was my main tipple of the afternoon. Perhaps this was not the wisest idea as it’s Tuatara’s strongest brew, but I’m always a sucker for a Belgian.

Belgian yeast characterises the fruity flavour, with clove and rich caramel making this one quite sweet. Never fear though, as hops make a good showing and balance out this excellent brew.

Tuatara Hefe (5%) is their interpretation of the unfiltered German wheat beer style Hefeweizen. ‘Hefe’ is German for ‘yeast’ and this brew contains a lot of it. This yeast causes the beer to be very cloudy. It was described as “banana juice” by one SOBA member, which might give you an idea of how strong the banana and bubblegum flavours, typical of this style, come through. There is some caramel malt to balance and it ends up being a highly palatable brew. Bound to be a hit with the ladies.

Tuatara Helles (5%) is the latest addition to Tuatara’s range. Released two weeks ago, this beer is designed to introduce the ‘average Joe’ drinker to the Tuatara brand by not being too intimidating with its flavour. Helles is a subtle style, and this interpretation is true to its name. It tastes very mainstream, with a grainy malt flavour that kiwis love. Perhaps bringing this brew up a notch is the subtle influences of hops providing a light and bitter flavour. Look out for this one at Malthouse and Regional Wines and Spirits on tap, and in bottles soon.

Serene beers brewed in a serene location, the Tuatara range can be trusted for a quality beer every time.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com

A prime example of this is the use of glassware when enjoying said beverage. Now of course it’s not surprising to see someone drinking cold fizzy lager from the bottle, just as it’s unsurprising to see a Chardon bottle being sucked on. But when I see someone drinking a finely crafted beer from the bottle, it baffles me.

Like wine, a lot of enjoyment of beer can come from the aroma. I can spend minutes with my nose in a glass taking in the wonderfully diverse scents. Drinking from a bottle, you will never fully experience the work that goes in to craft beer.

Aroma isn’t the only thing that should prompt you to pour your beer. With some styles of beer it is essential to pour it or you’ll miss out on a good chunk of the flavour.

Unfiltered wheat beers, such as Hoegaarden, taste like half a beer if not poured correctly. Being unfiltered, a lot of flavourful yeast remains in the beer. When bottled, this yeast sediment settles to the bottom and to get the full flavour it must be mixed when pouring. When the sediment is mixed it provides body to the beer and brings out much stronger flavours.

A properly poured Hoegaarden (5%) will give you a mouthful of orange peel and coriander flavour, with a perfect candy sweetness to round it off. The two methods I use to mix the sediment are:

1) Before opening, turn the bottle upside down and twist.

2) Pouring two-thirds of the beer from the bottle, then vigorously swirl the remainder and pour.

The latter step is essential, as it mixes the sediment evenly and creates a big fluffy head—traditional in wheat beer.

Not all sediment is good though, as in the case of strong bottle fermented beers. You won’t find these in your average bottle store. Chimay White (8%) is a fine example of bottle fermented beer, and is quite common.

When poured correctly, this Belgian Tripel is brimming with citrus and clove flavours, a subtle sweetness and lingering bitterness.

Bottle fermented beers like this have had live yeast left in the bottle, where it continues to ferment the beer. Once its job is complete, the yeast drops to the bottom. This yeast tends to mask the flavour of the beer if poured, so is best avoided.

To prevent pouring yeast, ensure the bottle has rested upright for a few hours, then slowly pour the beer in one movement, leaving about 1cm in the bottom. The majority of the yeast will remain.

If I see another person drinking Hoegaarden from a bottle, I’m going to confiscate it and then pour it myself. You’ll thank me for it later.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

The hop flower is actually a relative of marijuana and grows on vines. In New Zealand, hops are primarily grown just outside of Nelson in a town called Riwaka. It is currently hop harvesting season, where the hop vines are fed into massive machines designed to remove the valuable hop cones from the vine. They are then kilned to keep them fresh till they reach the brew kettle. Two breweries have taken advantage of the abundance of fresh hops and have each created a beer which both showcase the remarkable and intense flavours possible with the generous use of hops.

First to get to the hops was Mac’s Brewery of Wellington. Brewer Ally Clem and beer writer Neil Miller drove from Wellington in a dodgy rental car to be in Riwaka to participate in the first hop picking. They grabbed the hops before they got to the kiln, and drove straight back to Wellington where the 200kg of fresh green hops were used in this year’s Mac’s Brewjolais (5.5%).

An American Pale Ale, the beer has little on the nose but makes up for it in the flavour. The beer has a strong hop character, with resiny hop bitterness coating the mouth. The hops contribute flavours of passionfruit and citrus which are well balanced with caramely malt. This is available at Shed 22 Brewery Bar and The Craftsman on Courtenay Place.

