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

[Dan Filihiahekava]

Had a bloody good night last night at the Matariki Winter Ale Fest met up with some primo people and had some very nice beers and food. the boys loved what was on offer and im sure they are hooked now , for me at the Matariki i just couldn't stop drinking Golden Tusk and loved Oreti Red IPA and Rex on the Handpull , was gutted i missed out on Punkin Image.

Shot off to Hashigo for a few , Started the session off with Jo's  Never Go back bro i love this beer !!!! , had a Craftsman and then into the High carb ale just can't get enough of it , shared a Bottle of Mikkeller Nelson Sav OMFG what a beer it was like christmas unwrapping that black paper ended my night on a TPA and 8 Wired Batch 18 , sprinted to the Train station only to miss it so i chilled at Mc Dees with all of the young kids.

[jt]

with all of the young kids

 

hey, we're all young at heart eh Dan ;-)))

[Dougal]

I was at Cassels on Friday. The Medicinal and the 1PA were my pick. Standing room only but lovely to see a new pub kicking off.

Now only 169 bars left to replace...

(edited to provide valuable context: why does this forum hate replies so much that it won't put them in the right place?)

[Ralph]

Yeh, I must try their medicinal as a pint, I have only had a snifter of it so far. I was enjoying the Best Bitter on handpull most of Friday evening, and had a 1PA as well.

 

Yup. This forum puts replies in interesting places at times!

[Michael]

I drove up to Jacksonville yesterday and stayed the night.  (560km) When I got there, I figured I deserved a beer since I was not going to drive. We found a pub with 84 taps. I never heard of the place, but what a pleasant surprise.

 

My beers last night were:

 

Avery IPA - Very sessionable, expected bitterness. Nothing to write home about, but still an OK beer.

 

Dogfish head - Aprihop - Excellent beer! I highly recommend!

 

Dogfish Head - Festina Peche - Kind of a Berliner Weisse. An interesting sour note, folllowed by some sweetness. Very sessionable at 4.5%.

[Stu McKinlay]

Well done, and thank you, to EVERYONE involved in organising the SOBA Matariki Winter Ales Festival. In many ways I think this festival is better than Beervana... and it is running a close second to Marchfest as the best beer festival in the country.

I've heard rumours that next year might be a two day thing... if so I put my hand up now to volunteer one of them.

I only stayed 3 hrs and tried some lovely beer:

* Her Majesty (I won't get to try it on tap much, if at all, so I had to have a go - was tasting good for such a fresh 8% beer - fresh is not best you know).

* Punkin Image Ltd (beautifully balanced, loads of spice but a nice weighty character from the pumpkin to balance)

* London Porter (handpump, very good)

* Bookbinder (handpump, always such a pleasure in this form)

* Baird's Kurofune Porter (excellent, rich porter... almost my beer of the day)

* "Twisted Wire IPA" (Someone fooled me into thinking Twisted Hop IPA and 8 Wired Hopwired would make a good 50/50 mix for my last beer. They were wrong!)

And the food was fantastic... The Wild Goat Tagine and Couscous I got my hands on was superb... If only I'd stayed long enough for more!

Beer of the day: Punkin' Image Ltd... though I noticed that I was lucky to get it before it became a glass of hazy pumpkin juice! Reminded me of that V8 vege jouice.

[Martin Bridges]

There are also rumours that there may be an Auckland offshoot of this festival within the next year....

[Paul Harrison]

As a volunteer I have to say it was a lot of fun and I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. The best part of the day for me was watching people faces as they tried Rex Attitude at the end. Each reaction was priceless.

Invercargill Men n Skurts was the beer of the day for me.

[Dave W]

Hows that RSI of the hand pump coming along Paul? ;-)

 

Beer of the day for me.... Thats a toughy!

It's a tie between 3 of them.

Baird Kurofune

8wired Hopwired

and Rex on the handpump, this beer is really starting to grow on me, the more I have of it the more I want to drink it.

[Paul Harrison]

Hahaha. Its okay. If I wasn't retarded with the left hand I would have switched it up to share the pain. Damn lazy useless left hand

[Ben Dorrington]

I'm with Paulo! Volunteering was an absolute pleasure :-) Those PKB ribs were tu meke!

Beer of the day for me was Bairds Dark Sky Imperial Stout, Punkin Ltd (just a cheeky taste while serving) OR my black and tan with Twisted Hop IPA and Mikes Imperial Porter. Green Flash Trippel was also delicious.... lets be honest... everything was good!

Amazing day with such great vibes! And agreed on the entertaining reactions from the Rex punters...

Gutted that i wont be in the country for next year :-(

[Llew Bardecki]

I loved the handpump Rex too.  Far moreso than the bottle of it I had on Friday night.

Stu mentioned on Saturday day that it really needs to be served warm, and I think this largely explains the difference between the two.

The (cool) bottle tasted too dry with pretty much just unpleasant medicinal flavour and little else.

The warmer handpump was a joy to drink, with a lot more depth of flavour.

 

That said, I think my favourite beer on the day was probably the Invercargill Men'nskurrts.