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

[Christian]

Is it just me or do others taste basil in the Yakima?

[Stu McKinlay]

Kieran at Regional's picked lemon oil, which is a good observation.
I'd probably imagine basil being more likely to be picked up in the Motueka - it's certainly herbal and a little peppery - but the piney character of US hops could sway into the herbal area too.

[Stu McKinlay]

Interesting observation Jo... though I know the winner (or leader, at least) has probably changed since you tried Yakima on tap at The Malthouse! I don't want to misrepresent you, so won't quote you, but I do remember you uttering something that probably rules out Motueka Monster (or any other beer) winning this challenge. It pleased me that you were happy with our interpretation of your beer. Releasing someone elses beer is a nerve racking experience!

Further to your thoughts above, I have noticed something quite interesting in people's reaction. Soren and I did a couple of tastings with Kieran at Regionals last week. I noticed there, as I have with the little bits of feedback I've got from around the traps, that the there seems to be about a 50/50 split on preference. Motueka certainly took the early running at Hashigo but the beers were a little too fresh there!

Yakima is generally preferred by people who have a longer craft beer drinking history. Motueka tends to be preferred the newer heads... I'm not sure if they're just patriotic, or more open to different flavours! There are major exceptions to that rule but this is definitely my general observations thus far.

As I said to Neil Miller, for the Malthouse blog last week, I was very interested at that tasting to see Yakima inspiring about 4 descriptors (the usual "American" ones) but that Motueka inspired about 20 (from diesel to passionfruit, grass to orange, pepper to rosemary). Is that due to the the history of the people preferring it?

People have discussed the bitterness a bit.... I would have said early on that Yakima had significantly more perceivable bitterness. Not everyone agreed. I do think that some people pick up the spicy hop flavour of the NZ beast as bitterness, so they may well be influenced by that. They have evened out a little in that department.

Overall, I think we were all the winners on the day (except Aucklanders who are still waiting)... these beers were made as close as practically possible to each other so are a pretty good indication of hop terroir. in fact, they were made in a way that went against my natural instincts (by heavily dry hopping the NZ beer). What I'd like to do next time, if Jo would be willing to be a Yeastie Boy again, would be to use the same amount of hops but at different times. I'd pull most of the 3.5g/L of NZ dry hops back into the last few minutes of the boil.


As for my pick... I'll wait until I've tried a couple of full pints of the Mot beast on tap to make my final judgement. I've tried Yak on tap, handpump and bottle but have only tried Mot in bottle. Tap and handpump Yak definitely trump bottle by couple of whiskers.

[JoKing]

I have to admit to loving the tap version. This was after having Tripple Jump Pale Ale and Summ!t IPA at the malthouse too - so that's saying something. I don't know what the difference is in the procees - but the tap version was more rounded and had a lot more aroma. The roundedness helped a lot with the brutally savage bitterness too... by a substantial margain. I love that bitterness: it made the beer so drinkable to me. You alluded to it being sweet, which I couldn't agree to: because for it to be sweet, it has to finish sweet (my interpretation anyhow) but because it started sweet and finished bitter (for me) it wasn't sweet.

I loved it - I could have drunk it all night. It's a shame Motueka Monster couldn't have come out at the same time so I could finalise my opinion on the better beer.

P.S. I reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly want to buy a bag of YM.

Cheers!

[Stu McKinlay]

you'll have to come down to Wellington again next week!

[JoKing]

Woops - meant Hashigo.

[Mike Neilson]

And there I was thinking your judgement was impaired!!

[Martin Bridges]

Over the last couple of nights:
8Wired Big Smoke - I could drink sooo much of this. I absolutely love the balance of roastiness, sweetness and smoke.
8Wired HopWired - maybe this bottle was aging a bit, not quite so in-yer-face as I remember it. Still an awesome aroma and a great beer
Three Boys Oyster Stout - last bottle from my stash :( I'm gonna miss this beer. Again, one I could drink in large quantities. Rich, roasty, savoury, fulfilling.

Homebrew stocks are a bit low, I'd better get cracking.

[Soren]

yeah, the HopWired still kicking around is getting a bit old, toffee maltiness is starting to dominate and hops fading. New one in the fermenter, with 2010 hops. As Stu said, the 2010 hops are a bit different, more savoury so it will be interesting to see how it turns out...

[Steph]

Went for dinner at Ambeli last night. They have a whole page beer list; I was impressed. Had an Emerson's Weisenbock with our cheese course. Delicious dinner and drinks. I highly recommend it. When I asked they guy who recommended his beers, he said "me, I love beer"!! And, there was not one sinlge commerical or mass produced (unless you count Emerson's). All craft beer.

[jt]

I'm having a North Welly Night

Michael T's Bitter Sweet - had a beautiful sweet aroma when I opened the bottle. A bit big on the alcohol for an opening beer.

Hey if you're about Michael, that Bitter Sweet kept getting better & better

Next up is the Maximus guestimation brewed with Michael & Chris before Michael left for Florida.

[Matthew]

I've just had a BKP2 to round the North Welly evening out.

It's shame you can't get bitter sweet night anymore, that was a top beer.

Is there any Maximus guestimation left? I have a bottle of BKP1 in fridge, maybe we need to catchup again...