The New Pad

The new year starts at a new place, with a decent spread of beers. Crafty Beggars Pale & interesting turns out to be pale & uninteresting, flat, OK but the big boys can't do small batch. Mike's TPA (Taranaki Pale Ale). Makes the crafty beggars pale into insignificance, it has Umph! Its Noice! Mike's again, an elderflower pilsner. Its got champagne bubbles. Get a bit of elderflower a long time after and its faint. Nice but not sure why one would bother. Now for another local brew. Emersons Clean sweep. Its pleasant fruity with subtle hops. The previous beers had sallied the palate, but this just gets better. Mike's third showing for the night, OMPA (One More Pale Ale), This one is sweeter, has flavour but unfortunately gets the "meh". Tuatara's Double Trouble, a big claim of 167 IBU. Its wasn't pretty, very big, oily...hop oil and bitter. To finish, Renaissance Scotch Ale. This is dark, very much an dAle with plenty of malt. Another good finish.

Current count is 242. If we get a quorum at the next meeting, that's 250 different NZ beers and not that close to finishing either!

Silly Season

So the usual festivities of the beer club silly season were had. A range of old favourites and a decent sacrifice of meat.

Coming up to Silly Season

And there is yet another "crafter" appears. Hancock + Co, Grand Pale Ale.Where did it come from. Nothing on the bottle. Not bad, ok would kick it out of bed. Its bitter, getting furry as the glass continues. No don't like it. And another...crafty beggars (one of the big boys), wheat as. The spin on the bottle is pure shite. It is indeed a wheat beer, its now flat and tastes watery. A report of two halves (see below). Emerson's Rolling Moon wheat beer on draught. It has a golden colour and is good. Unusual finding a wheat beer on tap. This is what a wheat beer should be like. Another "quiet" one tonight and the last beer is Croucher's Patriot American Black Ale. Its good, dark and malty.

Losing It

So FINALLY I am posting again. By no means is it becoming tiresome trying all this beer, its just ... well... writing about it doesn't seem to be the same as tasting it. Nonetheless, the list must continue. Under the "rules" we are trying "all" craft beers from this great land. 2 Stoke from the stoke brewery, is indeed a Lite beer. All a bit Hmmmm, not very fruity, it is beerish. It is actually drinkable. But why 2%, Whilst beer has fantastic flavours, without the extra effects, it is very little at least to me. If you so desire a v. low alcohol beer, then this has a great name. Monteith's Apricot wheat beer. Not the first to come out of NZ. True to its name, its apricotty, tastes like an apricot muesli bar. Not too bad. Monteith's third pint bottle entry into the market was the IPA. Sorry but its bland. after half of it, its ok but not great. Compared with the others on the market though, it will struggle. Oh and they should try and get the details spot on with their units. Nothing gets past us scientists... 500 ML indeed. Raindogs Brewing co's Apothecary Amber Ale. This one has flavour, better than the IPA, a pleasant drop. If you haven't noticed, as the nite gets later, the beers get darker and hoppier. Emerson's Bird Dog Pale Ale, bottle release. Very good; "I love this beer" was heard; nice, palatable, good and hoppy. Finishing off the night with Epic's Message in a bottle. Tastes of coffee, very nice, well balanced. Good beer to finish with. The best beer of the nite

A poor turnout

Through one excuse or another only half of the brains trust continued with the quest. He who usually loses the list, lost the list again and failed to realise that we had already tried the EPIC first batch. It was bloody good again though. And for those of you who don't know what the numbers are, they are the new hop variety they used. The MOA breakfast smells like marshmallow with a hint of penicillin or medicine. IS it actually breakfast dissolved in a bottle? It does tend to change with each taste. Hmmm.... This a weird sh#t@rse beer that just doesn't seem to evaporate if you leave it lying around. The mid to after palate is just bad. Sorry, that's a no. A quick taste of the Twisted Hop Back. Oooh! Its Tutti fruity with hops (and not in a bad way). There's just not enough of it. Finally a decent contribution. About time JR. Next is the Mussel Inn Dark Horse... its a dark beer with coffee notes. (thats all I got). We finish off with the EPIC hop zombie a double IPA. It has a big nose, What is that smell? Wet merino? I have to trust the kiwis on this one. No its fetid jockstrap with chlorine. Can you tell its getting later in the night? It was very good! Mmmm. Wow, I'm up to date (but only until next Tuesday! See ya then

Now I'm just confused

OK so this session was actually happened before the previous post, but as I am really slack and posting four months worth of beerclub in one sitting it shouldn't really matter. Boundary rd Einstein (German for 1 beer!), this Munich lager was inoffensive. Beer should be simple ... but not too simple! The resident: Spike's IPA (note this is the one that was good and hence I was confused but the previous post). Ooohs and Aaahs. Grapefruit, hops and hops, which is a good start. Surprisingly good! The next beer caused such a stir, I forgot to write down the name.... thank goodness for the system and the photos! The 8-wired Saison. Smells like yogurt. Turns out its yogurt flavoured beer. It was good. I like these farm house beers! Now for the IPA Hodson from Ben Middlemiss at 8.8%. "Jesus Christ" was the initial call, pungent with an air of coconut ice. Its Big. Is the over-riding flavour alcohol? This is a pungent beer. Finally the 8-wired iStout. This smells of used coffee. there were brandy overtones. Its different from usual stout but worth a look.

Time to dry out

This session was after a loooong week of "networking" so I was pretty fit but ready to rest. We started with Matson's Quake Lager. Meh! Apparently it could be a good session beer but a bit low on taste. After sampling a few of teh new EPIC brews at beervana it was time to get them "officially" tasted. So the first batch NZIPA was the one. It was strongly hopped, not surprising being from EPIC but maybe not as big as some of their others. Still good nonetheless. Next we grab Spike's red rye Ale with some scepticism. What is this. Who is this guy? And is it just a gimmick? It had flavour, it was indeed red but alas it was not balanced. So the first time Emersons had their APA I missed it. Luckily they have reintroduced it. It was smoky and hoppy and gets the tick. Now Monteiths is expanding their "craft beer" range so we have the Barrel Aged Porter at 6.5%. There is coffee. It is not too bad, smooth, fruity which is no doubt from the oak-pinot barrels. The final beer for the evening has a bit of a reputation from Ben Middlemiss, Nota Bene which smelt amazing. It was sour with some sweetness. At 8.7% you can't taste the alcohol. I thought it was worth the time to savour and enjoy but the crowd was restless and divided. Not for the faint hearted.

Matsons
EPIC
Spikes
Emersons
Ben Middlemiss