Richard Emerson of Emersons Brewery also visited the Riwaka hop fields and spied a pile of hops fresh from the kiln. He grabbed two varieties and used them in his latest once-off ‘Brewers Reserve’ brew, Harvest Fresh Hop Ale (5.3%). Unlike Brewjolais, Hop Harvest sports a powerful hop aroma of grapefruit and apricot. The flavour is packed with hop character, it’s so full of citrus you could think you’re drinking grapefruit juice. Disappointingly, there is little to balance the souped-up hops, meaning it won’t go down as easily. The only place you’ll find this in Wellington is Regional Wines and Spirits, so check it out.

Hops are to beer are like grapes to wine—they provide flavour and aroma. They are also the most expensive ingredient, which may explain why mainstream beers generally have about 1 hop cone per pint. Many more are required to get the flavour out of the hops, which the above beers achieve beautifully. Get out there and try them.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please e-mail me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com

Radler is a style of beer which originated in Germany during the 1920s. It was created when the cyclists of the time decided they needed to drink beer and still be able to compete afterwards. The solution was mixing half lemonade with half lager. The mix was perfect for the cyclists and was named ‘Radler’—the German word for cyclist. We know it more commonly as ‘Shandy’. The resulting beer was generally half strength, around 2.5%, thirst quenching and sweet.

The issue arose for Green Man when they released their Radler in October last year. Unbeknownst to them, Dominion Breweries (DB) had acquired the trademark for the word ‘Radler’. So Green Man went ahead and invested around $50,000 in the beer, only to have DB’s lawyers pay them a visit and demand they change the name of their Radler to something else. As a result, Green Man’s $50,000 investment went down the drain—money a small brewery can’t afford.

DB’s Monteiths Radler (5%) is everywhere and is the reason for the trademark. It is not even true to the Radler style—making DB’s claim to the word even more outrageous. It is a full-strength lager mixed with lemon and lime flavoured syrup, resulting in a beer twice the strength of the style it claims to be. So why did IPONZ grant DB the trademark for this beer style? DB didn’t invent it, in fact, they have as much right to own the word ‘Radler’ as any winery has the right to own the word Chardonnay! And while they were at it, they snapped up the ‘Saison’ beer style as well—a unique style from Belgium/France which we can no longer import because DB own the word. Thanks, DB.

I’m ranting now, but this is an issue that goes beyond beer. IPONZ gave DB the trademark to this word because of a lack of knowledge about beer, and set a precedent in doing so. I think I’ll go out and try to trademark another German word: ‘Lager’. Why not? This is a case of a big brewery bullying a small competitor, using trademark protection as an excuse. A trademark that they shouldn’t have in the first place.

I’m boycotting all DB products to protest—not that that it’ll be hard to give up Tui. I hope others will join myself and beer lovers to protest this injustice.

Necessity, not creativity, was the mother of creation for a lot of Belgian strong beers. In 1919, Belgian politicians decided it would be a great idea to stop the sale of higher alcohol drinks. Luckily, beer was excluded from this law. So the Belgian brewers took it upon themselves to fill this new gap in the market and were more than happy to invent highly alcoholic beer. This law wasn’t repealed until 1983, so brewers had many decades to refine their strong ales.

De Dolle Oerbier (9%) has what looks like a gingerbread man cartoon on the label, and a polka dot bow tie across the neck of its bottle – just like your 4-year-old cousin at a wedding. The beer, however, has obviously had more than 4 years development. Before it even touches your lips you know you’re drinking a strong beer. The fruity aromas jump out at you, even if you’re not paying attention. In the mouth you get a generous helping of plums and similar dark fruits, and no hint of the strength except the happy, tingly feeling in the back of your head.

Delirium Tremens’ (8.5%) cute and crazy bottle stands out a mile: five pink elephants, two marching alligators and two pink dragons all adorn an imitation ceramic bottle on a bright, baby-blue background. The flavour stands out as well. Tremens’ has plenty of herb character and a fair amount of spice and cloves, but she remains sweet, balanced and incredibly drinkable. Careful though, this one will make you deliriously drunk faster than you realise.

The label of Hoegaarden Verboden Vrucht (8.5%) has seen the beer banned from the USA, as it was deemed too ‘shocking’. The label depicts a Rubens painting of Adam and Eve – in the nudie. Well, you can see boob, but the naughty bits are covered by those annoying censor leaves. As the name ‘Forbidden Fruit’ suggests, this beer is quite fruity. Dark berries and plum fruits mainly, but they have a well-spiced malty background, making this quite a mouthful.

