Trying all New Zealand Craft Beer: A Beer Club

I decided that it would be a good plan to try as many beers made in NZ as possible (ignoring the stock standard fare until later). And so the challenge begins. Myself and 6 "colleagues" who have the same interests will gather once a month at a beer club and sample New Zealand Craft Beer! The initial brief is...Lets start with ale...s! I'm starting with the southern most brewery, Invercargill Brewery and their Pale Ale "Stanley Green" The rest will be revealed after the "tasting"

Sunday, November 20, 2011

8 in the big house

November 2011
With a full quota and then some we are off again. First up its the Wigram ginger Jerry, a ginger infused Wit Bier. Its good, apparently appropriate for after mowing the grass.... the girl gets a 9, nice melons. Straight from ChCh its the Cassel's and sons Pilsner, can taste the bitterness. Not bad but an average one. Nice bottle. A Moa has popped up, they seem to have a lot of hype surrounding them but we haven't tended to try a lot of them. This time its the original, its a lager, its good, fine and would probably work after cutting the grass. Up next its the Renaissance MPA Imperial IPA. As expected its big and hoppy not much else said really, it is what it is. Two lables make it a bonus (infiltrating the US of A)We've had plenty of beer snacks over the meetings but Mike is planning on whale on a stick being the next big thing! With the brains trust assembled we always try to answer the hard questions in life. This time, Why can we spell neutrino when we can't even prove they exist? And now for another new one, the Wigram Morning Glory golden ale, following up on the success of moa breakfast beer. Its good! well balanced and Good! Best beer of the night. This was followed up with the Brewmoon amberley Ale, alright but a tough call after the morning glory. And now another of the growing list from Stoke, the stoke bomber KPA (Kiwi Pale Ale). Doesn't come across as a pale ale. Its pleasant, a red/amber Ale and a whole lot of bollocks on the label. To finish, the renaissance Elemental Porter. Its a Porter, chocolatey! Its good. After a big night there are 3 standouts, the ginger jerry, morning glory and the MPA. (167 down)

October tastings

So I know the idea of a blog is to post regularly. As you may have worked out, I haven't managed to do it. But since our last discussion, we have knocked back about 15 new beers. To start with we continued on with the Boudary Road Brewery "Chosen One". Written up as rather ho-hum we could only agree. Based on first impressions, it couldn't have been made by speights (a compliment to speights). The Chosen One will not be chosen again. Should be called "Chosen Once". With a little more investigation, Brewery Road is not craft beer...it Independent Liquor. Moving on, the Reefton Phoenix Golden Ale from the Racecourse Brewery, Brewed by Wigram. Well we ticked that off the list (not memorable)! Up next the Townsend Sutton Hoo (which is some historically significant place in Suffolk!), Its a Hoppy, Amber coloured Ale, Well balanced...did I say hoppy? And now, Mac's Sassy Red. I do have a soft spot for Mac's. This is reliable fizz, mostly harmless and a good cleanser for the meaty ones we usually jump into. Its Good! The latest brewer'a reserve from Emerson's is the Brownville Brown Ale. Its Chocolatey but can't taste the fruit or the melon. A good drop for a brown ale.

Now its time for more history with Wigram's spruce beer. It has more mouth than nose and a big mouth at that. Smells like ginger beer. With one of us missing out on the Rex Attitude last time we we had a spare bottle, now termed the durian of beers! Thanks Stu for the email and I'm looking forward to the xeRRex. We finished that off with the Tuatara Porter, unfortunately weak and disappointing.

Wigram
Townshend Brewery
Emersons
Tuatara