What are you drinking ?

[jt]

Ok, so What Are You Brewing was a hotty, as topics go.

Now I'm 15 pints into a keg I only filled on Tuesday and wondering if anyone else has a favourite at the moment ?

It's my second brown with US-Oh05 and it's better than the forst, maybe Ikept the temps down a bit during the scorcher we had in januray

[Greig McGill]

I'd be interested to hear how it went too. Obviously I couldn't go, being in Hamilton, but went to last years as I happened to be down that way. It corrected my image of Moa. I'd previously found them overpriced and underdelivering on flavour. All marketing, no substance. Afterwards, I found myself seeking them out, and while still cringing a bit at the high prices, not feeling quite so stung when drinking the beers.

[Steph]

We tasted the full range and I must say, I didn't quite realise how many beers they did. It was interesting to hear that their 375 ml bottles are treated differently to the 750 ml meaning that they essentially double the range. The 750 mls are made with in the methode champagne style - essentially bottle conditioned, racked and rolled. The top is frozen, discarded and they are topped up. Suspect this adds somewhat to the price. Also interesting to hear that they export over 60% of their beers tacked on to the Allan Scott wines.

We had Weka, Blanc, Original, Harvest, Noir, 5 Hops, St Joseph and a cask conditioned St Joseph. The Weka was a decent lager. I am not a huge lager fan but would definitely buy it on special (but with Moore Wilson always selling Epic cheap, my loyalties are elsewhere). It had a nice crisp bitterness and was a good starter for the evening. The Original won out as my fav and I was impressed by the head. Really fine, tight bubbles that held and laced well even in the wine tadting glasses. Had a good creamy mouth-feel as well. The rest were OK. I'd choose other beers at the price with the exception of the St Joseph. Drunk a bit more of it on Thursday and even the young stuff was dam tasty.

I think the worst for me on the eve was the 5 Hops. It seemed to have both some marmalaide and marmite flavours. It seemed a little weird and incohesive (according to my notes)!! It is actually made of 3 hops and 2 yeasts!! I was disappointed that the Harvest used cherry extract, esp after hearing the efforts Emerson's went to to make the Cherry Brown Ale. It was prob my second fav of the evening though as I seem to have a liking for a dry cherry beer.

Glad to go to the tasting as I prob wouldn't have been able to try all their beers like that for the price!! There was a lot of discussion about whether they were pushing hard enough as a craft brewery given the price of their beers. The suggestion being that they should do something more interesting. Maybe the 750 ml bottles do that. Would still like to try them one day when I win lotto.

And off to the Beer Fest today. Looking forward to try the Waiheke range as we don't get it here in Welly - shock, gasp!! And Maurie Bennett says he has a grapefruit beer!?! They weather is crap so am hoping Luke lets us hang out in his tent!

[Beer_ledgend]

Have fun at the show, look forward to your report on the Waiheke beers :)

Chris

[David Nicholls]

Hi Steph, thanks for the feedback re the tasting. Unfortunately I was tied to the brewery brewing to meet demand (as I am still!) hence why I had to send Jacob.

I designed Weka as a "bridging beer" to help our more mainstream drinkers enter the world of craft beer. While reasonably bitter at 32-34 IBU, I have gone easy on the late hopping (hence why some people think it is less bitter than what it is analysed at). So far so good as sales are fantastic.

St Josephs is a fun beer to make (and drink). Its all about yeast flavours and this one has definite multiple personalities and it sure changes over time. Some prefer it fresh and others like it with a touch of age.

Appreciate your comments re 5 Hop, it is not a beer for all palates. Interestingly it was the most popular beer over the two nights followed closely by St Josephs (when the oak aged and fresh samples were combined). It is a big food friendly beer (try it with roast lamb shanks and black currant sauce or aged cheddar).
Maybe the technical date was lost a little in translation but it uses one yeast only, 5 malts (pils, crystal, munich vienna and a pale wheat) and 5 hops (3 varieties, 2 in both pellet and cone form).

Using the natural cherry extract in Harvest has been a compromise as using soley sweet cherries failed to give us the target flavour.

Are we pushing the boundaries hard enough.....all I can say is watch this space for a few new releases for this Autumn/Winter (if I can get on top of our stock shortages!)

Hope this helps elaborate on a few of your comments.

Cheers
Dave Nicholls

[Steph]

hey Dave, Thanks. All interesting stuff. I vote for the aged St Joseph. It features in the glass on a party invite I made up the other day for an afternoon BBQ as I was enjoying it so much.

Am sure I will give the 5 Hops another go esp if I can do so with lamb or cheddar. Not sure if 2x the smae hops in different forms counts but after your kind offer, wont argue!!

Appreciate you writing back. I know the people the post on the site are always encouraging of brewers getting in amongst it (me included).

I was sad to see Waiheke were not at the Welly beer fest. Thank goodness for Epic Croucher and Tuatara (Beer NZ and Harringtons). The rest was lager boy paradise. And, the grapefruit beer was bloody awful. Even the Beer and Brewer review said it has nothing in it that could be compared to beer!!

[Stu McKinlay]

Nally's Cider and Emerson's Bookbinder on b-day (Thursday)
Plenty of homebrew (including the Imperial PKB, The Darker Days of Malt and Hop) and single malt (Balvenie 21yo Port Wood, Glenfiddich 18yo, Macallan Elegancia, The Glenlivet French Oak Reserve) on Friday evening. The baby's head was well and truly wet.
Moa Original and Emerson's Old 95 (a good one) last night... first night at home with the wee fella.

[Bambule]

Hey Stu, Congrats!
Opened bottle 4 the other night, fairly sure it was the brune. I know this as it reminded me of Leffe brune, the only other one of ever tried, and it compared favourably. The blended beer wasn't bad at all by the way, if anything it had a slightly intimidating nose on it but once you got into it, quite complex and warming. Certainly worth keeping.
Had last night at the malthouse culminating in an Aventinus and a dash for the train.... and now babysitting today. Putting on a brave face and feeling unrepentant!

[jt]

So all went well then Stu, congrats to the lot of you.
Any name yet, as wee fella wasn't capitalised I'm guessing that's not his intended name :-)

[Stu McKinlay]

You're a good guesser JT. Sonny Lennox McKinlay is his name. Looking at the torrential rain out the window now I'm glad it is sunny inside.

[MrC]

Congrats on the new arrival Stu. Hope everyone is well. Cheers.

[Stu McKinlay]

Yep, it's all good thanks Mr Cherry. Sonny's sleeping like a baby and I'm about crack a Fuller's Vintage 2008 (it was that or the 2005 Taieri George but something made me hold back on the old fella to go with the Fuller).

[jt]

umm, it wasn't exactly rocket science Stu.

Raising a Blande Mk IV to the healthy arrival, what day was it and how do the boys like having a brother ?

Blande Mk IV Hallertau ale hit the tap warm last night. Hopped up to around 70% of OG and a gram / litre dry hopped, compared to 65% or so for MK III though it wasn't that evident warm.
Tastes more like it tonight after 24 hours of chilling and gas and it's got a really good lemon / lime aspect, rather radlery so I'm of to get the lederhosen and funny hat out ;-)