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

[Reviled]

Well end of the working week so im off to BOQ for an Epic PA or two :o)

[Matthew]

Welly Collaboration BKP tonight.

A lot more roasty and bitter than I remember at the small tasting we had last weekend and oh so hoppy! I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

3 Boys Oyster Stout at lunch. One of my favourite beers this year without a doubt. I hate oysters too...

[jt]

Welly Collaboration BKP

I'm tempted, very tempted, but it's another week for me, ANZAC weekend

Drinking ?

Anniversary Guinness, seems to get better after it's best by date

[Matthew]

Had the bottled version of Yeastie PKB on Sunday. Beauty. Smooth chocolate and a good hint of hops. Would love to get something in between the two. The Chocolate of PKB and the Hops of BKP.

[Ally Mcg]

3 Boys IPA, Emersons Pils and Bookie thru the new set up at Poms which impresses me no end.

Less co2 for the beers, changes to the washing, and a couple of degrees warmer in the beer fridge means a better beer in the glass and I know because I've been going through the card (over the course of the week) and everything is tasting so good.

[Ally Mcg]

Pints of 50/50 Hoprocker/Sassy Red combo, which a mate and I got sold on Brewjolais day cos the BrewJ keg wasn't on when we first arrived. Was told this was something some Wellingtonites had come up with as a BrewJ replica. Tasted better than the real thing on the launch night and just the beer to spend a Sunday afternoon in the sun on.

[Bambule]

Just returned from a couple of weeks in Adelaide with a coastal sojourn to Melbourne. Although it was for a wedding, I was interested in seeing how they felt about mining in national parks whilst also admiring their resultant obscene wealth. That sounds facetious but a good portion of my aussie friends are geologists, and a good portion of them exploring for Uranium. Hell they could at least shout me a few beers as my NZ rupee wasn;t going to have much buying power.

I spent the first two days full of misty eyed nostalgia about moving back there. We hopped off our plane and went straight to the local deli around the corner from where we used to live and relived how good the food is in this city, and cheap. Not to mention the monotonously consistent good weather. Sure enough I rekindled my love affair with Coopers Pale Ale, which became a fairly reliable susbstitute for water. Have you ever tried Adelaide tap water? Here's a tip , don't.

The wedding we were over for was an exhausting experience, lots of late, late nights and early, early mornings. A high point was the beer from a local brewery, Lobethal Brewhouse. A Bohemian pilsner that although delicious wasn't really a bohmeian pilsner and an IPA, which was awesome, if not a little subdued by NZ craft brewery IPA standards. Upset that I didn't get to try any of the beer from Knapstein, not enough time to get to the Clare valley. I loved the down to earth culture of the local wine makers. its like buying a bottle of wine from a sheep farmer; there's no pretention. You know, its wine, drink it enjoy it, but don't get all elitist on my arse! NZ pay attention!

We left Adelaide en route for Melbourne. I did come across the beer Fat Yak often enough which was not too bad for a commercial pale Ale. Something like that here on the taps in between the DB and Tui would be a good start. We flew into Christchurch for a night before returning home as my wife had a days work there. We went straight to the Twisted Hop, what an awesome place. My suspicions were only confirmed when I saw Richard emerson there. I had a pint of the Improvisational Pale ale. Ahh, real hops, all of a sudden it felt so good to be home, home in NZ that is. Meanwhile my kids decided to trash the establishment. Maybe just as well as it would have been hard to remove me from there. Fortunately they let me take a rigger of Challenger back to the hotel.

Back into the brewing now. And bottled my Russian Imperial Stout as well.

[Reviled]

Cracked one of the two beers I brought back from USA last night - A Sierra Nevada Bigfoot ale

Pours viscous with a big tan head which persists all the way till the end, massive citrus cascadey hop aroma on the nose, good body and a very very firm bitterness, but not as bitter as Rogues 'old crusty', lingering dry bitterness with both hop and malt flavours hanging on the end of my tongue! Went down waaaaaay to easy for a near 10% abv beer, l think I finished it in less than 20 mins!! Very nice!

