Realbeer 2010 top beers

[Father]

Well I am completely in awe......

Epic Armageddon 1st

Epic Pale Ale 2nd

Little Creatures 3rd

Emerson's Pilsner 12th

Emerson's Bookbinder 28th

Mr G's Luncheon Ale 44th

Mr G's Luncheon Ale - 44th - voted in the top three ales in the UK against competition we could not ever hope to ever annihilate - Forty bloody forth.... Not to mention the other ales ....

Emersons ales 12th best placing....nice.... this rates well with the professional judging in 2010.

So So representative of both sales and judging....

Heck Emersons, Galbraiths, Three Boys, Invercargill, Mussel Inn etc..must have it all wrong......  ;-)

Chris

[Greig McGill]

Meh, it's ratebeer. I've never put much stock in anything as subjective as top ten lists, and especially not from sites where the newest and most hyped beers will always scoop the quiet performers. Mr G's was a great beer, but it was never going to have the "knock your socks off" factor of Armageddon. Maybe in two years, when NZ is bored with mega hoppy IPAs (I know, wash my mouth out), the quiet achievers, the perfect beers, will start to shine through.

For now though, I think it's an evolution. You can't rate Armageddon against Mr. G's. They just share no commonality beyond both being beers. They are both excellent examples of what the brewers were attempting though, and I guess of the sample "people who got to taste them and rated them on ratebeer" Armageddon just did so much better. Makes sense really, since it is a "wow" beer, brewed to be agressive, and was also available nationwide, and in Australia; as opposed to Mr G's which saw limited release at Galbraiths, and was taken off (much to Ian's disappointment) because Kiwis (or perhaps just Aucklanders) had no idea what they were supposed to do with a low alcohol, flavoursome, lunchtime bitter.

To me, the only ranking which would be meaningful would be results at competitions. Less subjective, trained judges, and beers presented in (as much as possible) optimum conditions. Not to detract at all from the excellent beers making up the ratebeer top ten, but really, it is *just* ratebeer and you know what they say about opinions. This has been mine. :)

[Simon David kelly]

I know what to do with a low alcohol, flavoursome lunchtime bitter .... involves a lot of elbow raising ...

[Stu McKinlay]

Father... Yeastie Boys PKB was third so your mate down the road (in Invercargill) is doing something right ;-) Just to prove that ratebeer isn't "rigged"... It also won a trophy in a hotly contested class judged by 'real' judges, it won a trophy voted on by thousands of people who love (or are at least intrigued by) beer... the "remix" version of it sold out in a day (even though a well known craft beer distributor had once remarked "Whose great ieda was it to release a 6.66% stout in summer?").... Ratebeer isn't all wrong. But it's not all that right either!!

Anyways.... I can't figure out how they're picking the best of 2010 when we're only a month in!

I kind of suspect that this list is made up of new ratings added in 2009 by people who live in the country that the beer is made. It's hard to tell because they don't clearly say.

Look at a list of the best beers in the world... they're all Imperial Stouts. Imperial Stouts are the only thing more over rated than IIPAs.

[Mike Neilson]

IIPA and IStouts Over Rated? Stu wash your mouth out your polluting my eyes!!

[Stu McKinlay]

OK, if you insist. I'll wash it out with Mark Kessell's Smoke Stout when I get home.

[Mike Neilson]

Yes I insist and I insist I will also drink it tonight!!

[Stu McKinlay]

Further Father... FWIW, I had a Bourbon Porter last night. My last one. It's a great beer, and one of my favourite NZ beers of all time.


And that's saying something because I reckon barrel-aged beers are almost as over-rated as IIPAs and Imperial Stouts!!

I might go brew a Barrel-aged Black IIPA now.

[Father]

Ahem,

That late at night I misread it and in my mind saw RealBeer2010 not RateBeer2010 !! Useless.

Even so you're right a 2010 best list and its February..... Luke loving to spin things eh.

Sorry did I misread that PKB was third? I was sure it was Little Creatures...... Must have been the whisky, must have been the gin..... there's a song in there somewhere isnt there?

Chris

[Stu McKinlay]

I was looking at whisky late last night... and feel all the better for not touching it!


While you're here... any tips on what are we going to see from Emerson's in 2010?

[Father]

Tips - you dont need tips Stu - nothing wrong with your beer I just dont get to see too many tasting samples turning up at my place of work :-)

Oh sorry you mean what can i let out on what we're up to this year? Well keeping up with sales is the hardest thing at the moment. We're running at 100% and this makes it hard to think beyond the basics but.....what I can tell you is the next brewers reserve will get you in a lot of trouble - think of the pilsner on steriods.... the following one will be a little more golden ale like in character... a real summer ale dare I say it?

Taieri George is conditioning as we speak - its smelling damn beautiful when you walk in the brewery first thing in the morning. JP recipe is being worked on by Richie and myself - he's got himself a wee 200 litre pilot plant so god help our livers with tasting the results of his R&D brew sessions..... The JP will be trialled extensively on this little kit and we'll have plenty of time to develop a cracker. As you know each year the style is completely different to the previous years - but it will always be bottle conditioned and always play on the fact that the our Belgian colleagues break the rules.

Okay how about Yeastie Boys - fess up young man

Oh by the way I had a great haggis at my place on Sunday, bagpipes, a proper haggis addressing and plenty of lowland single malt! Call me MacLeary

Chris

[Stu McKinlay]

Father Macleary
I've been sending lots of samples... you need to check under the desk in the boss's office. Lots of empty bottles I reckon. Still, Tonic is a good tonic when samples aren't around.

This year we'll play some more with Belgian yeast ourselves (Plan K sparked something very strongly in me), we'll have a little US v NZ hop battle (possibly two), bottle Pot Kettle Black (330ml), maybe do something German later in the year.... drink lots of other commercial and homebrewed beers... and all the while we're working on ironing out Steve Nally's processes and helping to fund the continual upgrade of his brewery.

I'll have some haggis soon, no doubt. We're overdue for the usual family Burns Day get together. I'm the haggis addresser now... 'twas my coming of age I suppose. Dad makes it, my eldest bro pipes it, my closest sister carries it and I address it. Then we all drink whisky and homebrew. Meanwhile the other bro and sis wish they were here.

[Steve Nally]

Take a frig'in big iron today...