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

[jt]

keg space sorted !
Just finished the keg of 686 - I think you have a bottle of that

[Chris Banks]

Yep thanks again I shall savour it soon!

[Christian]

Lots of Budvar tonight...$11 for the last few weeks at Nelson Fresh Choice and looks set to continue! Why on earth would you buy anything else when it's at this price? This may in fact be the best beer ever - wonder why the ratebeer score so low?!? I think people are so used to Continental Lager that when they taste the real deal they don't recognise it...though it does kind of hit you in the face.

[MrC]

Worked my way through the entire Tuatara range yesterday starting with the Pale Ale on hand pump at the Tuatara brewery visit. It was interesting to try the Pale Ale on hand pump followed by a bottled version, would have sworn they were completely different beers. Sampled the entire range from end to end and then back again and then forward again (I think).

Managed to get a bit of quality beer geek time with Mike and a couple of other homebrewers in the brew house. A good day!

Thanks to everyone involved in the organisation and to Carl & Mike for being great & generous hosts.

[Stu McKinlay]

Had a little selection from my cellar with a mate the other day (Jed, a Wellington photographer+ that many of you will know)...

2008 Three Boys Plum - divine ripe pungent plum character but lovely light acidity... so well intergrated. My last bottle.
Rodenbach Grand Cru (with a BB date of 10/2008) - Magic. How could this bottle have been less than $10. It should be able to fetch $40 at least!
2008 Invercargill Smokin' Bishop - Wow... this really is my kind of beer and it's stood the test of time superbly. Still my favourite and most anticipated annual release in the country. One bottle left.
Nerdherder 'B' - Bloody fantastic, really well rounded, and pleased that it stood up so well alongside a bunch of amazing beers.

Was also lucky enough to share a very rare bottle of Georgetown Vineyard Pinot Noir 2007 (bottle 273). I really don't know enough about wine to say any more than I felt priviliged to have been able to taste such a lovely wine...especially given that only about 100 cases were produced.

Then out for dinner at Ortega Fish Shack on Marjoribank St. If you live in Wellington, and especially if you haven't been there yet, get along NOW! Second-to-none beer list and great food. Really, the beer list is significantly better than anywhere in Wellington besides The Malthouse and Hashigo Zake. I had a Neudorf Chardonnay and a La Chouffe (both amazingly have a 'gingerbread' character about them). I'll be back in April for sure....

[Matthew]

I've been introducing my Father in law to craft beer over the last 6 months. Popping the odd HB, Epic or 3 Boys around. I heard he went to a Regionals beer tasting last week and was very impressed with the beer. Anyway popped around yesterday arvo and he pulls out a few goodies. He went back to Regionals and picked up 3 Boys Porter, Tuatara PA and Invercargil Biman.

We had the last bottle of the WnBC Stout, sad to see it go. 3 Boys Porter was excellent, lovely dark chocolate. Tuatara PA was tasting the best I've had. I normally always feel it's lacking in the hop department but it was spot on yesterday. Invercargil Biman was the pick of the day though, first time I've had it. A real beauty, fruit salad hoppiness. Riwaka? Anybody know?

[Martin Bridges]

Myself and my guests drained a keg of my Oh To Be In Auckland! ordinary bitter at a BBQ yesterday. I was panicking in the morning because it was pulling through like soup, but a few pints down the line it cleared up nicely. I agree with Barry, it probably needs the bitterness dialling back half a notch next time. Also had a glass or two of my Pale Beauty - 2nd rebrew of my award-winner from the last NHC. I think I've nailed it again this time, should be fine once it settles down a bit.

I also sneaked a sample off the secondary of my Belgian Stout. It has been sitting on oak chips for almost a month and I chucked the dregs of a bottle of Porter Noir in there. The brett has definitely kicked in - nice pineapple aroma and a little bit of tartness on the palate. Not a lot of oak in evidence so I'll leave it a few more weeks. I'm surprised that the brett is showing so soon - maybe the combination with the Ardennes yeast is amplifying the perception.

[Llew Bardecki]

My gf Sarah and I had a lovely evening with Dave and Denise last night. We swapped homebrews and chatted about all sorts of stuff, but mostly things beer-ish.

Poor Sarah had to go to work later in the evening, so had to limit her tastings to 4 or so beers, but the rest of us got through quite a few samples, including:
My own hefe,
My helles-esque,
Dave’s simcoe APA,
My lavender blonde,
My cardamom schwarzbier,
My fuggle-y best bitter,
Dave’s Yakima baby,
My PKB-inspired beast of burden porter,
Dave’s peat smoked imperial porter
(Have I forgotten any? Don’t think so...)

There wasn’t a bad beer in the lot, though I think the consensus favourites were the two porters (I loved Dave’s porter... tons of smoke that mixed well with the roast, and a touch of anise. Just wish we'd had some blue cheese to go with it) and my Lavender Blonde (which pleased me immensely, because it’s my third batch of it and the first time it’s really turned out well. Wonderful aroma, sweetness balanced the lavender nicely, and a really interesting cinnamon-y note in there too.)

I always have fun sharing my beers, but it’s even better when it's with fellow brewers who really enjoy them :)

[Stu McKinlay]

Spotted on twitter, from Dave, this morning:
Awesome homebrew tasting at Llew's place. His @yeastieboys PKB clone was the closest to the real thing I've ever tasted!
I wonder if 'real thing' meant 2008, 2009, Remixed or 2010.1?

Sounds like a grand evening. As for me... I was walking the dog in the wind. But I did come home and taste my Fiesta Imperial Red (8.5%, 64ibu). This beer will probably make it to WBC, if I don't drink it all before then!

[David Wood]

Yep, it was an awesome night.
Llew gave us a range of his beers, they were a bit different.
We had:
Llew's Hefeweizen - simple, straighforward, solid hefe. Hit all the right notes.
My APA (west coast blonde kit from liberty) - bitter, hoppy, grassy with a bit of tropical fruit.
Llew's Lavender blonde - wierd! in a nice way. Has a previous batch which was thin but this one is bang on. Nice lavender flavour, cinnamon.
Llew's Cardamom schwarzbier - freaky! Awesome rum-like flavour from cardomom and roast malt mixing.
My NZIPA - It's gone sweeter, bitterness less noticable, tropical NS character dominating.
Llew's Porter (PKB clone) - wow, closest thing to the '09 I've had. Had the right malt character, hops were noticable, would love to try next to the bottled PKB coming out soon.
My Spiced Imperial Smoked Porter - Massive peaty nose, big body dominated by peat but with roasty bitterness too. Star anise is very subtle, but just noticable.

I've probably missed one or two there, Llew's got a lot of different, crazy beers happening. Cheers Llew.

[jt]

The Bitza Brown. Unexpected low efficiency, high FG and about 3%, more NZ Dark Draught than Mild, corker brew to have a few of

[Michael]

Since I am working on bringing my weight back down to what I weighed 18 months ago, I can only have one beer. Tonight I chose Moa original.

Whilst not the extremely heavily hopped beer style I usually like to drink, the hops are there, with a touch of a fruity/grassy flavour. I tasted just enough bitter on the finish of this nicely balanced beer. It goes down quite nicely.

Now to drinking water for the rest of the night. I will avoid putting my evaluation of it in this thread. ;)