[Stu McKinlay]

Too many to mention all of them over this last weekend... but my picks:

Renaissance Elemental Porter (best I've ever tasted it and no wonder it is the highest ranked NZ beer of all time on Ratebeer - think Oyster Stout breeding with Pot Kettle Black).
Moa Imperial Stout (375ml vs 1500ml bottle, the latter is stunning)
Moa Blanc Resurrection (#Marchfest - the Blanc grist using the St Joseph's yeast, dry, softly spiced and far too drinkable)
Totara Brewing Ninkasi Green (#Marchfest - perfectly balanced resinous fresh hopped pale ale)
Renaissance Funkelrysen (#Marchfest wow! spicy but so incredibly well conditioned and balanced for only about 4 weeks old)
Mussel Inn Pig Whit (perfectly sessionable manuka infused wit beer, I could have stayed on this all night if we'd not been leaving in two hours!!)
Mussel Inn Lambagreeny (finally a chance to sample this legendary oak aged feijoa Geueze and it more than lived up to it's rep... damn oaky! But not at all arrogant).
Monkey Wizard Fat Kelpie (an English-style brown ale... how quaintly old school. And bloody delicious, once it had warmed up, as our final beer before the plane last night - love the unofficial BYO policy of Nelson airport!!)

The rest of the beers at Marchfest were all very good too. I was actually somewhat surprised to not find a beer even close to a lemon among them. A good sign that we are heading in the right direction? Hopefully we get to see a few of them around the traps over the next few months.

People of Marlborough and Tasman are incredibly lucky... I hope they appreciate and support their fantastic breweries and those few amazing pubs serving their product.

Nice to meet a few realbeer and SOBA members too. A shame I missed the Free House afterwards but I really couldn't handle the thought of another beer after 9hrs at Marchfest (yes, I think I was the only SOBA/Realbeer member to stay until the end).

The Free House became my favourite pub in the world on Friday night. It lasted less than two days however as I was completely enchanted with The Mussel Inn on Sunday. Two magical places... one's a bit easier to get to than the other! I must reassess them soon.

Slainte mhath
Stu

[Llew Bardecki]

Sarah and I also had a great time down at Marchfest this past Saturday.

Tried so many beers (both at the festival and at the Sprig and Fern/Freehouse later on) that I'd have trouble listing them all.

My favourites of the festival were the Totara Ninkasi Green pale ale and the Sprig and Fern De-Vine Inspiration Pilsner.
They were both wet hopped, and both had tremendous floral hop aromas.
Both beers were fairly dry (I reckon the Ninkasi green could've done with a tiny bit more body and sweetness) and very sessionable. As Stu mentioned all ten of the festival beers were good ones, but these were the ones I went back for seconds of after having given them all a try.

A fabulous weekend all around, where I met a bunch of great new folks, and got to spend some more time with others I'd only just met in passing before.

[vdog]

Had a Kaimai Brewing Rye Pale Ale (think that's what it was called anyway) last night - not having had a rye beer before I wasn't sure what to expect, but it tasted like a wheat beer to me... Nice fluffy white head that kept coming, pale golden colour with a bit of haze. Taste-wise not really what I was expecting (thought rye was spicy?), seemed a bit 'meh'. Don't think I'd bother buying it again.

On a related note, they list a website on the bottle but I'm buggered if I can find it on the net. FAIL.

Also had a Sierra Nevada Torpedo - really nicely balanced. Good whack of bitterness, but nicely balanced with big juicy malt characters and enough body to carry it. Very satisfying, and glad I had it after the Kaimai one rather than the other way around!

New World in Vic Park just keeps getting better and better. All supermarkets should have a beer section as good as that.

[Reviled]

Interesting feedback vdog, I tried their Rye PA on tap at hallertau a few months back and was quite impressed, perhaps its suffered a little in the bottle? Was it bottle conditioned?