So it’s all thanks to those delirious Belgian politicians for forbidding the sale of strong spirits and allowing local brewers to create such strong innovative beer.

Too many times I hear people say “I don’t like beer,” only to discover that the only beers they’ve tried are Tui, Export, Heineken and the like.

I don’t blame people for disliking shit beers like those—I don’t like them either. But judging all beer from a few watery lagers is like having a $6 bottle of Chardon and shunning all wines based on the cheapest thing around. Although this may seem ridiculous, there are almost as many varieties of beer available as there are wines.

This week, I will suggest a better beer equivalent for the other common forms of alcohol. Beer can be very versatile with its flavour. Brewers can make beer using just about anything, which means it can taste like just about anything.

For the fruity RTD drinker, I’d suggest a Lambic fruit beer. I’ve put some of my lady friends onto Timmermans Framboise (4%), and they just loved it—probably because it is sweet, easy to drink and tastes like liquidised fresh raspberries. It’s almost like an incredibly fruity raspberry cocktail.

If you’re a fan of bourbon/whiskey & cola, I’ve got the beer for you. Renaissance Stonecutter Scotch Ale (7%) has the strength and boldness of flavour that bourbon and whiskey have, and adds to it. This one has a whole lot of whiskey character to it—the sweetness and strength of flavour are there, but it adds a smokiness which sets everything else off.

If you’re a white wine drinker, I’d recommend you try a Geuze Lambic. The latest Geuze I sampled was Oude Beersel Oude Geuze and it reminded me very much of a dry white wine. This Geuze has the fruitiness and dryness of a white wine, but adds a sourness—achieved by blending old and young beers. It has even been touted as the sparkling white wine of the ale world.

There are even more insane flavours that can be achieved in beer, like smoked bacon or spicy chilli—but I’ll leave those for another week. My point is—don’t say you don’t like beer, because you are wrong. You don’t like shit beer, and neither do I.

In the 1840s, the pale ale was a popular style of beer in both England and the British colonies alike. It was particularly popular among East India Company traders, and ales were exported to India, spending months in casks during the voyage. Upon arrival in India, the settlers found that ales which had a larger helping of hops were far tastier than the typical English ales. The demand at the colonies exploded as a result, and well-hopped pale ales which were brewed to last the trip adopted the prefix ‘India’.

Perhaps to cash-in on this rich history, Tui markets itself as an ‘East India Pale Ale’. This title is ridiculous. Considering ‘ale’ is in the name, you’d expect the beer to be an ale. But you’d be wrong. Tui is, in fact, a lager. False advertising anyone?

Semantics aside, the main thing that pisses me off about Tui’s IPA claim is that the beer’s flavour has no resemblance to the style.

The only similarity between Tui (4%) and a traditional IPA is the amber colour, which is achieved by using slightly roasted sweet crystal malt. Tui’s aroma is sweet and dirty—basically it smells like someone has farted in my glass. The flavour is weak at best, but what I can taste is sweet, funky and unpleasant. Hops should be the main flavour in an IPA, yet the single trace of hops appears only briefly at the finish of this.

Luckily for us the English still remember how to make an authentic IPA, and Burton Bridge Empire ale (7.5%) is probably the closest thing you’ll get to what they were drinking in the Indian colonies. First, it’s an ale! Imagine that! Hops are strong in all aspects of this beer, and it will keep for years. The nose is full of fruity hops, yet the subtle malt character brings through a touch of spice. The flavour is immense—bitter, fruity hops explode in your mouth, followed by a spicy, bready note which reminds me of a spiced pudding. I can’t really describe the myriad of flavours in this beer; suffice to say it puts that Tui crap to shame.

So now when you’re drinking Tui, you’ll know that what you have is a lager. It is most definitely not an IPA.

And this is what it’s all about to us Kiwis, we don’t really want to know about the Catholic saint. Simply wearing green and drinking (at least) a pint of the ‘good stuff’ will do us. Which is fine. According to our friend Wikipedia, ‘Guinness is good for you’ as it contains antioxidants that help prevent heart disease and is high in iron.

But St Patrick’s Day is also is a day when New Zealanders shun our weak watery local lagers and consume something with a little more depth, and I’ll drink to that.

I’ll drink Guinness Draught (4.1%), that is. The first thing that makes Guinness Draught stand out is its smooth, creamy head. This is achieved by using nitrogen gas in the keg instead of CO2, which creates much smaller bubbles, and looks awesome when it’s settling in the glass as some bubbles travel downwards. The taste is suitably rich and roasted for a stout, with coffee-like notes and subtle dark fruit flavours. The only thing that turns me off with Guinness is how it feels so watery in the mouth—to me a stout should be silky smooth and full bodied.

