Moa Pale Ale

[Patrick]

Hi  there

My company has purchased a bunch of different Moa beers with the idea of giving mixed boxes away to valued customers and staff.

I am no stranger to bottle conditioned beer (as I have brewed a fair bit and don't own a kegging setup yet) but the amount of sludge in the bottom of the pale ale has me concerned.

It is not a nicely packed sediment like I would expect - more of a loose fluffy substance that is not stuck to the bottom but floating free in the beer. The also-bottle-conditioned belgian tripel and wheat beer look great, with just a tight ring of sediment on the bottom of the bottle as I would expect.

The marketing guy that organised this purchase has spoken to the sales guy at Moa and been assured it is fine - and that the pale ale always looks like that because it has more proteins in it.

I had difficulty photographing it but will attach my efforts - sorry about the crap pics. (cellphone camera)

What do you think? Is this normal? I have put one in the fridge to chill and will try it in an hour or so.

Cheers
Patrick

[JoKing]

There are two things wrong with that bottle:

1. Pale Ales are supposed to be chocca with isohumulones. Using green bottles allows the UV light into the beer where riboflavin breaks the isohumulones down to MBT. However this wouldn't explain that sludge.

so...

2. There's too much crap in the bottle. You pay for 330ml of beer... not 300mls of beer and 30 mls of shit that you're not gonna drink. Regardless of if it's poor practice during the brewing process or bottling or whatever, if you are the customer and you're not satisfied with the product then the brewery should do something about it.

I'm not having a go at Moa in particular, but if we are supposed to get Craft beer into the mainstream (which is the goal at the end of the day - insn't it?) then the brewery needs to up their game, and craft a product that is going to satisfy the market that they need to be targeting. A Steinlager Pure / Stella / Heinekin drinker might look that that green bottle of Moa and think - "shit I might have a go at that" but looks at the crap in the bottle and decides against it - tell's his mates that ALL craft beer isn't much better than my Grandads homebrew... and the chain reaction starts.

Anyway... rant over.

I'd take the bottles back. Looks worse than the Moa I've tried (and loved) in the past.

[denimglen]

"1. Pale Ales are supposed to be chocca with isohumulones. Using green bottles allows the UV light into the beer where riboflavin breaks the isohumulones down to MBT. However this wouldn't explain that sludge."

There Moa Noir was a really nice beer, but was so badly skunked it felt like I was drinking a roasty Heineken,

"2. There's too much crap in the bottle. You pay for 330ml of beer... not 300mls of beer and 30 mls of shit that you're not gonna drink. Regardless of if it's poor practice during the brewing process or bottling or whatever, if you are the customer and you're not satisfied with the product then the brewery should do something about it."

Agreed, there should only be a light dusting of yeast, and there shouldn't really be any insoluable proteins in the bottom of a bottle conditioned beer.

I've also noticed this with the Moa beers I've had, their yeast doesn't compact down how it should, you only need to look at the bottle to kick up the yeast. Last couple of times I'd be lucky to get 250mL of clear beer out.

[Stu McKinlay]

In my experience the pale ale (and I've drunk a lot of it, it's one of my favourite NZ brewed beers) it is often a bit hazy. I'm not overly careful with how I pour the beer as I do like the yeast. The picture you've posted is really hard to see but, from what I can make out, it doesn't look far off what I'd expect.

I'd try the beer first and see what you think... then talk to the brewery if you think there is an issue. I'd ask to speak to the brewer, rather than the "sales" guy. I'd love to think that a sales guy will know what he is talking about but I really doubt it.

[Patrick]

The level the haze was sitting at had dropped significantly after 1.5 hours in the fridge - and it tasted fine (nelson sauvin??) so I guess they are going to send it out.

Will be a dificult "first-craft-beer" for the DB drinking crowd though!

(I suggested they keep the boxes of pale ale here for me but was overruled)

[Stu McKinlay]

yep, those suckers shake up a fair haze just on the way back from the supermarket (though I guess they'd handle it better if I waited until I got home to open them).

[Regional Wines and Spirits]

We had alot of trouble pouring this for Beer Options this year. However Moa pride themselfs on thier bottle conditioning and I suspect they aim to leave a decent amount of sediment in the bottle.

A minor point but the bottles are 375ml not 330ml.

I would have thought a 7.2% hoppy pale ale might be a tough intro to craft beer full stop.

[Reviled]

Where is Mr Moa in all of this? I know he reads this forum...

[Greig McGill]

Hiding from the hordes of gay people with torches and pitchforks I think...

[Andrew]

On tha ball Mr Mc Gill:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/4439928/Beer-ad-stirs-up-storm-in-a...
Makes my comment below seem somewhat ironic now...

[Andrew]

"Moa Brewing Company director Josh Scott, of Blenheim, said he knew nothing of the marketing campaign until he saw posts about it on the internet.

"Absolutely not. We have a whole Auckland office now."

He certainly has an interesting take on Aucklanders. We don't ALL live on K-road you know!!!!

[Stu McKinlay]

The interesting stuff in there is about the ownership of Moa...

[Greig McGill]

I'm glad I wasn't the only one broadsided by that.