But never fear. Guinness produces more than one beer. The only other variety available in Wellington is Guinness Special Export (8%), and what a beer it is! This Guinness is created for the Belgian market, which probably explains its strength. This high alcohol content really helps push through the flavours, making for an intense mouthful. It’s like an amplified Guinness Draught, with the coffee now filling the mouth and dark fruits making much more of a showing. Special Export feels silky in the mouth, and coats it with roasted flavours—like a stout should!

So if you find yourself near Regional Wines or Malthouse on St Paddy’s day, try something special and have a Guinness Special Export. See for yourself what a real stout tastes like.

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please e-mail me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

Being an organic brewery can severely impair your selection of brewing ingredients, as the range of organically grown hops and malts are limited. Yet almost all of New Zealand’s organic brews are of the highest quality and, in some instances, world leaders.

Emerson’s Pilsener is one of these leaders. It has been at the top of the pilsener style for quite some time now, have one sip of this impressive beer and you’ll understand why. The fruity organic Nelson Saaz hops jump out of the glass at you, bathing your nose in grapefruit and hops. The flavour is somewhat bitter, but balanced beautifully with sweet passionfruit and malt.

Fair Maiden Pale Ale is the newest beer from Founders Organic Brewery. Situated in a historic park in Nelson, Founders Brewery produces only organic beers crafted by a family team consisting of John Duncan and his two sons. Fair Maiden is a New Zealand Pale Ale with strong hops, making for a passionfruit aroma. Staying true to its style, this girl tastes very hoppy, with the passionfruit translating into the flavour, and smooth caramel malt underlying it all.

Green Man Stout is unlike the beer you probably think of when you hear the word ‘stout’. Crafted at Green Man in Dunedin, just around the corner from Emersons, this brewery prides itself on creating a wide range of purely organic beers. Their stout is a fine example of how a stout is supposed to taste. A rich espresso-like bitterness fills the mouth, balanced with the sweetness of the four malts used. This silky beer slides down the throat and begs for more. At 7% alcohol by volume, it’ll keep you happy.

If you’re a true hippie you’ll care for the environment too, and luckily there are ways to reduce the impact of your organic adventures. Emerson’s Pilsener and Fair Maiden are available in riggers at Regional Wines and Spirits. Riggers remove the need for packaging, are re-usable and are also the cheapest way to buy these two brews. Green Man is dedicated to creating a ‘sustainable’ organic brewery, so have organised a bottle return scheme. Through SmartBottles you can send empty cartons and bottles back to the brewery for re-use. Go planet!

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please email me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com.

But with so much crap already ahead of you this year, why would you add shit beer to that list? The typical student attitude towards beer is ‘more beer is better’. I go with the philosophy of ‘better beer is better’. It is my hope that I can help steer you away from the typical Tui dozen and give you a leg up to the next level of quality beer.

The disadvantage of my philosophy is that better beers tend to cost considerably more than your average six pack. To follow this philosophy during O-Week would be more than the average student’s pocket can handle. So I’ll steer away from the boutique beers this week and focus on beers that taste great – but won’t cost (much) more than your average dozen. All of these beers are $12 or less per half dozen (or equivalent).

Gisborne Gold is a reasonably priced beer with a few surprises. When I first saw the logo, reminiscent of Speight’s, I expected something similar. What I tasted however, is a crisp golden lager with a nicely hopped aroma and refreshingly bitter flavour. Available in bottles, but much cheaper in 2L riggers from Regional Wines and Spirits.

Bavaria 8.6 is a good option for those looking for something stronger but not wanting to venture into RTDs. Specially created for the French market, this sweet malty beer, sometimes called a “malt liquor”, will make you feel happy quicker than most beers. Probably due to the 7.9% alcohol volume and 500mL cans. This is one of the more tolerable of the malt liquors in the world and avoids the usual strong alcohol flavour.

Mac’s Hop Rocker Pilsener is one of my favourite of the Czech pilsener style of beer. Pilsener style beers tend to have a strong hop character, achieved by a later addition of hops during the boil. Mac’s Hop Rocker has strong citrus fruit and grape aromas, and tastes full of grapefruit and lemon zest. Grab a six pack of this if you see it on special, because I said so.

So when you’re orientating yourself stupid this week, do it with a tasty brew in your glass (yes, please use a glass!).

If you have any questions about this week’s beers or any comments, please e-mail me at davethebeerguy@gmail.com